There’s some sort of alternative health practice popular in India called oil pulling or oil swishing that is said to cure a host of diseases. Supposedly if you use oil as a mouthwash it can cure you of everything from joint pain to skin problems. I haven’t found much to substantiate most of the claimed health benefits but wikipedia links to a few medical reports that talk about the potential benefits of the practice for oral health.
Does anyone know anything about this? How might swishing oil in your mouth possibly prevent cavities, let alone cure diseases?
Apart from the limited evidence that “oil pulling” might improve oral health (swishing any liquid around in your mouth for 15-20 minutes and then spitting it out probably washes out some of the bacteria that cause tooth decay), there’s zilch as far as real evidence that this practice combats all the other diseases that proponents claim it does.
Where the quackery alarm bells start going off is the argument that oil pulling removes “toxins” from the body and thus prevents/cures disease.
What these supposed toxins are, how vegetable oil could “pull” them from the body, and what this might do to mitigate disease are questions the enthusiasts have no answers for, and not surprisingly the scientific literature is devoid of work demonstrating value in treating the conditions for which it’s claimed to be effective.