DMSO

DMSO is, for me, the most important supplement of all: it is the closest thing to a "cure-all" that I have found in all my years of research. Its full name is dimethyl sulfoxide, but everyone calls it by its initials: DMSO. In this chapter I explain what it is, where it comes from, why it works, what it is for and, very importantly, how to use it safely.

Much of the technical information in this chapter comes from the excellent work of a doctor who writes anonymously under the name "A Midwestern Doctor," in the publication "The Forgotten Side of Medicine." He has compiled hundreds of studies on DMSO. At the end of the chapter I leave you the credits and the sources, in case you want to go deeper.

What DMSO is

DMSO is a natural liquid extracted from wood. It is a byproduct of the paper industry: when tree pulp is processed, this substance is left over. A Russian chemist first created it in a laboratory in the year 1866, but almost a hundred years passed without anyone giving it a medical use.

A little history

In the year 1961, a chemist named Robert Herschler, who worked at a paper company, discovered something astonishing by accident: DMSO passes through the skin and drags other substances into the body. Nearby, at the University of Oregon, a surgeon named Stanley Jacob was studying how to preserve organs for transplants. When he heard of the discovery, he became enthusiastic and began to research DMSO.

One day, Jacob put a mixture of DMSO with iodine on his skin, and within a few minutes he felt the taste of iodine in his mouth. That is how he confirmed how fast DMSO enters the body. From then on he devoted the rest of his life, his time and even his own savings to studying it, and he used it successfully for burns, sprains and blows. Dr. Jacob is rightly considered the father of DMSO in medicine.

In countries like Russia and Ukraine it was studied and used thoroughly, and a great part of what we know today comes from there. In Russia it was approved under the name Dimexide.

Why it works

It passes through the skin. DMSO goes through the skin easily and reaches the blood within a few minutes. That is why it is almost always used by putting it directly on the skin, with no need for injections or pills.

It carries other substances into the body. DMSO works as a "transport": it can carry other medicines or natural remedies into the body with it, even things that would normally have to be injected. This makes it very useful, but it also obliges you to be careful, as I explain further on.

It protects the cells. DMSO protects the cells and helps them not to die. It reduces inflammation and acts as an antioxidant, that is, it fights damage inside the body.

It dissolves what is left over. DMSO dissolves damaged proteins and helps clean the "net" of tissue that surrounds tumors. It also improves circulation.

It does not accumulate. The body eliminates DMSO; it does not stay stored in the tissues. That is why it does not cause a poisoning that builds up over time.

What it is for

DMSO helps with an enormous list of problems. That is why some call it an "umbrella therapy": a single thing that is good for a great many uses. Among what it has been used to treat are:

Pain of all kinds: arthritis, blows, sprains, new or old injuries, back and neck pain, and joint problems.

Circulation problems: poor circulation, varicose veins, and cold hands and feet.

Nervous system problems: strokes, blows to the head, spinal cord injuries and memory problems.

Inflammation and infections: skin problems, many infections, and illnesses where the body attacks itself.

Eyes, ears and more: it has even been used for eye problems. The list is very long, and that is why it is worth knowing about.

How to use it

On the skin (the most common way). The normal thing is to use it at a concentration of 50% to 70%, that is, mixed with distilled water (for example, half DMSO and half water). Many people use it pure, at 100%, without a problem, but at the beginning it is better to dilute it. Curiously, DMSO at 90% sometimes transports better than pure at 100%. It also exists in gel form, which is easier to apply; it can be found cheaply in animal stores, in the horse section.

Clean the skin first. Before applying it, wash and dry the area well. After putting it on, let it dry for about 20 minutes before touching that area with other things.

By mouth. It can also be taken, but only well diluted in water, because pure it irritates the stomach. It is usually mixed with juice or another drink to cover the taste. Always start with a small amount and go up slowly.

Other ways. It is also used in drops for the eyes, the ears or the nose (always very diluted, about 10%), in nebulizers for the lungs, and in the bladder. Intravenously it should only be used with medical supervision.

The great secret: DMSO potentiates other medicines

Here is one of the most incredible things about DMSO, which almost nobody knows. Since DMSO transports other substances into the body, it can make other medicines and remedies work much better. This has three great advantages:

Less medicine is needed. Because it enters better, a much smaller dose is needed to achieve the same effect. In the case of some corticosteroid creams, DMSO makes them 10 to 1,000 times more potent.

It is safer. Being able to use smaller doses, and being able to put it on the skin instead of swallowing it, reduces the harmful effects. For example, it allows anti-inflammatories to be used without hurting the stomach so much.

It revives medicines that no longer worked. DMSO makes antibiotic-resistant bacteria vulnerable again. That is, it helps defeat those "superbugs" that no longer respond to anything.

Below I give you some examples of combinations that have been studied. Careful: this is not about you setting off to experiment on your own, especially with prescription medicines. I tell you so that you know what is possible and can discuss it with a doctor who is open to these ideas.

Combinations for infections

With antibiotics. DMSO increases the strength of antibiotics, especially of those that have to get inside the cells. In studies, it made very resistant bacteria respond to treatment again, sometimes up to 200 times more.

Tuberculosis. In several studies, adding a little DMSO (2% to 5%) made resistant tuberculosis respond to antibiotics again. In one animal study, all those that received only the antibiotic died, and all those that received a single dose of DMSO two weeks earlier survived.

Prostate (chronic prostatitis). One doctor cured 44 of 45 cases of chronic prostate infection — many of them antibiotic-resistant — by applying DMSO with antibiotics directly into the bladder.

Sinusitis in children. In a study with 52 children, putting 10% DMSO in the sinuses, followed by oxygen, completely cured 49 of them of acute sinusitis.

Serious lung infections. In one hospital, a mixture of DMSO with an antibiotic, put directly into the lung, achieved the complete recovery of 31 patients with lung abscesses, without the infection returning.

Combinations for herpes and shingles

DMSO, combined with an antiviral called IDU, has given remarkable results against herpes and shingles (herpes zoster). In the studies, the mixture reduced the pain and the healing time much more than the antiviral alone, and helped prevent the illness from returning. In one study, the mixture of DMSO with IDU worked even better than acyclovir, the common medicine for these cases, and prevented the pain that sometimes remains after shingles.

Combinations for pain and arthritis

With anti-inflammatories. There are approved products, such as Pennsaid (DMSO with diclofenac), for joint pain. Applied to the skin, they relieve the pain without damaging the stomach as much as pills do.

With heparin. In Europe a gel called Dolobene (DMSO with heparin and another substance) has been sold for years for blows, sprains, arthritis and varicose veins. In studies, it greatly reduced pain, swelling and redness.

With corticosteroids, for the skin. DMSO makes corticosteroid creams enormously more potent, so a very small amount is needed. It has been used successfully for stubborn psoriasis, managing to clear the skin in three or four weeks.

DMSO and cancer

This is one of the most astonishing subjects, and also one that has been hidden. Let me be clear from the start: cancer is a serious thing, and all of this was done with doctors and with supervision. It is not for treating yourself at home. I tell you because it is valuable information that deserves to be known.

On its own, DMSO has shown in many studies that it can make cancer cells "turn back" into normal cells. But the great finding came when DMSO was combined with hematoxylin, a dye that is also extracted from a tree.

The discoverer of this mixture was Dr. Eli Jordan Tucker Jr., a surgeon from Texas, around the year 1963. Over time, a team of doctors in Ecuador continued his work for fifteen years.

It attacks only the cancer. The astonishing thing about this mixture is that it concentrates in the cancer cells and does not damage the healthy cells. In the studies, it gathered in the tumors but did not stain any other tissue. In fact, it turned out to be about four times less toxic than DMSO alone.

The results. The Ecuador team reported a cure of 80% to 90% in patients who had not received chemotherapy before. Leukemias, lymphomas, sarcomas, bladder cancer, ovarian cancer and cancer of the bile ducts responded especially well. Unlike chemotherapy, the patients' blood improved instead of being damaged.

How it was given. It was used intravenously, by mouth (a few drops in distilled water), or directly on the tumor. During the treatment fevers appeared, which turned out to be part of the cure; that is why they should not be brought down with medicines.

An important safety detail: the hematoxylin must be pure, because the kind normally used comes attached to a toxic metal. And this mixture, given intravenously, must never be combined with corticosteroids or with medicines that thin the blood.

That this information was not lost we owe to people like Dr. Morton Walker, who wrote books to preserve Dr. Tucker's work, and to Jim McCann, who took this knowledge to the doctors of Ecuador.

Important safety rules

DMSO is very safe, but precisely because it drags other substances into the body, some simple rules have to be followed:

Never apply it on dirty skin or skin with chemicals. If your skin has pesticides, creams, perfumes, nicotine or any chemical, DMSO will carry them into the body. There is a documented case of a person who suffered a rapid nicotine overdose from applying DMSO on skin that had nicotine on it. Apply it only on clean skin.

Be careful mixing it with medicines. DMSO potentiates the effect of many medicines. The most dangerous is alcohol: the mixture is bad. It also potentiates painkillers, sleeping pills, sedatives, insulin and corticosteroids. If you take any medicine, let about two hours pass between the medicine and the DMSO, start with a little, and pay attention, because you may need to lower the dose of your medicine. Never combine it with very toxic medicines.

Be careful with blood thinners. In general DMSO does not potentiate them, but some people have had nosebleeds. If you take anticoagulants, do it with supervision.

Use medical-grade DMSO. Always buy the good quality kind, pharmaceutical or medical grade. The hardware-store kind may have impurities.

Use glass containers. DMSO dissolves many plastics and drags their chemicals into the body. Store it and prepare it in glass. If you use plastic, let it be the resistant kind (such as HDPE) or Teflon; never common plastic like PVC.

Dilute it with distilled water. Especially at the beginning, so the skin gets used to it and is not irritated so much.

The odor: the most common side effect

The best-known side effect is a smell of garlic or seafood, on the breath as well as the skin. It is not dangerous: it appears because the body is processing the DMSO. It lasts from a few hours to about three days, depending on the dose. Some people get it and others do not.

The other thing that can happen is that the skin turns red or itches in the area where you applied it. This is normal, it lasts about 10 to 20 minutes, and it calms down by washing with water. It is more common in fair-skinned people.

It is safer than they say

Despite the bad reputation they have given it, DMSO is one of the safest substances there is. To give you an idea, you would have to drink about two liters at once for it to be dangerous, that is, about two months of doses all together. Many things we use daily are far more toxic than DMSO. In all its history, barely three deaths have been associated with DMSO, and it is not even clear that it caused them, while the common pharmacy anti-inflammatories kill tens of thousands of people a year.

Why almost nobody knows about it

If DMSO is so good and so cheap, why does almost nobody know about it? In the year 1965, the FDA (the agency that controls medicines in the United States) banned testing with DMSO, based on a single doubtful case. From then on it persecuted the doctors and scientists who wanted to research it, and for more than ten years it fought against Congressional hearings. The reason is the usual one: it is natural, it is cheap, it cannot be patented, and anyone can get it. Meanwhile, they declared it dangerous, when the data showed that it is one of the safest substances there is.

In short

DMSO is cheap, natural, very safe and useful for an enormous number of problems. On top of that, it makes many other medicines and remedies work better and with less risk. For me it is the number one supplement. Use it with the safety rules I have explained, start small, and check the results for yourself.

Credits and sources

Most of the technical information in this chapter was compiled and published by "A Midwestern Doctor," in the publication "The Forgotten Side of Medicine." This knowledge is owed to that person, and to the pioneers who studied DMSO. Here are the main sources:

A Midwestern Doctor, "The Forgotten Side of Medicine": https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/

An index of the subject: https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/an-index-of-the-forgotten-side-of

History and safety of DMSO: https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/the-remarkable-history-and-safety

The pioneers of DMSO: https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/early-health-innovators-and-dmso

The therapeutic combinations: https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/therapeutic-dmso-combinations-revolutionize

DMSO and cancer: https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/the-forgotten-cancer-cure-hiding

Pioneers to whom credit is due: the chemist Robert Herschler, Dr. Stanley Jacob (University of Oregon), Dr. Eli Jordan Tucker Jr. (the DMSO and hematoxylin mixture), Dr. Morton Walker (who preserved that work) and Jim McCann (who took it to Ecuador).