In a post I wrote last March about an at home spa night, I mentioned that I did some oil pulling but wasn't going to write about it until I tried it for a two week period. Well, that never happened....until recently! I don't know why I got back into doing it. But, I've consistently done it 5-6 times a week for 4 weeks now and feel like I can give pretty good feedback on the topic.
When you google oil pulling, you'll find that it's an ancient Ayurvedic practice. You are basically swishing oil around your mouth for a certain amount of time. In theory, all parts of your body and it's healing systems are connected and the thought it that your mouth is the central hub, if you will. If you have good mouth health, then all other problems will work themselves out. Some people claim that it cures everything from your head to your toes. Others say it's a bunch of malarky. When you oil pull, it's supposed to pull bacteria and toxins out from your mouth, which then cures EVERYTHING! *again....do your research. I am not saying this is an end all, cure all.*
When I oil pull, I use coconut oil. You can use other oils, like sesame oil, but I usually have a ginormous tub of the stuff at all times (and it also leaves an aftertaste like you've noshed on a bunch of Girl Scout Samoas cookies...yum!). You take a tablespoon of oil, put it in your mouth, and gently swish and pull the oil through your teeth for about 20 minutes. I've read some people start out with smaller amounts of oil and do it for smaller amounts of time and work their way up to the tablespoon for 20 minutes. Coconut oil is a solid unless it's really warm out, so if putting a glob of it in your mouth triggers your gag reflex, melt it first. If, while you are swishing, you find your jaw getting cramped and tired, that means you're swishing too hard. It needs to be a slow and relaxing thing. And if you don't think you have 20 minutes to devote to oil pulling, you can do it while pretty much doing anything else (except talking or maybe jogging). Get started and then shower, or wash dishes, or do whatever else needs to be done! Multitask!!!
Once your 20 minutes are up, get to your nearest trashcan and spit it out. Do not spit it into your sink or toilet because it'll clog your drains. Also, do not swallow it. If it's supposed to be pulling bacteria and toxins out of your mouth, you don't want to go back and ingest it! I then rinse my mouth with warm water and then throughly brush my teeth. I try to not eat or drink anything for about an hour after I've oil pulled.
So, after a month of doing this consistently, here's what I've encountered. Am I saying it's a direct result of the oil pulling? Maybe, maybe not.
- Teeth and gums- The first few times I did this, my gums felt a lot tighter. Also, after I do the oil pulling and then brush my teeth, my teeth feel like I've just had a cleaning at the dentist. I get that dentist fresh clean every morning and it lasts all day, no matter what I eat!
- Allergies- When Springtime hits the north Georgia area, I am miserable. My allergies usually get so bad that they turn into a sinus infection each year. My daily routine from mid-February to the end of May always includes popping a Claritin. This year, I have not had any*** allergy issues and have not had to take any allergy medications. Could it be that the pollen just isn't that bad this year? Perhaps...but my husband and son have suffered pretty badly. ***I have had one or two days of mild sinus discomfort, but it was on days where I didn't oil pull. Hmmmm....
- Halitosis- It is said that oil pulling helps curb halitosis. Now, I don't think I suffer from nasty breath, but usually when I wake up in the morning (no matter how many times I brush my teeth the day before), it tastes like I've sucked on a day old, sweaty gym sock. I've found I don't wake up with that taste in my mouth when I oil pull the morning before. But, on the days that I have skipped oil pulling, the sock taste is back.
- Eczema or other skin conditions- For the past 3-4 years, I have started having this red, flaky, splotchy rash pop up on my face right along the crease of my nose, along my eyebrows, and along my hairline on my forehead. I've never had it diagnosed by a dermatologist, but I'm guessing it's a mild type of eczema. It looks super pretty when I put makeup on....the flakiness sure does stand out! I started just foregoing makeup because it made the flareups worse and more noticeable. After about a week and a half of the consistent oil pulling, all of the sudden I noticed that it was all gone. My skin was smooth. Absolutely no red, splotchy spots. No skin flakes. All gone! I haven't changed anything else recently that would contribute to the disappearance of the skin condition. I have been using honey to wash my face for quite some time now, so it wasn't like I had been having a reaction to chemicals in a face wash. I decided to lay off on the oil pulling for a few days to investigate the correlation further. Guess what happened? The rash flared up again! This is when I started having a bit of sinus discomfort too. Went back to oil pulling and within a week, the rash was gone.
- Hangovers- According to many websites devoted to the topic, oil pulling is supposed to help alleviate hangover symptoms. We had gone out to eat with a friend and her sons last Friday night to celebrate the end of Peanut's baseball season and decided to split a pitcher of margaritas. The friend splurged and got the Texas margaritas, which was waaaaay stronger than the regular margaritas. The world was spinning when I went to bed that night and SHOCKER....I woke up with a hangover. I felt quite puny- Nauseated, headache, just overall blah. I did my oil pulling, mainly because it is habit now, and afterwards I realized I felt 95% better. I didn't realize that alleviating hangover symptoms were attributed to oil pulling, so after feeling like crap and then feeling almost normal within 20 minutes, I got online to research it. Lo and behold, it was another "cure" associated with oil pulling. I guess this makes sense if the oil pulling is supposed to be detoxing your body.
Now, do I think that oil pulling is some miracle practice? No. Could all of my findings be purely coincidental or just a placebo effect? Perhaps. But, the benefits that I have found while doing it for the last month make me want to keep it up. It doesn't seem to be hurting anything!
Do you oil pull regularly, or have you tried it in the past? What are your thoughts on the whole practice?
No comments:
Post a Comment