Hey,
I am curious if anyone has heard of DMSO and/or used it? It is a anti-inflamitory of sorts, but is known more as a solvent. It is somewhat controversial (form what I understand, but that has not been too clearified), and its pros or cons are not too clear.
Any opinions out there on this stuff?
Rock
Works good on horses. Gives you stink breath. One of the athletic trainers I used to work for used it very sparingly on certain injuries. I personally would not use it.
Do a search on DMSO and there are at least two threads in the past year or so.
clm
My wife and worked at an alternative health clinic. We used DMSO there. I don’t know alot about it either, other than we used it on alot of the cancer patients that were there. It has been so long that I can’t remember what the reason for its real main use was. I will have to ask my wife or some friends of mine and find out, if you don’t get anymore info on it.
Heath
DMSO is rather inert and has little effect either posive or negative. Some people say it can lead to bone degeneration but I cannot confirm nor deny that. DMSO is an excellent transdermal delivery device it solvates and allows other substances to pass through your skin. In theory you could dissolve any number of things and spray it on yourself or a victim. I am sure that the “men in black” have plenty of applications for DMSO delivered LSD truth serums nerve agents etc.
I would recommend you avoid this. Plenty of info on the net about its use (and more importantly, who is using it). Good luck.
I’m using it right now for tendonitis in my hip. The only side effect that I know of is that you get garlic breath after you apply it. I like garlic, so no biggy there. You have to make sure that the area is clean before you apply the DMSO. When you apply it, rub it in and wipe off any excess. Wash your hands thoroughly when you are done. Use max 2-3 times per day.
I’ve used it in the lab to make drug dosing solutions – an excellent solvent. But I can’t imagine using it on the body…eck. Nasty stuff. FWTW… 
I used it a lot back when I was running big miles and would have occasional achilles and other overuse injuries. I found it to be highly effective; but, I would crush up several ibuprofen tablets - pretty much into a powder - and mix it with the solvent. As already mentioned, the DMSO does allow rapid trnsmission through the skin directly to the target spot. The garlic breath is not limited to breath - it emits from your body; and I can remember people walking into my office and immediately smelling it. I even had to sleep in another bedroom from time to time, as the odor was so strong my wife couldn’t handle it (or atl least that’s what she said).
When I worked as a short order cook, we used it on our grease burns. Worked pretty well soothing them and preventing blistering. Fries up!
We were using it 20 years ago when I was in the Military and running x-country. We got it from the vet as it is used to treat tendinitis in horses. It’s attribute is its ability to rapidly transmit other “chemicals” thru the skin, like cordisone creme or other anti-inflammatory medications. It’s never been licensed by pharmaceutical companies because it’s really a by product of paper production and it’s very cheap to produce, so not a big profit margin I would suspect. It can burn the skin if not applied properly.
Ironjack
I used it with favorable results back in the '80s.
1- Make sure you get pure (USP?) DMSO, not solvent grade.
2- Make sure you wash the area thorougly, because DMSO will dissolve dirt, sweat and dead bugs and propel them through your skin.
3- Don’t make it a habit. I’m not sure what to believe, but there are numerous stories out there of people creating personal disasters by using the stuff. I’m inclined to blame carelessnes (not getting the area really clean or overuse).
Try Blue Emu. I’ve found it to be the next best thing and AFIK no downside risk (AFIK doesn’t guarantee anything, but I’ve looked).
DMSO= dimethyl sulfoxide. A useful solvent for organic chemistry.
I was intrigued by the possibility that DMSO could be anti-inflammatory, so I did I quick PubMed search.
From a Neoplasma 2004 article (Bilir et al), it said that DMSO was a COX inhibitor, so it definitely can be anti-inflammatory. Then again, things like acetominophen are also Cox-inhibitors, and personally I would feel a lot better using that than DMSO.
The MSDS page for DMSO has few warnings: “DMSO has shown very few toxic symptoms in humans. The most common are nausea, skin rashes and an unusual garlic-onion-oyster smell on body and breath.**General: ** ** **: ** l: ** Stinging and burning of the skin as well as rashes and vesicles have been seen. A heat reaction may occur if applied to wet skin. Avoid contact with DMSO solutions containing toxic material or materials whose toxicological properties are not known. DMSO easily penetrates the skin and may
enhance the rate of skin absorption of skin-permeable substances. But because of DMSO’s low toxicity and its inability to carry less-permeable substances with it through the skin, it can be concluded that DMSO does not pose a significant threat by skin absorption.”
Hope this helps
I used it in college about 20 years ago. It was strange, I would put it on my shins and I would immediately taste it in my mouth. So it is definitely absorbed into the skin. I have no idea how well it worked, but I am still alive to tell you about it so it didn’t kill me. I think I used it for about a month, several times a day.