Tuesday, May 4, 2010

And now for something completely different....Oil Pulling

I'm in the middle of an experiment that is turning out to be verrrry interesting, so I thought I'd better start keeping a record of it. A while back, I was online looking for natural treatments for gum disease, and I found a site about natural remedies called Earth Clinic. I was fascinated to read about a simple therapy called oil pulling, which supposedly cured a whole range of ailments. My interest was piqued at the time, but not enough to actually try it. Instead I ended up ordering a product called OraMD, which worked miracles on my gums. But, it's expensive and I ran out, and I ended up going back to brushing with plain old toothpaste, and all my problems returned. At my last visit to the periodontist, the predictions were dire: I am in danger of losing one of my front teeth and a couple back molars due to bone loss, and they want to either yank out the tooth and replace it with an implant now (to the tune of $4000!!), or do some kind of iffy bone graft procedure on the root. I can't afford either one of those options right now, so I was in wait-and-see mode, trying to decide if I really want to go into further debt over this.

In the midst of all my dithering, this past weekend I developed an abscess behind my bad front tooth. I've had these before, and they usually require a trip to the dentist and a course of antibiotics. But, it was the weekend, and I was in pain, and something made me remember the oil pulling. One of the things it's supposed to heal is gum infections. I also remembered that the miraculous OraMD stuff was made completely out of natural oils. Soooo, on Sunday morning, as per the instructions on the Earth Clinic site, I swished a tablespoon of olive oil (mixed with a drop of peppermint oil) around in my mouth before eating breakfast. You're supposed to do it for twenty minutes, until the oil turns thin and white in your mouth, but I felt like I was going to gag and so I spit it out after ten. But still, there was a noticeable reduction in the pain and swelling of the abscess. Hmmm....

Yesterday morning, I did it again, and lasted the entire twenty minutes. By the end of the day, my abscess was completely gone. Totally healed. But there were a few other interesting things. The first is I had awakened earlier than usual feeling very refreshed. This is one of the things they say will happen. Another is that immediately after doing it, I felt really, really good. Kind of buzzed, actually. Before I even had any coffee! And the third thing is that yesterday afternoon, I started coughing up mucus--another one of the promised effects of the therapy. Okay, now I was getting really excited. I went back online and did some more research. Google "oil pulling" and you'll find hundreds of testimonials by people who swear it has completely cured them of all of the medical complaints. At the very least, people say it reversed their gum disease and made their teeth whiter. 

But the thing I am now most hopeful about is that many, many people say that it improved their arthritis. I have degenerative osteoarthritis and can barely move after a busy waitress shift. My hands, knees, feet and shoulders have some degree of pain and stiffness pretty much all the time. My rheumatologist wants me to take 4000 mg of Tylenol a day. Yeah, that's not happening, so I pretty much just live with it. But if I could get some relief with a simply, natural therapy like oil pulling? And get whiter, healthy teeth to boot? Well now, that might be pretty miraculous indeed.




7 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing, it is really interesting. I have never heard of this. I hope it works for all your ailments, especially the pain after waitressing.

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  2. OK, I tried this this morning, straight olive oil, gag, I can't believe how awful it tasted. But I did it! I am going to try again tomorrow, and just see what happens!

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  3. Adding a drop of peppermint oil really helps make it more palatable. Also they say sunflower oil is the preferred oil for this, which may be lighter than the EVOO. Keep at it! After almost a week, I feel really good. :)

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  4. I guess I need to get both sunflower oil AND peppermint oil, because as soon as I got this in my mouth this morning I spit it right out!!! Strong gag reflex! I had a cup of coffee instead:-0

    I will let you know if I can stomach this again!

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  5. OK, You got me. Anything else to add? I'm tempted to try it myself. Let me remind you that gum disease leads to heart problems and several other maladies. Do not predecease me. That's an order.

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  6. I've done this a few times, but forgot about it! Thanks for reminding me! I can't get rid of an abscess I've had for soooooooooo long. The first time you gag.....really quickly, but the more you do it, the more you can stand it. AND it helps to keep your mind busy...such as washing dishes and listening to music. But thanks again for posting this, I was thinking of having that tooth pulled, now I am going to try this and see if it works first! I don't want semi-front tooth pulled! (its behind my canine....med. card won't cover root canals past your canine teeth arrggh!)

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  7. Thank God for bringing me to earthclinic. I was prayer for healing for my kids and was blessed with earthclinic. By the grace of God, Earthclinic has helped me bring the kids fever down faster than meds. I don't even use it anymore. My daughter temp went from 103.7 to 98 in about an hour. Got rid of sore throat symptom with white spots and 102.7 fever. Reduced my husband blood pressure(he is off of pills) weight loss and cholesterol. Reduced allergies in my kids. I now keep apple cider vinegar, honey, garlic, potatoes, cayenee pepper, and onions in the house. Also hydrogen peroxide for brushing teeth and gargling. The site is down right now for some reason. I go to all the time to read testimonies and new things.

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