While DMSO is controversial, and you know I like that, this blog is really an FYI for something you have likely never heard of and you might want to know about…
DMSO — Dimethyl sulfoxide — is a byproduct of the wood pulp industry discovered in the early 1950’s. To be frank, it sounds dreadful. Have you ever smelled wood pulp at a paper mill……yuck! Yet, DMSO has been used in medicine for more than 50 years. It’s prescribed to relieve pain, to treat head injuries and strokes, for inflammation and arthritis, as an antioxidant…the list goes on and on. I am going on record to say I like this stuff and it works, in many ways. I urge you to read more about it.
Docs from Canada, Great Britain, Germany, and Japan (to name just a few), all prescribe DMSO to patients…but for those of you who don’t know, here in the US, it hasn’t been approved by the FDA.
DMSO has been surrounded by controversy in the U.S. for years. Besides looking to your every day media outlets that often add to the confusion, if you want more proof, look to how more than 40,000 articles have appeared in scientific journals studying it over and over. It’s hard for me to understand the FDA’s current stance on DMSO. After all, it’s a substance that has the ability to act as a solvent and enhance permeability of certain membranes, re-arrange collagen fibers, and alter the transmission of your nerve signals (think – pain relief).
For Christ’s sake, the FDA allows well-meaning doctors to use rat poison as an anticoagulant (Coumadin) and for botulinium toxin to be injected into women’s faces and elsewhere to make them look beautiful! And you probably guessed it, Botox is the same toxin that comes from Clostridium botulinium and causes lockjaw. I’m not saying it is dangerous in controlled doses, I’m just saying it is still a poison. Nobody is injecting that stuff in me… but I am a dude!
Some call DMSO “the aspirin of our era” since when it was first discovered, it was shown to alleviate such a wide range of problems. That quality somewhat backfired, adding disbelief and seemingly discrediting it. Combine that with the theory it was hard for drug companies to market, and you’ve got a drug that’s now been completely rejected by the pharma industry in the US. With years of research showing it works – and it’s safe — the question is, then why hasn’t the FDA changed its position?
Read more on the issue:
I discovered DMSO out of desperation, after I had to quit running and cycling for six months because of an awful metatarsal bursa or stump neuroma (I had neuroma surgery about 30 years ago.) This stuff is wonderful. I used it 3-4 times a day on the swollen, inflamed metatarsal spot and modified my arch supports with moleskin to take pressure off the sore area. Now I just apply DMSO once or twice a week as a safeguard. I’m back on my bike and able to ride hills, although it will probably be a while before I’m back to running. I did switch to D width running shoes to accommodate my modified arch supports.