Book says oil-pulling therapy detoxifies body

Evidence of the amazing healing properties of coconut oil continues to mount in the medical literature, and in a new development, impressive results have been achieved by simply swishing it around in the mouth to detoxify the body.

In his previous book, The Coconut Oil Miracle by Dr. Bruce Fife presented documentation showing that coconut oil taken orally “has been found to promote weight loss; help protect against heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, and many other degenerative diseases; prevent premature aging of the skin; strengthen the immune system; and improve digestion.” Fife cited more than 80 peer-reviewed medical journal articles and decades of his own practice as evidence.

Curiously, Fife kept running across people swishing oil in their mouth to treat various ailments. Even though Fife was an expert on coconut oil, he didn’t have time to follow up on the swishing thing and remained skeptical about it for years. Eventually he did some digging and found there was some research on “oil-pulling,” as it is called. Finally he tried it for himself and started using it with his patients, with great success.

How does oil pulling work? It’s simple. You swish a tablespoon of oil in your mouth for 15 minutes, allowing it to pick up harmful viruses, bacteria, fungi, and protozoa, which you then spit out with the oil. Oil cleans the teeth and mouth much more thoroughly than brushing does, simply because it comes into contact with all the surface area of the teeth and tissues in the mouth. Every nook and cranny and even the pockets below the gum line in the case of periodontitis. The oil also causes you to salivate, drawing the toxins out through the mucous membranes of the mouth, nose, and throat, and ultimately from the bloodstream.

But why does oil pulling sometimes cure deadly diseases that modern medicine can’t? The answer to that question is an interesting story.

Dr. Charles Mayo, founder of the famous Mayo Clinic, believed in the “focal infection” theory of disease, something so archaic that today almost no one has heard of it. The theory basically states that an oral infection can influence the health of the entire body. Addressing the Chicago Dental Society in 1913 Mayo said, “The next great step in preventative medicine must come from the dentists.”

Mayo appointed Dr. Edward C. Rosenhow to head a team of researchers dedicated to focal infection theory. From 1902 to 1958, Rosenhow conducted experiments and published more than 300 papers, 38 of which appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association. During the same period, Weston A. Price, founder of the research institute of the National Dental Association, published his findings indicating that dental and oral infections were often the primary cause of disease.

These two medical pioneers established a simple but profound fact. If you pull an infected tooth, the patient will often recover from disease—serious disease, from chronic fatigue to cancer, from dermatitis to diabetes, from hemorrhoids to heart disease. Drs. Rosenhow and Price theorized that disease often originated from infections in the mouth that entered the bloodstream and eventually caused major problems in some part of the body. The evidence they amassed and published is staggering, yet the next great step Dr. Mayo hoped for did not come, and their work is largely forgotten today.

The experiments performed by Price and Rosenhow are impressive. Not only did Price pull any infected tooth, but after many years of experience he came to believe that all root-canalled teeth harbor infection and so they also should be pulled. He took root-canalled teeth that he extracted and sewed them under the skin of a rabbit. The rabbit invariably died from the same disease that had plagued the person. If the patients had kidney trouble, the rabbits developed kidney problems; if eye trouble, the rabbits’ eyes became affected; heart trouble, rheumatism, stomach ulcers, bladder infections, ovarian diseases, phlebitis, osteomyelitis, whatever the disease, the rabbits promptly became similarly affected. Dr. Price claimed he never found an exception to this rule.

Dr. Rosenhow was a bacteriologist whose experiments demonstrated elective localization and transmutation. That is, bacteria taken from an infected liver, for example, when injected into another animal, would preferentially infect the second animal’s liver. Similarly, bacteria from the mouths of patients with specific health conditions would produce similar conditions when injected into laboratory animals.

Dr. Fife read up on all this history after he’d experienced the effectiveness of oil pulling. He was personally cured of severe skin problems, encountered scores of his own patients helped by oil pulling, and read thousands of first hand accounts. Dr. Fife believes his contribution is merely to put two and two together, pointing out that the focal theory of disease is why oil pulling can reverse serious medical problems. When people say that swishing oil in their mouth cured knee pain, hemorrhoids, or an ulcer, it may seem odd to us, but it makes perfect sense that the bacteria and toxins causing those conditions have been removed.

The medical community is starting to take notice, with a half dozen scientific studies that have been reported on in medical journals. A chapter in the book scrutinzes them carefully.

Dr. Fife probably has more experience treating patients with oil pulling than anyone else. The book contains his specific recommendations to ensure the best chance of success, including the following:

1. The oil must be swished in the mouth, (not gargled) for 15 minutes.
2. You must do it at least once daily for two months to give sufficient time to see noticable results.
3. Oil-pulling often produces relief and side-effects very quickly, but don’t stop if you experience symptoms such as mucuous drainage, tooth pain, or other localized aches. Your body is probably experiencing a healing crisis. Keep going.
4. If you have a root-canalled tooth, oil pullling can help, but you need to consider having it extracted. Dr. Fife is not a dentist, so he recommends people read Root Canal Cover Up by George E. Meinig, a founding member of the American Association of Endodontists, and consult a biological dentist in order to make an informed decision. To find a biological dentist in your area, visit hugginsappliedhealing.com or holisticdental.org.

Additional chapters in the book cover Dr. Fife’s recommendations for diet and nutritional supplementation. There is also a frequently asked questions section, recommendations for further reading, and an extensive reference section with hundreds of citations of medical research.

Common conditions people have reported that respond to oil-pulling therapy

Acne; allergies; arthritis; asthma; back and neck pain; bad breath; bronchitis; chronic fatigue; colitis; Crohn’s disease; constipation; dental cavities; dermatitis; diabetes; eczema; hemorrhoids; hypertension; insomnia; migraine headaches; mucus congestion; peptic ulcers; premenstrual syndrome; periodontal disease; bleeding gums; sinusitis; and tooth abscess.

Studies indicate these conditions are related to oral health and may respond to oil-pulling

Acidosis; adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS); atherosclerosis; blood disorders; brain disorders; brain abscess; cancer; emphysema; gallbladder disease; gout; heart disease; hyperglycemia; infertility; kidney disease; liver disease; meningitis; nerve disorders; osteoporosis; pneumonia; pre-eclampsia; preterm/low birth weight babies; psychotic episodes; stroke; toxic shock syndrome; many types of infectious disease.