Essential oils are FAST - the right one can provide quick acting relief for physical or mood symptoms.
Medicine cabinet makeover, part one: oral health. Pomegranate extract mouthwash recipe/DIY photos.
It is probably obvious to my regular readers that I have been focusing on essential oils lately. I am still a fan of functional foods - and still encourage eating more of the healthy herbs, spices, and super foods like pomegranate or citrus peel, medicinal mushrooms, and herbal teas.
Both Macro- and Micro-nutrients are needed in balance for us to have health within our gut microbiome and in our overall body.
Both essential oils and herbal extracts can provide a more concentrated dose of phytonutrients than eating the functional food would provide. Both provide the synergistic balance of phytonutrients which are found within the whole plant — minus either the water soluble or fat soluble chemicals. Health benefits are likely going to be different for an essential oil versus a water or alcohol based extract and the phytonutrient specialist needs to be aware of which type of extract is needed for a health treatment goal.
Dental Health Update
Essential oils and pomegranate extract have helped my gum infection which had led to my lower jaw hurting too. Now it doesn't hurt and the sore area is no longer inflamed looking.
Oil pulling - coconut or sesame oil
Coconut oil pulling simply means gently swishing a spoonful of coconut oil in your mouth for about 20 minutes and then discarding the oil somewhere other than a sink drain (oil is clogging). Oil binds with the oils in bacteria membranes and swishing gets the fluid between the teeth and gums. Spit it out at the end to discard the bacteria.
Activated Charcoal - to swish, whiten and polish
Activated charcoal binds with some types of toxins and can help whiten teeth and leave them smoother, polished. Caution with brushing with a charcoal toothpaste as that may add too much force and cause scratching of the tooth enamel.
Tea Tree, Clove, Myrrh and Cedarwood essential oils can help gum and tooth issues.
My sore gums are much better after just a few days using of Tea Tree oil with coconut oil pulling after meals; occasionally swishing with activated charcoal; and use of clove essential oil topically on the sore gum.
Clove oil is an irritant oil, dilution with carrier oil is recommended, and stings a little but then numbs the pain. Making a fractionated coconut oil blend with Tea Tree oil and clove would be a time saving step.
Myrrh essential oil and cedarwood are also supposed to be helpful topically on gum tissue. I have found my structured water hot beverage with Myrrh soothing for my gums but now am waiting on another bottle to arrive.
Taken internally, Myrrh may help with neuroinflammation and Alzheimer's dementia.
Pomegranate extract or juice is antimicrobial for the mouth while also supporting good species.
I just made a batch of pomegranate rind extract to try making mouthwash with. There was a recipe in a recent post from an article by Dr. Mercola, (Substack), and I suggested using pomegranate extract instead of water in the recipe - but on thinking it through, I made pomegranate extract and use that first as a mouth wash. I follow-up with an alkaline rinse (potassium bicarbonate in water as I am using that anyway to reduce my over-acidity from the high dose niacin protocol). It is a little like battery acid but leaves the mouth feeling really clean.
The phytonutrients in pomegranate extract are more stable in an acidic solution. Children might enjoy the magical color change effect. Due to the pH sensitive pigments, the pomegranate extract goes in the mouth pink, and comes out yellow after swishing for a minute or so. It only keeps about two weeks in the fridge so I made ice cubes with the extract. That way I can have a fresh batch of mouthwash every few days. It only takes a spoonful of slightly diluted extract.
I used the outer rind of one large pomegranate with three cups of water. The inner pith I have been mincing, mixing with the powder from a 1000 mg vitamin C capsules, and freezing. I then add a little of that to soup or salad or baked goods ~ 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon per serving
Simmered for 20 minutes and strained. Yield was 2 1/2 cups of concentrated extract.
The pomegranate extract is acidic and bitter, I diluted it with one or two parts water before using a tablespoon for swishing. Saliva in the mouth then thins it down further.
The pomegranate extract is quite acidic for tooth mineralization - it would be bad for teeth, so I follow that with an alkaline rinse with potassium bicarbonate (1/4 teaspoon in a few ounces of water).
Essential oils are speedy support for the body. Essential oils can be extremely fast at changing a person’s mood or symptoms.
Essential oils have an advantage of being extremely fast at providing symptom relief or a change of mood because they are so potent and readily absorbed into the brain when inhaled deeply with the nose. Taken internally, the symptom relief would be slightly slower and more similar to using a water or alcohol extract - the phytonutrients have to pass through the digestive system rather than being inhaled straight into the mood regulating areas of the brain or being absorbed quickly through the skin into blood or lymphatic vessels.
Salicylate overdose again, Ylang Ylang to the rescue again, ~ 20 minutes to calm the racing heart when combined with trying to breath slowly and relax.
An example of the speed of symptom change with essential oils occurred this morning for me. After a nice relaxing magnesium chloride bath. I applied quite a bit of rosemary oil (antimicrobial), cypress (good for veins), and fennel (decongestant) on my legs and body along with aloe vera gel and a massage oil blend that contains some black seed oil (which is a salicylate source). I use castor oil too but have been trying to do zone treatment - castor oil on upper thighs where I have an old leg wound/bruise and poor circulation, and the essential oils that likely contain salicylates on my lower legs and upper body. I also used a little Birch oil on a sore neck/shoulder area. Birch oil is higher in salicylate and quickly pain relieving - it even smells like wintergreen. I should probably not use it, or not at the same time as all the others.
Castor oil in the morning and essential oils before bed, or every other day - the zones need to be wider apart I think - in time, not just in body regions.
Shortly later, my heart was racing, I felt a little nauseous but managed to not throw up, and my thinking was getting more disoriented . . . what had I done again? Dosed myself with too much salicylates. So I then dosed myself with Ylang Ylang and got my heart to slow down again. A couple hours later I felt okay and I did okay after eating a late breakfast. Yet another reminder that essential oils are extremely potent, and extremely fast acting.
As a medicinal product that kind of speediness at slowing a ‘panicky’ heart rate is astoundingly helpful. Leading me to ask:
WHY ISN’T MAINSTREAM HEALTHCARE USING THESE GIFTS FROM NATURE?
The answer of course is that essential oils aren’t patentable and enormous piggy profits cannot be made from ‘medical’ use of essential oils, or TCM herbs and ancient wisdom.
Dental and liver health and Traditional Chinese Medicine
A practitioner of TCM would have known I had a liver condition by looking at which of my teeth had more problems, a pattern of three vertical wrinkles between my eyebrows, and a look at my bone spur feet would be extra clarification.
Fortunately my teeth seem to be improving and that might suggest my liver is too (the labs were improving when last checked.) Two were turning a little grayish black and I was thinking, “What? I am not a meth-head.” However I was using marijuana and mint nicotine lozenges and the mint was adding to salicylate excess and the sweetness was adding to plaque bacteria. Bad habits aren’t called good habits for a reason.
The darkened teeth are looking more like the others (a little grungy) now. In TCM, gray/black teeth are associated with a liver condition.
Your Body Never Lies - The Complete Book of Oriental Diagnosis, Michio Kushi, 2006. (Amazon)
To help with calcium absorption and reduce phytic acid, I have also been doing the presoaking of all nuts, seeds, and grains (except white rice - the hull is removed, how can it still have growth inhibiting chemicals?) I have also doubled my calcium supplements and have been more consistent with vitamin K2 and the rest of my supplements.
Reducing the infection/inflammation load using oil pulling, Tea Tree, clove and myrrh essential oils, and activated charcoal, also seemed to help with the discolored teeth.
Pomegranate extract may sanitize well, and be healthy in various ways, but it is not a whitener to teeth or anything else. The tannins tend to darken or stain skin and can leave darkened lines on your palm - easy for palm readers to see.
Amazingly, the reason chewing is associated with cognitive health may be that it is increasing aether energy for use throughout the body.
Our teeth generate energy for us and each pair of teeth are linked energetically to other regions of the body via vessels of the Primo vascular system. The Primo vascular system is formed during embryology first, ‘Primo’, prior to the formation of blood and lymphatic vessels. The Primo vascular system pathways and nodes were initially discovered as the Prime Meridian channels which are used for acupuncture and acupressure. The physical structures were discovered in the 1960s by a North Korean scientist whose work was eventually dismissed or censored.
The full body diagram of the main Meridian channels can be viewed or purchased here: (abposters.com).
Even as a baby I didn’t like baby food. I like crunchy or chewy food.
Meridian Tooth Charts, (DrRoze.com), (BiologicalDentistsofNJ.com) (MillDental.com)
More on the way about my Medicine cabinet makeover - doing things differently can lead to better health but there may be some trial and error along the way.
Disclaimer This information is being provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of Fair Use and is not intended to provide individual health guidance.
I replaced toothpaste long ago with peppermint, thieves, and clove oil in a carrier of MCT oil, chosen instead of coconut oil because it is liquid at temperatures that coconut oil is rocklike at. MCT oil contains all the antibiotic compounds of coconut oil without being difficult to get out of the bottle I keep it in when the ambient temperature in my vandwelling drops below its melting point.
JD - you took at bath, did you get any water in, or clean your ears? If so, a tiny crystal of calcium carbonate may have migrated from one part of the inner ear to the semicircular canal in another part of the ear. Said traversal would trigger a false sensor reading to the brain re: which direction your head was moving and its speed. The resulting dizziness is the brain's attempt to resolve the conflicting messages. See benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV).