Trendy drugs usually sidelines “miracle” medication that work too nicely. Regardless of a long time of proof exhibiting that the naturally occurring chemical Dimethyl Sulfoxide (DMSO) is a remarkably secure and versatile remedy for a variety of difficult circumstances — such as strokes, head trauma, spinal cord injuries, dementia, and even Down Syndrome — it has been largely neglected.
This sidelining is especially exceptional as DMSO can also be one of the efficient remedies for acute and continual ache, musculoskeletal accidents, and continual degenerative circumstances (e.g., arthritis).
DMSO, Nature’s Healer
DMSO is a robust, pure compound with a number of distinctive properties that make it an extremely versatile therapeutic agent:
|
Speedy absorption — When utilized to the pores and skin or ingested, DMSO rapidly spreads all through the physique. |
|
Mobile safety — It shields cells from deadly stressors like burns, frostbite, blood loss, radiation, and shockwaves, and can rescue already damaged cells on the verge of dying. |
|
Security profile — DMSO is extraordinarily secure,1 and in virtually all instances, its solely unwanted side effects are momentary pores and skin irritation or making a garlic-like odor. In distinction, the usual of care (NSAIDs) kill tens of thousands of Americans each year and are the leading cause of drug induced hospital admissions. |
|
Conduction blocking — DMSO selectively blocks ache alerts from small nerve fibers (e.g., C fibers)2,3,4 which are sometimes concerned in continual ache (e.g., DMSO is one of the most effective treatments for complex regional pain syndrome). This blocking impact is reversible and does not trigger tolerance. |
|
Choline esterase inhibition — By inhibiting acetylcholinesterase,5,6,7,8 DMSO boosts acetylcholine ranges, enhancing parasympathetic operate and lowering ache. |
|
Anti-inflammatory motion9 — DMSO is extremely efficient at quickly lowering irritation (e.g., it lowers inflammatory cytokines, scavenges free radicals, and drains edema that may in any other case compress tissues). |
|
Muscle rest — DMSO quickly relaxes skeletal muscle groups, easing ache from pressure and spasms.10,11,12 |
DMSO and Tissue Therapeutic
DMSO drastically improves wound therapeutic (e.g., from burns or surgical procedures). For instance:
• A research of 1371 continual pores and skin wounds that had usually remained unhealed for years (e.g., contaminated ulcers or extreme burns) discovered 95.04% had a speedy and full restoration (e.g., no burn scars).13 Likewise, a scientific overview discovered DMSO successfully handled ulcers.14
• Quite a few research present that DMSO accelerates limb regeneration in animals15 and surgical wound therapeutic in people.16 It additionally enhances the viability of pores and skin grafts and flaps, providing advantages for plastic and reconstructive surgical procedure.17,18,19,20,21,22
• Animal research have proven DMSO will increase the tensile power of surgical scars23,24 (which considerably improves surgical outcomes), decreases experimentally induced intestinal adhesions25 (a typical complication of stomach surgical procedures) by 80%, prevents hypertrophic (extreme) scar formation.26
• Human research present DMSO can flatten and loosen keloid scars27 and regularly remove subcutaneous fibrosis induced by radiation.28
• Lastly, DMSO can also be typically used to restore keloid scars. For instance, in a single research of ten folks with keloids, making use of 50% to 80% DMSO a few instances a day induced scar flattening with the loosening of the collagen surrounding the fibrous bundles.29 Equally, one other research discovered DMSO eradicated (via a gradual softening and discount of it).30
DMSO and Musculoskeletal Accidents
Lots of the early adopters of DMSO went from skeptics to believers due to the speedy and dramatic enhancements they noticed from it therapeutic acute accidents (e.g., as that they had sufferers with debilitating bursitis within the shoulder recovering inside minutes of receiving DMSO).
Because it was far safer and simpler than another strategy to deal with musculoskeletal accidents, joint issues or continual ache, DMSO was quickly adopted by medical doctors and pharmaceutical firms throughout the nation (e.g., hundreds of thousands had been invested to deliver DMSO merchandise to market and tons of of hundreds of Individuals had life-changing advantages from it).
Within the Nineteen Sixties a miraculous remedy for continual ache, traumatic harm, strokes and spinal wire paralysis was found that unfold throughout America like wildfire—till the FDA buried it.
Right here, 60 Minutes uncovered the FDA utilizing the identical playbook they used all through COVID-19. A🧵 pic.twitter.com/Bh0dcjNk5w
— A Midwestern Physician (@MidwesternDoc) October 14, 2024
Sadly, as DMSO’s use was skyrocketing, on November 10, 1965, the FDA determined to globally ban all analysis on it by falsely claiming it was extremely harmful. Due to this, there was an explosion after which sudden disappearance of DMSO analysis, which sadly continued even with Congress repeatedly making an attempt to get the FDA to overturn their indefensible prohibition of DMSO.
Be aware: An in depth overview of DMSO’s in depth security information and toxicology research may be seen here.
Because of this, little or no information now exists of DMSO’s use in human musculoskeletal accidents aside from it current in a couple of FDA authorized merchandise (the place it usually is mixed with one other agent). Remarkably nevertheless, it’s absolutely permitted in veterinary drugs (which led to a variety of Individuals utilizing DMSO that was “meant for horses”) the place it’s steadily utilized for musculoskeletal accidents. These forgotten research embody:
|
A 1964 research,31 the place 22 out of 25 sufferers with subacromial bursitis skilled a speedy enchancment inside half-hour of DMSO, whereas in continual instances 32 of 40 sufferers improved and in some sufferers, a discount in shoulder calcium deposits was additionally famous (which in a later 1967 research,32 had been proven on X-ray to vanish following DMSO). |
|
This 1965 research:33 
|
|
This massive 1967 research:34 
Be aware: In that research,35 lots of the outcomes had been fast and dramatic. For instance, this was one bursitis affected person. 
|
|
This 1967 research:36 
|
|
This 1967 research:37 
|
|
A 1967 research that discovered:38 
Be aware: The miscellaneous circumstances handled on this research by DMSO included 19 instances of sciatica, 6 instances of coccydynia, and a pair of instances of lupus.39 |
|
One other 1967 research40 discovered: 
|
|
A 1967 research41 gave PT and 70% DMSO to 7 folks with frozen shoulders, 4 of whom had glorious ache reduction and improved movement. |
|
A 1967 blinded research42 for acute musculoskeletal issues (utilizing 10% DMSO gel as a “placebo”) that discovered: 
In that research, its writer (a former president of the Aerospace Medical Affiliation43) remarked:
He then performed a follow-up double-blind research44 on sufferers with sprains, strains, bursitis, or tendinitis which discovered DMSO considerably improved these circumstances and decreased the time sufferers misplaced from work. |
|
A 1994 blinded research45 gave 157 sufferers with acute tendinopathies (e.g., tennis elbow) 10% DMSO gel or a placebo ointment 3 times a day for 14 days inside 3 days of signs beginning. Ache of motion underneath loading and the mobility of the joints had been considerably improved after, respectively, 3 and seven days of remedy with DMSO. After 14 days on DMSO, an extra enchancment was noticed, and 44% of the sufferers (and 9% of placebo) had been pain-free. Be aware: DMSO has additionally been reported to be efficient for carpal tunnel syndrome46 (and different hand points like set off fingers). For these battling carpal tunnel syndrome, I mentioned our approaches to the dysfunction here. |
|
Lastly, a 1967 evaluation47 of 76 research utilizing topically utilized (90%) DMSO for musculoskeletal circumstances discovered 72% improved. Particularly: 
Be aware: The overview additionally included 102 Traumas (contusion, fracture, and so forth.), 29 Tenosynovitis, 27 Neuritis, 20 Muscle spasms, 20 unspecified forms of arthritis, and 220 miscellaneous points (e.g., fibrositis, epicondylitis, synovitis, calcific tendinitis). To cite the authors:
Lastly, at a symposium on DMSO,48 information on 9,521 sufferers had been introduced, which confirmed DMSO was efficient remedy in all kinds of acute traumatic circumstances, in acute and continual subacromial bursitis, osteoarthritis, gouty arthritis, and in some sufferers with rheumatoid arthritis (together with different circumstances similar to early Dupuytren’s contracture). Be aware: A later 1981 research49 additionally discovered DMSO was superior to indomethacin within the remedy of gout. |
Sports activities Accidents
“What I like about DMSO is that you simply don’t should interrupt your coaching each time you get a minor pull or sprain. It doesn’t pump you up like sure tablets. It’s merely a really helpful factor to make use of for easy athletic accidents.
Some folks have instructed me that you simply should not use it as a result of it would masks the ache of a critical harm, however an excellent athlete is aware of his physique nicely. Even once I’m utilizing DMSO, I do know once I can push and once I can’t.” — Al Oerter, a discus thrower and the primary American to win 4 consecutive Olympic gold medals.50
One of many biggest challenges skilled athletes face are sports activities accidents which stop them from returning to the sector, significantly since many sports activities accidents are a product of micro-injuries build up till a vital level is handed (e.g., from adhesions and scars within the gentle tissue).
In flip, since DMSO each heals micro-injuries and quickly treats traumatic harm (returning them to full performance), DMSO was quickly adopted by skilled athletes as soon as they realized what it might do for his or her careers (and being off the sector was usually devastating to their careers).
In flip, as a result of voice their place afforded them, a couple of skilled athletes (e.g., Atlanta Falcons Quarterback June Jones51 — who now’s a coach52) grew to become a number of the most impactful advocates for DMSO (e.g., Jones said in Congressional testimony53 that “veterinary” DMSO was broadly used however athletes had been afraid of publicly discussing it). Likewise, in 2013, a Dallas Cowboys Lineman said:54
“You get it [from] the veterinarian and it goes proper to the bloodstream. It’s an ointment that’s like anti-inflammatory. You set it in your pores and skin and you place it on a muscle, and I assure you, in about half-hour you’d really feel it. It wasn’t on the checklist [of banned substances] … we used DMSO and folks knew it. Everybody knew about it.”
Moreover, in his riveting testimony, Jones supplied instances that left the Congressmen in disbelief, similar to a teammate with a bone chip and a torn ligament (which might require months of restoration and therefore finish their season) taking DMSO instantly after the harm and seven or 8 days later returning to the sector (with the bone chip remaining however not inflicting points).
Likewise, at that Congressional listening to, the previous group doctor for the Oakland Raiders55 testified that he’d used 70% topical DMSO on a cautious and managed foundation for his gamers 20 to 30 instances a 12 months for five years. From this, he noticed that DMSO was essentially the most helpful when given within the first 3 to 4 days of an acute harm the place a muscle or joint had extreme swelling, significantly of the extremities, particularly the ankle, elbow, palms, or wrist.
General, he said that DMSO supplied good to glorious outcomes 70% to 80% of the time (e.g., via decreased ache and swelling) and the gamers felt they had been in a position to return to play 50% to 75% sooner than that they had from comparable accidents previously. Conversely, they didn’t discover DMSO was useful for continual accidents, however this may occasionally have been resulting from it not getting used lengthy sufficient for the results to kick in.
Be aware: He additionally emphasised that DMSO would rework the sector of occupational drugs. I absolutely agree together with his evaluation, particularly given simply how steadily Employee’s Comp fails to assist its sufferers.
Equally, podiatrist Lowell Scott Weil (who was the doctor for each the Chicago Bears and the US Olympic gymnastics group) used DMSO frequently (significantly injured gymnasts).
After 12 years of utilizing it, he shared,56 he’d seen it quickly heal accidents (e.g., he had a gymnast who suffered an ankle sprain anticipated to finish her season, however as an alternative rapidly recovered and made the U.S. Olympic group, and a soccer participant who tore his hamstring however was in a position to quickly return to the sector).
General, he had a 60% remedy success charge and noticed the perfect response to DMSO for tendinitis, myositis, and post-injury conditions similar to muscle pulls, ankle sprains, strains, and tears of the gentle tissue (and conversely the one unwanted side effects he had had been pores and skin irritation). Moreover, he additionally used it for arthritic sufferers (particularly rheumatoid arthritis) with many having dramatic reduction. Many different compelling anecdotes exist.
For instance, this ebook57 discusses the expertise of an Oregon State observe coach and early adopter of DMSO who had many wonderful tales of DMSO treating hamstring and achilles tendon accidents similar to an athlete with the ability to return to the sector at full capability 3 days after a usually disqualifying hamstring harm and the story of a blind lengthy distance runner who was in a position to run resulting from DMSO fixing musculoskeletal accidents and (based on the writer) then performed a pivotal function in opening the game to girls.
Be aware: A significant drawback in sure sports activities like soccer is repeated concussions (which at the moment are acknowledged to place them in danger for cognitive impairment and dementia later in life). As mentioned in the first part of this series, along with treating strokes and spinal wire accidents, DMSO can also be immensely useful for mitigating the results of concussions.
Analysis additionally immediately demonstrates DMSO’s utility in sports activities drugs:
• A 1965 research58 handled 47 injured athletes from a variety of sports activities (e.g., tennis, diving, or wrestling) by making use of 90% DMSO utilized to the injured areas 3 instances a day initially after which after 2 days, twice a day. The 30 acute traumas (e.g., sprains, strains, dislocations, critical cuts) had been noticed to quickly resolve, typically “so spectacularly as to compel us to induce our sufferers to watch biggest warning to be able to keep away from additional injury to a joint.”
The ten continual circumstances (e.g., tennis elbow) and seven circumstances ensuing from extended immobilization additionally responded quickly and people athletes had been usually in a position to rapidly return to the sector. These outcomes and the dearth of noticed opposed occasions led the investigators to argue DMSO urgently wanted to turn out to be the usual of care in sports activities drugs.
• A research59 of 78 sufferers (largely athletes) with overstrained tendons obtained Dolobene gel (15% DMSO, dexpanthenol and heparin) for two to three weeks, with over 50% having a big enchancment of signs and people enhancements together with a 94% enchancment in ache, a 55% enchancment of swelling, 95% enchancment of redness and 92% enchancment of heat.
• A research60 gave Dolobene gel to 30 athletes with gentle tissue accidents of the higher and decrease extremities twice every day for 4 weeks. There have been 4 athletes with contusion of the shoulder, 8 with distortion and contusion of the knee joint, 8 with muscle, tendon and ligament lesions, and 10 with distortion of the ankle joint.
Following DMSO, 10 had a superb response (enchancment), 5 had a superb to good response, 10 had an excellent response and 5 had a reasonable response. Particularly, ache, irritation, swelling, reabsorption of hematomas, tenderness and restoration time had been assessed.
• A research61 gave Dolobene gel and ultrasound to fifteen topics who had obtained a blunt tissue trauma (with out fracture) to the decrease extremity throughout the final 24 hours. In comparison with 15 placebos, the remedy resulted in a sooner reduction of ache, discount of edema, and restoration of mobility.
• A 1966 research62 of 28 skilled baseball gamers discovered that giving them DMSO after accidents prompted their downtime be one third of what was noticed by the treating doctor within the earlier 12 months with 42 gamers.
Be aware: Whereas not fairly the identical as getting tackled, I’ve additionally come throughout instances63 of people taking DMSO instantly after getting hit by a automotive whereas crossing the road (which prompted accidents however no fractures) and instantly absolutely recovering.
Conclusion
Lots of the advantages of DMSO are so extraordinary that they understandably invite a wholesome diploma of skepticism, and it’s for that motive I’ve spent months fastidiously compiling the proof behind it. Likewise, after presenting the preliminary case for DMSO to the readership of the Forgotten Aspect of Medication, I put out a name for what those that’d tried DMSO had skilled.
In those comments, dozens of readers reported exceptional experiences of DMSO, a lot of which mirror these described all through this text, but in addition different much more exceptional ones (e.g., for a kid with Down Syndrome, a person with Parkinson’s and a girl who had severed her spinal wire).
The suppression of DMSO has all the time deeply bothered me, and in flip, I really feel extremely grateful to be alive at a time when the world is able to study of the suppressed medical truths many earlier than me (e.g., the DMSO researchers) devoted their lives to deliver to humanity.
Moreover, I consider that is simply the beginning, as past open platforms like Twitter (X) quickly eroding the general public’s belief in corrupt medical dogmas, I do know via trusted confidants immediately related to RFK Jr. that the following 4 years presents an unprecedented alternative to start rectifying lots of the beforehand insurmountable issues which have plagued our well being care system and make America Wholesome Once more.
Creator’s notice: That is an abridged model of a longer article that goes into larger element on the factors talked about right here, others not as extensively lined (e.g., the wealth of proof DMSO is a life-changing ache remedy), and steering for topical DMSO use (e.g., dosing, therapeutic precautions and the place to acquire it).
That article and its further references may be learn here (together with a companion article discussing DMSO’s exceptional utility for quite a lot of musculoskeletal accidents and continual ache circumstances and an article about how DMSO treats quite a lot of “incurable” autoimmune and genetic issues).
A Be aware from Dr. Mercola Concerning the Creator
A Midwestern Physician (AMD) is a board-certified doctor from the Midwest and a longtime reader of Mercola.com. I respect AMD’s distinctive perception on a variety of subjects and am grateful to share it. I additionally respect AMD’s want to stay nameless since AMD continues to be on the entrance traces treating sufferers. To seek out extra of AMD’s work, make sure you try The Forgotten Side of Medicine on Substack.