Hear me out: Your ear wax can actually tell you a lot about your sweatiness

Just when I thought I’d heard it all, someone shared a foul yet compelling fact about ear canals. The consistency of a given person’s ear wax directly indicates how sweaty they are as a human being. Mind blown. I’m nervously perspiring in the light of this newfound knowledge. And now I feel extremely insecure about my wet ear wax.

Jason M. Abramowitz, MD, tells me that moist wax is found in sweatier individuals. (And fun fact, are more prone to ear cheese buildup, a common reason why earrings smell). People with dry wax secrete less sweat. Why? So glad you asked. Ear wax, also known as cerumen, is a combination of sweat and secretions from the sebaceous and ceruminous glands. And the texture of yours depends on the mixture.

“There’s oil glands and sweat glands in the ear, and the sweat glands in the ears tend to correlate with the sweat glands on the rest of our bodies,” says the ENT. “People who tend to sweat more are more likely to sweat in the ear, and when there’s more sweat, ear wax tends to get a little softer, a little looser, a little wetter,” says Dr. Abramowitz.

Ear wax is kind of like pancake batter—add too much water and it gets runny and sticky.

Sorry in advance for the visual, but ear wax is kind of like pancake batter—add too much water and it gets runny and sticky. Sadly, you have little control over the sweat in your ears—or on the rest of your body, for that matter. Dr. Abramowitz explains that ear wax texture is mostly genetic and cultural.

Thanks for listening!

Here’s why it’s ear-isponsible to clean with a Q-tip and what your wax means for your health.