Which Oils Should I Use?
I have a question about the oil. I've read you can use any cold-pressed oil, but noone lists what these are besides sesame and sunflower. I use cold pressed olive oil (and I did verify that it is indeed truely cold pressed) in my cooking and have a rather large jug of it. Is this olive oil going to get the same results as the sesame or sunflower oil. I can only find one webpage on olive oil pulling, but the person alternates between a few different oils and I'm not sure if this one is as effective. I did try my first OP yesterday and felt the Herx effect as soon as I spit it out. My second attemp was this morning and again herx effect but not as serious as before. I also find it hard to keep the oil in my mouth for more than 5-10 min, from the taste change during pulling. The pure oil taste good to me. I would hate to buy a seperate oil just for pulling, I rather save some space and use what I got. Let me know the verdict.
Dear Jason: The point in oil pulling and what oils to use is the components of the anti-microbial activities found in the oils itself. The second properties lies in its ability to remove heavy metals, but most oils seem to share this. So most of the issues that we have to look at is the component. Olive oil's anti-microbial activities, especially extra virgin oil is the polyphenols and oleic acid being the major components.
The most active anti-microbial properties of sunflower is found in the linoleic acid and the oleic acid. It is therefore, in terms of oil, excluding polyphenols, that sunflower is more wider spectrum in its anti-microbial properties. While on the other end of the spectrum is safflower oil which has the highest amount of linoleic acid.
Coconut oil is most unusual, it has monolaurin, or lauric acid, which is considered antiviral rather antibacterial. While fish oils is also known to have antibacterial powers.
Often it is the middle chain fats, which is the oleic, linoleic, and lauric component giving the best properties in killing various microbes, bacteria and virus. So it would seem the "verdict" imperfect as it is would be a mixture of coconut oil and sunflower oil.
You might ask how about sesame seed oil? Sesame seed oil has both oleic acid and linoleic acid as same as sunflower oil. So theoretically speaking they are of equal in antimicrobials. However, in practice, sesame seeds, at least where I live they use stainless steel rollers to squeeze out the oil and during this process it might acquire some heavy metals. While sunflower, the refined oil anyway are of lower quantities.
The herx effect can be eliminated mostly by just adding peppermint oil which will detoxify the toxins that are released as the microbes, or bacteria are killed. Peppermint has a tendency to react with toxins from its menthol component. I suspect camphor also has this ability, but I prefer to use it on the skin instead.
How long is not the issue and it is best to minimize the herx so that the body could best respond without creating too much of a problem. So don't force yourself to go to 5, 10 ,or 15 minutes if you are uncomfortable. Start slowly and always do less. If you don't do this, it is my experience that you will quit doing them altogether because of the problems.
However, in my opinion, I prefer to add a drop of peppermint oil to the teaspoon of oil. The second way is just to use 1/2 tablespoon of it. The scientist who recommend the dose initially wanted to kill the bacteria, but viruses and fungus are also an issue, but coconut oil would likely handle that better. In some cases, if peppermint oil is not available then mix the oils with a non-fluoridated toothpaste, since most brands do have the peppermint anyway, and the detergent effect of toothpastes also help kill the organism also. In case you are wondering what minerals is best used as mouthwash for anti-cavity, it is molybdenum in form of sodium molybdate that i used against cavity protection.
I think oil pulling does more than just kill the microbes, it pulls out the heavy metals and stops them from constantly being recirculated in the body. This I think is the clear advantage rather than the microbe killing power. To that end, I haven't given any study to see which oils helps rid of heavy metal the best, but as far as I know, it would seem cod liver oil and fish oil is clearly the ones that are most well known for metal removal.
Autistics with high mercury respond much better with such supplementation. So if you are looking for chelation or removal of heavy metals by oil pulling it would appear that fish oils or cod liver oil is better. Of course, getting them in liquid from for oil pulling is not an easy one since now they all have it in capsules.
If you hate to separate oil for just oil pulling then borrow them from the kitchen. Just make sure they are the oils that you need for a specific purpose, whether it be bacteria, fungus, heavy metals or virus. The answer will be different. If you want a general purpose kind and within your pocketbook, then a 50/50 mixture of coconut oil (UNHYDROGENATED) and sunflower oil would likely be the best. Fish oils and cod liver oil, because of the present marketing practices, are way to expensive to do oil pulling.
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