Why do I end up having an ear infection everytime I catch a cold?
I’ve had three colds in the past 5-6 months or so, and each time I ended up getting an ear infection around the 4th or 5th day of my infection. Right now, my ear is blocking again and I fear I have yet another ear infection! What could cause this, and should I take antibiotics again?
Many people are born with their eustachian tubes at the wrong angle (too flat) and so any viruses you get sit in them and fester instead of running out of the nose when you sneeze.
On the other hand, you do not need to get antibiotics for every single ear infection you get. Most will clear up by themselves in a couple of days. You only need antibiotics if it has been more than 4 days and it has not gone away on its own. Just take painkillers and try not to poke fingers into them.
The throat and ear are connected by a canal known as the Eustachian tube which allows pressure within the inner ear to equalise with that of the outside atmosphere (when it does so, your ears "pop" as you may have experienced on aircraft) and allows mucus to drain from the ear. As a result, any infection in the throat or lungs, such as a cold, often leads to secondary infection of the inner ear. Many cold remedies are designed to combat both the throat/chest infection and that in the ear.