Dr. McDougall's Online Discussion Board

I see a lot of my FaceBook friends posting about oil pulling. One company had a nutritional "expert" talk to employees and he recommended oil pulling.

I do not know anything about this subject other than what I can see on YouTube or Google and not sure what to think. Is there anything to this, good or bad?

Thanks!

Thank you very much! It sounded pretty false to me, I never thought to check out Snopes!! I will be sharing the link, probably to no avail since a nutritional "expert" suggested it, ha!

A yoga studio near me is pushing this lately, too. I figure there is money to be made by the company - I am sure you need a certain type of oil, and oh, they just happen to sell it. I will stick with eating my veggies. : )

Here they are saying to use coconut oil. It sounds disgusting to me.

There's an article on it in the Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/artic ... -acne.html

It has blown up all over my Facebook feed too!

I am looking for the article, cannot find it now, that explains some aspects of it but also mentions how it can be dangerous.

Best of my memory: Some of the benefits people speak of might be duet to the oil saponifying in the mouth whilst swishing, and thereby cleaning the teeth and gums to some degree.

Dangerous because there is a slight chance of developing some kind of oil-in-the-lungs pneumonia, which sounds unpleasant and unfortunate.

Nowhere reputable could I find anything that verifies its "detox" properties.

But I am SHOCKED at how many people I know are doing it faithfully! Yet they won't consider a dietary change...

nicoles wrote:But I am SHOCKED at how many people I know are doing it faithfully! Yet they won't consider a dietary change...

I think it's a positive step in a weird way.

I didn't become a McDougaller overnight. My journey into 'non-convential medicine' began with things like this. I began getting interested in natural skin care and realised they work better than chemicals, so I ditched them. I think I was so sceptical of anything natural being healthy, if it wasn't 'proper medicine' or made with chemicals, it wasn't legit.

So I began to do things like using coconut oil in my beauty routine, then took turmeric for my skin, apple cider vinegar etc. Then I slowly began to look into diet and how food was medicine. Which led me into this WOE.

So it's not always a bad thing when people 'look outside the box' even if it's not something you agree with. This is after all Indian medicine, and not everyone agrees with certain Western medicines either. It may trigger people to look outside of Western medicine into things like diet and how food can be medicine.

You never know!

i've tried this, too, from time to time. there are amazing claims about the benefits of this practice - gosh, Deepak recommended it back in the day - and wasn't selling snake oil (or coconut)

if you're curious, try it!

(i've got gorgeous teeth - last dental visit the DDS asked me if i'd bleached my teeth; noh! - and really do get less infections than most people who hang around with kids all day long.)

don't swallow. just use a teaspoon of oil. build up time in reasonable increments.

I say the same thing I said on facebook...

Gross.

But I'm the one who won't eat a plain avocado because it feels like I'm eating shortening.

I've heard of this but haven't tried it. I LOVE coconut oil. Could eat it right off a spoon. I brush my teeth with 1/2 baking soda and 1/2 diatomaceous earth. All tooth pain and almost all tooth sensitivity is gone and they are much whiter.

Interesting. Coconut oil is anti-inflammatory and antibacterial. Some studies have shown it to be effective in eradicating H pylori. What the heck, I'd try it!

i'd recommend building up the practice - swish for 5 minutes at first and gradually add time.

can organize a drawer or scrub the stove or shred documents, etc. during that time....

I suffer from dry mouth which makes me wake up in the middle of the night with a feeling like I am choking. It has also caused me to have sores on my tongue as well as causing tooth decay despite the fact that I brush and floss regularly and don't eat sweets. The doctor told me to use Biotine mouthwash. However, it doesn't seem to be working and the list of ingredients is troubling: (glycerin, xylitol, sorbitaol, propulene, glycol, ploxamer 407,sodium benzoate, hydroxyethyl cellulose,methylparaben, propulparaben, sodium phosphate and disodiumphosphate).

I don't know about the other health claims of oil pulling, but I think something like vegetable or coconut oil would be much better for dry mouth than the commercial concoction of chemicals my doctor prescribed.

Sage,

I suffered with bulimia for years so ended up with a lot of damage to my mouth. I had sore receding gums, raw tongue, lots of sores in my mouth, very sensitive teeth. Also my teeth were quite 'wobbly' in my mouth.
After OPing with coconut oil, wow, the difference was amazing. My dentist was really impressed with the difference in my oral health. He said my teeth were totally stable and my gums were perfectly healthy, and I now have zero sensitivity. I also have no sores in my mouth. He wanted to know what I'd been doing to have such a dramatic change.
I get compliments all the time now about how nice my teeth look, they are much whiter.

I don't know about the other health claims, but I would absolutely try it for oral health. I like coconut oil the best.

If you can't stand the swishing, just try brushing with coconut oil, that's how I started off.