Anyone have any experience with using dimethyl sulfoxide for inflammation? I have a nagging ankle sprain that is over two months old and I’m still suffering from inflammation and tendinitis in my ATF ligament. I had a friend who works with ncaa athletes take a look at it and she suggested DSMO. She said they use it with injuries that aren’t getting better and has had very good success with it. My two hesitations are it’s not FDA approved for general use, and apparently it makes you smell pretty bad. And the fact that it’s used on horses and that I’d have to go to some sort of horse feed store to get some. But from what little research I’ve done it seems to be something of a magic potion.
I have used it before…on my dog! It was used as a delivery agent for another cream (can’t remember). It was hilarious watching him smack his lips within minutes of application. He always smelled…so I didn’t notice much odor
You may be able to get it from a vet but my jar (just checked) says “not for use on humans”…so it may be hard(er) to get if you tell the truth.
I was a chemist in grad school. DMSO wasn’t an uncommon solvent. As mentioned, it smells pretty awful. You may want to consider this if it will be an on-going treatment. Whenever I worked with sulfur compounds my girlfriend would make me change out of my lab clothes on the porch. This was working in a fume hood as well.
I used it years ago to treat a nagging (3 months with no improvement) IT band injury after my first marathon - with GREAT success, and so far, 7 years later, no side effects have been observed, LOL. I also don’t think I smelled weird/any different after using it. I heard it makes you smell like garlic - I eat a ridiculous amount of garlic anyway (probably 80% of my meals have garlic in it) - so reeking of garlic is nothing new in my case haha - your experience may differ. I recall getting some burning/slight rash on my skin after applying it - but that was minor and well worth getting over the IT band pain.
Actually, my somewhat unconventional but very well respected NYC doctor (a sub 3 hrs marathoner in his younger days) suggested trying DMSO when my ITB wasn’t responding to any other treatments - he said he couldn’t officially recommend it (due to FDA/medical license etc etc issues) but off the record, he’d seen it do miracles.
I wouldn’t be so worried about it not being approved by the FDA - I don’t hold them in such high regard… personally, I wouldn’t put on/into my body quite a few items/foods they do approve (that’s getting way off the subject, but their support of factory farming practices is one of the “beefs” I have with them).
My doctor also suggested rubbing your skin with arnica cream before applying DMSO (it’s supposed to help with inflammation as well).
One warning: DMSO is a strong solvent, so you have to make sure you don’t wear any long pants/etc when you apply it to your ankle - the color from the fabric/dirt from the pants can get into your blood stream with DMSO. Just let it get fully absorbed first, and make sure to apply to clean skin.
You rub it on whatever, then it apparently diffuses throughout your body and in a couple of minutes you start to taste it. Kind of a metal / oyster / blood taste to it.
But the fact that you rub it on and later you taste it, yeah that’s what’s freaky about it.
If you think there are no downsides, you really haven’t looked that well.
For starters: It is neurotoxic at higher concentrations.
Up to you if you think the (potential) benefits outweight the (potential) risks.
Good reason the FDA doesn’t give it a blanket seal of approval.
Topical application has probably the lowest indication of side effects.
dmso is one of the few substances known to breach the skin and enter the blood stream – it is fda approved for use in the delivery of certain medicines. if i recall correctly – maybe for the treatment of arthritis and/or kidney stones.
horse owners (like my family), vets (like my sister) have used that stuff for decades in the treatment of inflammation and other injuries with horses - mainly their legs; i’ve used the stuff on myself with great success except for one major problem – it makes you smell like garbage and my wife finally gave me the ultimatum – dmso or her.
if you do use it – make sure you use a high quality product – preferably that comes in a glass container. make sure everything is clean before applying since whatever dmso comes in contact with will also breach your skin as well.
if you do use it – make sure you use a high quality product – preferably that comes in a glass container. make sure everything is clean before applying since whatever dmso comes in contact with will also breach your skin as well.
I just wanted to second this sentiment. I used to do nucleoside chemistry using DMSO as a solvent. We were particularly careful to wear appropriate gloves as many compounds are readily soluble in DMSO (and will traverse the skin). As a very general statement: things that dissolve in water will likely dissolve in DMSO. Make sure you clean well before using (or consider a different treatment).
DMSO was pretty big in some circles in the late 70s/early 80s
As stated above its a pretty decent solvent and it basically just drives medication into the skin/blood
One of the down sides (among several) is that it will also drive anything else on your skin through (dirt, oil, pen marks etc)
I had several friends who used it in its previous en vogue period and the constants from them were
Make sure you know what you are getting
If you have to cut it (most times you do) make sure you are cutting with appropriately distilled/deionized water
if you are going to intentionally put something on your skin to drive through… choose wisely
CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN you skin first
and even then… there is a relatively high chance of getting a nasty skin reaction
as always YMMV, good luck, hope you recover quickly
Taste it, smell bad??? I used the cream (on my achilles) and besides some skin irritation that went away as soon I stopped using it, I didn’t have any of these side effects. It seemd to help but wasn’t a cure all.
Cheap enough and safe enough imo to give it a shot. I got it here:
DMSO is a great solvent. Dissolves most drugs readily. And it dissolves right through your skin.
DMSO isn’t what treats arthritis, etc. It does nothing.
It’s the drugs dissolved in DMSO, the solution then rubbed into the skin, that allows those drugs to be delivered directly to their site of action.
Usually older folk would crush up their pain meds, dissolve in DMSO, and then rub into their joints.
So you could crush up prednisone and the DMSO would provide a more localized action through the skin to an injury than taking the prednisone orally? Same question with something like Ibuprofen
I found it as the only answer to shin sprints as a 4:29… 15 year old miler in high school. I put it on …put Goodys headache powder in it…wrapped it in saran wrap…and within 2 days the shin splints were gone. True wonder remedy
Your breath will SMELL. Rub it on and you will taste it soon, others will smell your breath from miles away. It worked for me years ago. I quit because I heard it could carry other things into your system,don’t know if it’s true. There was a crime show where a guy put DMSO and snake poisin on his wifes steering wheel ,don’t try it he got caught : )
I used it off and on, for about a year on ITBS, where I had severe inflammation on the condyle area. I crushed aspirin into the DMSO. I was judicious and measured and careful with it.
I couldn’t tell it did anything more for me than orally taken ibuprofen did, to be honest, but there are hordes of success stories with DMSO on overuse injuries.
It made me itch in the area I applied it after a few weeks, and as stated, your breath and sweat, smells like a garlic odor.
I recently had some problems with knee pain (patellar tendonitis) and Voltaren gel was the shiznit. Also works great for sore/tight calf muscles/achilles tendons. You just rub that stuff on the area where you’re having the pain and it starts to feel better within 20 minutes. No funky taste in your mouth and no offensive odor either - you may want to ask about that.
I think it’s typically prescribed for folks with arthritis (of which I don’t have) but I’ll attest that it works great.
