Oil-Pulling For Opulent Health

We have all heard about the craze – the trumpets of alternative health bloggers triumphantly announcing oil-pulling as an alternative health practice that allegedly fixes everything in your life but your marriage or financial issues. Writers and beauty editors swear by it, claiming miraculous results within days.

Then the crowd of skeptics – some of them doctors, others simply against the hippie riffraff – tug the rope back, claiming that oil is oil, and performs no miracles that boost the health of the participant.

Now, the readers, bloggers, and doctors alike wonder about the truth behind oil-pulling as a method for maintaining health. What does it really do and does it actually work? Where do the seams that hold  the fabrics of truth and myth begin separating?

 

Oil-Pulling Origins

First, where does the technique of oil-pulling originate? An alternative medical practice with traditional roots in India, oil-pulling makes its first recorded appearance in one of the earliest texts on the subject of Ayurvedic medicine. The book is entitled Charaka Samhita.

Oil-pulling remained unheard of in the practices of mainstream modern medicine until the 1990s. It remained relatively undercover and uncommon in practice until Bruce Fife, a nutritionist, authored a book entitled Oil Pulling Therapy: Detoxifying and Healing the Body through Oral Cleansing in 2008.

Currently, entire blogs, articles, and even forums exist in dedication to the practice of oil-pulling, the benefits it may or may not provide, and which oils to use. As a key word search on Google, the term ‘oil pulling’ claims one of the first suggestions the search engine makes.

 

How to be a Professional at Oil-Pulling

Oil-pulling is very simplistic in practice. Simply purchase the oil at your local market – preferably an organic, extra virgin, unrefined oil. Your have a few common options of which oil to use – coconut, sunflower, or sesame. I prefer coconut oil because it has a coconut flavor and smell. Other people may swear on sesame or sunflower.

Put a tablespoon or two of the oil in your mouth, and swish it around  like mouthwash for ten to fifteen minutes once or twice a day. The oil draws bacteria, viruses, and other toxins from your mouth. Where it went in clear, you will spit out a white, cloudy substance.

Some people get a sore jaw. If this happens, then you are probably swishing too hard. Just relax, working the oil from side to side, back to front, in a slow, gentle manner that does not work your muscles into a sore ache.

I typically oil-pull before or after I brush my teeth while I am in the shower. You may do it while reading a book, working out, or watching your favorite television show. Oil-pulling is easily worked into a daily routine.

 

Bedazzling Benefits

Multiple blogs make bogus, scientifically unfounded claims about what oil-pulling does for you. Here are some obvious and proven benefits you will experience with this practice that are clear and easy to recognize.

First, oil-pulling helps keep your teeth whiter by killing the bacteria responsible for those stains in your mouth. It reduces the amount Streptococcus mutans – a major source of tooth decay.

Also, you will notice that your mouth feels fresher and your teeth seem cleaner and slicker. This is because oil-pulling draws plaque off of your teeth, while eliminating odor-causing bacteria that often flourishes between your teeth and under your tongue after meals. You may notice that your mouth starts to feel a little less dry and soured when you wake up in the morning due to oil-pulling.

Oil-pulling can also help with sinus infections. The oil can draw the infection-causing bacteria from your nose cavity into your mouth, giving your immune system a jump start on fighting off bodily aggressors.

This technique essentially works like this – pulling toxins from your bloodstream and into your mouth through saliva, and capturing and dissolving them. This kills the toxins and allows you to easily expel them from your body.

 

My Experience

For my first oil-pulling, I selected extra-virgin, unrefined, organic coconut oil from the Walmart in my town. I paid around seven dollars for twelve ounces. After dolloping two teaspoons into my mouth, I went for a walk, swishing the oil about.

I swished for about fifteen to twenty minutes and spat the milky goo onto the ground. Where the oil was clear before, now it was white with… well… whatever nasties had been in my mouth.

I brushed my teeth afterward. Looking in the mirror, my teeth appeared whiter than before I oil-pulled. Granted, not as white as using a chemical-infested whitening strip, but noticeably enough.

When I awoke the next day, the inside of my mouth did not have that yucky morning-breath stench or feel that we commonly get after sleeping with various microscopic critters crawling around on our teeth.

As I oil-pulled again in the shower that morning, I noticed that my mouth felt freshly brushed once I spat – without even having brushed my teeth yet. With continued use, I realized I could stop worrying about my breath at any given point in the day sense oil-pulling ensured my mouth was squeaky clean.

 

If Oil-Pulling is This Magical in the Mouth, What Can It Do for the Skin?!

If oil-pulling can provide such a bounty of benefits for the mouth and sinus cavities, imagine what it can do to improve the condition of your skin. A quick skim over most of our products’ ingredients including body cleansers, hand cleansers, bar soaps, and shampoos, will show that we base some of our products in organic coconut oil.

So, think about this. If coconut oil makes my mouth feel refreshed and clean at all times of the day, helps relieve sinus infections, and stops the progression of tooth decay, what can it do to benefit your skin?

Contact us to see what our products based in organic coconut oil can do for you today.

 

References

• The ‘Oil Pulling’ Health Craze Works, Just Not in the Way You Think 
• Oil Pulling
• Oil Pulling for a Brighter Smile and Better Health