Cure ear infections with garlic
If you’ve ever had an ear infection, you know how annoying it can be.
Ear infections are usually accompanied by a low-grade fever. You might experience pain in one or both ears. Depending on the severity of your ear infection, you might feel:
- slight discomfort in the ear while swallowing
- some pain when relieving air pressure within the ears (this happens whenever your altitude is changing, e.g. going down an elevator of a high-rise, in an airplane that’s ascending or descending, driving down a mountainous area, etc.)
- the feeling of a “bubble” popping in your ear, particularly when you lie down. The popping is usually very painful.
Ear infections treated by a doctor will usually involve a round of powerful antibiotics and ear drops. It usually takes more than a week to resolve severe cases.
If you don’t have access to a doctor, there is an incredibly effective home remedy you can try — the humble garlic.
I have used garlic to treat my own ear infections, each time with great success.
What you’ll need
One clove of fresh garlic. Thick tissues or some thin cloth (you can just cut up an old cotton handkerchief).
How to do it
1) Chop the garlic into tiny pieces. They should be small enough to fit into your ear.
2) Wrap a pinch of the finely chopped garlic into some thick tissue or cloth. Twist the end so that the garlic is encased tightly.
3) Place the wrapped garlic securely in your ear (with the twisted end sticking out of your ear). You don’t need to shove it in deep, just place it securely enough that it doesn’t fall out when you tilt your head. Remember that for this to work, you only need the fumes of the garlic, not the actual garlic itself or the garlic juice.
It’s best to do this right before you go to bed, so that the garlic fumes will work throughout the night while you sleep. It’s also a good idea to do it while you sleep for social reasons (people may not understand why you have stuck garlic in your ears 
).
Garlic works fairly quickly, and you should feel a lot less pain after a night with the garlic in your ears. For more severe cases, continue using fresh garlic a couple more nights to thoroughly kill the infection.
Why it works
Garlic is a powerful anti-bacterial, anti-microbial, anti-viral, and anti-fungal ingredient.
The power of garlic is such that even its fumes have been clinically proven to kill bacteria such as:
- shigella flexneri (causes diarrhea),
– salmonella typhi (causes typhoid),
– shigella sonnei (causes bacillary dysentery),
– aeromonas hydrophila (causes gastroenteritis, is very resistant and hard to kill),
– branhamella catarrhalis (causes bronchitis, sinusitis, and laryngitis), and
– staphylococcus aureus (causes a wide a range of illnesses)
I am currently typing with a wad of kitchen roll sticking out of my ear and would probably put in a mental place if another person saw me. IT IS BURNING MY EAR!!! Is that meant to happen? i hope it is doing some good!
It shouldn’t burn. Only the fumes are supposed to work on the ear, not the garlic itself.
I’m super health nut, but I ended up serioulsy sick for one year with a mystery illness, I think the doctor I fired was convinced I was going to pass away. My weight fell from 110 to 99 I;m 5’5 I ended up one day in a wheelchair at the hospital I could no longer walk the distance at the hospital I was having shortness of breath, my ears were sensitive and whirling I was wheezing at time and my lungs hurt and apparently were inflamed. ,. I felt my heart racing at times, I had to insist with ENT doctor to do a nasal smear Postive for ECOLI AND FUNGUS everything the doctor gave me made me sicker I couldn’t take it anymore. I did research and started chewing on Garlic everydayand placing it between the lower back teeth, DO NOT let it get on your gums and tongue it burns to much. I started grinding 10 garlic cloves in my magic bulle t and put it in a bowl right on my the night stand close to where I sleep so I can breath in the fumes,. and I put slice up pieces wrap in cotton balls and place in in the ear with a fleece had on my head to hold it into place overnight… I happen to love garlic so does my husband so everyday we eat garlic in salsa Anyhow garlic cured me …garlic fumes can kill within 7 inches raduis …amazing
That’s awesome
Thanks for sharing, Sophie!
I cut up a piece of a bandana, since it’s thin cloth like a handkerchief and placed it in my ear and my ear is burning, too. Must be the garlic juice againt my skin in my ear?
There shouldn’t be any garlic juice. All you have to do is slice the garlic and the fumes are supposed to do the work. Don’t squeeze/mash/pinch the garlic, simply cut them before encasing them. This remedy isn’t like the antibiotic ear droppers that doctors prescribe, where you’d need to have liquid squeezed into the ear canal.
I just sliced the garlic and put one half into my war without putting a cloth on it, is that fine?
Hi Susan, I think it should work the same — the cloth is just to hold the small pieces together and so they won’t fall into the ear.
Also watch out for burning, that’s a possibility since you’ve got cut garlic right against your skin.
I don’t understand how to get it in my ear without it touching my skin. Please help
See step 2) above
I’m trying this on my five year old son as I type this. Poor Jack has come down with an ear ache, I will update ASAP!!
Thanks Samantha! I figured out a simple and powerful way to use garlic
.I purchased Kyolic a aged garlic liquid extract, again this is liquid and I put a few drops in my Neti Pot with distilled water couple drops of natural apple cider vinegar and then rinsed my sinuses with this 3- 4 times daily this wash really worked wonders . For ear infections please consider just buying what my ND suggested the Garlic and Mullein oil for ear infections it is gentle and easy to use find it at health section of the store.
Wow – that’s quite a Neti pot concoction!
It never occurred to me to add more to the water than the usual salt. Thanks for sharing Sophie!
p.s: If anyone’s interested, I’d written a bit about Jala neti here.
Hi, I have horrible had a horrible pain in both my ears that has been going on for a few days. I wanted to try a natural remedy before going to the doctor, so I tried a mix of warmed oil oil and garlic juice drops in my ears. That hasn’t helped, so I decide to try your garlic remedy instead. I’m wondering how many days in the evening should I do this?
Hi Charlotte
You should try it for a few nights at least (daytime too if you’re able). I don’t know if the oil you’ve put in your ears before could interfere with the fumes working, though there’s no harm in trying. If it’s working, the pain should lessen.