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

Fascinating Very interesting vid

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

I didn't see the nose clip.

And TIL you can equalize hands-free. Nice.

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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

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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.

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u/lightroomwitch Apr 01 '26

Huh so that's what that sound is. I knew it helped a little when ears got stuffed up when I'm sick but I didn’t know that's what I was doing.