Let’s talk earwax…
Filed under: things I never knew.
Did you know that earwax, or Cerumen, is either wet or dry? And that this difference is cause by a single mutation in a gene? (wet being “dominant”) And that Europeans and Africans have mainly wet cerumen and East Asians and Native Americans have mainly dry cerumen? And that this same mutation (that causes dry cerumen) lowers perspiration also?
I didn’t, but I found it interesting because,
Filed under: Trey is weird, something you never knew about me, or probably didn’t want to know
You see, there is something I always thought was weird about my ears. The wax in my right ear is dry (greyish flaky) and the left ear is wet (golden fluidy). It always seemed weird to me and the few people (DH, mother) I’ve mentioned this too think it’s very strange . Just call me a chimera! . Maybe it has something to do with my Native American and Anglo heritages (though the dry ear would be about the only outward appearance I got from my Native American descended Grandmother).
Anyway it’s weird.
and weirder still. I took a high blood pressure medicine a few years back and it made me have a reaction where my right foot (where the dry wax side is) swell up and get purple. The doctors to this day (and I’ve seen a half dozen about it) have no idea why it’s only one side and have never seen anything like it. Though I discontinued the medicine, my leg remains slightly swollen and still quite purple. No other effects (not painful, etc).
hmm.
And I tend to sweat more on my left side than my right.
I’m a chimera!!
Now, I really need to do some more research into this:
To really delve deep or to just read a quick article about it.
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oh, geez, what timing! Just as I was about to dig into the pizza I brought up to my computer, too.
Think I just lost my appetite!
Reply to SilphHi Trey –
This is SO interesting — I see stuff like this more often than you’d expect in genetics clinic — I wouldn’t say you’re a chimera — probably a mosaic. (Ask me about the mosaic trisomy 18 patient I saw in clinic yesterday….)
carla
Reply to Carla (yukari from [parenting group we belong to])Hi carla,
I can imagine what you come to find in a genetics clinic!
Yeah, mosaic would probably be right. Still strange
.
So, please do tell.. I think mosaic trisomy 18 had to be interesting.
Reply to Treywell…she was about 1 yr old and the most remarkable thing about her was that she was … ok…
she wasn’t that dysmorphic, didn’t have any of the major health problems you’d think of with T18.
Upon close examination, she had more T18-ish features on the left side of her body (smaller size, characteristic fingerprint whorl pattern), and her hands did a very mild version of the characteristic clenched fists of T18. Also her tone was very low. But cognitively she seemed all there.
So, that was a very interesting day in clinic. We always joke, “if you can imagine it, it has happened”.
Reply to carla