DMSO ...

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends,

I realized today when reading what Patty had posted here on DSMO,

that here was something that could be potentially helping the women,

and yet, Con Med & their quackwatch/heatlhfraud teams had worked so

hard to soil it's image ... I had never mentioned it myself.

Their listing even came up number one in Google ...so powerful is

their disinformation network.

I've personally seen DMSO work miracles.

When I was only around 27 years old, I was travelling in Mexico and

hiking up and down pyramids when my knees gave out ... I could not

step up a curb without intense paid. My husband talked to some

doctors and they gave me DMSO ... within hours the pain totally went

away. I still use it when I have overworked my muscles etc.

DMSO is FDA approved for Interstitial Cystitis ... one of the

autoimmune diseases (controversy there too) that many implanted

women suffer from. Below this excerpt is a long article on the

controversy surrounding this and discusses scleroderma.

Naturally, quackswatch/healthfrauds pan it ... and declare:

" Be aware that DMSO has potentially adverse side effects and offers

little in the way of medical value. "

That's their opinion ... here are others:

Here is one explanation on IC & DMSO:

http://www.urologyhealth.org/adult/index.cfm?cat=03 & topic=210

The other FDA-approved treatment is to place dimethyl sulfoxide

(DMSO) into the bladder through a catheter. This is usually done

once a week for six weeks, and some people continue using it as

maintenance therapy (though at longer intervals; not every week). No

one knows for certain how DMSO helps IC. It has several properties

including blocking inflammation, decreasing pain sensation and

removing a type of toxin called " free radicals " that can damage

tissue. Some doctors combine DMSO with other medications such as

heparin (similar to pentosan polysulfate) or steroids (to decrease

inflammation). No studies have tested whether these combinations

work better than dimethyl sulfoxide alone. The main side effect is a

garlic-like odor that lasts for several hours after using DMSO. For

some patients, DMSO can be painful to place into the bladder. This

can often be relieved by first placing a local anesthetic into the

bladder through a catheter, or by mixing the local anesthetic with

the DMSO.

http://www.dmso.org/articles/information/muir.htm

DMSO: Many Uses, Much Controversy

Maya Muir

Abstract

Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), a by-product of the wood industry, has

been in use as a commercial solvent since 1953. It is also one of

the most studied but least understood pharmaceutical agents of our

time--at least in the United States. According to Stanley , MD,

a former head of the organ transplant program at Oregon Health

Sciences University in Portland, more than 40,000 articles on its

chemistry have appeared in scientific journals, which, in

conjunction with thousands of laboratory studies, provide strong

evidence of a wide variety of properties. (See Major Properties

Attributed to DMSO) Worldwide, some 11,000 articles have been

written on its medical and clinical implications, and in 125

countries throughout the world, including Canada, Great Britain,

Germany, and Japan, doctors prescribe it for a variety of ailments,

including pain, inflammation, scleroderma, interstitial cystitis,

and arthritis elevated intercranial pressure.

Yet in the United States, DMSO has Food and Drug Administration

(FDA) approval only for use as a preservative of organs for

transplant and for interstitial cystitis, a bladder disease. It has

fallen out of the limelight and out of the mainstream of medical

discourse, leading some to believe that it was discredited. The

truth is more complicated.

DMSO: A History of Controversy

The history of DMSO as a pharmaceutical began in 1961, when Dr.

was head of the organ transplant program at Oregon Health

Sciences University. It all started when he first picked up a bottle

of the colorless liquid. While investigating its potential as a

preservative for organs, he quickly discovered that it penetrated

the skin quickly and deeply without damaging it. He was intrigued.

Thus began his lifelong investigation of the drug.

The news media soon got word of his discovery, and it was not long

before reporters, the pharmaceutical industry, and patients with a

variety of medical complaints jumped on the news. Because it was

available for industrial uses, patients could dose themselves. This

early public interest interfered with the ability of Dr. --or,

later, the FDA--to see that experimentation and use were safe and

controlled and may have contributed to the souring of the mainstream

medical community on it.

Why, if DMSO possesses half the capabilities claimed by Dr.

and others, is it still on the sidelines of medicine in the United

States today?

" It's a square peg being pushed into a round hole, " says Dr.

. " It doesn't follow the rifle approach of one agent against

one disease entity. It's the aspirin of our era. If aspirin were to

come along today, it would have the same problem. If someone gave

you a little white pill and said take this and your headache will go

away, your body temperature will go down, it will help prevent

strokes and major heart problems--what would you think? "

Others cite DMSO's principal side effect: an odd odor, akin to that

of garlic, that emanates from the mouth shortly after use, even if

use is through the skin. Certainly, this odor has made double-

blinded studies difficult. Such studies are based on the premise

that no one, neither doctor nor patient, knows which patient

receives the drug and which the placebo, but this drug announces its

presence within minutes.

Others, such as Terry Bristol, a Ph.D. candidate from the University

of London and president of the Institute for Science, Engineering

and Public Policy in Portland, Oregon, who assisted Dr. with

his research in the 1960s and 1970s, believe that the smell of DMSO

may also have put off the drug companies, that feared it would be

hard to market. Worse, however, for the pharmaceutical companies was

the fact that no company could acquire an exclusive patent for DMSO,

a major consideration when the clinical testing required to win FDA

approval for a drug routinely runs into millions of dollars. In

addition, says Mr. Bristol, DMSO, with its wide range of attributes,

would compete with many drugs these companies already have on the

market or in development.

The FDA and DMSO

In the first flush of enthusiasm over the drug, six pharmaceutical

companies embarked on clinical studies. Then, in November 1965, a

woman in Ireland died of an allergic reaction after taking DMSO and

several other drugs. Although the precise cause of the woman's death

was never determined, the press reported it to be DMSO. Two months

later, the FDA closed down clinical trials in the United States,

citing the woman's death and changes in the lenses of certain

laboratory animals that had been given doses of the drug many times

higher than would be given humans.

Some 20 years and hundreds of laboratory and human studies later, no

other deaths have been reported, nor have changes in the eyes of

humans been documented or claimed. Since then, however, the FDA has

refused seven applications to conduct clinical studies, and approved

only 1, for intersititial cystitis, which subsequently was approved

for prescriptive use in 1978.

Dr. believes the FDA " blackballed " DMSO, actively trying to

kill interest in a drug that could end much suffering. Jack de la

Torre, MD, Ph.D., professor of neurosurgery and physiology at the

University of New Mexico Medical School in Albuquerque, a pioneer in

the use of DMSO and closed head injury, says, " Years ago the FDA had

a sort of chip on its shoulder because it thought DMSO was some kind

of snake oil medicine. There were people there who were openly

biased against the compound even though they knew very little about

it. With the new administration at that agency, it has changed a

bit. " The FDA recently granted permission to conduct clinical trials

in Dr. de la Torre's field of closed head injury.

DMSO Penetrates Membranes and Eases Pain

The first quality that struck Dr. about the drug was its

ability to pass through membranes, an ability that has been verified

by numerous subsequent researchers.1 DMSO's ability to do this

varies proportionally with its strength--up to a 90 percent

solution. From 70 percent to 90 percent has been found to be the

most effective strength across the skin, and, oddly, performance

drops with concentrations higher than 90 percent. Lower

concentrations are sufficient to cross other membranes. Thus, 15

percent DMSO will easily penetrate the bladder.2

In addition, DMSO can carry other drugs with it across membranes. It

is more successful ferrying some drugs, such as morphine sulfate,

penicillin, steroids, and cortisone, than others, such as insulin.

What it will carry depends on the molecular weight, shape, and

electrochemistry of the molecules. This property would enable DMSO

to act as a new drug delivery system that would lower the risk of

infection occurring whenever skin is penetrated.

DMSO perhaps has been used most widely as a topical analgesic, in a

70 percent DMSO, 30 percent water solution. Laboratory studies

suggest that DMSO cuts pain by blocking peripheral nerve C fibers.3

Several clinical trials have demonstrated its effectiveness,4,5

although in one trial, no benefit was found.6 Burns, cuts, and

sprains have been treated with DMSO. Relief is reported to be almost

immediate, lasting up to 6 hours. A number of sports teams and

Olympic athletes have used DMSO, although some have since moved on

to other treatment modalities. When administration ceases, so do the

effects of the drug.

Dr. said at a hearing of the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on

Health in 1980, " DMSO is one of the few agents in which

effectiveness can be demonstrated before the eyes of the

observers....If we have patients appear before the Committee with

edematous sprained ankles, the application of DMSO would be followed

by objective diminution of swelling within an hour. No other

therapeutic modality will do this. "

Chronic pain patients often have to apply the substance for 6 weeks

before a change occurs, but many report relief to a degree they had

not been able to obtain from any other source.

DMSO and Inflammation

DMSO reduces inflammation by several mechanisms. It is an

antioxidant, a scavenger of the free radicals that gather at the

site of injury. This capability has been observed in experiments

with laboratory animals7 and in 150 ulcerative colitis patients in a

double-blinded randomized study in Baghdad, Iraq.8 DMSO also

stabilizes membranes and slows or stops leakage from injured cells.

At the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1978, 213

patients with inflammatory genitourinary disorders were studied.

Researchers concluded that DMSO brought significant relief to the

majority of patients. They recommended the drug for all inflammatory

conditions not caused by infection or tumor in which symptoms were

severe or patients failed to respond to conventional therapy.9

Edelson, MD, F.A.A.F.P., F.A.A.E.M., who practices medicine

at the Environmental and Preventive Health Center of Atlanta, has

used DMSO extensively for 4 years. " We use it intravenously as well

as locally, " he says. " We use it for all sorts of inflammatory

conditions, from people with rheumatoid arthritis to people with

chronic low back inflammatory-type symptoms, silicon immune toxicity

syndromes, any kind of autoimmune process.

" DMSO is not a cure, " he continues. " It is a symptomatic approach

used while you try to figure out why the individual has the process

going on. When patients come in with rheumatoid arthritis, we put

them on IV DMSO, maybe three times a week, while we are evaluating

the causes of the disease, and it is amazing how free they get. It

really is a dramatic treatment. "

As for side effects, Dr. Edelson says: " Occasionally, a patient will

develop a headache from it, when used intravenously--and it is dose

related. " He continues: " If you give a large dose, [the patient]

will get a headache. And we use large doses. I have used as much as

30ÝmlÝIV over a couple of hours. The odor is a problem. Some men

have to move out of the room [shared] with their wives and into

separate bedrooms. That is basically the only problem. "

DMSO was the first nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory discovered since

aspirin. Mr. Bristol believes that it was that discovery that

spurred pharmaceutical companies on to the development on other

varieties of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories. " Pharmaceutical

companies were saying that if DMSO can do this, so can other

compounds, " says Mr. Bristol. " The shame is that DMSO is less toxic

and has less int he way of side effects than any of them. "

Collagen and Scleroderma

Scleroderma is a rare, disabling, and sometimes fatal disease,

resulting form an abnormal buildup of collagen in the body. The body

swells, the skin--particularly on hands and face--becomes dense and

leathery, and calcium deposits in joints cause difficulty of

movement. Fatigue and difficulty in breathing may ensue. Amputation

of affected digits may be necessary. The cause of scleroderma is

unknown, and, until DMSO arrived, there was no known effective

treatment.

Arthur Scherbel, MD, of the department of rheumatic diseases and

pathology at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, conducted a study

using DMSO with 42 scleroderma patients who had already exhausted

all other possible therapies without relief. Dr. Scherbel and his

coworkers concluded 26 of the 42 showed good or excellent

improvement. Histotoxic changes were observed together with healing

of ischemic ulcers on fingertips, relief from pain and stiffness,

and an increase in strength. The investigators noted, " It should be

emphasized that these have never been observed with any other mode

of therapy. " 10 Researchers in other studies have since come to

similar conclusions.11

Does DMSO Help Arthritis?

It was inevitable that DMSO, with its pain-relieving, collagen-

softening, and anti-inflammatory characteristics, would be employed

against arthritis, and its use has been linked to arthritis as much

as to any condition. Yet the FDA has never given approval for this

indication and has, in fact, turned down three Investigational New

Drug (IND) applications to conduct extensive clinical trials.

Moreover, its use for arthritis remains controversial.

, MD, F.R.C.P., F.A.C.R., F.A.C.P., professor of medicine and

chief, division of arthritis and rheumatic disease at Oregon Health

Sciences University (Dr. 's university), says other drugs work

better. Dava Sobel and Arthur Klein conducted their own informal

study of 47 arthritis patients using DMSO in preparation for writing

their book, Arthritis: What Works, and came to the same

conclusion.12

Yet laboratory studies have indicated that DMSO's capacity as a free-

radical scavenger suggests an important role for it in arthritis.13

The Committee of Clinical Drug Trials of the Japanese Rheumatism

Association conducted a trial with 318 patients at several clinics

using 90 percent DMSO and concluded that DMSO relieved joint pain

and increased range of joint motion and grip strength, although

performing better in more recent cases of the disease.14 It is

employed widely in the former Soviet Union for all the different

types of arthritis, as it is in other countries around the world.

Dr. remains convinced that it can play a significant role in

the treatment of arthritis. " You talk to veterinarians associated

with any race track, and you'll find there's hardly an animal there

that hasn't been treated with DMSO. No veterinarian is going to give

his patient something that does not work. There's no placebo effect

on a horse. "

DMSO and Central Nervous System Trauma

Since 1971, Dr. de la Torre, then at the University of Chicago, has

experimented using DMSO with injury to the central nervous system.

Working with laboratory animals, he discovered that DMSO lowered

intracranial pressure faster and more effectively than any other

drug. DMSO also stabilized blood pressure, improved respiration, and

increased urine output by five times and increased blood flow

through the spinal cord to areas of injury.15-17 Since then, DMSO

has been employed with human patients suffering severe head trauma,

initially those whose intracranial pressure remained high despite

the administration of mannitol, steroids, and barbiturates. In

humans, as well as animals, it has proven the first drug to

significantly lower intracranial pressure, the number one problem

with severe head trauma.

" We believe that DMSO may be a very good product for stroke, " says

Dr. de la Torre, " and that is a devastating illness which affects

many more people than head injury. We have done some preliminary

clinical trials, and there's a lot of animal data showing that it is

a very good agent in dissolving clots. "

Other Possible Applications for DMSO

Many other uses for DMSO have been hypothesized from its known

qualities hand have been tested in the laboratory or in small

clinical trials. Mr. Bristol speaks with frustration about important

findings that have never been followed up on because of the

difficulty in finding funding and because " to have on your resume

these days that you've worked on DMSO is the kiss of death. " It is

simply too controversial. A sampling of some other possible

applications for this drug follows.

DMSO as long been used to promote healing. People who have it on

hand often use it for minor cuts and burns and report that recovery

is speedy. Several studies have documented DMSO use with soft tissue

damage, local tissue death, skin ulcers, and burns.18-21

In relation to cancer, several properties of DMSO have gained

attention. In one study with rats, DMSO was found to delay the

spread of one cancer and prolong survival rates with another.22 In

other studies, it has been found to protect noncancer cells while

potentiating the chemotherapeutic agent.

Much has been written recently about the worldwide crisis in

antibiotic resistance among bacteria (see Alternative &

Complementary Therapies, Volume 2, Number 3, 1996, pages 140-144)

Here, too, DMSO may be able to play a role. Researcher as early as

1975 discovered that it could break down the resistance certain

bacteria have developed.23

In addition to its ability to lower intracranial pressure following

closed head injury, Dr. de la Torre's work suggests that the drug

may actually have the ability to prevent paralysis, given its

ability to speedily clean out cellular debris and stop the

inflammation that prevents blood from reaching muscle, leading to

the death of muscle tissue.

With its great antioxidant powers, DMSO could be used to mitigate

some of the effects of aging, but little work has been done to

investigate this possibility. Toxic shock, radiation sickness, and

septicemia have all been postulated as responsive to DMSO, as have

other conditions too numerous to mention here.

DMSO in the Future

Will DMSO ever sit on the shelves of pharmacies in this country as a

legal prescriptive for many of the conditions it may be able to

address? Will the studies we need to discover when this drug is most

appropriate ever be done? Given the difficulties the drug has run

into so far and the recent development of new drugs that perform

some of the same functions, Mr. Bristol is doubtful. Others,

however, such as Dr. and Dr. de la Torre, see the FDA approval

of DMSO for interstitial cystitis and the more recent FDA go-ahead

for DMSO trials with closed head injury as new indications of hope.

The cystitis approval means that physicians may use it at their

discretion for other uses, giving DMSO a new legitimacy.

Dr. continues to believe that DMSO should not even be called a

drug but is more correctly a new therapeutic principle, with an

effect on medicine that will be profound in many areas. Whether that

is true cannot be known without extensive a publicly reported

trials, which are dependent on the willingness of researchers to

undertake rigorous studies in this still-unfashionable tack and of

pharmaceutical companies and other investors to back them up. That

this is a live issue is proved by the difficulty the investigators

with approval to test DMSO for closed head injury clinically are

having finding funds to conduct the trials.

In 1980, testifying before the Select Committee on Agin of the U.S.

House of Representatives, Dr. Scherbel said, " The controversy that

exists over the clinical effectiveness of DMSO is not well-founded--

clinical effectiveness may be variable in different patients. If

toxicity is consistently minimal, the drug should not be restricted

from practice. The clinical effectiveness of DMSO can be decided

with complete satisfaction if the drug is made available to the

practicing physician. The number of patient complaints about pain

and the number of phone calls to the doctor's office will decide

quickly whether or not the drug is effective. "

It may be premature to call for the full rehabilitation of DMSO, but

it is time to call for a full investigation of its true range of

capabilities.

References

Kolb, K.H., Jaenicke, G., Kramer, M., Schulze, P.E. Absorption,

distribution, and elimination of labeled dimethyl sulfoxide in man

and animals. Ann NY Acad Sci 141:85-95, 1967.

Herschler, R., , S.W. The case of dimethyl sulfoxide. In:

Lasagna, L. (Ed.), Controversies in Therapeutics. Philadelphia: W.B.

Saunders, 1980.

, M.S., Reid, K.H., Sharp, J.B. Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO)

blocks conduction in peripheral nerve C fibers: A possible mechanism

of analgesia. Neurosci Lett 150:145-148, 1993.

Demos, C.H., Beckloff, G.L., Donin, M.N., Oliver, P.M. Dimethyl

sulfoxide in musculoskeletal disorders. Ann NY Acad Sci 141:517-523,

1967.

Lockie, L.M., Norcross, B. A clinical study on the effects of

dimethyl sulfoxide in 103 patients with acute and chronic

musculoskeletal injures and inflammation. Ann NY Acad Sci 141:599-

602, 1967.

Percy, E.C., Carson, J.D. The use of DMSO in tennis elbow and

rotator cuff tendinitis: A double-blind study. Med Sci Sports

Exercise 13:215-219, 1981.

Itoh, M., Guth, P. Role of oxygen-derived free radicals in

hemorrhagic shock-induced gastric lesions in the rat.

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Salim, A.S., Role of oxygen-derived free radical scavengers in the

management of recurrent attacks of ulcerative colitis: A new

approach. J. Lab Clin Med 119:740-747, 1992.

Shirley, S.W., , B.H., Mirelman, S. Dimethyl sulfoxide in

treatment of inflammatory genitourinary disorders. Urology 11:215-

220, 1978.

Scherbel, A.L., McCormack, L.J., Layle, J.K. Further observations on

the effect of dimethyl sulfoxide in patients with generalized

scleroderma (progressive systemic sclerosis). Ann NY Acad Sci

141:613-629, 1967.

Engel, M.F., Dimethyl sulfoxide in the treatment of scleroderma.

South Med J 65:71, 1972.

Sobel, D., Klein, A.C. Arthritis: What Works. New York: St. s

Press, 1989.

Santos, L., Tipping, P.G. Attenuation of adjuvant arthritis in rats

by treatment with oxygen radical scavengers. Immunol Cell Biol

72:406-414, 1994.

Matsumoto, J. Clinical trials of dimethyl sulfoxide in rheumatoid

arthritis patients in Japan. Ann NY Acad Sci 141:560-568, 1967.

de la Torre, J.C., et al. Modifications of experimental spinal cord

injuries using dimethyl sulfoxide. Trans Am Neurol Assoc 97:230,

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de la Torre, J.C., et al. Dimethyl sulfoxide in the treatment of

experimental brain compression. J Neurosurg 38:343, 1972.

de la Torre, J.C., et al. Dimethyl sulfoxide in the central nervous

system trauma. Ann NY Acad Sci 243:362, 1975.

Lawrence, H.H., Goodnight, S.H. Dimethyl sulfoxide and extravasion

of anthracycline agents. Ann Inter Med 98:1025, 1983.

Lubredo, L., Barrie, M.S., Woltering, E.A. DMSO protects against

adriamycin-induced skin necrosis. J. Surg Res 53:62-65, 1992.

Alberts, D.S., Dorr, R.T. Case report: Topical DMSO for mitomycin-C-

induced skin ulceration. Oncol Nurs Forum 18:693-695, 1991.

Cruse, C.W., s, S. Minor burns: Treatment using a new drug

deliver system with silver sulfadiazine. South Med J 82:1135-1137,

1989.

, L., Hansbrough, J., Slater, H., et al. Sildimac: A new

deliver system for silver sulfadiazine in the treatment of full-

thickness burn injuries. J Burn Care Rehab 11:35-41, 1990

Salim, A. Removing oxygen-derived free radicals delays hepatic

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Source: Alternative & Complementary Therapies, July/August 1996,

pages 230-235. DMSO Organization would like to thank the publisher

for permission to place this fine article on the World Wide Web. The

Publisher retains all copyright. To order reprints of this article,

write to or call: Ballen, Alternative & Complementary

Therapies, Ann Liebert, Inc., 2 Madison Avenue, Larchmont, NY

10538, (914) 834-3100.