I was a US Foreign Service Officer who lived with my family in several tropical countries. Several years ago I began to swim laps and regularly swam about a 1000 meters a day. A few years ago I began to have problems with muffled hearing. I first consulted an otolaryngologist/ENT in the Republic of the Congo. He noticed ear canal blockage with cerumen and asked me to visit him for an ear canal cleaning every six months. My hearing would improve for a short time after the cleaning, but I began to need the procedure more frequently -- first every six months, then every three months, and in recent years my hearing improvement would not last more than a few weeks after each cleaning. Doctors in some countries told me to stop swimming. Others told me that swimming made no difference. In any case I stopped swimming daily laps, but continued to have ear problems, despite regular cleaning. Most of the medical professionals told me I had unusually narrow (stenotic) ear canals that had a tendency to clog up with cerumen in short order after cleaning, particularly as I began to get older. I retired from the Foreign Service some years ago and began to work at a university in Pennsylvania and more or less resigned myself to the fact that I would need ear cleaning every few weeks, something the ENT physicians were reluctant to authorize because of health insurance restrictions. I tried prescription medications, hydrogen peroxide, drops etc. but nothing seemed to work. One ENT doctor recommended surgery to widen my ear canals, something I was reluctant to undertake. What has begun to work is the procedure mentioned in the previous posting, namely putting a small dose of mineral oil in each ear with a medicine dropper every evening before going to bed. One of my ENT physicians had mentioned mineral oil as an "old fashioned" remedy. I thought I might as well try this old fashioned approach since nothing else has seemed to work. After several months of doing this, I hear better than I have for years. I can take part in most conversations without difficulty and am much more at ease at social events. I am not trying to give medical advice, but I did want to let people who read this forum know that an old-fashioned approach to dealing with hearing loss caused by stenotic ear canals/cerumen obstruction in the canals seems to have improved my hearing and made daily life much more enjoyable. MN John