Tongue Cleaning |
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Posted to Subscribers on 24 March 2019 |
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Dear Subscribers, When writing the post on shilajit, I had a very bad sore throat, fever, and swollen glands. By evening, I felt I needed to have a look and reached for the intraoral camera. Much to my horror, my tongue had a thick yellow coating. I put three drops of wild oregano oil in a large mug of water and sipped it, brushed my tongue with peelu powder and then with chaparral extract. Within half an hour, 80% of the yellow was gone; and by morning, the swelling and pain were gone, the tongue was nice and pink, and there was no more fever. Since many people have recently reported similar symptoms, I wanted to share this simple approach with you. Obviously, we need to know the cause of the problem, but there is a method of tongue cleaning taught in Ayurvedic medicine and there are many spin offs of the original idea in which a copper scraper was used. Today, stainless steel devices of a similar shape and flexibility as well as heavier models that are stiffer and plastic ones with and without brushes are all available. I like to combine tongue cleaning with some herbs and essential oils, different ones depending on the situation and purpose. This process should be gentle and not cause gagging! One can have a bad taste in the mouth due to eating something smelly, indigestion, bacteria, offensive habits or poor oral hygiene. Tongue cleaning combined with oil swishing are two methods not taught in modern dentistry where the emphasis is put on flossing and regular brushing, often with fluoridated toothpaste which is still, believe it or not, promoted as beneficial. Add this to the list of the many things we learned that we need to rethink. If one checks the yellow pages, it would appear that many dentists specialize in cosmetic work where whiteness and alignment are viewed as major ways to improve smiles and appearance. Of course, these same dentists also do repair work, but true healing of oral health issues is rarely practiced. To make this clear, dentists fix the apparent problems but do not really teach patients how to manage at least some issues on their own. As I have mentioned before – Mercury is still retrograde – the needs of teeth are quite different from the needs of the gums. Teeth want minerals and alkaline substances whereas the gums want astringent and acidic substances. Astringent herbs help to keep the gums tight, and acids attack bacteria. So, an “oral rinse” is appropriate for general oral cleansing whereas a “periodontal rinse” is more specifically intended to tighten the gums and destroy bacteria. After much experimentation, I have to concur with Ryan Drum that chaparral is the most powerful herb I have tested for removal of pathogenic bacteria in the mouth. It works incredibly fast. One can use the extract for rinsing and brushing or the powder for packing a cavity. Obviously, the powder will disperse and some will be swallowed which is good since bacteria from the mouth can spread throughout the body. For the maintenance of teeth, I have not found anything better than peelu. It is the herb used for miswak sticks and comes from a scraggly tropical tree. It is an ingredient in some Ayurvedic toothpastes, in virtually all toothpastes and powders from the Southern Himalayas to Africa, and can be found on my site in powder and paste form, with or without peppermint. This brings me to oils. Many toothpastes contain peppermint or spearmint. Both freshen the mouth and stimulant circulation to the oral tissues, but if there is pain or decay, we can consider other oils. Clove oil is many times more antimicrobial than hospital disinfectants and it numbs pain. It has a very strong taste and many do not like the taste . . . and the taste does linger. A good compromise is cinnamon bark oil which is also very disinfecting and tastes much more pleasant. There are lots of other oils used in oral health preparations, including fennel, rosemary, tea tree, lavender, and wild oregano, but one of my favorites is myrrh. It is very bitter but it will stick to the teeth and gums and provide somewhat longer protection. Generally speaking, it should be possible to clear up most problems fairly quickly, but we still need to know the cause. Since many subscribers wrote me about symptoms similar to what I had last weekend, I assumed I, too, had been exposed to some pathogens that are making the rounds, but that turned out not to have been the case since a tooth fractured Monday evening. Most people who are struggling with health issues are overwhelmed by the nuances and details. So, while effort can be made to keep it simple, this does not always do justice to the complexities of some issues. So, I would like to make two statements. The first is that everything we ingest makes contact with the mouth so whatever is there goes into the gastrointestinal tract. Some is absorbed by the plasma and blood and some continues down the GI tract and is eliminated, but pathogens in the mouth are mixed with food so brushing or rinsing before eating is wise, especially if there are known oral health issues. The second point revolves around root canals. This is a very controversial topic, but the argument against root canals is that a dead tooth is left in the mouth so it will become a breeding ground for bacteria. This is suspected of being the major cause of heart problems. Anyone with a root canal needs to take immune enhancing and cardioprotective herbs to be sure the risks are properly managed. As we see from fossil remains and mummies, teeth are very resilient and can last not merely a lifetime but for millennia after the soul has left the body. Isn’t it odd then that we have so much tooth decay when the enamel itself is the hardest natural substance known. There are hundreds of brands of toothpaste so what is the actual expertise behind the various formulations and what was the intent of the formulator and company marketing the products? We have simplified this question down to such issues as fluoride-free or tooth whitening or vegan, kosher, halal, all natural, etc. Obviously, there are reasons to prefer one product over another depending on the situation, but my preference goes even beyond all natural to glycerin-free since glycerin coats the teeth and inhibits regeneration. There are arguments about regeneration. Dentists are taught that this is impossible, but there are many who are not convinced, myself included. This is a saga to be continued.
Mercury will be direct in a few days. Meanwhile, hopefully everyone is caught up with the issues that got our attention during this intense cycle. Many blessings, Ingrid
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See Essay #1
