Olive Oil For JOINT PAIN?! 8 Weird Ways Olive Oil Can Supercharge Your Health

Well, it's National Polyphenol Day and week and this week it's all about polyphenol. Eight weird ways that olive oil can supercharge your health. Let's get into it. Now you probably have a bottle of extra virgin olive oil in your kitchen right now, but I'd bet that everything you're using it for is only one thing and that's cooking and salad dressings. But today I'm going to show you some unexpected science-backed ways to get this golden liquid transforming your health in some weird ways. And none of it involves a salad. All right, number one, oil pulling. Believe it or not, this is a 3,000 year old mouthwash. What you do is you swish one to two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in your mouth for five to ten minutes on an empty stomach and you pull it through your teeth. Oil pulling. Now, spit it out, but quite frankly, if you want to swallow it, it's not going to hurt you and might help you. Now, what we're learning about the mouth is that the mouth has its own microbiome and there are some actually nasty bacteria that can literally get into your bloodstream and set up shop, among other places, in your brain, in your coronary arteries, and that doesn't sound like a good idea. So the polyphenols in olive oil are very useful to supplement your oral microbiome with good stuff. And you'll find that if you make this a part of your practice, next time you go to the dentist, they'll be shocked about how healthy your gums look just from olive oil pulling. Number two, gargle olive oil before you go to bed. Now, olive oil is a really great lubricant for your upper airway passages. So, if your significant other accuses you of snoring, why not do her or him a favor and have some olive oil in the bathroom, gargle it before you go to bed, spit it out or swallow it, I don't care. It actually is going to lubricate your throat. Now, remember, snoring is not just an annoyance. Snoring is usually a sign of airway obstruction and or sleep apnea. And if you're a snorer and it's a constant thing, not only do you want to gargle olive oil, but if that isn't improving things, you really need to get a sleep study. You'd be shocked how snoring and sleep apnea affects your heart, affects your brain, affects your functioning during the day. So, do not ignore snoring, but try the trick of olive oil first. Now, remember, it's a topical agent for skincare. The Egyptians used it as skincare. Cleopatra bathed in olive oil. Sophia Loren, the great Italian beauty, credits olive oil on her skin for her great complexion. And she also eats a lot of olive oil. Now, it's smart biochemistry. There's a really cool polyphenol called hydroxytyrosol. It's one of the most potent antioxidants that's ever been described. In fact, it outperforms vitamin C and E in free radical scavenging. So, squalene in extra virgin olive oil mirrors what young skin produces naturally. In other words, it replenishes what age takes away. So, use it as an overnight face oil, a body moisturizer, or on rough patches. And a few drops actually goes a very long way. How about brain protection? Now, the data is actually jaw-dropping. Auburn University study used 30 mls of extra virgin olive oil a day for six months. It improved clinical dementia ratings with an MRI confirmation that brain functioning actually got better with just 30 mls of olive oil per day for six months. The participants showed improved memory, improved attention span, and executive function for over two years once the study was continued. Now, extra virgin olive oil inhibits amyloid beta aggregation. That's a key Alzheimer's hallmark. Now, I happen to think it does that by improving the gut microbiome and improving the wall of the gut. If you got leaky gut, you got leaky brain. And remember, there is a gut-brain axis, as I've talked about in the gut-brain paradox. The extra virgin olive oil feeds friendly microbes that communicate directly with the neurons in the vagus nerve up to the brain. And so, it is a brain food as well as anything else. Now, how about ear health? It turns out you can put a couple of drops in your ear canal, and it'll actually soften up all the junk in there, and it helps it exit naturally. Now, please don't soak a cotton ball or cotton tip applicator and put it in that way. All you're going to do is push the crud closer to your eardrum. Just warm it up a little bit, get a dropper and put a couple drops and hold it in your ear. There was a 2003 study that extra virgin olive oil with antimicrobial herbs reduced ear infection-related pain in children. That's a good idea. Now, listen, if you have a hole in your eardrum, no, don't do that. But most people don't. So, just hold it in your ear, turn your head to the side and hold it there for five minutes, and then drain it out your ear. Number six, joint pain. Believe it or not, rub it on your joints. It actually beats a prescription gel. Yes, I mean it. There was a devil-blind trial. A quarter of a teaspoon was rubbed, of extra virgin olive oil, was rubbed on knees three times daily. A quarter of a teaspoon, and it actually outperformed the prescription gel in four weeks. The one you see advertised on TV every night. The benefit appeared within two weeks at a cost of less than three cents a day, probably less than that. So, oleocanthal is a natural COX-2 inhibitor. COX-2 inhibition is how pain relief happens with these topical gels and also happens with, for instance, Advil or Aleve. The same pathway that these use, there's no GI side effects, and it's used topically. Now, make sure you use the extra virgin olive oil only. The polyphenols, once again, are doing the work, not the oil. And the higher the polyphenol content, the better it's going to work for you. All right, number seven, god health. The Italian morning shot, as I say it. Now, a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil on an empty stomach every morning is an actual Italian centenarian ritual backed by science. It lubricates the intestinal wall, it stimulates bile and digestive enzymes, and it actually promotes a healthy bowel rhythm. The oleic acid actually triggers oleoethanolamine. It's a compound that signals gut motility naturally. Bonus, it actually reduces stomach acidity. It protects the gut lining, and like I've talked about before, it really helps balance the good guys and bad guys in your gut. How about number eight? Scalp and dandruff treatment, the Italian grandma remedy. You massage warm extra virgin olive oil into your scalp. You massage it for five to ten minutes, leave it on for 20 to 30 minutes, and then rinse. Do it two to three times a week. Now, it nourishes the scalp barrier. It softens dandruff flakes without feeding the yeast and molds that actually makes dandruff. Now, it's packed with vitamins A, D, E, and K, and of course, essential fatty acid. Exactly what a dry, inflamed scalp really needs. Remember, what you're seeing on your scalp is actually systemic inflammation appearing locally. Fix it both inside and out simultaneously. So, should we be using high-potency olive oil for non-ingestible uses like eardrops? Well, yeah. Mouth, throat, skin, ears, joints, gut, and scalp. What's not to like? So, how do you know you're getting the right stuff? You want to see a single vineyard or a single country of origin. You don't want to see a blend of different countries. Just because it says product of Italy or product of Greece does not mean the olive oil came from there. You actually need to see the country of origin. For instance, I know this vineyard. It's in Morocco. I've walked it many times, and there's only one olive oil vineyard that produces these. That's what you're looking for. Eight superpowers all combined in extra virgin olive oil. It's not just for breakfast anymore.