704. Kevin dives into the concept of oil pulling, an alternative health practice that claims to improve oral health by removing toxins through swishing edible oils in the mouth. This episode critically examines the scientific evidence (or lack thereof) behind these claims, contrasting them with well-supported medical practices and offering insights into how to navigate health information responsibly.
704. Kevin dives into the concept of oil pulling, an alternative health practice that claims to improve oral health by removing toxins through swishing edible oils in the mouth. This episode critically examines the scientific evidence (or lack thereof) behind these claims, contrasting them with well-supported medical practices and offering insights into how to navigate health information responsibly.
Get-Fit Guy is hosted by Kevin Don. Find a full transcript here.
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Hello, I hope that everyone has had a great holiday and you are now all looking forward to the New Year, if that is something you celebrate!
This is my second time trying to record this podcast because the first time I was about maybe a minute from finishing, and the fire alarms all went off, and I had to evacuate. So very exciting. Anyway.
Have any of you heard the expression ‘long in the tooth’? It’s usually reserved for those of advanced years and comes from the fact that there is normally some gum recession as we age. This recession makes your teeth look longer. SO, for a couple of years now, I have had a recession on a single tooth, my front right Dracula tooth, my canine. NOT because I am of advancing years, but because I am right handed and apparently brushed my teeth like some kind of maniac. And ‘hard’ brushing right on that front bit there has meant I've pushed the gum back. And it's not really been a big deal for me, until recently, when I have started to experience a lot of sensitivity and low level pain. I've kind of been avoiding chewing with the front right of my mouth, which is a bit weird. So, naturally, I am keen to find a solution for this. Research tells me that really I am down to two options will work. First of all is a gum graft where they cut a bit of healthy tissue at the roof of my mouth and saturate it or a gum graft using tissue from a cadaver. Or the next one was pinhole surgery where they make pinholes in your gum, and then put a hook and pull your gum back to its position. Both sound absolutely brutal to me. If there are any dentists listening, please let me know if there is anything else I can do!
I got to those two options from research using critical thought and looking at a hierarchy of evidence. If you are a long time listener of the show, I want everyone to be empowered to see through the nonsense and find relevant and powerful information. SO, the hierarchy I use when looking for information is that if it comes from a website ending in .edu for academic websites, so I know that information is coming from a peer reviewed study and has some statistical weight. That is my top ranked information. Below that is .gov websites, followed by .org and at the very very bottom is .com because anyone can have a .com and spout utter nonsense. Youtube and Tiktok are not sources. But I thought it might be fun to have a look at information out there that is not backed by research or science and see what is said. I came across something I have actually heard of before, in the holistic fitness arena, something called ‘oil pulling’.
A few years back I met up with a casual acquaintance for breakfast in Phoenix, Arizona. A girl I had first met eight year prior when training in a gym in Seoul, South Korea. At that time she was a Kindergarten teacher, then she went into CrossFit coaching because she hated teaching. Then she was in Hong Kong, then Abu Dhabi, then back to Hong Kong, Phoenix, Thailand and Europe. Her experience was that it was really difficult to make money or get ahead in fitness coaching, so she was going to be rebranding as a holistic coach. She was going to be making recommendations for clients that had add ons she could make money from. The main add on she talked about was oils. She then went on to tell me all about oil pulling.
Now, in my book, this is really quite interesting. Many (although not all) holistic coaches seem to have a huge problem with the mainstream medical industry. The main beef is that doctors will often prescribe the drug that they happened to have partnered with a pharmaceutical company to use. In fact, one survey indicated that as much as 20% of a doctor’s income comes from pharmaceutical partnerships. Sounds pretty bad, if we are taking drugs that doctors are giving us just because they are being being paid to give them to us. I’m not so sure though. Even if a doctor is paid to recommend a drug, it is STILL the type or classification of drug for the specific ailment that I have. Doctors aren’t out there prescribing drugs for things that those drugs don't treat. And shoe horning us into taking drugs they are getting paid to recommend that we don’t need at all. Medical ethics is still a real thing! But that discussion aside, what really is the difference between a doctor prescribing something a pharmaceutical company is paying them to prescribe and a holistic practitioner telling us we need use certain oils or supplements because they can earn more money from you by recommending those things? There's literally no difference. But actually, I'll argue there is.
Because I would argue that the ethics are much more suspect in the holistic recommendation because it is the only scenario from the two, in which the recommended prescription doesn’t work. It won’t help you with your intended outcome and is there to purely earn the practitioner money not to make you better. These things all fall apart when we apply a principle from the philosophy of science called ‘the demarcation problem’. This problem is the question of how we can tell the difference between science and pseudoscience. The demarcation problem is about how we demarcate between science and pseudoscience. A good example of science versus pseudoscience is the difference between astronomy and astrology. In astronomy, we can have a hypothesis about possible states of affairs in the universe and if things do not follow that hypothesis, then there is a puzzle. Then scientific method is use to investigate that puzzle and find a solution. Astrology has no such puzzles, because investigation cannot provide an answer. All that happens is we just roll on to the next wild prediction or change our interpretation of the claim. In other words: science can be falsified. Pseudoscience cannot. Pseudoscience can never be proven wrong because there is literally no evidence for it.
So, lets have a look at what oil pulling is and the types of claims that oil pulling proponents are making. The first red flag is the very description of it as an ‘alternative medical practice’. Now I’m not sure about you, but if I were unwell, I wouldn’t want an alternative to medical practice. I would like to be signed up for the actual medical practice please. Alternative is its self alternative. It’s an alternative expression for unproven and based on centuries old ideas, before we knew what we now know. I have to laugh when people cherry pick things and say that the way things have always been done is the best way to do them. Ok, thats fine, tell you what, if you ever need any invasive surgery, why don’t you do it the way it was always done and forego any sterilization of the equipment and also oh yeah, anesthesia is probably best shelved also.
Ok, so it’s an alternative medical practice, where an edible oil is swished round the mouth. That’s the ‘oil’ part of oil pulling explained. What is ‘pulling’? Ahhh yes its another one of those vague, unfalsifiable things…its pulling out ‘toxins’. What these toxins are isn’t mentioned, I’ll assume its the same toxins that recently got an alternative medical practitioner here in the UK jailed for life. He claimed that bruising from slapping therapy in patients who he had influenced to stop their insulin was toxins being released. They died, and he went to jail forever. I also remember the same nonsense from a sport massage therapist I saw about pain but in 2012. I had a huge skin outbreak. Apparently the skin outbreak I had was all the toxins being released. It wasn’t, I was allergic to the massage oil they had used.
One of the biggest alternative health providers in the UK, who also, by no economic mistake, have 715 stores selling alternative therapies and supplements. They have a page on their website with the following claims about oil pulling:
“Oil pulling works by quite literally pulling the plaque, and the bacteria that causes it, from your teeth and gums. The thick and sticky oil absorbs the film of bacteria that naturally develops over and between our teeth, helping to empty your mouth of germs before you’ve even brushed. Those who’ve taken up oil pulling long-term claim to see great results. It’s widely believed to improve the appearance of teeth, with many reporting fresher breath too. There is some science behind it too. Studies have discovered that Lauric acid, one of the fatty acids found in coconut oil, has antimicrobial qualities. What’s more, a 2008 study observed a noticeable reduction in bacteria in the mouth within two weeks of starting daily oil pulling.
So, I actually read the 2008 study that they are referring to here. It was statistically weak. It was a study on 30 participants only. But more than that, it was prime cherry picking. The study was comparing no mouthwash to chlorhexidine mouthwash and coconut oil. It was shown that coconut oil did reduce plaque compared to using nothing, but it wasn’t even close to the efficacy of dental mouthwash. So they are really making a false claim. It's arguable because they are saying there was a noticeable reduction. Well, yes there was. But the whole point is that in terms of an outcome, it was showing that dental mouthwash chlorhexidine was much more superior to either using no mouthwash or using oil pulling. They also missed out the part where the study was done only on 30 people.
Just follow the money when you want to know about anything. If there is money to be made and the claims are unverifiable, then you should probably avoid it. We know there is a huge amount of money in pharmaceuticals, but the difference is in the mountains of evidence which verify the claims, peer reviewed studies and statistical weight of said evidence. It’s like the people lapping it up that Elon Musk is sending people to Mars. No he isn’t. The astrophysicist, Neil De Grasse Tyson hit the nail on the head when he talked about that board meeting:
Ok, so Elon you want to go to Mars?
Yes.
How much will this cost us?
Billions.
Is it safe?
Probably not, people will die.
What is the return on investment?
None.
Ok, meeting adjourned.
Anyway that's it. Have a great New Year everyone, I will be looking forward to continuing to share fitness, science and philosophy and whatever else I think I can get carte blanche to talk about in 2025.
If you have any questions or would like to just say ‘hi’, please email me at getfitguy@quickanddirtytips.com
Get-Fit Guy is a Quick and Dirty Tips podcast. Thanks to the team Morgan Christianson, Holly Hutchings, the director of podcasts, Brennan Goetschius Davina Tomlin, and me. If you have a question for me, leave me a voicemail at 510-353-3104 or send me an email at getfitguy@quickanddirtytips.com. For more information about the show, visit quickanddirtytips.com, or check out the shownotes in your podcast app