Review: Many Claims, No Documentation
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 16, 2014
“Oil Pulling Therapy” by Jessica Robbins is about an Ayurvedic naturopathic practice in use for thousands of years, but apparently rarely practiced in America today. The author refers to dozens of “studies” to support her assertions, but the closest she comes to actually CITING a source is identifying a single study as having been done in 2007. In yet another location, reference to one of these "studies" DID include the comment that it consisted of 20 randomly selected boys, of which 10 were thought to have benefitted from the oil pulling process. Ten boys, with no control group, constitutes neither a scientific study, nor a resounding recommendation.Sadly, nothing in this book can be verified, unless a potential reader chooses to spend a lot of time with Google, researching each study as thoroughly as possible. I did not wish to do so.I appreciate people who take the time to enlighten the rest of us about natural methods of maintaining and aiding our health without the use of potentially toxic, profit-motivated prescription medications, frequently fraught with deadly side effects. I am less enthusiastic about such books that seem to be little more than the author’s opinion about a particular topic.For example, in one location Ms. Robbins states: “Numerous studies have also indicated that the ancient technique of Oil Pulling, in fact, abounds with a number of health benefits.”  Rather than elucidating us re: the documentation necessary to support this claim, the very next sentence begins with, “In another study…” without identifying any of the prior studies, or otherwise corroborating the declarations pertaining to the veracity of the statement that “the ancient technique of Oil Pulling... abounds with a number of health benefits.”One reason I am concerned about the lack of verification is that there seem to be a great many typos, misspellings, redundant comments, and so on. For such a short book, I was dismayed by the quantity of such occurrences that I highlighted while reading. In one instance, the same claim was made in three consecutive sentences, which comprised the entire paragraph! I'm not really sure what that was all about.I am not disputing anything Ms. Robbins reports in “Oil Pulling Therapy”. However, without substantive documentation of who, when, where, how and why the reported “studies” were accomplished, I am in the difficult position of not really being comfortable recommending this book. While the overall concept may be a good one, I must leave you to your own devices regarding whether or not you should read this book.