Body Detox Oil Pulling Methods

I WANT the Best Oil Pulling product to detox my body. Plaque? Gingivitis? Do Body Detox Oil Pulling Methods Work? Some people think so.

This is part a multi-part series of articles investigating the question:  Does Oil Pulling Really Work?  This specific article addresses the Oil Pulling Claim:  Does Oil Pulling Remove Toxins from your Body?  And, if so, which body detox oil pulling methods work the best.

Do You Want the BEST Oil Pulling Product?

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In our researching for this article we will try to find existing studies and/or believable sources that prove or disprove the question Does Oil Pulling Remove Toxins from your Body?

Confusion About Removing Body Toxins?

First of all, there are two ways I’ve seen to address this question.

In my opinion, one of the ways I see articles address this question is not really asking the question correctly.

So, first I’ll talk about the “wrong” way to view this question.  And, then we can talk about how this question should be addressed, and whether or not there is proof to back up this claim.

Eliminates (Pulls Out) Body Toxins

In my opinion, this is one of the claims that gives Oil Pulling a bad name.

I believe that there are many claims that talk about the elimination of toxins from your body being a benefit of oil pulling.

However, I believe when people write this, that the reader often misinterprets what this means.

When stated “incorrectly” (IMO), people sometimes write articles that say it is bunk that oil pulling removes toxins from your body.

In my humble opinion, this description misstates what the intended claim it for this point.  In my opinion, the ancient art of ayurvedic doesn’t claim to extract toxins from your body.

So, I believe what is meant by this statement is that oil pulling Prevents body toxins from being absorbed into your body.  In other words, it removes the toxins from your mouth and prevents those toxin from being absorbed into your blood stream by the many blood veins that exist in, under and around your tongue.

So, we will mark this as Misunderstood and create a new claim.

CLAIM RESULT: Misunderstood

Prevents Body Toxins

For prevention, the idea here is that your mouth has a large amount of veins that are near the surface of your gums in and around the inside of your mouth.

Especially under your tongue.

When you oil pull, this process helps to remove those toxins from your mouth.  The result is that any and all toxins that are removed by oil pulling are no longer able to be absorbed into your blood stream.

In this thesis by Post Graduate Student, †M.D.S, Professor and Head, ‡M.D.S, Professor, Department of oral Medicine & Radiology, KLES V.K Institute Of Dental Sciences, Nehru Nagar, Belgaum, Karnataka, India, the following statement is given:

The bottom line is that the oil pulling actually cannot
pull the toxins out of the blood because oral mucous
membrane does not act as a semipermeable membrane
to allow the toxins to pass through.

Everything it says here is absolutely correct.  And, is stating the scientific reasons why oil pulling can’t cleanse the blood.

But, the better question is can it Prevent the blood from needing cleansing in the first place?

With the evidence from previous claims with regard to the affects of oil pulling on plaque and gingivitis, we give this a Fact rating on the basis that those studies prove that the toxins that cause those factors are eliminate by oil pulling.  And, since the are eliminated (removed from your mouth), they cannot be absorbed into your body.

Who Says Oil Pulling Removes Body Toxins?

Our research found these sources that are reinforcing the claim that Oil Pulling Removes Body Toxins.

Some of them even go into body detox oil pulling methods and how to employ them.

Dr. Sara Gottfried MD

Dr. Sara Gottfried MD attended Harvard’s medical school and has 20+ years of experience.

In her article about Oil Pulling: Whiten Your Teeth, Detoxify Your Body and Prevent Cavities, she talks about:

The antibacterial and antifungal properties of oils like coconut
and sesame can effectively remove toxins from the mouth that might
cause infection, inflammation or disease

Before that she also talks about different types of toxin that are found in your mouth.

Some of the sources she mentions are root canals, mercury fillings and other dental work.

Dr. Axe Food is Medicine

Dr. Josh Axe wrote an article titled Coconut Oil Pulling Benefits & How-to Guide.

He is a certified doctor of natural medicine, doctor of chiropractic and is a clinical nutritionist.  In his article, he talks about Oil Pulling by saying:

It literally sucks the dirt (toxins) out of your mouth and
creates a clean, antiseptic oral environment

He later goes on to talk about Oil Pulling as being safe for pregnant women (if performed properly by spitting out the toxin and not swallowing them).

Who Says Oil Pulling Does NOT Remove Body Toxins?

Science Based Medicine

The folks at Science Based Medicine are a group of six doctors that have banded together to create their web site.

In their article named Oil Pulling Your Leg they talk about reasons why Oil Pulling is more fiction than fact.  Here is one excerpt specific to body detox:

Like all alleged detox treatments, specific toxins are never
named or measured, nor is any specific causal link made to the specific diseases that are claimed to be treated

Skeptoid

The Skeptoid wrote an article about Oil Pulling Revisited: Where The Danger Lies.

This article is one of the sources we’ve used for many of the opposing views about how Oil Pulling works.

In this article, the Skeptoid says this about the removal of toxins from the body using Oil Pulling:

Some proponents claim the consistency when the oil is spit out is “proof” of toxins coming out. If this is true, it should be easy to test the oil and measure what’s in it. Yet, for some reason these “naturopathic” “doctors” haven’t done these tests

We would respectfully disagree that these test have not been performed.  See our Proof section below where we point to one of our articles that discusses just these types of studies.

Baseline of Health Foundation

In the article Oil Pulling For Detoxing? No, But Helps With Gum Disease & Immunity — Natural Health Newsletter, it is very clear just by the title that they do not consider the removal of bacteria that helps with gum disease to be considered toxins.

In this article, they state:

Given what we now know about oil pulling, it might be better to
refer to it by its less common name, oil swishing, since there probably
is no “pulling” of toxins from the body involved

This appears to be one of the articles where they are mixing up the term Pulling with meaning that the toxins are pulled from the body instead of that they prevent the toxins from entering the body.

Proof That Oil Pulling Removes Body Toxins

Our proof is the same proof we offer in our article Does Oil Pulling Prevent Gum Disease?

In that article we identified studies that prove the effects of Oil Pulling on plaque and gingivitis.

Our research found that all of the differing opinions may just be semantics.  Our semantics are that Oil Pulling can remove the bacteria (that produce toxins) from your mouth that can cause gingivitis and plaque.

By definition, a toxin is:

an antigenic poison or venom of plant or animal origin, especially
one produced by or derived from microorganisms and causing disease when present at low concentration in the body

Some may disagree with the classification of these types of bacteria as toxins.  If a bacteria can cause plaque or gingivitis, these are clearly diseases and the source is the bacteria that Oil Pulling removes.

The Best Oils for Removing Body Toxins

We again refer you to our article answering the question Does Oil Pulling Prevent Gum Disease?

Since we are claiming that bacteria are toxins, or produce toxins that cause Gum Disease, the oils we identified in that article are the same oils for removing toxins from your body.  Or, a better wording would be preventing toxins from entering your body via your mouth.

Wrap Up: Body Detox Oil Pulling Methods

So, we’ve identified those that make the claim that Body Detox Oil Pulling Methods work to eliminate toxins.

And, we’ve found a few that say this claim is bunk.

Do You Want the BEST Oil Pulling Product?

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We are not trying to say that Oil Pulling is any better or worse than other mouth cleaning techniques like simple brushing or using mouthwash products.  However, it does seem clear that Body Detox Oil Pulling Methods do have positive effects on diseases that stem from plaque and gingivitis.

CLAIM RESULT: Fact