I'm going to tell you my experience: When I bought the coconut oil, I did it for the same reason as you. Maybe it would taste better as I love coconut. Well, to be honest my coconut oil is tasteless, so it's better.

The only thing is that you have to be prepared for is to experiment the oil sensation in your mouth. As I have never put so many oil at once in my mouth it felt thick and strange at first. (2 tbsp.)

Then I got accustomed and could do it. Remember to spit it out!
I will continue this treatment as soon as I feel better (health prob. due to pregnancy)

Hope that you keep us posted if you decide to try it. Some say it can also help in whitening teeth.

Elsa Zoe, the recommended amount of oil is 1 tbsp (tablespoon), not 2 tbsp., so maybe you are using two times too much.

I have a small mouth, so I use 2 tsp. (teaspoons) (There are 3 teaspoons in one tablespoon).

For first-time oil pullers, sometimes it is easier to start with 1 teaspoon for just 5 minutes, and gradually increase the amount of oil and the length of time. For many, it is no problem to do 1 Tbsp. for 20 minutes the very first time they do it. I eat lots of olive oil/lime juice vinaigrette on my salad, and I love the oiliness of it, so the feeling of oil in my mouth is good to me. I also eat 2-4 tablespoons of coconut oil a day (it is good for ridding candida). It is very healthy to eat oils.

Happy pulling!

kebod

It sounds like several of you may be trying oil pulling for the first time, so I thought I would remind you that like many other health procedures, this works best when you clean up and take care of other health factors:

Be sure to rinse your mouth out afterward with warm salt water, preferably using sea salt.

Drink 1-2 glasses of water after the salt water rinse, and drink plenty of water throughout the day.

Eat very healthy, including lots of veggies and a minimum of sugar. No fast food or junk food.

Get some exercise. A good walk or a work-out of some kind will do wonders.

Try to take an omega 3 supplement or eat foods high in omega 3 oils: cold water fish and ground flaxseeds being the best.

Did I miss anything? Anyone else out there have some healthy suggestions for all of us?

Happy pulling!

kebod

OH MY GOD!! That's why it felt kind of too much for me.

See? This is what happens when you don't read directions carefully!

Next time I'll do it the right way.

Thanks Kebod!!

Hi everyone,

I'm back after a month or so of no posting.

I posted a question awhile back about my friend who started OP and noticed arthritic-type pains in her hands shortly after. I wanted to let you all know that her doctor thinks she may have a vitamin D deficiency so the OP was coincidental and unrelated to the onset of these pains. I suspected this would be the case but it never hurts to ask questions! Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

Bunnyday, thanks for your advice about your oil combo (flax and sesame). I have added hemp oil to my sesame as that is what I had.. I think it is anti-inflammatory but I am finding different sites say different things. I have seen grapeseed oil, tomatoes and peppers listed as inflammatory in some places and anti in others. I have been researching the net but I'm not sure which characteristics make a food anti-inflammatory... omegas, low saturated fats? I guess I have more work to do.

Katiebug, I also noticed a big improvement with my monthlies from OP. Enough to keep with it even tho my KP is pretty much the same.

Hi Sheena! I'm glad to hear from you again!

Here is a great web site to research the inflammatory rating of hundreds of major foods:
NutritionData.com NutritionData's Nutrition Facts Calorie Counter

Enter the food type, such as flaxseed. Keep the entry at its most basic form. You will next be given options where you can select "flaxseed oil". Then scroll down to the middle of the page to look at the inflammatory rating. BTW, flaxseed oil is highly inflammatory.

Maybe Bunnyday has some ideas on how this works, how an inflammatory oil can still be so beneficial. Is it possible we sublingually absorb the EFAs (essential fatty acids) while pulling, but since we don't swallow the oil, we don't get its inflammation effect? This is only my guess, and I look forward to what others have to say here.

kebod

Hey kebod, I think you misread the listing?
Nutrition Facts and Analysis for Flaxseed oil
says that flaxseed oil is "strongly anti-inflammatory 2297"

Sheena - as far as inflammatory or not, I am pretty much going by the omega-3 content or at least the omega6 to 3 ratio. Grapeseed oil is vastly higher in omega-6s than 3s so I consider the ratio wrong for me at this time.

This is from a Huntington's disease support site at stanford but seems quite factual:
Omega-3 Fatty Acids, I5


"A balance of omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids is therefore essential for proper health. However, the typical Western diet has evolved to be high in omega-6 and low in omega-3 fatty acids. While omega-6 fatty acids are not necessarily bad, a skewed ratio in favor of too much omega-6 can be detrimental to one’s health.

One last note about essential fatty acids concerns their relationship with vitamin E. Some studies have reported that there is a significant correlation between vitamin E and omega-3 fatty acid supplementation. Findings suggest that an inadequate intake of vitamin E results in a decreased absorption of omega-3. Hence, some experts suggest that vitamin E supplementation may be helpful in conjunction with omega-3 supplementation."

I gotta run - bd

BD,

Thanks for the correction. I did misread it. It's good to know flaxseed oil is anti-inflammatory. Also, thank you for the information regarding the relationship between vit. E and omega-3. Have you read how much vit. E in proportion to omega-3?

kebod

Okay so I've just had a bit of a read through this thread and I think I'm going to give this a try.

How hard is Coconut Oil to find? Because I'm thinking Sesame Oil will be much easier to find at the supermarket however might be less appealing taste-wise.

Also, I'm thinking that I'm going to want to swallow a lot through the process - how do you stop that?

Hi Loz,

If you have a natural or health food store near you, it probably isn't hard to find coconut oil or any of the other healthy oils like untoasted sesame or sunflower. Otherwise, you can order it online.

Why don't you start with just one teaspoon in your mouth and move it around, keeping it in the front of your mouth, for just five minutes. You'll see it is easy not to swallow it.

Please post again and let us know if you like oil pulling.

kebod

Sorry, i haven't found that yet. In any case, one shouldn't take more than 1,000 mg daily since Vitamin E acts as an anti-coagulant and can increase the risk of bleeding. (more specifically _over_ bleeding if you get a serious cut or injury.)
"The U.S. Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) Recommended Daily Amount (RDA) for a 25-year old male for Vitamin E is 15 mg/day"
You can see that the upper limit of 1,000 mg is plenty high. I'm glad you asked about this. I knew there was some precaution and I'm taking seabuckthorn oil capsules and it's fairly high in Vitamin E amongst other things. More info, including how much E is in oils at:
Tocopherol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- BD

I've found some sesame oil in our pantry here at home actually and was thinking about trying it tomorrow morning but I'm not sure whether it's toasted or not. It doesn't say anywhere on the bottle.

My mum thinks it's quite amusing I want to use some 'stir fry' oil for my KP lol

ok so i thought i'd post again. i have been oil pulling for over a month and seen NO changes in my kp at all...it has just been regularly getting better/worse like it usually does from various factors like sun/time of month etc. my sunflower oil is nearly finished so i think after this i will change to olive oil or something, but my hopes arent high

Loz,

If the sesame oil is dark colored and has a strong flavor, it is the toasted kind used to flavor stir-fries and you don't want to use it. Untoasted sesame oil is light-colored and has a pleasant, nutty flavor.

Caitlin, you may want to change oil now, instead of waiting. Olive oil is good for pulling, and easily available, but it can have a strong flavor. Maybe try sunflower oil or coconut oil. Review my earlier post # 1220 to see that you are following the other suggestions as well.

Please post again.

kebod

Everybody,

We occasionally have comments and questions here on just how oil pulling works. Our best guess is that it is a combination of pulling toxins out and absorbtion of nutrients in oil, primarily the essential fatty acids, the omega 3 and 6 oils. Molly Bloom, who occasionally posts here, has posted on the Cure Zone Oil Pulling an aritlce she found on a web site for patents that supports the theory of absorbtion. To read the entire post:
The act of sublingual absorbtion at Oil Pulling & Oil Swishing Support

Here is a summary by Molly with her comments:

"Both the buccal and sublingual membranes offer advantages over other routes of administration. For example, drugs administered through the buccal and sublingual routes have a rapid onset of action, reach high levels in the blood, avoid the first-pass effect of hepatic metabolism, and avoid exposure of the drug to fluids of the gastrointestinal tract"

"The sublingual mucosa includes the membrane of the ventral surface of the tongue and the floor of the mouth whereas the buccal mucosa constitutes the lining of the cheek."

....meaning, that the oil you are absorbing does not get influenced by stomach acids before reaching the bloodstream.

"Penetration enhancers may be categorized as chelators (e.g., EDTA, citric acid, salicylates), surfactants (e.g., sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)), non-surfactants (e.g., unsaturated cyclic ureas), bile salts (e.g., sodium deoxycholate, sodium tauro-cholate), and fatty acids (e.g., oleic acid, acylcarnitines, mono- and diglycerides)."

...meaning that there are certain elements that allow faster absorbtion and act as an enhancer of sublingal..including Oleic Acids!

This premise expounds on what I have said earlier. Part of the health benefits we experience from OP has to do with undiluted and speedy absorbtion of EFA's into our system, and into our bloodstream. From this premise, we might surmise that Oil Pulling might be more effective than eating oil to attain EFA's.

The patent discusses how some enhancers allow more reliable sublingual absorbtion for the drug they are discussing. Makes me wonder how the oils we swish with work to enhance something like Oil of Oregano? Or other essential oils? I wonder if this would also be true that oil would be an efficient carrier of elements like Iodine too, thereby making it useful for those supplementing as opposed to drinking it? If oleic acid is an enhancer, then that would mean that Olive Oil, grape seed oil and buckthorn oil would be fantastic in this respect. Perhaps if a good mix of EFA's that utilize Olive Oil could cause a higher absorbtion of essential nutrients from oil, but care would be needed to balance your Omega's to get full benefits.

This would mean Omega 9, which I believe is in Udo's DHA Oil blend.

Because of the stimulation of the mucosa (mucus membranes) during OP, this might be why people do not get sick as much when OPing.

It's pretty interesting. I am by no means a "science" type of person, so I hope that what I wrote seemed like a solid translation of what that article seemed to support.

Molly