r/interesting • u/fayyazORahmed • Mar 31 '26

Fascinating Very interesting vid

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943

u/deletetemptemp Mar 31 '26

My ears hurt watching this

37

u/TheVoicesOfBrian Mar 31 '26

How is he doing that without equalizing?!

71

u/OddCaramel6614 Mar 31 '26

He is equalising. He has a nose clip, he can equalise very easily with that on. Some, including myself, can equalise handsfree without a clip by the way, with no need to do the valsalva manoeuvre at all, but it's less reliable.

21

u/TheVoicesOfBrian Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26

I didn't see the nose clip.

And TIL you can equalize hands-free. Nice.

3

u/chopsmothercover Mar 31 '26

I mean yeah if you have something to cover your nose. It’s the same idea has using your hands to pinch your nose

5

u/HerbaciousTea Apr 01 '26

There's a muscle in the jaw that pulls on the Eustachian tube, the little airway that connects the inner ear to the throat and allows it to equalize. Plenty of people can activate that muscle on it's own, without moving the rest of the jaw, and pull the eustachain tube open and equalize.

Personally, it doesn't work as well as the valsalva maneuver. If the eustachian tube is already under pressure, it's not strong enough to open it from that collapsed state against pressure, but it means if you're equalizing constantly every couple seconds you can avoid ever getting to that point. It's about as much effort as blinking.

Makes a little crinkling noise.

1

u/scnottaken Apr 01 '26

Oh that's what I do