Oil pulling

Around ten or twelve months ago I learned about something called oil pulling. Up until recently I had never tried it (I thought it sounded absolutely disgusting). Late last week I found a jar of completely organic coconut oil, that I had totally forgotten we even had, in one of the kitchen cabinets. Since we weren't using it and I didn't want it to go to waste I decided to look into oil pulling. I spent about two and a half days on the internet researching oil pulling and decided I felt comfortable enough to give it a try.

Side note: Sometimes Most times I get slightly obsessive about the things I decide to research. Two and a half days is like light research, I have been known to spend a week or two at a time staying up until 1 or 2 in the morning researching crap on the internet. Any way.....

What is oil pulling? Its an extremely old folk remedy, I think it started in India, that involves swishing oil in the mouth. The people who started it believed it could detox the body and help treat and/or cure a lot of different things. Not very many studies have been done on it but the ones that have been done have reported that it can actually reduce plaque, gingivitis, and oral bacteria. Although the studies do show it is not as effective as prescription mouthwash, but I mean come on prescription mouthwash is some pretty strong stuff.

How do you do it? Its ridiculously easy, all you do is put a tablespoon of 100% organic oil (either sesame seed, sunflower seed, or coconut oil) in your mouth and swish and pull it through your teeth for twenty minutes first thing in the morning and then rinse with warm water and brush like normal. I use coconut oil and it actually isn't too bad. Before I tried it I was really worried about the taste but it doesn't really have a taste or at least I didn't notice it. What got me was the texture! Coconut oil (not sure about the others) starts out a bit solid (kind of comparable to butter) and I had to chew it for a bit until it started to melt. I didn't think I would make it past that point (seriously it made me want to puke) but once it got melty it wasn't bad at all. I did it while I was in the shower so I'm not sure how long I did it for, but I do take a long time to shower  normally about 20-30mmintues. I know I'm slow. You can't swallow while doing it because the oil is said to pull toxins and bacteria into it and you don't to swallow everything your trying to get rid of.  Basically your mouth gets pretty full. I'm glad I was in the shower while doing it because every now and then a little bit would spurt out and because I'm apparently 5 years old every time it happened I would start to giggle and then a little bit would dribble out and make me giggle more.
Is it working? My mouth does feel cleaner after I finish. I read that it takes a few weeks or a month to see big results so in a month we will see if Kevin thinks my morning breath is better. However over the weekend my sister did comment on my teeth being whiter. She even referenced the episode of Friends where Ross uses an at home whitening kit and leaves it on too long and then his teeth glow in the dark. I don't think my teeth are white enough to glow but I will let you know in a month if I notice otherwise.