Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat

Any doctor will tell you not to stick a cotton swab in your ear, although most of us disregard the warning. Luckily, there are safer ways to remove earwax.

By Laurie L. Dove

They say there are two types of people who pick their nose – those who do and those who lie about doing it. Would you be more prone to admit it if you found out it might be good for you? Let's see if it is.

By Jennifer Sellers

Your mom always told you not to pick them, but you really have no idea why. So what's up with the nasty, snotty invaders camping out in your nose?

By Jennifer Sellers

Sneezing at the wrong moment can be downright dangerous — they've even been blamed for car accidents. But could stifling a sneeze be just as bad?

By Laurie L. Dove

The urge to sneeze can come upon you at the worst times — say during a funeral — but luckily there are ways to suppress it.

By Laurie L. Dove

Picking your nose isn't something we do in public. And chowing down on what we find in there isn't just frowned upon -- it's pretty gross. But what happens if you do eat your own boogers? Is it dangerous? Or can it actually be good for you?

By Laurie L. Dove

When you have a cold or allergies, your life revolves around tissues. Your nose feels like a nonstop spigot of mucus (not your best look, by the way). Why do you constantly have to blow your nose -- and what's going on in your schnozz when you do?

By Laurie L. Dove

You're trapped in a quiet place and you feel a sneeze coming on. You try desperately to remember how to stop a sneeze, but it's too late -- ACHOO! Next time, try tickling the roof of your mouth with your tongue. Really!

By Laurie L. Dove

Kids are pretty cute, right? Maybe not so much if you've ever watched one pick his nose and eat a booger — that chubby finger emerging with a treasure, quickly inspected and (ewww) shoved right into his mouth. Why do they do this?

By Laurie L. Dove

Are you getting too up close and personal with your TV? Your eyes might think so.

By Alison Cooper

If someone told you that oodles of arachnids are jumping (and mating) on your eyelashes, you might be inclined to laugh it off. But it's true. Mites are happily living all over your face. What are they doing there anyway?

By Jennifer Sellers

You probably don't give much thought to eye boogers, except maybe when you wipe them away. But you're about to learn a lot more about them (and while you're reading, you'll probably check your eyes for crud a few times).

By Jennifer Sellers

The Big Bad Wolf told Little Red Riding Hood that his enormous ears made him hear better, but is that really true? Find out if size really does matter when it comes to ears and hearing.

By Jennifer Sellers

As you watch someone happily murder every song he belts out at the karaoke bar, you have to wonder whether it's caused by the growing bar tab, a total lack of embarrassment or simple tone deafness. Why do some of us hear music so differently?

By Tom Scheve

When you can't take your eyes of the boob tube for one entire Saturday afternoon, are you doing them irreversible damage? Your parents probably told you so, when you were a kid. Were they right?

By Debra Ronca

It's another one of those things your parents told you to persuade you to eat vegetables. But besides turning orange, if you ate a bunch of carrots, would you develop superhuman vision?

By Sarah Winkler

When bedtime comes far too early, a child may be tempted to read under their covers by flashlight. Parents say the habit will ruin your eyes -- but is this old admonition true or false?

By Molly Edmonds

At night, your eyes adjust to darkness after several minutes. Do you know why it takes that long? Take a look at how your eyes adjust to darkness.

"Don't cross your eyes -- they'll stick that way!" That's something most of us have heard from our mothers at one time or another. Can your eyes really get stuck?

By Marshall Brain

Back away from that speaker, turn down your music, and put down that power tool unless you want the ringing in your ears to be permanent. Sound can hurt you, and that ringing may be the first sign.

By Cristen Conger

Eyebrows add expression to your face, and are often waxed and plucked in the name of beauty. But why do we have them in the first place, and what would happen if they went away?

By HowStuffWorks.com Contributors

Roses are red, violets are blue -- well, bluish. The sky is blue, too. Grass is green. These are things that most of us know for a fact and don't question. But what if you were colorblind? What would you see? Is life one long black-and-white movie?

By Katie Lambert

We humans act in our own self-interest, but when it comes to cotton buds and ears we do exactly what science says not to. And yes, your doctor can tell.

By Laurie L. Dove

Millions of people have refractive vision problems -- when the eyes get blurry or can't focus on an object. Learn about four major types of refractive vision problems.

By Craig Freudenrich, Ph.D.

We all know 20/20 vision is a good thing, but just what do those numbers mean?