Remember when I had an inversion headache for like two weeks? And how desperate I was to get rid of it?
In the throes of my headache, I did some research on alternative remedies. The Cokes and pills were working, but not all the time, and not well enough. I was getting too reliant on Coke last year to keep me awake, so I weaned myself off of it. I'm not about to get addicted again! Plus it makes me feel jittery and sluggish after about an hour....not to mention all that sugar. Not good.
I found a remedy called oil pulling. Have you heard of it? You can find out what it is here. Basically, you swish oil (I used coconut) around in your mouth for 20 minutes a day and it's supposed to detox your body. It can relieve headaches, whiten your teeth, help you lose weight, and give you more energy. I already had the coconut oil, so I decided to try it. Apparently it takes a few weeks of doing it daily to see some results. The people who love it say it can make you feel better in a lot of ways. There are still a lot of skeptics, but I figured it was worth a try.
Keep reading to see how it went:
Day 1 -- I woke up early enough to try this because you're supposed to do it for 20 minutes before you eat. I brushed my teeth first. I read somewhere that putting the coconut oil in your mouth in its solid state makes it more enjoyable. I tried it and had to spit it out. It was too weird for me. I heated up a tbsp in a cup and got it in my mouth that way. You're supposed to do it for 20 minutes. I swished for 20 minutes, but I had to spit out the oil three times and get a new mouthful because I almost gagged. You're not supposed to swallow the swished oil because it is full of toxins. I spit out the oil into my sink and rinsed with water and a toothbrush. That part made me gag really bad for some reason. I didn't really have a headache when I woke up (the inversion had already mostly left), but I didn't get a headache all day. I don't know if it was related to the oil pulling or not.
Day 2 -- Woke up early again to do the pulling. I heated up the oil in a cup and swished while making breakfast. Having something to do while you're pulling makes the time go faster. The initial shock of the oil in my mouth was weird, but went away quickly. I kept the oil in my mouth the whole time, but I only lasted 13 minutes because my breakfast was looking too good! This time I rinsed with water, then went and brushed my teeth normally. No gagging this time. It still feels weird, but if I trick myself into thinking it's not oil, it helps. Brain over body!
Day 3 -- I woke up really early today so I'm feeling really tired. I usually run to a Coke to get my energy up, but I think the oil pulling is helping me detox some sugar, so I'm not really craving Coke, which is good. I decided to make a to do about this so I keep my excitement levels up, so I drank my oil out of a shot glass. I accidentally swallowed some. Fun fact: don't put makeup on while swishing. Your face gets confused.
Day 4 - 7 -- I was on vacation. Ain't nobody got time for oil pulling on vacation.
Day 8 - a billion -- Oh man. The hardest thing about oil pulling is that you have to wake up 20 minutes earlier than usual to do it before you eat breakfast. I crapped out. I gave up. It's been like a month.
Verdict: Maybe it was the placebo effect, but I really did feel better when I was oil pulling. The hardest part about it is making time in the morning to do it, which was my downfall. Maybe if/when I become a full-fledged hermit, I will have time to oil pull, work out daily, eat like a vegan, craft like Pinterest, and earn a PhD online. Until then...no oil pulling for me.
If you try it, please let me know how it went!
2 comments:
Don't use a microwave to heat up the oil.
One thing I've noticed is that my nose became really stuffy and noisy for a few days after I started to oil pull. I've normally got a really stuffy nose but not noisy. After those few days my nose isn't as stuffy as it has always been.
I've made some other changes in that time too. It could be contributed to them or as you say it could all be in my head...placebo effect.
I still think nutrition is god when it comes to health, since the western diet is generally so shocking it is not hard to make some decent improvements.
I've added real fish broth to my diet. I make it from the snapper frames, heads, organs and row that would normally be wasted after a fishing trip. I just have a few teaspoons of the gelatis broth in a cup of warm water in the morning. I also have a cup of warm water with fresh squeezed lemon juice, glove of home grown garlic, pinch of cayenne (I'm not really sure if adding it is a good thing) and a grind of sea salt. A second thing I've noticed is that I'm up really early everyday, although I still wake up once every night without fail after around 5 hours sleep, stay awake for around 30mins then fall asleep again finally getting up at 7am. My sleep probably because my nose is continuously blocked is solid and I'm having decent dreams yeehaaa. If any idea has some common sense merits and is very cheap easy like op with all the positive testimonials we would be stupid not to try it.
I should make some edits. I meant to say that my.."sleep is really solid now, probably because I don't have a continuously blocked nose anymore. Despite the improvements writing is still hard for me, doh. P.s sorry about the lack of paragraphs at the end!
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