Every morning for the past 12 days, my husband has been swishing a tablespoon of coconut oil in his mouth for 20 minutes. After widely reading about the immense benefits of ‘Oil Pulling’ for oral health (since he has a lot of cavities), he was curious to try it out.
Oil Pulling, an ancient Ayurvedic method that has been around for thousands of years, that detoxifies and cleanses our body by pulling out harmful bacteria, fungus and other organisms from the mouth, teeth and gums. In Ayurvedic science each section of the tongue is connected to, or corresponds to different organs like the liver, heart, kidneys, lungs, spleen, pancreas, small intestines, stomach, colon, and spine. When you swish the oil around the tongue, you effectively soothe and stimulate the key meridians of the body, and their corresponding organs.
What is Oil Pulling?
It simply involves swishing a tablespoon of unrefined oil in your mouth, “pushing, pulling and swirling” it between your teeth, around your gums, and allow it to touch every part of your mouth (like how you would use a mouthwash, except don’t gargle with it). Continue doing this for about 15-20 minutes.
Lipids in the oil begin to draw toxins out of the saliva. Also as the oil mixes with the saliva, it turns into a thin, white liquid. Ensure that you do not swallow the oil as the swished oil contains bacteria and toxins. If the oil is still yellow, then it has not been pulled long enough. After you are done swishing, spit the toxic oil from the mouth, then rinse and wash your mouth thoroughly. Oil pulling is done best before breakfast, but it can be done at any time. To accelerate the healing process, you can repeat it three times a day, but always before meals on an empty stomach.
You can use oils like cold pressed sesame, coconut, olive and sunflower oil. Oil Pulling is one of the easiest ways to improve your oral health (study 1) naturally, especially if you use coconut oil (study 3), which is a powerful destroyer of all kinds of microbes, from viruses to bacteria to protozoa, many of which can be harmful.
What Happens after Oil Pulling?
The first thing you will notice after you start oil pulling is an improvement in your oral health – whiter teeth, fresher breath, and healthy looking tongue and gums. Even problems such as bleeding gums, tooth decay, and gum disease greatly diminish or completely heal.
Bruce Fife, author of Oil Pulling Therapy: Detoxifying and Healing the Body Through Oral Cleansing, mentions, “Oil pulling is one of the most remarkable methods of detoxification and healing I have ever experienced in my career as a naturopathic physician. It helped me overcome a chronic skin problem that other forms of detoxification, including numerous juice fasts lasting up to 30 days, were unable to cure.
Oil pulling can work its magic almost instantly. Some people report relief from certain conditions after doing it only once. Minor problems often clear up within a few days. More serious, chronic problems may require a few weeks or several months or more depending on lifestyle issues.”
It is believed to help those with chronic sinus congestion, asthma, allergies, fatigue, diabetes, migraine headaches, PMS, and skin disorders such as psoriasis. We need to understand that oil pulling is an ancient ayurvedic remedy and it takes time to show effective results. Its a simple, completely harmless and inexpensive method unlike other medical treatments, that it’s hard to ignore it!
(Always do you research before trying out anything new. Certain chronic or serious conditions require extra care and only this simple method might not be enough.)
References:
Study 1 Study 2 Study 3 Oil Pulling Oil Pulling benefits
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source:Fractalenlightenment