Oil Pulling: Unlock Natural Oral Health & Detox Benefits - Ted's Q&A

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How Do I Deal with Side Effects?

Posted by Mary (Brooklyn, NY) on 11/03/2006

I could not do the swishing for more than a minute or so the first time and tried it again a few minutes later. I just could not do it. The next day I tried again, with only one teaspoon, and again could only do it for a minute or so. I skipped a day and then tried again but to no avail. I am not a squeamish person and can do just about anything, but I was so afraid of swallowing this stuff. I did get very sick all that day and night with pains in my stomach, with a lot of gauging and then vomiting two globs of mucous. I had printed out the oil pulling and gave it to a friend. She said that she would not be able to do this because she has to take antibotics before having any dental work and that bacteria attacks the lining of the heart. This made me a little nervous about doing this and I would like your feedback. I did not read anything negative on the feedback and an wondering why? If I could not do it, there must be others? Thank you.

Replied by Ted
Bangkok, Thailand
391 posts

Dear Mary: Of course there is and always will be a negative feedback from pretty much any remedy! People in general do not post feedback as much as they should. I basically have two kinds of feedback, those with real problems and those who post false information. Don't worry, I can tell which is which!

I did get very sick all that day and night with pains in my stomach, with a lot of gauging and then vomiting two globs of mucous.

This is a common herx effect. Whenever the pathogen dies off, it releases a toxin. Normally the herx effect lasts about 3 days. If you want to minimize the herx effect there are several steps you should take. First, after the swishing, prepare a warm water and add a couple of drops of peppermint oil. The peppermint oil, the worse it taste (too hot or too cold) the more you need it. Use this as a mouthwash and do it a couple of times. Most of the toxins should be neutralized.

Second, just drink strong cup of tea unsugared with a couple of drops peppermint oil in it. Always start with one drop.

A green tea might be better as it might have more tannins. Tannins are basically an interesting chemical that I love to play with.

Basically, it has a tendency to react with any foreign toxins and proteins neutralizing them and it becomes benign.

Peppermint contains menthol, and chemically it is unusual in its own right in reacting with certain bacterial and viral toxins along the way neutralizing them too.

This should stop the herx reaction pretty quick. But the speed will vary since everyone's body chemistry are different.

Personally I would much prefer to use pure tannic acid and menthol crystals, but they are much harder to measure and use for most people. So I will keep this remedy simple.

she would not be able to do this because she has to take antibotics before having any dental work and that bacteria attacks the lining of the heart.

Antibiotics alone have a tendency to create toxins primarily causing yeast infection or candida afterwards.

In that case oil pulling would not be the way to go, as the body is overburdened with heavy metal and bacteria which could cause a stronger herx reaction.

As a result, eating chinese parsley (cilantro) for about a week would be the preferred way to reduce the heavy metal burden. Take it one week, do nothing the second week, and continue on the third week.

To reduce the possible yeast built up besides the chinese parsley, taking some tea with one drop of rosemary oil or peppermint oil in a strong cup of unsugared green tea would do. Most tannins are good in that it does not increase the iron burden to the body, especially if they are not black in color, but will reduce the iron burden.

This is good since the major source of food for most fungus, bacteria and candida is the iron that they create by creating an enzyme hemolysis which kills the red blood cell creating an anemia, but yet overburden the body with iron. Just reduce taking sugar should help a lot. If oil pulling is not your cup of tea, you can modify the oil, by adding one drop of peppermint oil to the sunflower oil or olive oil, to detox the the toxins instead of just keeping it in the oil, the toxins will also get neutralized too. There are many variations I have devised over the course of time doing this, such as rosemary oil, eucalyptus oil, rose oil, etc. but peppermint oil is readily available. And for most people anyway, they are likely to get used to the peppermint already in used with most commercial toothpastes in the market at least for a century. Ted


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