These later chapters will be devoted
exclusively to particular disease conditions or body systems where DMSO is
found to be useful. PROTECTION AGAINST RADIATION, FREEZING, AND
THAWING
When DMSO is painted on the leg of a rat, the leg is shielded from the effects of
X-rays. The radioprotective properties of DMSO were originally reported in 1961. 4
DMSO safeguards a number of cells, cellular systems, and whole animals against
the lethal and mutagenic effects of X-rays. 5
Whole-body protection against radiation occurs at the cellular level rather than
as an indirect pharmacological mechanism. At the cellular level, amounts of
glycerol and DMSO that defend against freezing damage also protect against X-
irradiation damage. This was demonstrated for bacteria,
6
,
7
,
8
,
9
 human kidney
cells,
10
 and mouse tail bones
11
 irradiated into the living organism. Topical
application of DMSO to the skin of sixteen-day-old nestling rats protects them
against X-ray-induced damage. 12
A method for the prevention of radiation injuries of the urinary bladder and
rectum for cervical cancer patients was worked out by medical 
researchers in
Russia. Reported in March 1985 in the Russian radiological journal, 
Meditsinskaia
Radiologiia
, the method was based on the local application of dimethyl sulfoxide
as a radioprotective agent before a session of interstitial irradiation with the
AGAT-B X-ray apparatus was carried out. Accompanying radiation therapy with
DMSO as the protectant was provided to twenty-two cervical cancer patients. Thecontrol group included fifty-nine patients who received similar treatment without
DMSO. The expression of early reactions and late injuries of the rectum and
urinary bladder were significantly lower in the DMSO group. The DMSO-
protected patients did not get radiation burns, while the unfortunate control group
of patients did. 13
There is evidence that DMSO sustains red blood cells during freezing and
thawing. Evidence of preservation against cellular freezing by DMSO was
published in a 1959 report. 14
 Little doubt exists that the solvent, at concentrations
between 5 percent and 10 percent, offers excellent protection to a number of very
different cellular systems from the damaging effects associated with freezing and
thawing. INJURIES OF THE BRAIN AND SPINAL CORD
An important possible advance in the prevention of paralysis after injuries to the
brain and spinal cord, DMSO is being studied for this purpose at four centers of
learning. One of them is the University of Miami School of Medicine, where Jack
C. de la Torre, M.D., is Associate Professor of Neurosurgery and Psychiatry and
Chief of the Department of Neurological Research. By 1992, he had been working
with the compound for about twelve years. Dr. de la Torre first illustrated his
findings at a November 1980 scientific conference of the DMSO Society of
Florida, Inc. held in Sarasota, Florida. Studying monkeys that were given an occlusion of the middle cerebral artery,
the blood vessel in the brain that controls motor function, Dr. de la Torre
prevented their paralysis by dosing them with DMSO. The DMSO-treated
monkeys didn’t suffer from the severe neurological damage from cerebral stroke
that would occur if they were left untreated or were treated with corticosteroids,
the current conventional treatment. Stroke, which causes half a million deaths or
more each year among Americans, is the second most common cause of death
from cardiovascular disease. There are many facets to the pathologic process—
pressure, lack of oxygen, inadequate blood flow, release of enzymes—and DMSO
is well equipped to arrest them. 15
 The DMSO must 
be administered within four
hours to be effective, and within ninety minutes is best, reports Dr. de la Torre. 16
 I
provide a full discussion of his DMSO research with head and spinal cord injuries
in 
Chapter 9
. At the University of Oregon Medical School where Dr. Jacob works,intravenous DMSO was given to patients following severe head injury. For a
group of patients receiving barbiturates and mannitol, brain pressure remained
elevated. When 40 percent DMSO was administered (one gram of DMSO per
kilogram of body weight) the pressure came down to normal within three to five
minutes. Barbiturates and mannitol are at present considered the best available
treatment in traditional medicine for such brain injuries, but DMSO proved better,
said Dr. Jacob in an interview. In separate animal studies with cats, rats, and dogs done at three universities,
DMSO given intravenously to the spinal cords of the animals within an hour of
injury brought about reversal of the injuries, which ordinarily would have been
irreversible. “We have had experience at our medical school in Oregon with two patients in
which DMSO was given as early as an hour after what was considered an
irreversible injury—an immediate, complete quadriplegia—and in both people
there was total recovery with them walking out of the hospital,” said Dr. Jacob. For optimal therapeutic effect it is considered critical to give DMSO intravenously
within ninety minutes of a head injury. “Since the grey matter of the brain seems to deteriorate after any injury, at
least in experimental subjects, DMSO has to be given very quickly. Every
emergency room and every ambulance should carry it. For paralysis, the drug
should be administered in the dosage of one gram per kilogram of body weight. Forty percent concentration for paralysis is recommended even though it extends
the bleeding time,” Dr. Jacob said. “We have had three patients come into our
medical center paralyzed after injury: one five hours, a second six hours, and the
last nine hours. Historically, we thought their chances of recovery were just about
zero. Two of those three are now walking as a result of our administering IV
DMSO despite the time being beyond an hour-and-a-half of the injury.” The
Douglass Center recommended, and Dr. de la Torre concurred, that 2 grams per
kilogram patient body weight should be given for the first dose in these trauma
cases. HEMORRHAGIC STROKE AND HEAD WOUNDS
Even though 40 percent DMSO does cause a prolongation of bleeding 
time, it is
still indicated for use in treating embolic or hemorrhagic stroke. Hemorrhagic
stroke is the rupture of a weakened blood vessel in the brain often causing
headache, nausea, and ringing in the ears just before the onset of this type ofcerebral vascular accident. Embolic stroke is the plugging of a vessel by a clot. DMSO is superior to any other treatment for high velocity missile wounds of
the brain where a great deal of hemorrhage is present. The key to success with
DMSO for hemorrhagic stroke or any other problem, as has been shown, is to use
it as soon as possible after the stroke or head wound occurs. The healing qualities
of DMSO work to bring the injured tissues back to normal. See 
Chapter 9
 and
Appendix I
 for more extensive information on DMSO’s use in embolic and
hemorrhagic stroke. BRAIN-DAMAGED CHILDREN
DMSO has been useful in cases of mental retardation and Down’s syndrome. As a
penetrant it carries drugs across the blood-brain barrier, always a major problem in
treating the brain. It has also been used to combat certain forms of psychosis. Brain-damaged children are given oral DMSO in 50 percent strength. It’s
especially advantageous for impaired babies, who are provided with a quantity of
one half of a gram per kilogram by mouth. Efficacy will be noticed by the child’s
parents, although measurable changes may not reach the level of statistical
significance for the person administering therapy. A cholinesterase inhibitor, the
drug may stimulate central nervous system transmission, which is certainly worth a
try even over several years to restore a brain-damaged child. 17
,
18
See 
Chapter 10
 for greater detail on the response to DMSO therapy of children
with mental retardation, Down’s syndrome, and learning difficulties. SCIATICA AND LUMBAR DISC PROBLEMS
In aching backs, particularly disc diseases that cause excruciating spinal pain and
often end with surgery, European reports show treatment time and techniques can
be reduced by 50 percent with DMSO use. From 20 to 50 ml of 20 percent DMSO combined with the local anesthetic
Xylocaine injected intramuscularly into the painful area daily is a valid adjunct to
other treatment. The injections should be given for three to five days in a row. The following is part of a letter written by Patrick J. Potter of Beavercreek,
Oregon, and sent to Chairman Claude Pepper of the House Select Committee on
Aging March 25, 1980:I, myself, have realized almost complete freedom from pain since being
injected with DMSO by Dr. Stanley Jacob. My pain was due to scar
tissue formed around the sciatic nerve as a result of two lumbar disc
surgeries and would drop me by surprise to the ground—thus causing a
constant need for pain medication and the use of a cane, for walking. After
two (2) shots of DMSO I was able to quit using the cane, and after about
six (6) shots of DMSO by Dr. Jacob I was able to stop using the pain
medication. I now feel better than I have since before I got hurt, and owe it
all to Dr. Jacob and DMSO. . . . Unfortunately, not everyone treated for these difficult back problems gets such
an excellent result. KELOIDS, SCARS, AND BURNS
Applied topically and repeatedly, DMSO will flatten the raised, nodular, lobulated
linear mass of scar tissue in keloids and take away some of the discoloration. It
won’t cause the parallel bands of densely collagenous material to disappear, but it
does have a positive effect. It could also be an aid in reducing scarring from
chronic acne where the fibrous papules have developed at the site of hair follicles,
usually on the back of the neck at the hairline. In one study of ten people with keloids, applying up to 80 percent DMSO a
couple of times a day induced scar flattening with loosening of the collagen
surrounding the fibrous bundles. 19
DMSO may be useful in preventing adhesions secondary to previous surgery. This would be accomplished by instilling a dilute solution of DMSO in the
abdominal cavity at the time of surgery. More research needs to be done on this. Thus, DMSO reduces, dissolves, or prevents the formation of scar tissue, a
feature important in burns as well. It prevents the contracture of the scar tissue left
after burns. DMSO was used for the local treatment of surface burns by Russian burn
specialists in March 1985. Dr. Fil’iula administered the skin penetrant to burned
adolescents under bandages and did a comparative 
study with it against other
therapeutic burn agents: nitrofurazone, trimecaine, and monomycin. He found that
DMSO was superior in its therapeutic effect. 20
Dorothy S. Ludwig of Lake Grove, Oregon, wrote to the Honorable Claude
Pepper March 25, 1980, and said in part: “I have used it for severe burns and hadthe pain stopped at once, and somehow, the DMSO prevents the heat of the burn
from penetrating further into the body and damaging more tissue. No blisters,
scars, or infection.”
When Dr. William Campbell Douglass practiced medicine in Sarasota, Florida,
his experience involved a little six-year-old girl, Penelope Pappas of Sarasota, who
slipped her finger into a live light socket for a prolonged period of time. Her index
finger was cooked through and burned ash white at the tip. Within thirty minutes,
Dr. Douglass was able to have the finger soaking in full-strength DMSO solution
as the child screamed with the pain of the electrical burn. By the end of twenty
minutes’ immersion in the liquid, the girl had stopped crying because she felt no
more discomfort. She slept undisturbed all night, and the next day showed a pink
and healing index finger—a truly amazing sight considering the severity of her
injury. At the time of the accident, it was felt that she would probably lose the tip
of her finger from gangrene. Today, you would never know she had sustained an
injury. ANTIFUNGAL, ANTIBACTERIAL, ANTIVIRAL EFFECT
DMSO stops the spread of fungus. It has been found effective when combined
with the oral antibiotic agent, griseofulvin, to kill ringworm, especially mycotic
toenails. The solvent can be mixed with other usual antifungal ingredients, too,
such as iodine or one of the commercial preparations, to form a 90 percent
solution. I do not recommend treating in this fashion except under the supervision
of health professionals’ advice, which, of course, applies to all treatments
described in this book. Applied to fungus toenails or tinea pedis, a paste of
griseofulvin and DMSO works well to clear the condition. When I practiced as a
doctor of podiatric medicine, this was a treatment I developed and used
successfully. The solvent carries various fungicides deep into the skin badly
infected with fungi. In a lower concentration ranging from 30 percent to 40 percent, DMSO is
bacteriostatic against 
Pseudomonas, Staphylococcus aureus
, and 
Escherichia
coli. 21
,
22
 The substance in 12.5 to 25 percent concentrations causes complete
inhibition of growth of highly pleomorphic bacteria 
regularly isolated from human
tumors and leukemic serum. In the body of the tumors, twenty-seven such isolated
organisms were inhibited from growing without affecting the intact red blood
cells. 23Many doctors are excited because the drug shows itself able to make
antibiotic-resistant bacteria sensitive to antibiotics again. By adding penicillin or
streptomycin to DMSO for an inhalant, tuberculosis resistance to these antibiotics
is partially avoided. It also carries antibiotics to reduce middle-ear infections in
children. DMSO acts synergistically with other drugs to provide a combination therapy
against bacterial infections of the lungs, reported four Russian physicians in 1986. It proved useful for the treatment of lung abscess and pneumonia when combined
with other antibiotics. 24
The solvent alone combats viruses and carries antiviral drugs into the tissues
for such infections as fever blisters or painful shingles. It is thought that DMSO dissolves a virus organism’s coating of protein and
leaves it unprotected with only its core of nucleic acid exposed to the immune
mechanism of the host animal. It did just that to a murine virus-induced
leukemia. 25
MUSCULOSKELETAL INJURIES
It is in the field of musculoskeletal disorders that DMSO showed some of its first
and most exciting uses. Originally, Dr. Jacob painted it on the ankle of a colleague
who had sustained an accident, and relieved both pain and swelling—only to find
out later that the bone was broken. The orthopedic surgeon on the case said he’d
never seen so severe a fracture with so little swelling. For another laboratory
worker who had sprained his ankle, DMSO wiped out both swelling and pain, and
he walked away in comfort. Sports has proved the medicine’s most adaptable area—removing bruises and
relieving sprains and strains. DMSO has been employed successfully for thirty
professional baseball players on one team, their time loss from injuries only a third
that of those treated by conventional methods. DMSO is the treatment of choice in
soft tissue injuries. The drug facilitates the healing of almost any type of traumatic occurrence to
the musculoskeletal system. When applied to the back immediately after an injury,
it starts complete healing. Without DMSO, paralysis could result. This has been
shown repeatedly in tests on dogs. A clinical journal review article published in August 1988 confirmed that
DMSO is an inorganic compound with many interesting 
in vitro
 
properties(occurring in laboratory apparatus), including the ability to scavenge oxygen-free
radicals. The four authors had used this substance to treat a variety of clinical
conditions, especially musculoskeletal trauma, but they stated that valid data
regarding its effectiveness were lacking. Their paper, published in 
Clinical
Orthopaedics & Related Research
, reviewed the pharmacology of dimethyl
sulfoxide and reported on its effectiveness in reducing post-traumatic limb
swelling and ankle joint stiffness in a rabbit hind limb model. The left and right
hind limbs of the test and control animals were fractured identically in the
laboratory. Then, DMSO was applied daily to the skin of only one limb in the test
animals. The investigators advised that DMSO reduced postinjury ankle stiffness
in both ankles of the test rabbits by 41 percent but had no effect on limb swelling
compared to control rabbits. Their postulated mechanisms of decreased joint
stiffness included oxygen-free radical scavenging and reduction or stoppage of
fibroblastic growth and spread. (A fibroblast is the cellular element that creates
connective tissue.) 26
One criticism of the compound, leveled by Sarasota rheumatologist Ronald
Weitzner, M.D., in a newspaper article, is that DMSO, when used in injuries such
as ankle sprains, can be dangerous because the relief from pain encourages the
patient to use that ankle when he should be staying off it. In actual practice this
has not been a problem at all. Surprisingly, in musculoskeletal disorders and in other conditions where
DMSO is applied topically, it is better tolerated in higher concentrations below the
waist than above the waist. Yet, DMSO is apparently more effective above the
waist, with the quickest response for problems involving the face, neck, shoulders,
upper limbs, and upper back and trunk. It should be used cautiously, with a
concern for side effects. Concentration should be lowered if any occur. Distilled water is usually the preferred liquid to mix with DMSO to make up a
solution. And no contraindications for any generally acceptable solution or
pharmaceutical to be mixed with DMSO are known. It seems compatible with any
drug. Furthermore, the substance is not derived exclusively from trees; it can be
made from nearly any organic base and probably is naturally present in human
beings, although it has not been identified as such. CANCER
DMSO is an excellent adjunct in metabolic cancer therapy, for it potentiateschemotherapy. There are now twelve tumor-cell types in the test 
tube in which
DMSO tends to stimulate the tumor cell toward changing into a more normal cell,
Dr. Jacob told me. In Chile, Jorge Cornejo Garrido, M.D., Head of the Oncological Department of
the Military Hospital and Oncologist of the “Lopez Perez” Foundation, Santiago,
and Raul Escobar Lagos, M.D., Head of the Department for Radiotherapy of the
“Caupolican Pardo Correa” Institute, University of Chile, used chemotherapeutic
agents and DMSO in sixty-five patients with different cancerous localizations. All
the people were diagnosed as incurable and previously subjected to conventional
treatments. This DMSO combination of drugs had a strengthened antiblastic
activity (destroying cancer cells) due to the potentiating and penetrating property
of the DMSO. It reduced considerably the toxic side effects of Cyclophosphamide,
the chemotherapy agent employed, especially in prolonged treatments. The doctors divided their patients into three different cancer classifications:
lymphomas, breast cancer, and miscellaneous cancers. They reported the
following:
The best results in regard to clinical improvement were obtained by the
lymphoma group. The beneficial effect on the patients’ anemia was significant, as they appeared
more lucid and more disposed to resume their habitual activities shortly after
the treatment had been initiated. Moreover, there was a definite mitigation of
pain and, in many cases, it was not necessary to use morphine. There exists a clear synergism of DMSO-Cyclophosphamide when the latter
is dissolved in DMSO with amino acids, which permits the application of
lower daily doses and lower total doses of Cyclophosphamide than those
generally used, without impairing the therapeutic activity. Patients who do not otherwise tolerate Cyclophosphamide in saline solutions
have good tolerance of the DMSO medication. 27
 A cancer researcher has
found a way to make cancer cells behave more normally by bringing about a
mitotic “turnabout.” Charlotte Friend, M.D., of New York’s Mt. Sinai
Hospital, injected DMSO into leukemic mice and was astonished to discover
that the cancer cells started to perform normal cell functions because of the
injected solvent. She saw that 90 percent of the cancer cells started making
hemoglobin, which leukemic cells do not. The DMSO had somehow caused
the cells to “grow up.”
28In a paper presented at a New York Academy of Sciences meeting, Dr. Joel
Warren and his associates at Nova University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, said:
“Treatment of human cancer with combinations of oral DMSO and antitumor
compounds is both feasible and attractive. Because of potential toxicity problems,
it must be approached, however, not only with caution but also under
circumstances in which the maximum amount of information can be obtained on
the mode of action of DMSO.”
Building on the Mt. Sinai Hospital research and the Nova University research,
William Campbell Douglass, M.D., has developed a certain therapeutic approach
for malignancy. It is based on the premise that neoplasms (cancer) are signs of a
chronic metabolic dysfunction. Therefore, after testing for blood chemistries and
trace minerals, analyzing the diet, and determining immune status and other aspects
of physiology, orthomolecular-DMSO cancer therapy is instituted. Possible
toxicity is stringently monitored. The treatment for cancer consists of intravenous
injections of vitamin C, amygdalin, and DMSO. The patient’s relief from cancer
pain and the patient’s return of appetite has been impressive. He or she has a
chance for self-healing through resurgence of the body’s immunological defenses. Orthomolecular cancer therapy is a non-toxic approach that combines
intravenous DMSO injections with optimal nutrition and lifestyle changes, when
indicated. Dr. Douglass observed that he possibly had prolonged life in many of
these patients; how much, of course, is difficult to measure. It has been known for half a century that certain murine (pertaining to mice)
and human cancers can spontaneously mature to benign tissue. These observations
have stimulated investigators to attempt to induce a state of more normal or benign
differentiation in cancer cells using biologic substances or chemicals. Polar
solvents including dimethylsulfoxide, dimethylformamide, and
monomethylformamide have proven to be good inducers of maturational events in
murine and human cancer cells. Moreover, several laboratories have demonstrated
that polar solvents inhibit the growth of human tumor xenografts (human tissue
grafted into the tissues of animals) in nude mice. These findings have resulted in
the entry of monomethylformamide into phase I clinical trials in the United States
and Europe. In 1984, two researchers published a significant paper in the 
Journal of
Clinical Oncology
 about their preclinical work on polar solvents such as DMSO
as useful agents in combination with conventional treatment modalities for human
cancers. The use of drugs like DMSO can convert 
neoplastic cells (with abnormal
formations of growth or tissue) to benign cells rather than kill the tumor cells. (Seethe research of Eli J. Tucker, M.D., reported in 
Chapter 11
, on the potent
combination of hematoxylon and DMSO against cancer.) Such conversion
represents an important conceptual departure from standard cytotoxic
chemotherapy (treatment using poisonous chemicals). The use of maturational-
agent therapy should be considered as a vital new tool in the design of cancer
treatment protocols. 29
To determine whether dimethylsulfoxide can induce antitumor activity of
cyclophosphamide (CYC) in patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the lung,
five investigators working cooperatively in 1981 treated fourteen patients who had
that disease. The patients were administered a 5-percent solution of DMSO over
three days and 1,500 mg CYC/m
2
 intravenously as a 60-minute infusion on the
third day of treatment. Serial blood, cerebrospinal fluid, and urine samples were
collected from the patients to assess the pharmacokinetics (the actions of drugs on
human tissues) of CYC. Courses of treatment and testing were repeated every four
weeks. No antitumor responses were observed, but the twenty-four-hour urinary
excretion of CYC, which is a highly toxic anticancer agent, was much lower than
previously reported by the same investigators. 30
In the journal 
Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics
 in July 1982, medical
researchers in oncology reported that ten patients with brain tumors and indwelling
ventricular reservoirs were pretreated with up to 10 percent dimethylsulfoxide
(intravenously, orally, or both) and were then treated with 1.25 gm/m
2
 of CYC. All
patients were also receiving anticonvulsant drugs and dexamethasone. CYC and
alkylating activity in plasma and accompanying ventricular cerebrospinal fluid
were measured by gas chromatography and p-nitrobenzyl pyridine assay. CYC
entered the cerebrospinal fluid without difficulty and was lost from it more slowly
than from plasma. 31
In Japan, in January 1987, a middle-aged man with multiple myeloma—a
cancer of the kidney—was successfully treated with DMSO during the course of
an exchange of his blood plasma. 32
Also, the July 1983 issue of the 
British Journal of Dermatology
 published a
report on the successful treatment of skin cancer in hairless mice using DMSO and
an enzyme called methylcholanthrene. 33
DIABETES
For diabetics, the importance of DMSO comes when it lessens the 
incidence ofdiabetic neuropathy, the classical sensory nerve function loss seen frequently in
older people with the disease. In one out of four juvenile diabetics using the topical DMSO, there will be a
reduction in the need for insulin, Dr. Jacob told the American College of
Advancement in Medicine. It tends to improve blood supply by dilating the
smaller blood vessels, especially of the lower limbs. The drug probably should be
made a part of presurgical preparations when the surgeon wants to increase the
blood supply to a part of the diabetic’s body. NASAL SINUSITIS, TIC DOULOUREAUX, HEADACHE
Placed directly into the nostrils, DMSO can open blocked sinuses in a few
minutes. It accomplishes this through its ability to cross all the membranes of the
body without destroying the integrity of these membranes, as we’ve noted before. It also permits the passage of a number of compounds across the membrane
barriers. Sixty patients treated with DMSO for various types of head pain received
marked relief. Thirty-five of these people were diagnosed as having tic
douloureaux, an involuntary repeated contraction of the trigeminal muscles in the
face causing excruciating pain. Seventeen of the patients had headache with
cervical osteoarthritis (arthritis of wear and tear in the neck). In five people the
headache was associated with sinusitis. Two patients had temporal arteritis, with
superficial pain in an artery of the temple. For the last two patients, simple analgesics were not effective; both required
codeine for the pain in the temporal artery. When a dose of 20 ml of 50 percent
DMSO was applied twice a day to the entire forehead area and back of the neck,
within half an hour the pain in both these patients disappeared and did not recur for
at least four hours. Both continued DMSO treatment for one month, at the end of
which time pressure on the temporal artery no longer served as a trigger
mechanism for setting off pain. These two people have not had recurrence of their
headache pain for eighteen years. It should be emphasized, however, the DMSO
alone is not the complete treatment for temporal arteritis. Cortisone must be
employed along with DMSO. Initial results for thirty patients suffering from tic douloureaux were similar. Pain relief lasted indefinitely and took place in three or four days. 34
 Topically
applied DMSO works well for tic douloureaux, but there is an even better resultwhen the drug is injected directly into the spasmed muscles’ trigger points. DMSO
is not, unfortunately, effective in all cases of tic douloureaux. A letter mailed to the House Select Committee on Aging, dated April 11, 1980,
written by Joyce Louise Ratliff of Selah, Washington, said in part:
I have read a great deal about DMSO and have also used it and seen it
used. The relief my mother-in-law received by the use of DMSO was
fantastic. After years of surgery and drugs (approved), she applied DMSO
and within a short time obtained relief from (all) pain. She has tic
douloureaux in which there is no cure, just pain and suffering. Even the
prescribed approved drugs are of little value, especially with the side
effects and possible overdose and addiction. I personally administered the
DMSO and saw the relief she had. Thereafter she applied DMSO as
needed for her pain and always got relief with no side effects. Now, out of
DMSO and no place to get more, she is back to being drugged and
suffering. SKIN DISEASES, ULCERATIONS, AND HERPES
In the form of a spray, DMSO was coated on the skin lesions of 152 patients by
Lazaro Sehtman, M.D., dermatologist of the Alvear and the Jewish Hospital and of
the Railroads’ Central Polyclinic, Buenos Aires, Argentina. The skin complaints
had been treated with other remedies and had failed to respond, even after
treatment for quite a long time. Except for a pain with a sensation of burning and a strong odor, none of the
patients experienced any undesirable side effects of an objective or subjective
nature. The best and most spectacular results were achieved in people suffering
with herpes zoster (shingles). Shingles is a painful inflammation of the sections of
the nerve emerging from the spinal cord. The illness comes from the same virus
that causes chicken pox. Here, seventeen patients had regression of symptoms in
forty-eight hours with just two spray applications per day. The only side effect,
redness, developed and persisted for ninety-six hours. The November 25, 1981 issue of the 
New Zealand Medical Journal
 told of
forty-six patients with herpes zoster who were randomized into two groups. One
group was treated with DMSO alone and the other was administered 5 percent
idoxuridine (IDU) in DMSO. Both had their treatments rendered within forty-eight
hours of the appearance of the shingles rash. In the IDU/DMSO group, the intervalbefore pain improved in a significantly shorter time than in the control DMSO
group. And compared 
with the control group, significantly fewer new vesicles (tiny
blisters) developed at the three-day follow-up interval in the active group. These
findings are in agreement with previously published work and confirm the
usefulness of 5 percent IDU in DMSO (known as Zostrum) in the treatment of
herpes zoster. 35
In four cases of genital herpes, a form of herpes simplex, the patients were able
to have sexual intercourse after only two days of treatment. As in most conditions,
DMSO is more effective in genital herpes if used early. A 100-percent success was obtained for tinea versicolor, a form of fungus
infection, among forty-two cases treated by Dr. Sehtman. Tinea versicolor, usually
a recurrent problem, is difficult to cure most of the time, but not in these patients
treated with DMSO. Using the Wood’s lamp as a test, complete recovery was
noted in one week. In cases of inflamed and infected toenails, the analgesic and anti-inflammatory
effect of the DMSO spray began within twenty-four hours. These nine patients had
previously been treated with antibiotics and anti-inflammatory preparations
without any result. Two people in Sehtman’s group with Gilbert’s pink pityriasis of unknown
cause, ordinarily requiring at least two months for it to heal itself spontaneously,
had their lesions disappear within one week, also by spraying on the DMSO
solvent. For another sixty-seven people victimized by severe varicose veins, the
DMSO spray proved highly effective. Many of these patients had undergone vein
ligations, resections, skin grafts, and removal of their saphenous veins. Some were
relapses, but these had the most rapid healing of the skin dermatitis connected with
the condition. The patients also had reduction of swelling and pain, and could
resume normal functioning. People who had difficulty walking found themselves
able to return to work only seven days after DMSO treatment began. A remarkable
and surprisingly fast scabbing of varicose ulcers took place in a shorter time than
with any other dermatological method, including surgical intervention, which is
often used for this type of disorder, reported Sehtman. 36
Furthermore, Rene Miranda Tirado, M.D., Assistant Professor of Nutrition and
Dietetics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Chile, reported quick healing in skin
ulcerations of the legs, feet, and upper limbs, infected wounds, other skin lesions,
and in second and third degree burns for 1,371 patients. They all received
exclusive therapy of topical applications of a medicinal DMSO spray similar tothat used in Sehtman’s cases. Three times weekly the medicine was sprayed
directly 
onto the lesions after they were cleaned with only sterile water. At the
Douglass Center, these conditions were treated on a daily basis, at least at first,
and then three times weekly. Of the 1,371 patients treated in the Tirado study, 95.04 percent were
discharged as completely cured and able to resume their usual activities. For
instance, those with chronic diabetic ulcers of the feet and legs were completely
healed after daily DMSO spray applications for twenty days. Some of these ulcers
had been on the patients’ limbs for fifteen years. Rapid healing occurred in chronic
varicose ulcers, which had not responded to the traditional treatments employed by
dermatologists over several years. Pain and discomfort from these burns, ulcerous lesions, and skin wounds
abated almost immediately after the first few applications. Some people who had
been suffering intense pain from lesions located in areas at a distance from the
affected part where the DMSO was sprayed expressed happy surprise that these
pains also disappeared. Second degree burns on both arms healed completely without leaving any ugly
scars. Chronic ulcers that had plagued patients for years, including those from
varicose veins or mycotic infections that had not healed in spite of hospital
treatment for prolonged periods on several occasions, healed completely. “The
DMSO spray did the job,” said Dr. Tirado. “No collateral effects nor undesirable symptoms were observed during the
applications of DMSO spray,” the doctor reported to the New York Academy of
Sciences, “with the exception of a few cases of deep wounds where, during the
first few applications, a more or less intense pain occurred which was localized
and of short duration, and was no impediment to continue subsequently with this
very efficacious therapy.”
37
In the Tirado study, diabetic perforating ulcers were treated with local
applications of DMSO, both painted and sprayed with the substance. Perforating
foot ulcers constitute a major problem in diabetics with peripheral neuropathy
(loss of nerve sense at the extremities) for which no specific therapy is available. In January 1985, as described in the 
Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
,
twenty patients with chronic, resistant, badly perforating ulcers were treated by
such DMSO applications. The solution brought about complete healing of the
ulcers for fourteen patients following four to fifteen weeks of daily treatment. Partial resolution was observed in another four patients, and in the remaining two
there was no effect. A control group, equal in number, was treated conventionally.Complete healing of the ulcers took place in only two of these control patients. The therapeutic effect of DMSO 
most probably results from an increase in tissue
oxygen saturation via a combined mechanism of local vasodilatation (expansion of
the blood vessels), decreased thrombocyte aggregation (clumping of blood
platelets), and increased oxygen (absorption of extra oxygen from the blood). 38
Accidental subcutaneous extravasation (leakage out of a vessel into the
tissues) of several antineoplastic agents (agents against tumor creation) are so
toxic that they may provoke skin ulcerations for which there has been no simple
and effective treatment. Writing in the March 1987 
European Journal of Cancer
and Clinical Oncology
, a group of four oncologists advise, “Since January 1983
we have treated all patients in our institution sustaining extravasation by a
cytotoxic drug with a combination of DMSO and alpha tocopherol [vitamin E]. During the first 48 hours after extravasation, a mixture of 10 percent alpha
tocopherol acetate and 90 percent DMSO was topically applied. The bandage was
changed every twelve hours. Eight patients with extravasation of an anthracycline
or Mitomycin [two toxic anticancer drugs] were treated on this protocol. No skin
ulceration, functional or neurovascular impairment, occurred in any of these
patients. The only toxic effect observed by this treatment was a minor skin
irritation. The combination of DMSO and alpha tocopherol seems to prevent skin
ulceration induced by anthracyclines and Mitomycin.”
39
CATARACTS AND OTHER EYE PROBLEMS
In ophthalmology, DMSO was put into the intraocular area of the eye and was
beneficial in the treatment of corneal swelling. 40
An ophthalmologist reported to the American College of Advancement in
Medicine (ACAM) in May 1980 that he had great success using DMSO in treating
cataracts and other eye problems. “I’ve treated two hundred patients in the last
year for macular degeneration [deterioration of the macula lutea, an area of the
retina], macular edema [swelling of the macula lutea], and traumatic uveitis [an
inflammation of the pigmented area of the eye],” the eye specialist said. “I instill 5
mg of DMSO in 1 cc of normal saline placed retrobulbar under Tenon’s capsule
behind the equator or to wherever the area of activity is. Strictly for cataracts, all
we need to do is put one drop of DMSO directly onto the eyeball.”
Other ACAM physicians told of instilling one drop of a solution consisting of
25 mg of DMSO with 2 cc of superoxide dismutase (SOD) once or twice a day forclearing cataracts and glaucoma. The ophthalmologist said, “In using DMSO, glaucoma drugs are potentiated,
including those required for treating wide-angle glaucoma. But DMSO alone is
better for macular degeneration. In dropping it, we may combine 5 mg of 2 cc
DMSO with 5 mg of 2 cc SOD for a 4 cc solution.”
The first clue to the possible efficacy of DMSO in retinal disease, variously
called deterioration, degeneration, dystrophy, and abiotrophy, all non-inflammatory
types of disturbances of the retina, was discovered inadvertently. The retina is the
part of the eye that is sensitive to light, a delicate film covering about two-thirds of
the inner surface of the eyeball. It is closely attached to an underlying layer, the
choroid. Some patients with retinitis pigmentosa, a retinal disease, who were taking
DMSO treatment for certain musculoskeletal disorders, sensed that their vision
had improved while they were taking the drug. The patients told this to Robert V.
Hill, M.D., of the University of Oregon Medical School, and he undertook a
preliminary investigation into the effectiveness of DMSO in the treatment of retinal
diseases. “Such an investigation was begun after one patient suffering from retinitis
pigmentosa had a rather spectacular recovery of vision after treatment with
DMSO,” Dr. Hill explained to the Science Writers–Research to Prevent Blindness
seminar in Los Angeles in February 1973. “At the time his DMSO treatment was
started this patient could see hand motion only with his right eye and had a visual
acuity of 20/200 (Snellen) in his left eye. Five days later (February 15, 1972), his
vision was measured as 20/70+1 in the left eye, and he could count fingers at five
feet with his right eye. Three months later, his visual acuity was 20/50 in the left
eye. “An additional fifty patients with retinal deteriorations (macular degenerations
as well as retinitis pigmentosa) were then treated similarly with DMSO, and the
subjective evidence gathered was still encouraging,” continued Dr. Hill. “This
subjective evidence consisted of improved or stabilized visual acuity, improved or
stabilized visual fields, and improved night vision. (It is considered ‘subjective’
because it requires subjective responses from the patient.) Of the fifty patients
treated with DMSO, twenty-two improved in visual acuity; nine improved in visual
fields; and five improved in dark adaptation. Two patients have continued to
regress, and the rest have had no measurable or personally-noted changes in
vision.”
41THE ASTHMATIC SYNDROME
In a paper presented at the Latin American Congress of Asthma and 
Allergies, in
Santiago, Chile, in 1969, three medical experts, allergist Zoltan Bernath, M.D.,
internist Norman Bennett, M.D., and pulmonary disease specialist Ernesto Chacon,
M.D., gave the results of their research in the treatment of the asthmatic syndrome. The medium used was DMSO as the solvent for an anti-inflammatory steroid, an
antihistaminic preparation of recognized efficacy, and a strong bronchodilator, all
administered by intramuscular injections. The treatment was applied in 153 adults, 84 male and 69 female, who were
divided into two groups. The 43 people in the first group suffered from frequent
asthmatic crises but with more or less prolonged asymptomatic periods. The
second group of 110 patients had more intense and more frequent crises, but
without asymptomatic intervals, despite the treatments previously received. The results of the treatment were evaluated by frequent examinations of the
patients, including their chest sounds, chest movement, ability to exhale, vital
capacity, and other tests. See 
Table 4.1
 for how the DMSO solution aided the
patients. PREGNANCY AFTER TUBAL OBSTRUCTION
Thousands of animals have been impregnated with spermatozoa preserved in the
DMSO substance—and had normal offspring. Table 4.1
 How DMSO Solution Aided Asthma Patients
Results
Number of Patients
Percentage of People
Excellent
37
24.5
Good
92
60.0
No change
24
15.5
Like other drugs to be avoided during pregnancy, it probably should not be
used. However, women who want to conceive are finding success with DMSO
hydrotubation treatment. Hugo Venegas, M.D., head of the Gynecological
Department of the Valparaiso Naval Hospital, Valparaiso, Chile, reported that a
solution containing one gram of Chloramphenicol plus the contents of one 5 cc
ampoule of DMSO with Dexamethasone and Chlorpheniramine, the total dilutedwith 20 ml of distilled water, was injected by means of ascendent hydrotubation
through a canula into 
women sterile because of inflammatory tubal obstruction. A
series of six hydrotubations, one every third day, was carried out. When a good tubal function was obtained, the woman was asked to lead a
normal sex life. If after three months pregnancy did not occur, treatment was
repeated in the same form. An analysis based on the results obtained in forty-
seven patients was reported. Dr. Venegas said, “The results we have obtained with this new procedure
largely surpassed those obtained with traditional methods of tubal infertility
treatment. Possible limitations of this new treatment are minimal, as no significant
undesirable side effects were observed, except for the characteristic smell, which
is exhaled by the patients during treatment with DMSO therapy.”
Of the forty-seven women who were sterile, twenty-seven became pregnant—a
success rate of 57.4 percent. Twelve had their babies full term, healthy children,
representing 25.5 percent of the total. Three women had spontaneous abortions;
four others had voluntary abortions for their own reasons; the remaining seven
were normally pregnant at the time of Dr. Venegas’ presentation to the New York
Academy of Sciences in January 1974. Note that these pregnancies occurred in the wives of members of the Chilean
Navy, who had only short periods ashore. The gynecologist said, “We are
convinced that the gratifying results obtained do not represent only a transitory
improvement.”
42
MISCELLANEOUS USES OF DMSO
I could continue giving descriptions of conditions cleared or greatly improved by
employment of DMSO. In fact, every body system, most physical disorders, and
many mental disorders are affected in some way helpful to the patient. Instead, I
will devote entire chapters to those health problems where more investigation has
been recorded, and I will sum up in the present section some additional findings. In dental practice in Poland, DMSO has cleared up gum conditions, and has
been effective in cases where decay has reached the dental nerve. In the case of
decay, DMSO attacks both the infection and the inflammation, wiping out both of
these and the pain as well. 43
Russian physicians, in the November-December 1988 issue of 
Stomatologiia
,
told how adolescent patients as well as the aged were successfully treated withDMSO and procaine to get rid of chronic parenchymatous parotitis (an
inflammation of the parotid salivary glands). 44
In additional Russian research, DMSO was combined in a 1981 study with two
drugs for their evaluation in the treatment of dry socket. The dry socket is an
unhealed wound at the site of a tooth extraction, characterized by intense pain,
discharge of pus, and sequestra. It is most often associated with a difficult
extraction. DMSO acted as a synergistic penetrant for the two drugs, resulting in
increased speed of healing. 45
A German study has shown that women who applied DMSO topically for a
month were relieved of a painful breast condition, chronic cystic mastitis. Conditions of the urinary tract, unaffected by any other known medication,
have responded to this medicine. In some cases, it has made it possible for men to
resume sexual intercourse where previously pain or urethral blockage made it
impossible. DMSO speeds blood flow by causing vessels to dilate. South American
studies indicate it is effective in heart attacks or angina pectoris. It has been
credited with preventing damage to heart muscle. There is a crying need for
research on the use of massive doses of DMSO (2 gm. per kilogram body weight)
in the treatment of heart attacks. Simply by soaking his patient’s hands and forearms in the drug, Cleveland
Clinic’s former rheumatologist, Arthur L. Scherbel, M.D., had been having great
success against scleroderma, also known as “hidebound disease,” in which the skin
becomes thickened, hard, and rigid. 46
 More about the use of DMSO for
scleroderma is found in 
Chapter 13
. DMSO has a history similar to ether. Ether was known for 600 years before it
was recognized as an anesthetic. Dimethyl sulfoxide waited on the laboratory shelf
for nearly 100 years before it was learned that it had medicinal properties. Exhaustive tests to determine more therapeutic uses and possible toxicity or
unknown side effects are continuing daily in both clinical trials and laboratory
experiments. Reports on DMSO are continually funnelled into the University of
Oregon central clearinghouse. New information and more journal references are
being sought. What is recognized as toxicity or side effects needs recording and
broadcasting to the scientific community, including the FDA. The following
section sets down all the information about side effects and toxicity as they relate
to DMSO. As you’ll see, there aren’t many, but research is continuing under the
watchful eye of the FDA.CHAPTER 5
The Toxicity and Side Effects of
DMSO
The ABC-TV program 
Good Morning America
 interviewed Robert Herschler, the
co-discoverer of the pharmaceutical effects of DMSO, at 8:17 
A
. M
., February 5,
1981. Viewers watched this chemist, a former employee of the Crown Zellerbach
Corporation, now Director of the DMSO Research Center, say on the broadcast,
“. . . the toxicity of DMSO is very low. It’s not true that it is dangerous. Compared
to aspirin, DMSO is a much safer drug. People are killed taking aspirin; no one
has ever been killed taking DMSO.”
The program host, David Hartman, asked, “If this is the case and you are so
sold on it, why has the FDA not approved its use?”
“In 1964, the FDA complained bitterly about DMSO because it was both a
commercial solvent and a drug,” replied Herschler. “They could not control it. Beyond that, we had a meeting with Francis Kelsey of the FDA where she raised
her hands and said, ‘We simply cannot cope with a product like DMSO. We
envision hundreds of applications [NDA’s] coming in, and we simply don’t have a
budget or staff.’ From then on they took a hard line against DMSO . . . There are
many controlled studies that prove it is both effective and safe. And the FDA
knows it! The FDA has at least 100,000 clinicals [patient reports], and if they
statistically evaluate them, and they have, and if they try to prove it is not safe and
effective, they simply cannot do it. They have been using this gambit of ‘double-
blind’—being able to use the ‘double-blind’ as the reason for rejecting it.”
Herschler added that it is a situation of “bureaucratic Mickey Mouse” that is
keeping DMSO out of the hands of the people. Hartman’s other television guest, J. Richard Crout, M.D., Director of the
FDA’s Bureau of Drugs, took exception to being aligned with Mickey Mouse. “It’s
true that there’s been quite a bit of initial inquiry—scientific dabbling—certainly a
lot of patients have used DMSO,” Dr. Crout said. “There’s no question about that! But it hasn’t gone through the rigorous, disciplined, controlled kind of evaluation
that all the drugs do.”“Why not?” asked David Hartman. “I think there are probably two main reasons. One is that it has really not
attracted the attention of a number of experts. It’s not dramatically effective, and a
number of people have recognized that. Secondly, I think the manner of its
promotion has tended through the years to scare off the establishment in science. Regrettably! A lot of people who ordinarily would be engaged in drug research and
study new drugs simply have neglected DMSO.”
“What evidence do you have that it is harmful? Do you say that DMSO is
harmful? Mr. Herschler says it is safer than aspirin,” said Hartman. Dr. Crout admitted, “It’s really quite safe when put on the skin. I don’t believe
I would raise scare tactics about when people put it on and use it for a few days. Anybody who uses it for a month or more in doses of an ounce or more is getting
into the unknown. There simply is not much experience with its toxicity there.”
The drug has been in public use underground since 1964, employed by tens of
thousands of Americans, and up to now no toxicity has been reported in consumer
reports, at medical meetings, in the scientific literature, during the four
international DMSO symposia, or anywhere else. The approximately 2,000 people
for whom physicians in medical practice have personally prescribed DMSO have
not advised of any serious deleterious reactions. Yes, there are minor side effects,
which I will discuss, that are outweighed by the many DMSO benefits. But toxicity
or ill health arising from its use? None at all! THE LABORATORY INVESTIGATIONS OF DMSO TOXICITY
Scientists have studied DMSO with eight species of mammals, including humans,
as well as some fish and birds, with almost universal agreement as to its low
toxicity. 1
 Short- and long-term administrations of the drug to many animals have
shown they tolerate it well. When fed to, injected into, or applied to the skin of
animal laboratory subjects and human clinical subjects over periods of weeks,
months, or years, there have been none or very few signs of any noxious response. People want the painkilling properties that DMSO offers. Even if mild side effects
are present, people say they are worth the improvement this substance brings. One of the statements J. Richard Crout, M.D., made on 
Good Morning
America
 is that DMSO “is not dramatically effective, and a number of people have
recognized that.” What he said is directly at variance with the official declarations
of Dr. Crout’s own Bureau of Drugs of the Food and Drug Administration. Indeed,a rating that the FDA posted on drugs and published in 
Consumer Reports
 shows
that the agency frequently contradicts itself. The FDA is secretive about the kinds of studies it requires in order to approve
a drug for market use. The agency declares publicly that if a drug is safe and
effective it will be approved, but this does not always carry. For example, a
number of drugs have been classified by Dr. Crout’s bureau as to effectiveness. The classification places drugs into the following categories: 1A—this drug is a
breakthrough discovery; 2A—this drug has potential uses; 3A—this drug is
probably useless. Out of thirty-seven drugs that the FDA classified within these
categories, only four were rated 1A. DMSO was one of these four. Yet, the FDA
does not approve DMSO for general medical use, and Dr. Crout says “it’s not
dramatically effective.”
Since DMSO dissolves many materials and can be absorbed through the skin,
combinations of the solvent and many other substances have been investigated. Some materials dissolved in DMSO have shown a change in toxicity or rate of
absorption. Many were unchanged. DMSO merely heightens their therapeutic
effectiveness. Toxicity of a substance is indicated in science by the LD
50
, meaning the
number of milligrams (mg) of DMSO per kilogram (kg) of body weight of the test
animal that results in the death of half of the animals being tested. The period of
observation is commonly from one week to four weeks. Thus, 100 guinea pigs
may be administered DMSO for one or more weeks in a dosage of 2 mg per kg (1
pound equals 0.45 kg), so that a 3-pound guinea pig receives about 3 mg of
DMSO. Raising the dose to a point during this period where half the animals die
determines the toxic dose, or LD
50
. The toxic dose divided by the therapeutic dose is the therapeutic index. This
therapeutic index tells researchers and physicians how dangerous a drug or other
substance is to living organisms, especially people. The higher the number
representing the therapeutic index, the safer the compound or drug. If it is a small
number, the substance is toxic. Swallowed, the LD
50
 of aspirin for monkeys is 558
mg/kg. The LD
50
 of DMSO for monkeys is 4,000 mg/kg. 2
 Thus, DMSO is more
than seven times safer than aspirin. In the case of laboratory mice being tested, the LD
50
 of DMSO when applied
to their skin is reported to be 50,000 mg/kg. Mice survive complete dipping in up
to 60 percent DMSO. Rats survive dipping in 80 percent DMSO, and they survive
repeated dippings in 60 percent DMSO three times per week for twenty-sixweeks. 3
 See 
Table 5.1
 for the single-dose toxicity of DMSO as LD
50
. 4
In humans, DMSO’s concentration on the skin usually produces some
reddening,
5
,
6
 but the effect is often no longer noticeable after repeated
applications. 7
 In 35 percent of people using the compound, a burning sensation at
the area of contact is noted. 8
 Smaller numbers of patients report skin roughness,
mild itching, blistering, dermatitis, thickening, and scaling. None of these are toxic
reactions but only side effects. Some of these effects are probably due to
dehydration and removal of fats from the skin. 9
 In most cases an odor is apparent
on the breath and skin. (See more detailed descriptions of side effects from DMSO
intravenous use later in this chapter.) There may be toxicity if the drug is inhaled. DMSO evaporates very slowly
since its vapor pressure is 0.6 mm/Hg at 77
°
F. Therefore, when it is applied to the
skin, the concentration of DMSO in the air is very low under most conditions. When heated or sprayed, however, normal precautions should be taken by the user
against inhalation as with any organic solvents. 10
,
11
The addition of DMSO to blood gives varying reactions determined by the
concentration and the method of administration. The effects of skin applications of
DMSO to the membranes of small blood vessels of New Zealand White Rabbits
are shown in 
Table 5.2
. Table 5.1
 Single-Dose Toxicity of DMSO as LD
50
Further live animal studies showed that the blood stream soon became normal
after direct administration of DMSO into a vein. Dogs showed rapid recovery after
intravenous injection of DMSO at a level up to 10,000 mg/kg. 12
,
13
,
14
In the scientific literature no cases of any toxicity to the offspring of humans or
animals from the skin applications of DMSO have been reported. Tests have been
performed on hamsters
15
 and chickens
16
,
17
 where direct DMSO injections were
made into the embryo or the area of the fetus and malformations resulted. But 50
percent DMSO given orally at a level of 5 grams per kg per day to male and
female rats for four days prior to mating produced no abnormality or infertility. The pregnant females were then given DMSO throughout the gestation period, and
the litters were born normal. 18
DMSO shows no cancer-causing activity. 19
,
20
 Furthermore, the drug does not
promote allergic tendencies. 21
,
22
 Common allergies that already exist in people,
such as those from house dust, animal hair, dander, mixed grasses, and weeds, are
not increased by DMSO. 23
 Still, be warned that the skin irritation produced in
some people by the solvent may enhance the activity of some allergens, the
substances that bring on an allergic reaction. Table 5.2
 DMSO Skin Application Effects on New Zealand White Rabbits
Percentage of DMSO Concentration
 
Observed Effect
20
 
White cell sticking. 30
 
Granular pasty consistency. 50 or greater
 
Instant solubilization of the red
corpuscles; white cell sticking;
fibrinogen precipitation. Administered in any manner, DMSO is absorbed and enters the blood stream
by way of the skin capillaries. These tiny blood vessels distribute it into the
circulatory system so that it enters tissues throughout the body. Most DMSO is
excreted unchanged in the urine, and laboratory studies on rats and rabbits indicate
that 85 percent of the compound is disposed of this way. 24
,
25
 Some is oxidized to
dimethyl sulfone;
26
,
27
 while a study on cats produced evidence that 3 percent of
the DMSO is excreted in the breath as dimethyl sulfide. 28
,
29
 This dimethyl sulfide
product of the body’s metabolism is what gives a DMSO patient the malodorous
smell on the breath. Such metabolized products are not toxic in the measurablequantities found in the body. It is 
noteworthy that the source of halitosis, dimethyl
sulfide, is also found naturally in milk, cooked corn, tomatoes, tea, coffee,
asparagus, and clams. EYE CHANGES THAT BROUGHT THE FDA BAN
Research on DMSO in the United States came to an abrupt halt on November 11,
1965, because lens changes had been observed in a number of mammalian species. A conference was called between the FDA and the pharmaceutical companies that
were involved in the research and they agreed to discontinue the clinical studies. This, despite no changes being observed in humans or any primates. A possible
flaw in the pretreatment examinations of the large number of patients under DMSO
therapy at that time was that their eyes had not been checked routinely beforehand. The consequence of withdrawing DMSO from clinical investigation is that it
acquired a reputation of extreme toxicity, comparable to that of thalidomide and
some other drugs that had previously run into major toxicology problems. It was an
FDA medical bureaucrat, Dr. Francis Kelsey, who became famous by allegedly
keeping thalidomide from invading the United States with birth defects in 1962. (At least that is the popular version. The real truth is that thalidomide was used in
the United States for 
six years
 and was available to 1,200 physicians in the United
States. There were American thalidomide babies, many of them the children of
doctors! 30
) She is the same FDA official who threw up her hands with alarm and
frustration against DMSO in the years following the ban on its testing in 1965, as
reported by chemist Robert Herschler on 
Good Morning America. A statement of Congressman Steven D. Symms (R-Idaho), made during the
Hearing before the Select Committee on Aging of the House of Representatives,
March 24, 1980, points out part of the bureaucratic problem faced here. Congressman Symms said, “I think what we really need is a broad attitude which
would not only cover DMSO but would cover other products. We have had the
problem with valferrate. We have had the problem with erythrocin for tuberculosis
which took so long to get them on the market in the United States where other
places in the world people were using these products very well. “Part of this is because of our overrestrictive amendments which passed in
1962. They have most certainly delineated a cause for a slowdown in the ability of
the FDA to make those judgments and make them expeditiously . . . “The overall question of what has happened to the FDA since 1962, if one willstudy it, and I have spent a great deal of time looking into it,” continued Mr.
Symms, “we have a general drug lag, a slowdown because of the efficacy
requirements of being able to prove that something is effective.”
As mentioned, in November 1965 there had been no cases of confirmed human
eye damage or significant complaints among any of the patients using DMSO. None of the studies by any of the pharmaceutical firms showed eye problems. Instead, there were refractive index changes in the lenses (not an opacity) of dogs,
rabbits, and pigs. After being dosed with approximately 5 g/kg of DMSO for three
months, the animals became slightly nearsighted. No microscopic or chemical
differences could be found between the lenses of the treated animals and the
control animals. In the affected animals, there appeared two distinct zones of different
refraction. This could easily be observed with an ophthalmoscope and with the slit
lamp. It appeared to be related to the dose, and the problem diminished as the dose
was reduced. These animals were exposed to 50 to 100 times the usual human
therapeutic dose. Yet, pretreatment examinations of the eyes of human patients had not been
performed. The researchers felt that to reexamine at this late stage all the people
who had been under treatment would be fruitless. Many of the patients were
elderly and had begun their DMSO treatment with preexisting eye trouble. All the
researchers were able to do, therefore, was to check long-term DMSO patients on
high doses. In Portland, Oregon, Dr. Jacob and Edward E. Rosenbaum, M.D., Clinical
Professor of Medicine and Head of the Department of Rheumatology at the
University of Oregon Medical School, had thirty-two patients examined by
ophthalmologists connected with the medical school. These patients had been
treated for from three to nineteen months, at an average dose of 30 grams of
DMSO per day. None of them showed any of the characteristic lens changes that
had been seen in the animals. One of the thirty-two patients was a nineteen-year-old man from Seattle, who
had by chance received a complete pretreatment examination by an
ophthalmologist a few months prior to his neck injury. The neck was treated with
60 grams of DMSO per day for twenty months. His follow-up eye examination
showed no changes of the lens even with careful tonometry, visual field, refraction,
and slit lamp examinations. At the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Scherbel had forty-four people under treatment
for scleroderma. Some patients received as much as 3 g/kg 
per day and weretreated for as long as twenty-three months. None of them showed the characteristic
lens changes that were observed in the DMSO-treated animals. When 11 g/kg of DMSO was applied to the skin of monkeys and 5 g/kg was
given to them to drink each day for a full year, no lens changes occurred. The
laboratory workers suspected that the eye changes were specific only for dogs,
rabbits, and pigs. Meanwhile, the pharmaceutical companies continued to collect case reports in
which no real toxicity of any kind was being observed. Merck and Company
gradually collected 17,000 patient reports. Syntex collected approximately 7,000
and E.R. Squibb and Sons around 3,000. The FDA seemed to turn a blind eye to
these human case studies, although DMSO was officially banned from human
experimental use. Then, Richard D. Brobyn, M.D., of the Bainbridge Medical Center, Bainbridge
Island, Washington, was retained as a consultant to the Squibb laboratories to
develop a program to reestablish clinical research on DMSO. With the FDA’s
permission, in the latter part of 1967 to February 1968, Dr. Brobyn conducted
human toxicological studies of dimethyl sulfoxide, especially as it relates to the
lens of the eye. DO LENS CHANGES OCCUR IN HUMANS? Sixty-five healthy prisoners in the state institution at Vacaville, California,
volunteered to have DMSO in an 80 percent gel applied to their skin at one gram
per kilogram for fourteen days. There were no toxic effects. Next, for three more months, a second group of forty healthy prisoners allowed
themselves to be coated with DMSO and had no toxicological result.
Dmso_Nature_s_Healer_-_Morton_Walker.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        These later chapters will be devoted
exclusively to particular disease conditions or body systems where DMSO is
found to be useful. PROTECTION AGAINST RADIATION, FREEZING, AND
THAWING
When DMSO is painted on the leg of a rat, the leg is shielded from the effects of
X-rays. The radioprotective properties of DMSO were originally reported in 1961. 4
DMSO safeguards a number of cells, cellular systems, and whole animals against
the lethal and mutagenic effects of X-rays. 5
Whole-body protection against radiation occurs at the cellular level rather than
as an indirect pharmacological mechanism. At the cellular level, amounts of
glycerol and DMSO that defend against freezing damage also protect against X-
irradiation damage. This was demonstrated for bacteria,
6
,
7
,
8
,
9
 human kidney
cells,
10
 and mouse tail bones
11
 irradiated into the living organism. Topical
application of DMSO to the skin of sixteen-day-old nestling rats protects them
against X-ray-induced damage. 12
A method for the prevention of radiation injuries of the urinary bladder and
rectum for cervical cancer patients was worked out by medical 
researchers in
Russia. Reported in March 1985 in the Russian radiological journal, 
Meditsinskaia
Radiologiia
, the method was based on the local application of dimethyl sulfoxide
as a radioprotective agent before a session of interstitial irradiation with the
AGAT-B X-ray apparatus was carried out. Accompanying radiation therapy with
DMSO as the protectant was provided to twenty-two cervical cancer patients. Thecontrol group included fifty-nine patients who received similar treatment without
DMSO. The expression of early reactions and late injuries of the rectum and
urinary bladder were significantly lower in the DMSO group. The DMSO-
protected patients did not get radiation burns, while the unfortunate control group
of patients did. 13
There is evidence that DMSO sustains red blood cells during freezing and
thawing. Evidence of preservation against cellular freezing by DMSO was
published in a 1959 report. 14
 Little doubt exists that the solvent, at concentrations
between 5 percent and 10 percent, offers excellent protection to a number of very
different cellular systems from the damaging effects associated with freezing and
thawing. INJURIES OF THE BRAIN AND SPINAL CORD
An important possible advance in the prevention of paralysis after injuries to the
brain and spinal cord, DMSO is being studied for this purpose at four centers of
learning. One of them is the University of Miami School of Medicine, where Jack
C. de la Torre, M. D. , is Associate Professor of Neurosurgery and Psychiatry and
Chief of the Department of Neurological Research. By 1992, he had been working
with the compound for about twelve years. Dr. de la Torre first illustrated his
findings at a November 1980 scientific conference of the DMSO Society of
Florida, Inc. held in Sarasota, Florida. Studying monkeys that were given an occlusion of the middle cerebral artery,
the blood vessel in the brain that controls motor function, Dr. de la Torre
prevented their paralysis by dosing them with DMSO. The DMSO-treated
monkeys didn’t suffer from the severe neurological damage from cerebral stroke
that would occur if they were left untreated or were treated with corticosteroids,
the current conventional treatment. Stroke, which causes half a million deaths or
more each year among Americans, is the second most common cause of death
from cardiovascular disease. There are many facets to the pathologic process—
pressure, lack of oxygen, inadequate blood flow, release of enzymes—and DMSO
is well equipped to arrest them. 15
 The DMSO must 
be administered within four
hours to be effective, and within ninety minutes is best, reports Dr. de la Torre. 16
 I
provide a full discussion of his DMSO research with head and spinal cord injuries
in 
Chapter 9. At the University of Oregon Medical School where Dr. Jacob works,intravenous DMSO was given to patients following severe head injury. For a
group of patients receiving barbiturates and mannitol, brain pressure remained
elevated. When 40 percent DMSO was administered (one gram of DMSO per
kilogram of body weight) the pressure came down to normal within three to five
minutes. Barbiturates and mannitol are at present considered the best available
treatment in traditional medicine for such brain injuries, but DMSO proved better,
said Dr. Jacob in an interview. In separate animal studies with cats, rats, and dogs done at three universities,
DMSO given intravenously to the spinal cords of the animals within an hour of
injury brought about reversal of the injuries, which ordinarily would have been
irreversible. “We have had experience at our medical school in Oregon with two patients in
which DMSO was given as early as an hour after what was considered an
irreversible injury—an immediate, complete quadriplegia—and in both people
there was total recovery with them walking out of the hospital,” said Dr. Jacob. For optimal therapeutic effect it is considered critical to give DMSO intravenously
within ninety minutes of a head injury. “Since the grey matter of the brain seems to deteriorate after any injury, at
least in experimental subjects, DMSO has to be given very quickly. Every
emergency room and every ambulance should carry it. For paralysis, the drug
should be administered in the dosage of one gram per kilogram of body weight. Forty percent concentration for paralysis is recommended even though it extends
the bleeding time,” Dr. Jacob said. “We have had three patients come into our
medical center paralyzed after injury: one five hours, a second six hours, and the
last nine hours. Historically, we thought their chances of recovery were just about
zero. Two of those three are now walking as a result of our administering IV
DMSO despite the time being beyond an hour-and-a-half of the injury. ” The
Douglass Center recommended, and Dr. de la Torre concurred, that 2 grams per
kilogram patient body weight should be given for the first dose in these trauma
cases. HEMORRHAGIC STROKE AND HEAD WOUNDS
Even though 40 percent DMSO does cause a prolongation of bleeding 
time, it is
still indicated for use in treating embolic or hemorrhagic stroke. Hemorrhagic
stroke is the rupture of a weakened blood vessel in the brain often causing
headache, nausea, and ringing in the ears just before the onset of this type ofcerebral vascular accident. Embolic stroke is the plugging of a vessel by a clot. DMSO is superior to any other treatment for high velocity missile wounds of
the brain where a great deal of hemorrhage is present. The key to success with
DMSO for hemorrhagic stroke or any other problem, as has been shown, is to use
it as soon as possible after the stroke or head wound occurs. The healing qualities
of DMSO work to bring the injured tissues back to normal. See 
Chapter 9
 and
Appendix I
 for more extensive information on DMSO’s use in embolic and
hemorrhagic stroke. BRAIN-DAMAGED CHILDREN
DMSO has been useful in cases of mental retardation and Down’s syndrome. As a
penetrant it carries drugs across the blood-brain barrier, always a major problem in
treating the brain. It has also been used to combat certain forms of psychosis. Brain-damaged children are given oral DMSO in 50 percent strength. It’s
especially advantageous for impaired babies, who are provided with a quantity of
one half of a gram per kilogram by mouth. Efficacy will be noticed by the child’s
parents, although measurable changes may not reach the level of statistical
significance for the person administering therapy. A cholinesterase inhibitor, the
drug may stimulate central nervous system transmission, which is certainly worth a
try even over several years to restore a brain-damaged child. 17
,
18
See 
Chapter 10
 for greater detail on the response to DMSO therapy of children
with mental retardation, Down’s syndrome, and learning difficulties. SCIATICA AND LUMBAR DISC PROBLEMS
In aching backs, particularly disc diseases that cause excruciating spinal pain and
often end with surgery, European reports show treatment time and techniques can
be reduced by 50 percent with DMSO use. From 20 to 50 ml of 20 percent DMSO combined with the local anesthetic
Xylocaine injected intramuscularly into the painful area daily is a valid adjunct to
other treatment. The injections should be given for three to five days in a row. The following is part of a letter written by Patrick J. Potter of Beavercreek,
Oregon, and sent to Chairman Claude Pepper of the House Select Committee on
Aging March 25, 1980:I, myself, have realized almost complete freedom from pain since being
injected with DMSO by Dr. Stanley Jacob. My pain was due to scar
tissue formed around the sciatic nerve as a result of two lumbar disc
surgeries and would drop me by surprise to the ground—thus causing a
constant need for pain medication and the use of a cane, for walking. After
two (2) shots of DMSO I was able to quit using the cane, and after about
six (6) shots of DMSO by Dr. Jacob I was able to stop using the pain
medication. I now feel better than I have since before I got hurt, and owe it
all to Dr. Jacob and DMSO. Unfortunately, not everyone treated for these difficult back problems gets such
an excellent result. KELOIDS, SCARS, AND BURNS
Applied topically and repeatedly, DMSO will flatten the raised, nodular, lobulated
linear mass of scar tissue in keloids and take away some of the discoloration. It
won’t cause the parallel bands of densely collagenous material to disappear, but it
does have a positive effect. It could also be an aid in reducing scarring from
chronic acne where the fibrous papules have developed at the site of hair follicles,
usually on the back of the neck at the hairline. In one study of ten people with keloids, applying up to 80 percent DMSO a
couple of times a day induced scar flattening with loosening of the collagen
surrounding the fibrous bundles. 19
DMSO may be useful in preventing adhesions secondary to previous surgery. This would be accomplished by instilling a dilute solution of DMSO in the
abdominal cavity at the time of surgery. More research needs to be done on this. Thus, DMSO reduces, dissolves, or prevents the formation of scar tissue, a
feature important in burns as well. It prevents the contracture of the scar tissue left
after burns. DMSO was used for the local treatment of surface burns by Russian burn
specialists in March 1985.
The primary mechanism of DMSO's action is at the cellular level, rather than through an indirect pharmacological mechanism.
According to the text, what is the primary mechanism by which DMSO protects against radiation damage?
The recommended dosage is 1 gram per kilogram of body weight, and it should be administered within four hours of the injury, with 40% concentration being recommended for optimal results.
What is the recommended dosage for treating patients with severe head injuries?
Yes, DMSO has been used to successfully treat skin ulcers and burns, including second-degree burns, and has even been used to prevent further tissue damage.
Can DMSO be used to treat skin ulcers and burns?
The recommended dosage for musculoskeletal disorders is 2 grams per kilogram of body weight.
What is the recommended dosage for treating musculoskeletal disorders?
The text does not explicitly state the primary mechanism by which DMSO acts against cancer, but it does mention that it can stimulate tumor cells to change into more normal cells.
What is the primary mechanism by which DMSO acts against cancer?