Jtk (Independence, Missouri) on 02/22/2011

Better But With Side Effects

I first heard of oil pulling in Dr Ott's column in our local newspaper, I then looked it up on the web. I bought a bottle of sesame oil at the grocery that tasted awful as it was pure but toasted. I misremembered what I'd quickly read/scanned on the web and bought a big bottle of safflower oil at a local health food store and started using it. I immediately began to see results and within a week or so my mouth was mostly healed up. The first time in over ten years without constant pain.

Enjoying such remarkable results I started reading more about oil pulling and realized that sunflower not safflower was the preferred oil. The next time I visited the health food store I picked up big bottles of sesame and sunflower and a bottle of hemp oil. I began pulling three times a day, with the very delicious hemp mid-day, in a couple of days I suddenly had day long diarrhea every 30-40 minutes followed by a half day of the same. I quit the hemp oil and my stool firmed up. I continued twice a day alternating between the sesame and sunflower, then I went to once a day first with sesame for a few days then sunflower for a few days all the while my old symptoms were resurfacing though not nearly so virulently. I then decided to revert to the safflower oil that seemed to have done so much good at first and my mouth seems better by the day; not perfect but lots better. Once a day seems sufficient though I sometimes pull at bedtime as well as morning.

My point here is that different oils definitely do different things and those things may differ with the individual. There is no question in my mind as to the power of oil pulling.

To give some idea of my condition:

I have had clinically diagnosed (biopsy) oral lichen planus which has persisted and worsened for more than 10 years. Modern medical science can only offer steroids to lessen symptoms (and the one med- pack I took didn't help at all) or oral steroid ointments, that also did no good. Alternative medicine offers three basic cures that list different countries of origin but all mail out of Pakistan, modest benefit if any. Limiting spicy and acidic foods helped slightly. Various homeopathic, vitamin, colloidal silver and nutritional protocols weren't helpful. A tea tree oil mouthwash did about as much as anything. For much of the time brushing my teeth was out of the question.

My condition has been a never ending series of almost healing for a few days followed by blisters that cover the inside of the cheeks and over the gums which burst and then peel in layers for days & weeks on end keeping the inside of my mouth raw to the point it hurt to drink water and it hurt even more when eating. As I write this I can still find sore spots in my mouth, but I have to seek them out. I am noticing other changes like smelling things I haven't smelled in years.

I am only 6 weeks into this we'll see how it is in 12. JTK