Anyone have any experience with this stuff. I have a chronic calf injury and this old timer tri guy said it would take care of it but has some weird side effects.
Tons…
It helped me. I used 70% solution on my ITB/TFL area all winter. I’m one of the few who didn’t get the taste in the mouth. It did make me itch a little after a month of use. I don’t use it anymore, because my knee is better.
I would never use something like that without doctor supervision.
Hey 83-
a few thoughts (I was 8 in '83, so take this with a grain of salt ;-):
First off, DMSO is actually a pretty strong solvent used in biology labs, so if it gets contaminated with anything nasty, you could be in bad shape. also, anytime I read ‘weird taste in the mouth after I put it on my legs’, that’s an answer for me right there.
Another use for DMSO (dimethly sulfoxide for those taking notes) is in extravasation, which is the leakage of intravenous drugs into surrounding tissues (e.g. in cancer, where drugs are very toxic and often destroy tissues). Dont’ look this up on the net if you want to keep your lunch down. it’s nasty. anyway, my point here is that it does have a role as a drug.
DMSO is a free-radical scavenger and has some anti-inflammatory properties, although a quick pubmed.org scan doesn’t show a whole lot:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=12951474
If it were me, I’d a) google it, b) dbl check google reports on medline, and c) discuss w/ a health professional.
Good luck,
Josef
A very strong solvent it is…I use it in the lab to make dosing solutions. It’ll dissolve just about anything. I just don’t know that I could rub it on my skin though…good luck.
Andy
The guy that was telling me about it said that one time he slapped some on his knee and went to the store. About half way through his shopping he went blind in one eye for about a half hour. Yet he still swears by it.
well, just ONE eye… what’s the problem here? 
I’ve used it before to treat ITBS, and it helped tremendously on a few occasions. I think that stuff about someone going blind in one eye was just a joke (c’mon people!) I can’t even taste it in my mouth, but I have to admit, it does burn my skin in the areas I apply it to (but it’s a small price to pay for getting ride of chronic inflammation, in my opinion).
I first read about it in Alberto Salazar’s book (can’t remember the title). I DID ask my doctor about DMSO, and he told me he had tried it years ago, and it didn’t do anything for him, but told me to give it a shot (because nothing else was working). This doctor is definitely not your usual type (he’s quite eccentric, but is really good at what he does–in fact, he was voted one of the top doctors in NYC by New York mag several times–I believe. He’s also run several sub 3 hr marathons).
I’ve also read that DMSO is widely used in many countries. I think it’s just politics that it’s not approved by the FDA.
It’s your call (obviously), but I definitely had positive experience with DMSO
Horse trainers use it ALL the time for muscle sorness in horses, it stimulates the circulation in the area and decreases the swelling.
Sweet. I utilize it for PCR every day at work and thus have access to unlimited amounts. Start placing your orders…$50/ml hahaha
Yeah, it has been around a while. I prefer Biofreeze for muscle aches/pains (I just got over a calf strain as well doing a 22 miler on the California coast).
Has camphor like many OTC muscle preparations and something called Ilex (paraguensis). I have no idea what that is (I think it is an extract from a holley tree or related plant) but we also dispense Biofreeze in my office and I have several patients who love it as well. There are no side effects with Biofreeze. DMSO is not as bad as it sounds, but I wont’s use it 
Spastic, you would get in big trouble for this, this is not funny at all… Whom are you working for again?
Oh yeah, to all those guys who say DMSO is not known to do any harm (took me 10 seconds on “Pubmed”):
Biochem Pharmacol. 2003 Apr 1;65(7):1035-41
Multidisciplinary utilization of dimethyl sulfoxide: pharmacological, cellular, and molecular aspects.
Santos NC, Figueira-Coelho J, Martins-Silva J, Saldanha C
… “Several systemic side-effects from the use of DMSO have been reported, namely nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, hemolysis, rashes, renal failure, hypertension, bradycardia, heart block, pulmonary edema, cardiac arrest, and bronchospasm.”
And guess what. I have actual data that your mitochondria do not like it at all (It acts, among others, as an “Uncoupler”). I have seen decrease in mitochondrial function and number in cells treated with DMSO. And mitochondria, as we all know, make us do such neat things as swimming, cycling and running. (There is a reason the FDA has reservations).
But hey, people do drugs, drink heavily and smoke, so I should not be surprised.
**
Sweet. I utilize it for PCR every day at work and thus have access to unlimited amounts. Start placing your orders…$50/ml hahaha
Don’t use his PCR grade DMSO - I have tissue culture certified, and I’ll only charge $45/mL.
Seriously, I woulnd’t ever use it myself.
Ah, my good old friend jhc…
We actually agree for once? Naahhhh, can’t be… you are getting old!
Re: your sig line. Apparently you annoyed someone on this forum even more than usual. Good for you! Takes guts to wear that on your sleeve like a trophy!
Adrialin,
Lighten up, my friend. All in good humor…
Ah, my good old friend jhc…
We actually agree for once? Naahhhh, can’t be… you are getting old!
Re: your sig line. Apparently you annoyed someone on this forum even more than usual. Good for you! Takes guts to wear that on your sleeve like a trophy!
Hey, we agree all the time.
And as for your last sentence, come over the Lavender Room - you ain’t seen nothing on the main forum
I used the 99% pure stuff from a health foods store. The one thing it did do was alleviate the pain short term so I could work out. But, several hours later the pain was right back where it started. It did give me a garlic taste in my mouth…aside from that, and the burning sensation on the applied area (like ben-gay, only much harsher), there was nothing else. Supposedly if you use it regularly it will eventually alleviate the pain on a long term basis. But, I got sick of having the bad taste in my mouth, so I stopped.
That said…I’m not going to say its completely harmless, because I don’t really know. I guess it all depends on who you read and what you want to believe. If you do try it, just be sure to clean the area before you put in on.
I’ve used DMSO many times and it works amazingly well and I know many rugby players who swear by it. It works well to reduce swelling on acute injuries like a sprained ankle, not so well on chronic injuries. There are many trainers in the NFL that swear the NFL wouldn’t function without it. There is a garlic taste about 10 seconds after you use it. Since it is a great solvent, anything soluble that is contaminating it or your skin will be in your blood stream in 10 seconds. I think there was an old Quincy episode where someone was murdered using it. You won’t get doctor supervision to use it since it is only approved for use on animals. The vet version is in a jelly form so it stays in place. If you do use it, wash the area with distilled water before and after.