Ear stapling for weight loss is all the rage here.

[Maddy McCall]

People of ALL AGES, all backgrounds, are going to a little clinic in Collins, Mississippi, to get their ears stapled.

Here's a photo of a stapled ear:



Can you say OUCH!

My best friend's parents both went for stapling--and they are in the late 60s and 70s. Her dad now has a nasty infection in his cartilage and had to get the staples removed. Her mom seems to be eating less--but I wonder.

I went to get my hair cut today, and there was a lady in the chair when I got there, talking about having her ears stapled. Ok. She said that her weight is fluctuating and she can't tell if it's doing any good yet.

All through this, I'm thinking WHAT THE FUCK!?

It seems to me that most people who lose weight while their ears are stapled would have lost it anyway--that having their ears stapled is just one step in the grand decision to lose weight. Or maybe it just hurts like hell to chew. :shrug:

If people have their ears stapled and DON'T lose weight, it isn't because the nurse stapled their ear in the wrong place (off of the "pressure point," which is what people who don't lose weight say, then they go back to get another staple in each ear, and they have to pay AGAIN.). It's because they haven't changed the way they eat, and because they are sedentary.

What a ridiculous fad. I do my own version of Adkins when I put on extra poundage, and I have little trouble taking it off...Indeed, I'm doing it right now. I'll be where I want to be, weight-wise, by the end of May. (I put on weight doing my academic work--found myself sitting on the couch, reading 18 hours a day, eating Cheez-Its and drinking Mountain Dews as if there were no tomorrow. Now that I'm through with that part of my work, I put the snacks and soda down, and I have time to cook nutritious meals. I'm back outdoors, exercising, hustling here and there. So my lifestyle is back to where it was--and my waistline will be soon, too.)

What I won't do is go pay someone $60 to staple my ears--it just seems like acupuncture gone awry. (And I do believe that acupuncture works, if the person doing it is trained to do it.) What we have here in Mississippi is a woman who hasn't been trained to do any kind of acupuncture, who is injecting staples in people's ears, making loads of money to do it (news stories have shown people lined up outside her clinic, waiting in line to be stapled).

I guess I just don't get it. If anyone can give me a reason to see this differently, I'll certainly listen.

[Deja Q]

1. Yes, and I can also say "Dumb!"

Don't cheap pharmacies sell stupid beads for $20 that you get to shove into your own ears?

[Maddy McCall]

5. I've never heard of that. Bet I could make a mint here if I had some...

and advertised them in the local paper.

[MissMillie]

2. It's not that I don't believe in the success of acupuncture...

... but this just sounds hokey to me.

Mind you, I'm the person who spent 30 years of her life fighting her weight, opting in 2004 to undergo gastric bypass. Stomach stapling worked wonders for me.

[Maddy McCall]

7. I don't know much about WLS...

but I know lots of people who have done it, all with great success.

What I don't know much about is the side effects on one's health. I have heard different stories.

[MissMillie]

8. Well, so far, so good for me....

but I am obsessively diligent about exercise and taking my supplements.

[Maddy McCall]

10. Good for you, MissMille.

:applause:

[jukes]

3. there shd be a prize

for posting the most idiotic fad in the lounge. a free herk or something.

this is some seriously stupid shit. my WTF meter lokt the needle & i had to wang it a good 1 to free it back up.


:rofl:

[Maddy McCall]

6. LOL!

:hi: jukes!

[BikeWriter]

12. Here's a Bullshit Meter I'll loan you. I have spares.

[Fenris]

4. I'd be extremely interested to see the "science" behind this.

[Maddy McCall]

9. I just googled for about 20 minutes...there seem to be no studies.

It seems that someone is using a corrupted version of acupuncture as the basis for the "science" of ear stapling.

I think it's a fraud.

[lies and propaganda]

11. must be a Southern thing...

last time I was in Oklahoma (not ok) everyone had these as well.

I asked around but i couldnt end up buying it.

[Maddy McCall]

13. I think it originated in California...

That's what people tell me, anyway. :shrug:

[LeftyMom]

21. I've never seen or heard of any such thing around here

I don't think any clinic offering such a thing would last long, CA is a fairly hostile legal enviornment for alternative medicine be it legitimate, iffy our outright quackery.

[flamingyouth]

14. Wow.

The mental picture I have of people lining up to have a woman staple their ears... :scared:

[Maddy McCall]

16. I know. Crazy, isn't it?

[flamingyouth]

18. No "Free boudin with ear stapling" sign out front?

:D

[Maddy McCall]

23. Well that would kinda defeat the purpose...

but I might queue up if the boudin is Nick's crawfish! :hi:

[trof]

15. I got my red Swingline out.

The line forms to the right.
10 bucks a pop.

[Maddy McCall]

17. And bring your own peroxide, right?

LOL! Don't worry, I won't be in the line. :hi:

[MadHound]

19. My best guess is that this is another manifestation of the placebo effect

It has been shown time and again that if you a group of people on the notion that something will work, be it a sugar pill, a staple through the ear, or a hole through the head, roughly half of them will believe you and the procedure will indeed work.

So, half of the population is gullible:shrug: A sad commentary on society.

[Maddy McCall]

24. Yes, that's my guess, too.

[nini]

20. you get the same result by pressing a fingernail in that spot

if you feel that part of your ear with a fingernail, you'll feel the groove that is supposed to respond to the pressure and suppress appetite. No need to put one of those dumb things in your body.

How much success people have with this - I don't know. My brother took an accupunture class as part of his classes he has to take to keep his dental license valid in CA. They told them about this pressure spot and the use of the fingernail. The staple thing is a fad and surely a waste of money.

[Maddy McCall]

25. I didn't know that.

Hey, nini. How's everything going?

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

22. I have that pierced. It didn't affect my appetite.

However, I got it pierced because I felt like it. However, I also only paid $40 for it and the ring. I guess it costs an extra $20 if they tell you it'll make you lose weight. I also read in the past that tragus (that little flap in the front of your ear) piercings cause weight loss. I have both my traguses (tragii?) pierced. None of these have an effect on my appetite. Granted, I don't need to lose weight, but I doubt that would change anything.

I believe in accupunture. I just think the ear/diet thing is stupid.

[Maddy McCall]

26. The stapling evidently is not really sanitary...

the news tonight's feature story was about a woman who's been in the hospital almost three weeks with a staph infection she got from having her ears stapled.

From what I understand, once infection sets in in cartilage, it doesn't leave.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

27. That's why you go to a qualified piercer.

The place I get pierced and tattooed is super-clean. In fact, I get grossed out if I need to get blood work done because I find the average hospital nurse is far less strict about sanitation. And NEVER get a piercing done with a gun. They CAN NOT BE SANITIZED!!!

It is hard to get an infection out of cartilage. However, a lot of so-called "infections" are really metal-reactions. Half the time, an "infection" is cleared up by switching to a higher quality metal. No nickel.

[Skittles]

28. it is amazing what people will do to avoid exercising and eating less

truly amazing

[Common Sense Party]

29. That's supposed to make you eat less? Are they eating thru the ear?

[XemaSab]

30. I think if you tried it

You'd get really nasty ear infections. :shrug: