My first try at oil pulling

[sp26]

Update on last night's thread. I tried oil pulling today using sunflower oil and it seemed to have a positive effect. The main thing i noticed was it seemed to reduce my appitite quite abit. I'm going to keep doing it at least twice a day for a week to see if the effects continue. Any brave souls out there tried it yet?

[harleymoma]

what is oil pulling

[lindalouriv]

I started 2 days ago...

Definitely a decrease in appetite and my gums look healthier.
I'll keep doing it for a whole month and then report my results.

[Buffy45]

Where did you find your info about appetite reduction with OP?

[emijan]

"In the morning before breakfast on an empty stomach you take one tablespoon in the mouth but do not swallow it. Move Oil Slowly in the mouth as rinsing or swishing and Dr Karach puts it as ' sip, suck and pull through the teeth' for fifteen to twenty minutes. This process makes oil thoroughly mixed with saliva. Swishing activates the enzymes and the enzymes draw toxins out of the blood. The oil must not be swallowed, for it has become toxic. As the process continues, the oil gets thinner and white. If the oil is still yellow, it has not been pulled long enough.It is then spit from the mouth , the oral cavity must be thoroughly rinsed and mouth must be washed thoroughly. Just use normal tap water and good old fingers to clean.

Clean the sink properly, you can use some antibacterial soap to clean the sink. Because the spittle contains harmful bacteria and toxic bodily waste. If one were to see one drop of this liquid magnified 600 times under a microscope, one would see microbes in their first stage of development.

It is important to understand that during the oil-pulling/swishing process one's metabolism is intensified. This leads to improved health. One of the most striking results of this process is the fastening of loose teeth, the elimination of bleeding gums and the visible whitening of the teeth.

The oil pulling /swishing is done best before breakfast. To accelerate the healing process, it can be repeated three times a day, but always before meals on an empty stomach."

I am personally ready to throw up from the description of how to do it alone....which is another method of weight loss.....

[Ntombi]

Originally Posted by emijan

...

I am personally ready to throw up from the description of how to do it alone....which is another method of weight loss.....

I look forward to hearing about the results.

[emijan]

Originally Posted by Ntombi

I look forward to hearing about the results.

Not from me, right?!

[silversunfire]

You have to keep it in your mouth 15-20 MINUTES?? I hope it tastes good!

[toomuchbooty]

Originally Posted by silversunfire

You have to keep it in your mouth 15-20 MINUTES?? I hope it tastes good!

[sp26]

I tried it again before my evening meal and seemed to have the same results. Decrease in appetite. It sounds kind of gross to do but wasn't that bad. I just started reading this forum and others while i was OP and the time went by fast(I did it for 15 minutes). People are also using other oils besides suflower and seaseme.

[Teresa123]

Interesting---please keep us posted!

[CarolynF]

Doesn't brushing your teeth do the same thing???

[Off My Duff]

Oh, blech, this sounds disgusting.

You are brave to try it!

[telemetrynurse]

I wouldn't mind doing it with coconut oil (yum).

[totallyme]

Interesting, I may have to give this a try.

[dietsprite]

I was interested enough to search oil pulling on google and to try and see if there was any truth behind it. Basically what I found was that it may improve the condition of gums and teeth, depending on what type of oil you use.
I found this post on a skeptics message board interesting:

I'm posting here because I've been practicing oil pulling for about two weeks after I first reading of it on a cancer forum and because of the dispointing quality of the posts so far from a research perspective, which also includes the woeful Wikipedea entry. A came across this forum by way of research into oil pulling in general.

So getting into it, what can we know of Oil pulling? In my casual research, I've only managed to find two websites of any real worth. They are:

(*oil pulling website and Q&A website, I removed the links in case they weren't allowed to be posted here)

Lets start with the Oil Pulling website for those who care to read it.

It points to the practice as first being recorded in the "Charaka Samhita," the main text from which Ayurveda practice is taught and which is dated in part C.1000bc. (Charaka Samhita) It's unfortunate that there doesn't seem to be any complete online versions of this text as I'd like to see what it actually said. The closest I could find was here
which has next to bugger all of the origional texts so I'll take it on faith that the 'Oil Pulling' site has a practically useful cite which reads,
Quote:
by OP with til-taila (sesame oil) teeth are not affected with cavities and they become firm rooted. Teeth pain and sensitivity to sour items will be healed and one will be able to chew the hardest items.


There is nothing here claimed beyond oral health and so no reason to tout other benifits without some amount of evidence. That being said, I'm not here going to look at other health benifits outside of the origional claims of improved oral health.

Given that most dental health problems such as decay and gingivitus are seen to have a bacterial cause then the first thing to look at would be the antibacterial properties of the oils being used.

From the Q&A on the second site we read that various fatty acids such as oleic, linoleic and lauric found in many vegetable oils that are either antimicrobal, antifungal or antiviral or a combination of the three. It also mentions on the site that once used, the oil contains 1000's of 'living' organisms and so should not be swallowed. This seems to be something of a contrdiction but as the full process isn't understood yet, I'll let it pass. It also mentions the mode of microbial excretion is through the saliva which makes more sense than directly through the blood vessels of the mouth. The membranes of the mouth can also absorb nutrients. If it takes 20 minutes for blood to circulate through the entire body, then it's plausable that toxins and microbs in the blood would pass across the great surface areas of the salivary glands and membranes of the mouth. Such toxins and organisms would normally be swallowed and recycled back into the body. An extra control to the 'grass killing' experiements should also be not swallowing for 20 minutes and then spitting out the contents of your mouth onto the grass.

Saliva has a complex array of digestive emzymes which I imagin would breakdown the oils to some degree creating other components which could also impact upon the process. Chewing bread for just seven minutes is enough for the saliva to break down carbohydrates into simple sugars which then taste sweet. This said, the action of the saliva itself upon the oil cannot be discounted.

But in light of the obvious lack of scientific research into Oil Pulling, it's my simplistic opinion that the process could work more by entrappment of the microbals in the longchain oil molecules. I'm not educated enough to understand other chemical or biological processes and so am 'practicing' oil pulling instead to see what it does.

During this practice I've used 2 oils. Virgin Olive oil and cheap sunflower oil of unknown extraction meathod. The websites say that only sesame and sunflower oils are truely effective. In my 2 weeks of practice I've found the olive oil far superior to the sunflower which I later switched to after I eventually purchased some. With the olive oil there was a dramatic improvment to the colour of my gums which have suffered years of gingivitus. There was also an obvious whitening of my teeth. These improvements seem to have been lost since I switched to the sunflower oil.

As for the grass killing experiment, I have no clue as to what benifit such an experiement would have. It seems an irrational invention so completely missing the point but which seems so typical of the average skeptical mindset. I've read nothing in the claims about the ability of spent oil to kill grass so why test it? It's nothing but a stawman.

I'm still not sure if I would try it, but I'd like to hear about anyone's results with it.

[Yellobrix]

I tend to think that a relatively inexpensive, and certainly harmless, health ritual can be tried, if simply out of curiosity. (Can't hurt, might help, and nothing to lose but some time and three bucks.)

Dietsprite -- your text is interesting. I am not certain that I "buy it" that it is the oil pulling itself, but rather the anti-microbial properties of the chosen oil. For that reason, it makes sense that olive oil would be a good choice. Olive is a powerful antimicrobial, even toward yeast.

I take olive leaf extract, which has a direct effect on my sugar cravings, and also lowers my BP. I use EVOO to remove my make-up. Smells weird, but my adult-onset acne has nearly cleared. I originally started all this to limit my exposure to petro chemicals in most regular beauty products. From there, I learned more and am amazed every day at the difference that can be achieve by avoiding any "franken-whatever" product on the market.

[lindalouriv]

I didnt do it because of the appetite control - don't need that - it just happens to be an added bonus. I'm doing it because it is supposed to help bleeding gums and whiten teeth. My dentist does it and actually recommends it over bleaching - that's why I tried it.
He said I should see a marked difference in less than a week.

[CarolynF]

We had a Coconut Oil thread once and we would brush our teeth with a combo of toothpaste and coconut oil..(which is hard at room temperature)..it was an amazing feeling and helped the gums, too..

[DiamondDeb]

Originally Posted by anthony

Ohmigawd! Of course that reduces your appetite. Heck! I lost mine just reading about it.

[DiamondDeb]

Originally Posted by lindalouriv

I didnt do it because of the appetite control - don't need that - it just happens to be an added bonus. I'm doing it because it is supposed to help bleeding gums and whiten teeth. My dentist does it and actually recommends it over bleaching - that's why I tried it.
He said I should see a marked difference in less than a week.

I was just going to ask why you were doing it. What kind of oil are you using? Does it matter? I know some oils--like castor oil--are supposed to be healing than others.

Do let us know how it works.

[DiamondDeb]

Sp26, why are you doing this? Are you also looking for dental health?

[sp26]

Originally Posted by DiamondDeb

Sp26, why are you doing this? Are you also looking for dental health?

The reason i started is just by accident. i was looking at a forum that had alot of different home remidies for a wide range of alments. I saw a forum there about oil pulling that got my attention(I'd never heard of it before). It claimed it would help alot of diseases. It also said it would increase metabalism which always helps any diet. So i tried it today for the first time. the first thing I noticed is how it killed my appetite. So i thought people here might be intrested in OP. So no, i'm not doing it for dental health i'm just curious what will happen over time.

[lindalouriv]

Originally Posted by DiamondDeb

I was just going to ask why you were doing it. What kind of oil are you using? Does it matter? I know some oils--like castor oil--are supposed to be healing than others.

Do let us know how it works.

I'm using sesame oil because that's what my dentist recommended. I'm not sure if it makes a difference. I'll give you a report at the end of the week.

[Buffy45]

Carolyn, I was thinking of that myself, but couldn't remember all the ways we used coconut oil. Yes, it does leave a very clean taste in your mouth and your teeth feel nice.

[LeanLioness]

I was told to use grape seed oil.........

[beachlvr58]

Oh my God that sounds horrendous and too complicated.