Earwax Test Could Determine Stress Levels and Risk of Depression

Earwax could be tested to determine the stress levels and risk of depression, experts claimed.

The Sun reported that a particular tool would collect earwax samples, and these would be shipped off to laboratory testing. Once scientists received the samples, they could measure the stress levels hormone cortisol.

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Loyola's Pediatric Mobile Health Unit Cares For Uninsured Children CICERO, IL - FEBRUARY 22: Fourth-grader William Delgado, 9, receives an ear exam from Dr. Michael Paul during a physical in the Loyola Pediatric Mobile Health Unit, parked outside Columbus West Elementary School, February 22, 2005 in Cicero, Illinois. The Loyola Pediatric Mobile Health Unit, the first "doctor's office on wheels" in the Midwest which provides free medical care to underserved and uninsured children, reached its 1,500 clinic visit in the community with this stop. The unit, the first if its kind in the world, serves as a national model for other children's hospitals and started traveling in the fall of 1998 with one community partner and now has 350 community partners in the Chicago area.

Cortisol is also known as a "fight or flight" hormone and is designed to see when you are in danger. Besides, earwax could help regulate blood pressure and helps control sleep.

High levels of the hormone could be used to detect depression and help doctors rule out other conditions, experts at University College London and King's College London say.

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Andres Herane-Vives, the one who leads the research, said that earwax seems to be the most "stable" indicator, while you can measure levels of cortisol through other means. Herane-Vives also developed a new type of swab that won't harm the eardrum. 

"We don't have a laboratory test for depression," Dr.Herane-Vives said.

However, the biological, classic melancholic depression is associated with chronically increased cortisol.

The method of determining the stress levels and risk of depression through earwax could be used to distinguish other disorders, but cortisol sampling has been known to be very difficult.

According to BBC News, a study of 37 participants revealed a build-up of the stress hormone cortisol could be measured from the secretion of the ear canal.

Cortisol sends out a signal to the brain in response to stress and could influence almost every system in the body from the immune system up to digestion and sleep.

Mental health diagnosis is currently widely subjective that it could give professionals an added tool to help make their assessments more accurate. Also, the earwax tests could potentially be used to determine who might or might not benefit from antidepressants.

Aside from earwax, cortisol can also be measured through the blood. However, this only gives a glimpse of a person's hormone levels at that specific moment. Besides, since blood tests can be stressful, this could give false positives, as per the BBC.

Previously, Dr.Herane-Vives studied if cortisol could be measured from hair follicles, but to do the process, a person must provide 3cm of hair that not everyone has or wants to lose. 

As per The Sun, it is hard to develop the hormone measurements because the levels of cortisol can fluctuate rapidly, and it is hard to measure long term cortisol levels. The current ways of measuring the level include hair follicles that are quite a high-cost process. 

The experts said that earwax samples are easier to give a more accurate reading; according to the writing in the journal Heliyon the new test is hoped to help medical professionals understand how cortisol and mental conditions like depression are linked. 

The test would only need to carry out the secretion through an earbud or cotton swab to those taking the earwax test so the patient would not feel strange or unusual. To prevent it from going too far into the ear, a brake on the swab is included. 

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