Archives for March 2014

What is oil-pulling?

What is oil-pulling?

One of the newer health trends that has people talking is a practice called "oil-pulling". Of course it's not a "new" practice at all, but comes from the ancient practices of Āyurveda, a 4000 year old medical system that originated in India. Although I have been familiar with the practice for more than two decades, I first started to hear the term "oil-pulling" after the publication of a book written by Bruce Fife called Oil Pulling Therapy: Detoxifying and Healing the Body Through Oral Cleansing. Although I haven't read the book and probably never will, I have heard that it and others were making the claim that oil-pulling could resolve all kinds of health issues including high blood pressure, arthritis, liver disease and cancer. But is this true? Oil-pulling is part of the daily regimen in Āyurveda, called dinacaryā (di-na-char-yaa), performed during the morning ablutions to cleanse and purify the body. To cleanse the mouth specifically, Āyurveda suggests a number of techniques … [Read more...]