About a year ago, out of the blue, in the midst of a fitful night of not sleeping, while trying to pursue a better approach to health, oil pulling came to mind. I hadn’t seen or heard the term in almost 20 years, but the next day I was drawn to find out about this term that had just popped into my head seemingly out of no where. I was amazed at what I found, a plethora of articles and you-tube videos, and I could find nothing negative at all.
As I was researching, the original source of this natural remedy’s presentation to me slowly returned to my recollection. An energetic friend from that era of my life those 20 years earlier had told me that she had been doing it for years. She recounted a time in her own life when while she was bedridden with chronic fatigue, someone introduced the concept to her. I couldn’t imagine this peppy woman ever having any problem with chronic fatigue. She certainly was a ball of joyful energy when I knew her.
That memory and my discoveries over the course of those several days led me to begin the adventure of oil pulling myself. I did notice my energy level improve within a few days. Most recognizable however was the effect on my mouth. My teeth felt cleaner and appeared whiter. I felt better in general with my new found therapy which I did daily, usually with coconut oil, but sometimes using grape seed oil or olive oil.
So what is oil pulling? It really is simple. You take between a teaspoon to a tablespoon of oil, whatever you can handle, and swish it around in your mouth, pulling and pushing it through your teeth for between 5 and 20 minutes, again whatever you can handle, the longer the better. The idea is that the oil will collect up the bacteria in your mouth to clean it away leading to cleaner teeth, cleaner mouth, cleaner breath. When done, you spit the oil out, preferably in the garbage and not the sink so as not to cause a clog. Remember that the oil is full of bacteria, so you don’t swallow it. There’s a lot more too it, but that’s it in a nutshell, a very small nutshell like an acorn.
A couple months ago because of dealing with knee surgery, I got out of the habit and getting back into a habit, even one that is easy, is tough. I found it too beneficial not to incorporate it back into my daily routine. It has other significant health benefits. Even medical skeptics have agreed, “You aren’t going to hurt anything by swishing oil around in your mouth; so go ahead and give it a try.”
