By popular demand, it is here! The acne and oil pulling article.
So, first of all.. what the heck is oil pulling?
Well, it’s a popular health practice that has roots in the ancient Ayurvedic medicine system of India.
You swish some oil (usually unrefined sesame or virgin coconut oil) in your mouth for 20 minutes or so and then spit it out and brush your teeth.
What is supposed to happen is that the physical properties of the oil draws out the bacteria in your mouth, and you dispose of it in the sink, resulting in much better oral health (whiter teeth, better breath, lower tooth sensitivity, less plaque etc)… but they also say it can have a profound effect on the wellness of your whole body.
Yes, it’s another one of those things that the internet says will cure anything this side of the moon, including acne.
How Does Oil Pulling Clear Acne?
How in the hell is that supposed to clear your skin, you ask?
Well you’re right to ask that. It sounds downright stupid, and even though I’ve tried oil pulling in the past, right up until I wrote this article I still didn’t full understand how swishing something around in your mouth could possibly clear your skin. I could see how it could result in better oral health, but beyond that …??
Yet, I’ve actually gotten many emails over the years from people saying that they swear oil pulling is having a hugely positive effect on their health and that it’s made a massive difference to their skin.
But hooooowwww??
Well Katie from KitchenStewardship.com laid out one of the best explanations that I’ve seen yet, and one that I could get on board with.
Acne can often be tied to gut issues. Gut issues are usually caused by an imbalance in the bacteria in the gut. We have trillions of bacteria in our body and guts, some of which are good, some of which are bad, and we have to keep a positive balance to stay healthy. This bacterial tango does in fact have a HUGE effect on your overall health and skin.
So what comes before the gut? The mouth. So theoretically, oil pulling could pull much of the bad bacteria from your mouth, preventing it from migrating to your gut, and resulting in a happier, healthier you.
How Do You Do Oil Pulling for Acne?
- Get your hands on some unrefined sesame or coconut oil
- Stick a little bit in your mouth, just enough that you can swish it around comfortably. Maybe a teaspoon or so.
- Swish it around in your mouth for 20 minutes. Beginners can start off with 5 minutes, it will probably get easier to go for longer once you get used to it. The good thing is that you can oil pull while you reply to emails, or make breakfast, or have a shower.
- When you’re done, spit it out. Do not swallow it!! This is very important, otherwise you are just swallowing all that bacteria that you just pulled out of your mouth.
- After you spit it out, swish some water around in your mouth, spit it out, and then immediately brush your teeth.
- Do this one to three times a day
What Was My Personal Experience with Oil Pulling?
I’ve personally tried oil pulling twice. Once when I was trying to get rid of my severe acne, and once a couple years later after getting one of those emails from a reader saying how much it had helped her skin.
Well I hate to say, but both times I did it for about two weeks and gave up. Not everyone thinks this, but I just thought it was a bit of a pain in the butt. Plus, the first time I tried it, it was when I was in the midst of trying EVERYTHING imaginable to clear my skin, and I got really overwhelmed with all the little “health tricks” out there to try… I had to let something go, and that was the oil pulling.
Both times I didn’t notice any difference in the short time I tried it, but it’s not to say it won’t work for you, or that you will think it’s annoying like I did. Everyone is different.
So hey, if you’re interested, give it a go. There’s not much risk and at the very least it will make your teeth whiter and breath fresher.
I heard of oil pulling recently from my employee. It’s a great cure for acne and all skin disorders especially when you try it with sesame oil. After a month of oil pulling, all my acne started to vanish although I have to admit that I still have its leftover marks. I am confident that even marks will disappear in coming days. -Karth
Anything Else You Should Know?
YES! You should be warned that from what I’ve heard, oil pulling can result in a pretty strong detox reaction at first.
This means that things will get worse before they get better… aka. you may not feel good overall and have worse breakouts for a couple weeks before things start improving. For more about detox reactions and “healing crisises”, read this article.
I also wanted to let you know this oil pulling technique is pretty amazing!!! I stuck with it through the intense detox period, and will continue to… my skins never looked and more importantly, felt so good. Im still breaking out a bit here and there, but each one is less intense than the last , which i am absolutely convinced is part of the healing process. The skin that is not broken out is clear soft and glowing!! Just wanted to share that with you 🙂 – Allison
Also if the explanation as to why oil pulling works is true (ie. it stops a lot of the bad bacteria from reaching your gut), you may want to pair the practice with taking a good probiotic supplement to give your gut an even bigger boost.
Oil Pulling Demo
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFqT0t6oeUc
Have you tried oil pulling? What has your experience been?
18 Responses
I’ve wondered in the past if this actually helps people’s acne so I can’t wait to see some of the responses. I tried oil pulling for maybe three months a couple years ago, using organic virgin coconut oil. I didn’t really see any change in my skin, but my teeth got REALLY white. Like, movie star white. So that was cool. I go back to it once in awhile for that reason but I have to admit I don’t bother much anymore!
haha that’s cool.. yeah at the very least it’s a super safe teeth whitening treatment! Although Camille below says the sesame oil might have been turning her teeth yellow… guess maybe the teeth whitening benefits only works with coconut oil
Hi Tracy,
Thanks for this info. I’ve read about it before, but never thought of putting it into my regimine. I think I will give it a go. I will try it for a month and let you know what I think! My husband is going to look at me like I am crazy…like he does every time I try something new!
Caitlin
Thanks for the article! I’ve been oil pulling for two months now and I have to say I have seen a significant difference in my skin: smoother skin (not just facial skin but all over my body), less frequent and smaller breakouts, decreased redness. I did go through a detox in which I broke out more, the first couple of weeks of starting OPing -I had upped it to OPing 2-3x a day to quickly detox- but now, once a day first thing in the morning is working well for me. I first started with EVCO but later switched to virgin sesame oil and have had better results with that. I was worried the sesame oil by itself might have been turning my teeth yellow, so for the past couple of weeks, I’ve been using a quarter tbsp of EVCO and 3/4 tbsp of sesame oil and that’s been working great (teeth appear white again). OPing has definitely become a staple in my regimen and I’m glad I gave it a try!
Interesting! Thanks for sharing. What’s your theory on why this works? Do you think it’s the explanation I gave is why or it’s something else?
Hmm, I’m not sure why oil pulling works. From what I’ve read, oral health is crucial to the health of different systems in the body, so that could be why it works. I’ve also read that bacteria accumulates in the mouth overnight, so oil pulling first thing in the morning may keep all that extra/bad bacteria from reaching the gut, further contributing to a balanced gut, as you theorized.
I’ve tried oil pulling a few years ago for overall health with sunflower seed oil, don’t remember if it made any difference to my skin, stopped doing it because it was really uncomfortable to do that forst thing in the morning for 10 minutes when I have to be really fast and get ready.
I am thinking of trying it again because of this article with coconut oil, but for whiter teeth 🙂
I have now successfully added the Oil Pulling to my regimen for the last 15 months. Its an amazing experience. For those of you who are pressed with time, I travel 200 days a year and take a bottle of Unrefined Sesame Oil and do the swishing first thing in the morning in my hotel room. Not only has my oral hygiene improved but also my digestiion and overall health improved as well. The gut is cleaner less inflammed and my skin tone and texture greatly improved.
While most of you use a lot of oil in the mouth, I suggest take not more than the oil that comes out of the bottle cap. Pull this oil through each and every teeth and gum. The oil should turn milky and watery and a little oil should become a mouthful of milky water which is the indication that you have trapped enough bacteria and bad enzymes from the gut.
Spit in a cup and flush it down the toilet and rinse your mouth with warm water and salt. That removes the taste and the greasy oil and then proceed to brush your teeth.
After researching a lot in Ayurveda a friend of mine and I figured that Sesame Oil which is unrefined is far better than Coconut oil as Coconut oil is a thinner oil than Sessame Oil.
You have to use untoasted and/or unroasted Sesame oil to get full benefit.
Follow the oil pulling with taking a spoonful of coconut oil in your gut instead of using it for oil pulling. This seesms to help the gut as coconut oil is anti inflammatory and is a naturally occuring antibacterial oil.
Hope this helps!
Hey Sara, awesome tips! Thanks for sharing those, that’s actually very helpful to hear from a seasoned oil pulling vet! 🙂
Please don’t flush it down the loo it should always go in the rubbish bin as it can solidify in the drains and cause buildup and blockages . Absolutely no oil should ever go don the drains
I’ve only been doing this for three months. my skin has cleared up SIGNIFICANTLY.
If only I had known about this when I was in middle/high school!
Hello! I just wanted to know how long it took for your skin to start clearing up and when did your acne go away completely? Thank you! 🙂
Hey! 😀 Just found about Oil pulling today, Your website has been really helpful for me to get complete information about oil pulling, can’t wait to start off tomorrow.. BTW, I’ll be using Teal- Oil since my friend suggested me that! Hope that’s okay 😀
So I heard about oil pulling on my local radio station, they had people call in with “wierd beauty tips”. One caller said that she uses organic coconut oil and melts it down first then swishes. Is this a good option so you don’t feel like you’re eating oil? Also, does this really help your overall skin appearance? I constantly get these small bumps and they are so annoying!
Thanks!
Pls is it the way will always use if we want oil pulling to cure our skin?
Do NOT spit in the sink!! It will harden and clog the drain. Always spit in trash. Otherwise great article!!
great post.I hav been oilpulling for the past one month with unrefine coconut oil.for me, i find it confortable to do since i can always work around the house when i do it.i started using it to whiten my teeth without knowing about it adde benefit for the skin;i must say my stubborn blemishes are fading at last after twenty sth years of having them forever.My teeth is gettingwhiter obviously,but i must say oilpulling whitening effect for my teeth is to slow but obvious.Since oilpulling has become second nature to me, i am patient enough to see how it eventually heal my skin and give me a brighter smile.
Hi I just need your help, I have been OP for two weeks with coconut oil, before starting in didn’t have any skin issue, my skin is oily but I don’t have acne, now I can see my skin pores got larger and it doesn’t look good, could it be the detoxification process and will my skin come back to what it was?
Stefania