Some people are always turning to ancient traditional medical practices to solve today's

health issues.

This is the appeal to antiquity.

The idea that because an idea is old, it's therefore valid.

Old ideas like witch burning, bloodletting, and drinking mercury.

Today we're going to focus on one more of these beliefs, oil pulling.

The idea that's swishing oil around in your mouth has medicinal benefits.

And that's coming right up on Skeptoid.

You're listening to Skeptoid.

I'm Brian Dunning from Skeptoid.com.

Oil pulling.

So it's the 21st century, and our collective knowledge in fields such as medicine and hygiene

is better than at any other time in our past.

If you have some medical problem, chances are we've developed a pretty good treatment

for it that's better than it was 25 years ago, and 25 years before that.

Just about everything anyone can think of has been tried and tested as a treatment for

that condition.

Why then, does some Westerners shun the results of what we've been able to learn and

instead seek out folk remedies notable only for their roots in pre-scientific knowledge?

So where is this trend more aptly illustrated than in the latest fad?

Oil pulling.

Oil pulling is an alternative therapy that involves putting vegetable oil in your mouth,

...