Those who
suffer from it are subject to humiliating social situations. The main cause is a
functional disturbance in the nervous system. More than washing the feet is needed
to bring relief and to eliminate the annoyance. The symptoms of bromidrosis are, besides the obvious smell, a sogginess of
the skin between the toes and tenderness of the flesh of the foot. There may be tiny
blisters on the balls of the feet or on the heels. Foot odor does not always yield quickly to treatment. However, there are
methods that will diminish the problem and maybe eliminate it altogether. Painting the soles of the feet with 50 percent DMSO is possibly one of them. Although it may seem you are merely substituting one bad smell for another, the
DMSO odor will go away in a day or two leaving the feet free of their own bad
odor—at least for a time. The longer you keep the DMSO on, the longer the foot
odor stays away. As an aside, I do advise that many people find dramatic relief from “smelly
feet” by eliminating sugar from the diet, taking adequate amounts of B complex
vitamins, and taking a zinc supplement. DANCER’S FOOT
Dancer’s foot is an inflammation and, in severe cases, a displacement or fracture
of the two small bones located beneath the head of the first metatarsal. As you
would suspect, it most frequently affects people who dance a lot.The sesamoid bones are located in tendons that run beneath the big toe joint. Their function is to lessen the friction as the tendons move. Unusual stress can
injure these two small bones. Dancing places an unusual weight on the sesamoids and damage can occur. Inflammation and pain jeopardize the dancer’s ability to perform. If he or she
ignores the pain, the small, tender sesamoid bones may fracture or be displaced. It
can happen to anyone and not just to dancers. In treating this foot problem, a diagnosis is mandatory. Then, appropriate
padding of the joint is called for after physical therapy measures reduce the
inflammation. DMSO with ultrasound proved excellent as the particular form of
physical therapy. It took inflammation out of the dancer’s foot condition right
away. The pad applied then is placed on the foot, in the shoe, or as part of an
orthotic to shield the sesamoids from undue stress. METATARSALGIA
Metatarsalgia, or Morton’s toe, is a sudden sharp, stabbing pain felt in the toes. Morton’s toe comes on from an inflammation of the nerve between the third and
fourth metatarsal bones that produces an agonizing feeling. Runners are sometimes
the victims of this neuralgic pain. Metatarsalgia is caused by the compression of a small toe nerve between two
displaced metatarsal bones. Inflammation occurs when the head of one displaced
metatarsal presses against another and catches the nerve between them. With every
step the nerve is rubbed, pressed, and irritated. Consequently, the involved nerve
becomes enlarged with a sheath of scar tissue that forms to protect it. The tissue
enlarges into a neuroma that must eventually be removed surgically to get total
relief of the pain. The podiatrist may bring relief of Morton’s toe using techniques other than
neuroma surgery. This can be done with injections of a local anesthetic mixed with
DMSO into the foot. A pad may be placed in the shoe to spread the metatarsal
heads away from each other. Or, orthotic appliances may be worn by the patient. The podiatrist takes the precaution of 
injecting very slowly, because intramuscular
injections may produce pain, though the local anesthetic tends to disguise it. Good
technique will avoid discomfort for the patient. FALLEN ARCHESSo-called “fallen arches” really are weakened feet that are so strained they have
developed symptoms. In the classic case of fallen arches, nearly all the bones of the foot change
position. The heel bone rolls inward, the ankle drops, the shin becomes more
prominent, the cuboid bone is forced outward, and both the big toe and the fifth toe
rise. The other bones sink, and the inner longitudinal arch “falls.”
The victims feel pain and burning in the foot and tiredness and aching pain in
the legs. They cannot stand or walk for any length of time. Painful calluses may
grow on the ball of the foot because the front metatarsal arch falls, as well. Check yourself for fallen arches by looking for a “flatness” of your feet. Or,
stand before a mirror and observe the backs of your feet. Notice whether the heel
tendons bow inward toward each other. This is 
Helbing’s sign. Relief from the discomfort of fallen arches comes from treatment with a variety
of devices designed by the podiatry profession. The podiatrist may restore normal
function to damaged muscles and ligaments in three steps: (1) physical therapy
using DMSO and ultrasound to reduce the inflammation, (2) application of a
corrective strapping, and (3) making a pair of orthotics for the weakened feet. The
length of time you have the trouble and its severity determine how effective
DMSO three-step treatment will be. Realize that if nothing is done to manage the
fallen arches, there will be periodic episodes of pain as the symptoms appear, are
treated and disappear, and appear again. DMSO seems highly efficacious for acute foot problems but hardly effective
for chronic foot problems, except for chronic calcaneal spur inflammation. HEEL SPURS
On the heel bone, the 
calcaneus
, a spurlike growth of calcium, sometimes forms
where the muscles and ligaments of the foot are attached. One or more spurs grow
on the heel bone, but are padded by the flesh of the foot, so that the spur may take
years to become a problem. The heel spur hurts when you place your weight on the bone. Anyone may be
affected. Women are as likely to suffer from it as men. It is seen most often in
persons past forty, and the condition may be associated with arthritis or poor
circulation. The underlying cause is chronic foot strain brought on by weak feet, prolonged
standing, improper footgear, or structural misalignment of the feet. In each case,
the feet are inadequate to the tasks they must perform and strain brings onphysiological change with overgrowth of calcification. The pain comes actually not from the spur point but from the inflammation
around the muscles where they are attached to the bone. It is most severe when
you start to walk after a rest. For full relief of painful heel spurs, the doctor will diagnose and analyze the
problem and recommend a course of treatment. It should include ultrasound and
DMSO employed daily to take out the deep-seated pain of inflammation. The
DMSO impervious wrap is also excellent to strap onto the heel to pull out the
painful inflammation. ANKLE SPRAINS
The sprained ankle, a common injury, is the result of a violent twisting of the foot. You may sprain an ankle quite casually as you stroll along the street. You may
sprain it when you step upon an uneven surface, like a rock or a curbstone, when
you catch a high heel in a grating, or when you jump from any height. The more
active you are, the greater the possibility that you will sprain your ankle. Since a sprain occurs if the foot is twisted, it is most likely to happen when the
foot is somehow off balance. When the weight of the body comes down on the
foot, instead of being transmitted directly to the ground, it is caught on only one
side of the foot. The strain placed on the ligaments when the foot is off balance
and the weight suddenly thrust upon it will be greater than the ligaments can
withstand. Consequently, the ligaments that connect the anklebone and the
shinbone tear. The more violently the ankle is twisted, the greater the damage and
pain. Immediately after the sprain, the signs and symptoms of injury appear. Placing
any weight directly on the injured foot may cause pain. If the sprain is slight, the
ankle becomes tender and sensitive. If the sprain is severe, the ankle may become
hot, swollen, tender, and so painful that you cannot walk. The ankle becomes
discolored, sometimes red, sometimes blue. As the swelling increases, it is
accompanied by throbbing. Emergency care for a sprained ankle can begin even before you get to a
doctor. First, take weight off the ankle. Sit down. When a sprain is truly severe,
this suggestion is scarcely necessary, for in such cases walking will cause
considerable pain. But you can get some comfort within a few minutes by dosing
the torn ligaments or pulled muscles with 90 percent DMSO. You may feel some
burning or see redness appear, but the pain of inflammation will go out of theankle. Still, don’t bear weight on the ankle. The seriousness of the injury cannot
always be determined immediately, for the symptoms don’t appear all at once. The
sprain may seem to be only a temporary impediment, especially with the swift
application of topical DMSO, but using the ankle may easily increase the damage. Do not take the risk. The DMSO will reduce the swelling or prevent it from coming up altogether. Devise a proper support for the ankle by wrapping gauze over the DMSO-
moistened skin, covering with impervious plastic kitchen wrap, and taping with
one-inch strips of adhesive strapping over everything. Eliminating the pain,
remember, is not healing the sprain; support is mandatory to hold the torn
ligaments against the leg bone so that they don’t move much. Change the strapping
every four days, wash the skin each time, recoat with DMSO, and keep up this
procedure until there is no more pain from the direct pressure of palpation with
your fingers. *   *   *
The majority of sufferers of foot and leg problems, instead of seeking professional
care, turn to the many gadgets, special materials, and patent medicines that are
widely promoted as cures. Most of these products are, unfortunately, ineffective;
some must have been invented in the offices of the advertising agencies that
promote them. Others are “family recipes” that have been handed down from
generation to generation, given new names, packaged artfully, and marketed at high
prices. The money you spend for foot gadgets often is utterly wasted. Still, the public
goes from one “remedy” to another in its never-ending search for relief. There are no panaceas. The only truly effective products for use on the feet
are those that have been tested and proved in laboratories, in clinics, and in
doctors’ offices. Yet the one medication that seems to be most applicable to foot
and leg problems—as close to a panacea as we can come—is DMSO. It is useful
for a broad range of lower limb difficulties and should be considered as an
excellent emergency remedy and follow-up therapy for the many troubles that
plague our feet.CHAPTER 9
Using DMSO in Head and Spinal Cord
Injuries
Clara M. Fox of Toutle, Washington, was stunned September 15, 1979, to learn
that her son Bill had a near-fatal injury that left the young man completely
paralyzed. Through a series of hospital transfers during the first six hours, William
J. Shaal was taken to the University of Oregon Health and Science Center in
Portland after his devastating accident. It was a lucky move because DMSO is a
therapeutic ingredient used in this institution’s surgical intensive care unit. George
Greccos, M.D., the physician attending Bill Shaal’s case, made intravenous
infusion with the experimental drug an integral part of his treatment during the first
ten days. Bill had a broken neck; he was paralyzed from the site of injury downward. He
couldn’t willfully urinate, defecate, move any limbs, talk, eat, or perform any other
kind of voluntary function. With his head cleanly shaven, ugly but necessary steel
tongs were drilled into his skull to keep the spinal column immobilized. Thin ropes
and pulleys with weights attached stretched his neck at the crucial point, in order
for it to come back into place and possibly heal. He remained in traction for forty-
five days after coming out of intensive care where he had teetered between life and
death for four days. The youth was eventually hospitalized for over six months. Spinal cord injuries are extremely serious, and lacerations or cuts across the
cord inevitably leave the accident victim permanently without function. An acute
transverse cord lesion causes immediate flaccid paralysis and loss of all sensation
and function of the autonomic system below the level of injury. The flaccid
paralysis gradually changes over hours or days to spastic paraplegia due to
exaggeration of the normal stretch reflex. The limbs exhibit spontaneous jumps or
spasms. Later, if the spinal cord in the lumbosacral region is not entirely severed,
extensor or flexor muscle spasms appear, and deep tendon reflexes and autonomic
reflexes return very gradually. Depending on how complete the trauma to the cord is, there may be only
partial motor and sensory nerve loss. Voluntary movement could return but it isdisordered; sensory loss is determined by which portion of the spinal tract is
affected. The lost or impaired senses may include the sense of posture, vibration,
light touch or pain, temperature, and deep touch. A half-cut through the cord
results in spastic paralysis, loss of postural sense on the side cut through, and loss
of pain and heat sense on the opposite side. With an injury such as that sustained by young Bill, the severed nerve
processes in the cord cannot recover and damage often becomes permanent. Still,
if there is any movement or sensation during the first week after the injury, the
signs are favorable for some recovery. Any dysfunction remaining after six months
is likely to remain permanent. Severe cord injury above the fifth cervical vertebra is usually fatal. Bill’s was
at that point. Certainly there is motor and sensory loss, and the reflex arcs that
control the bladder, sexual activity in men, and bowel function are destroyed. While DMSO works effectively for healing spinal cord lesions when
administered intravenously within ninety minutes of the injury, Bill Shaal did not
get the DMSO until seven hours later. Yet, after several days he began to have
distinct feelings in his shoulders and arms, then in his upper chest to just below the
nipples. His family was overjoyed to see that his senses were returning, Clara Fox
said, “. . . and before he was taken off the drug, he was even beginning to
experience feelings and sensations in his bladder and kidneys, asking for his urinal
time and again, and in each case, actually urinating in it. Of course you can
imagine the excitement that came with each new discovery.”
This was phenomenal, because Bill’s problem was so serious that Dr. Greccos,
when he met the family coming into the hospital the first time, showed them the
patient’s X-rays and explained that their son might not live. He said most of the
reason Bill had even made it that far was due to his excellent physical and mental
condition. The physician added candidly that if Bill did live, he would
undoubtedly be paralyzed for the remainder of his life, from the site of injury in his
neck on down. During the course of the first two weeks, the patient fought off three bouts of
pneumonia and a very bad urinary tract infection. It is not uncommon for victims
of cervical cord damage to have respiratory difficulties and bladder problems. The
family members, the patient, 
and the doctor realized, however, that DMSO had
literally saved the young man’s life by drawing the fluid and pressure from his
spinal cord and head while slowly restoring feeling in his body. Without
intravenous infusion of the drug, he would have died. Much of the cartilage in the patient’s neck had disintegrated. Bill needed anoperation to remedy this, and it was performed five weeks after the hospital staff
had taken him off DMSO. The surgical procedure involved implanting two
stainless steel surgical rods in the back of his neck, fused together with some bone
and muscle taken from his left hip. The operation was definitely successful. A physical therapy program had been incorporated as part of the rehabilitative
process, but postoperative pain prevented the patient from participating in it. He
needed more fervor in exercising but couldn’t find it in himself. As the days rolled
by, he slowly deteriorated, which the young man and his mother traced to the need
for reintroducing DMSO intravenous treatments. The only thing the hospital staff
allowed was some topical applications of the drug to the painful areas in his neck,
shoulders, arms, and other parts of his body. DMSO on the skin did minimize the
pain. Then some family members began to notice smooth and fluid motions in Bill’s
legs when they applied the solvent. His mother described these motions to the
hospital staff, but her descriptions were dismissed as probably the spontaneous
jumps or spasms of paralysis from hemisection of the cord. The nurses and
medical students in this teaching hospital regarded the motions as simply natural
leg spasms that occur from time to time. “Then one day, one of his legs made such a motion while Dr. Greccos was
standing by talking to him. The doctor came out of Bill’s room with a look quite
close to awe and wonderment, and flatly stated that now he realized what we were
talking about, and instantly agreed that this indeed was not a regular spasm, but
something quite different on which to speculate in the coming weeks,” said his
mother. “For close to three months after they took Bill off the DMSO, we fought
daily to have the intravenous procedure continued, without much luck. But we
finally got our point across shortly after the Christmas holidays, and they did
agree, but with certain stipulations.”
The medical staff wanted to move the patient across the city for a series of
neurological tests run on special equipment at Good Samaritan Hospital. If these
tests indicated any hope of noticeable improvement to which they could credit
DMSO, then they would put him back on 
the drug twice a week for a number of
weeks. After that, he would be returned to Good Samaritan for another series of
the same tests and reevaluated. If there were not significant changes, then the IV
DMSO would be discontinued. “From that time on,” reported Mrs. Fox, “Bill quickly and steadily improved,
to the point where he could now tolerate maximum occupational and physical
therapy for three to five hours per day without any pain; just sheer exhaustion fromworking himself so hard. He jumped from lifting two-and-a-half pounds of weights
on his right arm and wrist, to between fifty to sixty pounds; and from one-and-a-
half with his left arm and wrist to between thirty-five and forty. By being able to
accomplish this, he has worked back his triceps [muscle] in the right arm, which
up to then had been gone; and I might add, a very good biceps muscle of which he
is extremely proud, and ready to take on anyone in a good arm wrestling match. And slowly but surely, the left triceps is coming around, and we are increasingly
confident that before long, he will also have all of that back.”
On March 13, 1980, Bill was taken back to Good Samaritan Hospital to have
the earlier tests rerun and reevaluated. The results were nothing short of amazing. All readings in the prior tests indicated his dramatic improvement. Additionally,
the patient showed that he had nerve sensory motions in his right foot. The patient
was being restored to near what he had once been. He was permanently dismissed from the hospital. Bill came home able to feed
himself, brush his teeth, shave, comb his hair, dress, and bathe himself. Where six months before he was more dead than alive and the family prepared
for his lifetime of complete paralysis, now the young man was able to operate his
manual wheelchair aptly by himself. Even a month before, he couldn’t manipulate
the wheelchair alone. But DMSO intravenous injections had changed all that. “During the last six months, I have spent many hours in Dr. Jacob’s clinic with
his beautiful and caring staff, watching miracle after miracle happen right in front
of my eyes,” wrote Clara M. Fox to Claude Pepper, then Chairman of the House
of Representatives Select Committee on Aging. “I have seen people who have
been totally paralyzed for twenty years or more being treated and starting to move. The wonder in their eyes is indeed a sight to behold. I have witnessed the awe in
the eyes and actions of a young couple whose child is being treated for Down’s
syndrome, and listened with rapt attention as they relate how far that 
child has
come from death’s door to today. I have sent or personally brought people with
various illnesses or pains to Dr. Jacob’s clinic and seen them smile with utmost
satisfaction at having been cured or helped after years of discomfort and pain. And
then I have sat back and watched Dr. Jacob absolutely ecstatic after another
successful case of treatment. How very proud and happy he is to be able to help
this human race of ours. “I have also done a lot of reading and research into the full and real story of
this remarkable drug, and I can only summarize with all my hopes and prayers,
along with millions of others, that this humble man can see all his work and dreams
materialize into that final success of having DMSO returned to the market by theFederal Drug Administration, so that all Americans might have the chance to be
helped or saved through all those efforts. I urge everyone connected with this
possibility to please check carefully all the facts, and help to answer these
prayers.”
DMSO RESEARCH INTO REVERSING NEUROLOGICAL
DISORDERS
Laboratory experiments are continuing with DMSO used to treat simulated trauma
created in the spinal cords of monkeys. Under ideal conditions, the external factors
and reproducibility of the monkey injuries are closely controlled, and “the effects
of DMSO have been often dramatic, sometimes unusual, and seldom without
effect,” says Jack C. de la Torre, Sc.D., M.D., Chief of the Department of
Neurosurgery, University of Miami School of Medicine, Miami, Florida. He was
interviewed at the semi-annual meeting of the DMSO Society of Florida, Inc., held
in Sarasota, Florida, in November 1980. “The important question facing our
research at the present time is not so much whether DMSO works, since this has
been repeatedly shown in our laboratory and those of others, but . . . how does it
work?”
Dr. de la Torre’s experience with DMSO currently spans twenty-four years,
and includes both basic and clinical research. He has been experimenting with
head and spinal cord injuries, stroke, burns, urine excretion, respiratory
stimulation, brain swelling, and cellular mechanisms. He uses seven different
species of animals, including human beings. He has discovered that DMSO exerts
a positive effect on a number of life-threatening conditions, including head and
spinal cord trauma, cerebral embolism, and respiratory distress. Neurological head and spinal cord injuries and stroke are complex medical
problems. Nevertheless, DMSO’s wide range of action makes it useful in many of
these cases. Through a combination of increased diffusion of fluids across body
membranes and dehydration, the solvent relieves the damaging swelling and
pressure that often accompany head and spinal injury. This relief comes about by
the substance crossing both the skin barrier and the blood-brain barrier. The blood-
brain barrier is a protective mechanism that exists between circulating blood and
the brain, which limits the number of molecules reaching the brain. It prevents
certain foreign proteins, natural body proteins, and other substances from entering,
some of which may be toxic to nervous tissue.“At first we thought that this property of DMSO might be a disadvantage,”
says Dr. de la Torre, “because we assumed that once it penetrated the barrier, it
would simply accumulate in the nervous tissue and cause more swelling. What it
does in fact is enter the tissue, pick up water madly, and then rush it out of the
system, relieving the pressure.”
The ability of DMSO to rapidly cross skin and blood-brain barriers enables it
to assist in the penetration of other drugs, as was pointed out earlier. “For
example, some tumors in the brain must be treated with chemotherapy injections. Huge quantities have to be injected before the drug begins to work, and at that
point the toxicity of the drug may kill the patient,” said de la Torre. “If you have a
drug, such as DMSO, that can transport the anti-cancer agent into the tumor and
the immediately surrounding area, you can use decreasing concentrations of the
chemotherapy agent.”
Because DMSO can penetrate skin barriers with ease, but not damage cells,
DMSO is in a class by itself as a new healing principle. Furthermore, it protects
the cells from mechanical damage. Ramon Lim, M.D., Associate Professor of Neurosurgery and Research
Associate in Biochemistry at the University of Chicago School of Medicine, has
conducted some experiments using DMSO with glial cells. Glial cells comprise
the supporting tissue of the brain and spinal cord. Dr. Lim prepares cultures of
glial cells and DMSO, which he then subjects to sound vibrations. DMSO prevents
cellular membranes from breaking under the vibrations, preserving the contents of
each cell. The saclike lysosomes contained within cells, for example, would
release enzymes harmful to other cell systems if they escaped the confines of their
parent cells, and thus aggravate swelling and pressure. With DMSO instilled within
the cells, this enzyme release by lysosomes doesn’t take place, as shown by Dr.
Lim’s experiments on the glial cells. Much of the permanent neurological damage in head injury and stroke is
caused by a reduction of blood flow into the brain. An interrupted blood flow
results in an inadequate supply of oxygen and nutrients to brain tissue. DMSO
permits better blood flow by lessening platelet adhesiveness and aggregation and
clot formation. Ordinarily, these are conditions that can clog the veins and arteries. DMSO stimulates the release of a prostaglandin that increases blood vessel
diameter. It also inhibits the release of another prostaglandin that constricts vessels
and reduces blood flow. Dr. de la Torre stresses that spinal cord injury patients who are candidates for
DMSO treatment have to meet two criteria. First, the accident victim’s injury mustbe recent, for if it is more than a few hours old, the pathologic consequences will
have been well established. It won’t be reversible by any means. “In our DMSO
research experience, one-and-a-half hours has been the limit,” says the
neurosurgeon. “We do not know how long this limit can successfully be extended,
because it depends upon the site and extent of the lesion.”
The second criterion for a patient is that he has to have so serious a spinal
cord injury that conventional treatment would be of no use, and spontaneous
recovery would be impossible. “Many patients arrive with a loss of sensory
sensation, and even a loss of motor ability, and yet they recover, sometimes
without treatment,” de la Torre says. “If DMSO is administered to such patients,
there is no way to determine whether their recovery is spontaneous or due to the
action of the drug.”
How does a doctor isolate the patients who will not recover with conventional
therapy? “We have a test, called the somatosensory evoked response,” he says,
“which measures activity at the somatosensory cortex in the brain when a stimulus
is applied to a peripheral nerve. If there is permanent damage to the spinal cord, no
activity will be recorded. From our experience with laboratory animals, we believe
patients with no response will probably not recover motor function. By reversing
this non-recording of activity in the brain with DMSO, we know we have done
something.”
THE EMERGENCY THERAPEUTIC PRINCIPLE
DMSO has been referred to as a “therapeutic principle” by its co-discoverers. It is
a drug that is useful in a number of diseases that have no common denominator. “I
think this comment refers to the fact that there has been very little exploration of
the drug as a pharmacotherapeutic 
agent,” says de la Torre. “The more we study
it, perhaps the more we will discover about its potential application in a number of
disorders, used both alone and in combination with other drugs.”
He believes that DMSO is establishing its therapeutic benefit, without toxicity,
in a large number of serious health problems. He thinks it should be carried in
ambulances and paramedical units as an emergency therapeutic tool. “I think that
this would be almost mandatory,” says de la Torre, “especially if we establish that
these severe kinds of injuries to the spine and the brain become permanent within
four hours. Using some established criteria to evaluate the injury, a paramedic
would apply or not apply DMSO, depending on each individual case. If we can
establish that it does no harm in any condition, then it might be injected as aprophylactic drug, even for an injury that is considered permanent at that moment.”
The neurosurgeon and his former colleagues at the Division of Neurosurgery,
the University of Chicago Hospital, Drs. John F. Mullen, K. Kajihara, and Henry
Kawanaga, saw some startling results from their own work with the drug, and
reported this at scientific meetings. “We always played down the effects of
DMSO,” says de la Torre, “because the drug had had a miraculous label attached
to it. Doctors tended to elbow each other at meetings and giggle, implying ‘how
can anything be that good?’”
Over time, the pharmacologic versatility of DMSO finally has been confirmed
among numbers of clinicians who have experimented with it privately. “I do not
see many doctors giggling anymore; they are beginning to suspect that there is
something to this after all,” says de la Torre. “I think that when more people learn
to accept DMSO not as a miracle drug, but as a drug with many potential uses,
perhaps they will be stimulated to go to their laboratories and begin to do some of
this work.” More research is needed, for research is what the FDA demands before
DMSO can be released as an approved drug for a larger number of applications. ANIMAL EXPERIMENTS USING DMSO IN BRAIN
EMBOLISM
Occlusive infarction of the brain occurs when there is death of brain tissue from a
cutoff of the blood supply. The blood that brings oxygen and nutrients may be
blocked by a blood clot called a 
thrombus
 or by a plug of clotted blood or foreign
materials called an 
embolus. To study the action of DMSO on the gross manifestations of such 
occlusive
brain infarctions, twenty normal rhesus monkeys of either sex were used in a
laboratory study by medical scientists from the University of Chicago School of
Medicine and the Eastern Virginia Medical School who pooled their resources and
talents. 1
Symptoms of brain infarction can be simulated in monkeys by injecting them
with air to cause a cerebral air embolism. They will go into convulsions,
experience sensory changes, show eye motor deficits, and have paralysis and
respiratory disturbances. 2
 This should not be considered cruelty since these
monkeys are raised for the specific purpose of laboratory research. They live an
exceedingly joyful life until they enter the scientific methodology. Their
contributions extend the health and life span of mankind.Members of the monkey group, in one experiment, had their middle cerebral
arteries compressed by a small Mayfield clip. 3
 The clip remained in place for
seventeen hours. DMSO treatment began the fourth hour following this arterial
occlusion and continued once a day for four days. Monkeys that survived this
procedure were sacrificed seven days following the occlusion. During the entire
experiment, the animals were monitored with quantities of laboratory and clinical
tests that told a great deal about brain embolism. In humans, brain emboli can come from fatty plaques in the large arteries that
supply the brain. They also can be pieces that break off from thrombi in damaged
hearts. They may arise from an accumulation of platelets, fibrin, and cholesterol
on the surface of ulcerated plaques in hardening of the arteries; from vegetations
on the heart valves in bacterial endocarditis; from mural thrombi in rheumatic heart
disease or following heart attack; or from clots following open heart surgery. Brain
emboli can also hit underwater divers suffering from decompression sickness. If
the blood supply is blocked by one of these emboli for more than a few minutes,
death in a portion of the brain results and neurologic damage is permanent. Acute stroke is another manifestation of blood supply blockage to the brain. Such cerebrovascular disease is the commonest cause of neurologic disability in
Western countries. Most of the time it comes from hardening of the arteries, high
blood pressure, or a combination of both. Stroke hits abruptly with symptoms and
signs reflecting the area of brain that is damaged. Occlusion of either the internal
carotid artery or the middle cerebral artery, as was done to the monkeys, can
produce a severe set of neurologic abnormalities, almost like those displayed by
the monkeys. DMSO prevents or reverses the pathologic sequence that results from
cerebrovascular insufficiency, which finally brings on a localized area of brain
death from an embolus. The drug just has to get to the site of injury fast enough. 4
DMSO stimulates prostaglandin synthesis, which arrests or reverses the
potential pathological damage seen following brain infarction. 5
,
6
,
7
 The
prostaglandins (PGs) are a group of cyclical fatty acids that possess diverse and
potent biologic activities that affect cell function in every organ system. PGs have
sedative, tranquilizing, and anticonvulsive effects on the central nervous system. 8
,
9
DMSO increases the oxygen available to the brain tissue through
vasodilatation of other blood vessels besides the one blocked by an embolus. 10
,
11
DMSO also helps in the release of energy and allows the ischemic tissue
sufficient time to reach a hemostatic balance and reverse or prevent furtherdamage to central nervous system cells. 12
Other experiments on dogs revealed that the DMSO-treated animals did
significantly better than untreated control animals when they underwent
experimental acute spinal cord injury. An animal’s recovery rate was related to the
initial dose of DMSO given and to the time interval that elapsed after injury before
the drug was given. High doses and earlier treatment resulted in much faster
recovery. 13
When forty rhesus monkeys were subjected to acute experimental head injury
by compressing the brain with an extradural balloon, a variety of symptoms
developed. When DMSO was given to these animals, fewer died, and neurological
defects in the surviving animals were less evident in DMSO-treated monkeys when
compared with control animals. 14
The scientists doing these experiments are studying the effect of DMSO on
severe head trauma such as brain compression. Serious head injury from gunshot wounds could result in brain compression. “We do not have any drugs to adequately treat most severe head injuries,” says de
la Torre, “and we have high hopes that DMSO may be able to fill this gap, at least
until we learn more about the pathology that is involved in these injuries.”
SUMMARIZING THE KNOWLEDGE OF DMSO USE FOR THE
CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM
In his March 1980 appearance before the House Select Committee on Aging, Dr.
de la Torre crystallized his experimental work with DMSO. The questions he
answered summarized nearly everything currently known about adapting the drug
to central nervous system disorders. Over the years thousands of laboratory animals have been used in dozens of
experiments to accumulate sufficient knowledge before employing the solvent to
humans. The de la Torre group alone has included DMSO therapy for more than
500 animals, four different animal species, and various models of neurological
trauma, dating from early 1971 when head and spinal injuries were being explored. The following information comes from the neurosurgeon’s testimony:
In the injured animal, there is an improvement in cortical flow within thirty
minutes from giving DMSO, even after cortisone has stopped being secreted. Cortisone is a natural body substance that helps the experimental model fight off
the effects of head trauma.By infusing DMSO, there is an increase in the carotid artery blood flow to the
brain, as well. The carotid arteries are two brain vessels that bring oxygen and
nutrition to where they are needed. This circulatory mechanism will shut down
from the trauma and constitute a kind of brain death by itself without the DMSO
infusion. DMSO-treated animals respond much better than those animals that are
given something else. DMSO also appears to restore the subject’s electroencephalogram. In these
model injuries, the animals are brought to a point where the electroencephalogram
reading becomes flat, just preceding brain death and eventual death of the animal. Ten minutes after the injection of DMSO, the electroencephalogram returns and
the brain becomes active in its own healing and thinking. Elevated blood pressure is stabilized in these experimental animals treated
with DMSO. This is important because following head injury or spinal cord injury
there is always an increase in blood pressure in both animals and humans. If the
elevated pressure is not controlled, it may lead to death. There is an increase in the respiratory pattern of the injured models with using
DMSO. The animals appear to breathe deeper and faster, a desirable effect
because in many brain-injured patients, respiration becomes too shallow and may
eventually stop. In urine output, DMSO produces a diuretic effect and increases the body’s
excretion by five times compared to other drugs. After the intravenous administration of DMSO, there is an elevation in the
amount of spinal cord blood flow to the region of trauma. One of the first things
that happens after spinal cord trauma is that a reduction of oxygen and blood flow
sets in, inasmuch as the blood 
vessels constrict or shut down and prevent the
spilling of necessary enzymes and other materials into the tissue. Without some
treatment, the tissue then swells. Eventually this leads to paralysis. In cerebral
stroke, the animal will either become comatose or lethargic or die. With DMSO
infusion immediately after injury, all of this is prevented. Water accumulates in the brain as a result of trauma, because the damage
breaks down many of the cells. They spill their contents into the tissue, increasing
water content and thus pressure in the brain. This fluid buildup in the cranium,
which is nothing more than a bony box, will eventually compress vital centers at
the bottom of the brain and lead to death. But medical scientists have observed
that treatment with DMSO brings about significant reduction of intracranial
pressure. “If DMSO were effective only for decreasing intracranial pressure,” de
la Torre points out, “it will still be a very useful drug. . . . It picks up water,carries it to blood vessels, and then removes it from the brain. So it really dries
out the brain, in a sense.”
In the same way, an accumulation of blood that is compressing the tissue in an
area critical to survival may cause irreversible brain damage, but DMSO will
carry even this nontoxic blood away. Experiments performed in 1992 at the
University of Health Sciences–The Chicago Medical School have achieved
reduction of the spilled blood, but the investigators cannot explain how the injected
DMSO does this. They theorize that the perfusion of blood vessels in other areas
of the brain takes over the function of the damaged blood vessels by the action of
the DMSO. DMSO tends to protect nerve cells from the actual physical disruption that
occurs following injury. It provides better protection than other treatments. Scientists have verified this by observations with the electron microscope and the
light microscope. Thus, DMSO prevents the paralysis that may ensue following
trauma; it prevents or reverses many of the pathologic signs that are usually
present in brain trauma; it alters the severe effects seen after an embolic brain
stroke. These are benefits that will eventually affect more than half a million
Americans each year. POTENTIAL IN TREATING MYASTHENIA GRAVIS AND
OTHER DISORDERS
Along with showing DMSO’s great effectiveness in treating central nervous system
injuries, de la Torre projects how it will open possibilities for the treatment of
other neurological disorders that affect brain swelling. For example, the substance
is already finding use in treating 
the consequences of the removal of a brain tumor,
where swelling of the tissue develops after the tumor excision. In children, there is Reye’s syndrome, where an acute increase in intracranial
pressure occurs from the invasion of a suspected viral agent. Surgery or drug
therapy is often ineffective in Reye’s syndrome, but DMSO may do the job of
relieving the pressure on the child’s brain. Ordinarily, antibodies protect people against disease. In myasthenia gravis,
however, abnormal antibodies hamper the transmission of nerve signals to the
muscles and thus produce the weakness symptomatic of the disease. Myasthenia
gravis, a rarity, affects about one out of 20,000 people. It is characterized by
sporadic muscular fatigability and weakness, occurring chiefly in musclesinnervated by cranial nerves, and characteristically improved by cholinesterase-
inhibiting drugs. The causative defect is believed to be located at the
neuromuscular junction and to be related to an impairment of acetylcholine’s
ability to induce muscle contraction. DMSO, a cholinesterase inhibitor, has
markedly reduced the abnormal antibodies characteristic of myasthenia gravis. Animal experiments at Johns Hopkins University made use of DMSO simply
as a solvent to increase absorption of an immunosuppressive drug called
frentizole, which researchers were testing. Their object was to use frentizole to
reduce antibodies in rats that had been treated to give them a disorder much like
myasthenia gravis. The experimental treatment worked, but it proved to be the
solvent, not the immunosuppressive drug, that was doing the work. In January 1981, reporting in the British scientific journal 
Nature
, the scientists
Alan Pestronk, M.D., and Daniel B. Drachman, M.D., stated their intent to test
DMSO in human beings, because they knew of no current treatment that
diminishes circulating antibodies as quickly, safely, and effectively as DMSO did
in the experiments. The scientists stressed that their observations were made in
only one set of experiments with one species, however. They do not know whether
the same effect would occur in humans or whether DMSO would have any value
against the disease. This remains to be seen. Dr. Pestronk and Dr. Drachman said their discovery might have important
implications for treating not only myasthenia gravis but also other diseases in
which the body’s immunological defenses turn against some of the body’s own
cells or tissues. Such disorders are called autoimmune diseases. Several other
serious diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, involve autoimmune factors. 15
TREATMENT OF INTRACRANIAL HYPERTENSION
Writing in the June 1984 issue of the journal 
Neurosurgery
, three neurologists
described their application of DMSO for the reduction or elimination of
intracranial hypertension (high blood pressure within the skull’s chamber) from
head injury. They discussed their experience in six patients, two who had received
a bolus administration (an intravenous “push” injection) of 10 percent dimethyl
sulfoxide and four who had received a 20-percent solution titrated (measured by
counting drops) against the intracranial pressure (ICP). Five of the patients in this series suffered from severe head injury, and one had
a cortical venous thrombosis (blood clot of a vein in the cerebral cortex)associated with pregnancy. The first two patients were treated with a rapid
infusion of a 10-percent solution of DMSO. Initially, the ICP was satisfactorily
controlled using this method. Over time, however, fluid overload, severe
electrolyte disturbances, and an ultimate loss of ICP control occurred. In
subsequent patients, a 20-percent solution titrated against the ICP was used. Although ICP control was better achieved using this method of administration,
problems with fluid management and electrolytes occurred again despite a high
level of vigilance on the part of the three clinicians. In addition, because of the solvent properties of DMSO and its propensity over
time to dissolve (reduce the potency or concentration of) most standard
intravenous infusion systems, mechanical difficulties in its administration were
encountered in all six patients. In their clinical journal report, the doctors wrote,
“The mechanism of action of DMSO is not well understood. It differs from the
barbiturates, but acts too rapidly to function solely as a diuretic. The drug is
extremely complex to use, and difficulties with its administration may make its
risks ultimately greater than its potential benefits. Until more laboratory data are
available concerning its use and better delivery systems are developed,
neurosurgeons are cautioned against treating intracranial hypertension with
DMSO.”
16
MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS SUCCESSFULLY TREATED
DMSO finds use in the treatment of multiple sclerosis, in Russia, as revealed by a
1984 clinical journal report. Thirty-four patients with multiple sclerosis were
treated with the Russian branded product named Dimexide (dimethyl sulfoxide). The use of the drug was found 
to be desirable, since it had a positive effect on
immunity and antiallergic and reparative action on the injured tissues. The
treatment proved most effective in patients with a remitting course of the disease. In patients with a rapidly progressive course, the improvement was unstable. No
side effects were observed. The beneficial therapeutic effect of dimexide may be
explained by remyelinization (new growth of nerve sheaths), a reduction in the
edema (swelling), and neurodynamic improvement (improved movement of nerve
impulses). 17
NO DMSO TOXICITY IN CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM
TREATMENTIn all of his group’s studies, Dr. de la Torre found no significant toxicity involved
with the drug, even with high intravenous doses. He explained, “We took a series
of rhesus monkeys that are phylogenetically very close to man, and injected high
doses of DMSO intravenously for nine days. Before and after, we tested these
monkeys for their serum chemistries, their cardiovascular responses, their
neurological signs, and their ophthalmological changes, if there were any. “Following the toxicity studies, which took eighteen weeks, we concluded that
there were no significant changes in the serum chemistry at any time during the
observation period. These changes were compared to a control series of animals. “There were no changes in the urine, and there were no neurological changes. There were no changes in the cardiovascular responses. There were no ocular
changes. We were curious to see if there might have been some changes in the
refraction or translucency of the lens, since some years previously this had been
reported to have been a problem in rabbits. “One of the ophthalmologists reviewed these animals before and after DMSO,
not knowing which animals had received the drug, and it was concluded that there
were no changes at all in the eyes of these animals. “Then following the experiments, the animals were autopsied and the tissues
examined histologically. No pathologic changes in the histology were found. “So, our conclusion, then, is that DMSO, at least as far as these events were
concerned, is an effective and relatively nontoxic drug as used intravenously. “Our results in spinal cord injury, brain trauma, and stroke have been
confirmed by at least three different groups of investigators in other parts of the
country for each project,” Dr. de la Torre said. “We feel that DMSO is a highly
effective drug in central nervous system injuries.”CHAPTER 10
DMSO Therapy for Mental
Disabilities
Melody Clark had her first psychomotor evaluation when she was six months old. Her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Dale Clark of Wenatchee, Washington, learned that
Melody would be so severely retarded that in all likelihood she would never
progress mentally beyond the age of six. She was born with an extra chromosome
21—a total of forty-seven chromosomes instead of the normal human forty-six—
making her a victim of Down’s syndrome or trisomy 21. Patients with Down’s syndrome are labeled trisomic mongoloids, because of
certain characteristics peculiar to an individual with three of a particular
chromosome rather than the normal pair of homologous chromosomes. Typically,
the affected child is born to an older mother, although the condition may also occur
in babies of mothers of any age. The overall incidence is about 1 in 700 live
births, but there is marked variability depending on the mother’s age. In the early
child-bearing years, the incidence is about 1 in 2,000 live births; for mothers over
age forty, it rises to about 45 in 1,000 live births. Close to 50 percent of infants
with Down’s syndrome are born to mothers over thirty-five years of age. The babies tend to be placid, rarely cry, and demonstrate lack of muscular
tone. Their physical and mental development is retarded; the mean intelligence
quotient (IQ) is about 50. Facial characteristics differ from the normal: an
unusually small head, flattened at the rear, and disproportionately short; slanted
eyes with folds of skin extending from the root of the nose to the inner termination
of the eyebrow are present. Gray to white spots resembling grains of salt clustering
around the periphery of the iris are usually visible in the period just after birth and
disappear during the first twelve months of life. The bridge of the 
nose is flattened,
and the baby’s mouth is often held open by a large, protruding tongue that is
furrowed and lacks the central fissure. The hands of such children are short and broad, with a single palmar crease
(“simian crease”). Their fingers appear short with incurvature of the fifth finger,
which often has only two phalanges. The feet have a wide gap between the firstand second toes, and a furrow on the foot sole extends backward. X-rays of the
children’s hips disclose decreased acetabular and iliac angles, and prior to the
availability of chromosome analysis this was a major finding in confirming the
diagnosis. Congenital heart disease is found in about 35 percent of Down’s syndrome
patients. Thus, life expectancy is decreased by the threat of heart disease and by
susceptibility to acute leukemia. However, many youngsters without a major heart
defect survive to adulthood but not to old age. When Melody Clark was eleven months old, her parents placed her on DMSO
therapy under the supervision of Dr. Stanley Jacob. At that time, she couldn’t
stand because her legs were just like a rag doll’s. She could not roll from her back
to her abdomen. Her eyes were constantly out of focus; she was almost unable to
see. By age eight, Melody had progressed from a severely retarded child to one
who was only mildly retarded—a circumstance that is highly unusual for this
heretofore irreversible condition. After seven years of treatment with DMSO, Melody ran, jumped, turned
somersaults, and played on a trampoline. She was on a second grade level at
school and excelled in arithmetic. She had an excellent grasp of mathematical
problems and was a good reader and a fine speller. She had worked her way up
from a class for “trainables” to a special education class for educable children. She attended Sunday school with normal children and also enjoyed camp with
normal children during the summer of 1980. Equally important is that Melody was
quite popular with her classmates—she was very social-minded. Not only did she advance mentally, but the DMSO therapy brought about
actual physical changes. Her features altered. Melody was born with an extremely
high roof in her mouth, and now it is within the normal range. Her dentist, David K.
Priebe, D.D.S., of the Eye and Ear Hospital, Wenatchee, Washington, testified to
this change. Dr. Priebe wrote:
For the record I’d like to share some observations about Melody Clark’s
oral development. Melody has been a regular patient under my care since
11 August, 1976. I have been paying particular attention to tooth size and 
nature of
dorsal tongue mucosa, all of which have altered developmental patterns in
Down’s syndrome children. It is my clinical impression that this patient seems to be significantly
more normal in every aspect of the above compared with other Down’ssyndrome children of similar age. Palate development, while high, has
lowered considerably during the time she has been with me. Arch
development and particularly tongue development seem to be becoming
within the range of normalcy. Behaviorly, Melody has demonstrated that she can handle the stress of
dental treatment as well as children not having Down’s syndrome. Progress reports on Melody’s functional development in the classroom showed
her able “to read fluently from storybook to teacher and independently complete
comprehension questions on take home,” said Rose M. Mullan, a special
education teacher at the Wenatchee Sterling Middle School. The girl was “able to
compute two-digit, one-column addition and subtraction facts from dictated story
problems.”
When Melody was not yet seven, she could also speak in complete sentences. Ms. Mullan said, “The first response in a complete sentence was made in
November 1979. When told at recess that all the balls were being used, Melody
responded, ‘Denise will share with me.’” Then, she was able to respond to
personal data and give her full name, age, address, city, state, birthday, phone
number, and parents’ names and was able to name in order the days of the week
and the seasons of the year. She was accepted by her peers on her personal merit. “Melody socializes with
her peers at recess and in the classroom,” noted Ms. Mullan. “She participates in
classroom games and shares classroom responsibilities. Melody is very
conscientious in completing her school assignments, and she is proud of her
academic accomplishments.”
Another of Melody’s teachers, Marion A. Kennedy, commenting on the girl’s
writing ability, said: “Melody can group letters into words and generally maintains
her letters within the boundary of primary paper. She copies directly from the
chalkboard and many sight words she simply reads and then writes on her paper. (As opposed to having to copy letter for letter, she spells.) She always reads her
‘boardwork’ independently prior to copying it. . . . There is no question that
Melody has made great strides in every area of academic and social and physical
development this year. The progress is quite remarkable.”
“All of this progress is because of DMSO,” said Melody’s mother, “so I’m
sure you realize why I would like to see this drug made available for suffering
people. It certainly offers parents like us a lot of hope.”
The little girl is unique in the progress she made. No scientist quiteunderstands how DMSO worked to make changes in her—and in other children
with Down’s syndrome—but that the drug did is undeniable. Don Bonker, a
Congressman from Washington state who is one of the members of the House
Select Committee on Aging, told Dr. Jacob and all those assembled in the hearing
room the day DMSO was discussed, “Today Melody is a miracle child for the
entire community. She walks, runs, talks, reads, spells well, her teeth are
developing almost normally. Her tongue does not protrude. “Are you familiar with this case?” Mr. Bonker asked Dr. Jacob. “Today our
office has received three phone calls from a community in the state of Washington
regarding Melody Clark, this eight-year-old child who has what is known as
Down’s syndrome. At eleven months she was typically unable to stand or walk,
had protruding tongue and all the other symptoms. Her parents heard of Dr.
Stanley Jacob and went to Portland to try DMSO on her.”
Dr. Jacob knew her well—she was one of hundreds of trisomic (Down’s
syndrome) children who had some of their abnormalities partially reversed with
DMSO therapy. OTHER DOWN’S SYNDROME EXAMPLES RESPONDING TO
DMSO
Bronwyn Nash of Rock Island, Washington, was another trisomy 21, the form of
Down’s syndrome with the greatest number of problems. She had been treated with
DMSO since the age of ten months. When I investigated Bronwyn’s case she was
twenty-eight months old and improving steadily. The girl had been very slow to gain weight. Her pediatrician had done several
tests to see if there was a medical reason but none was discovered. She was a
frail, tiny baby. It was right after she was put on DMSO for treating her Down’s syndrome that
Bronwyn’s weight started to go up. Dorothy Nash, her mother, described how the
baby progressed: “She seemed to have more interest in food and ate a little more
but was basically nursing until she was a year old, so we’re convinced the DMSO
helped her. We and other people around us noticed an increased awareness of
people and objects 
around Bronwyn. She started taking a real interest in reaching
out and touching things.”
At eighteen months Bronwyn crawled, sat up, and pulled herself to a standing
position. She got into her mother’s cupboards, started to feed herself, and held herwater glass well. She became an alert, cheerful little girl much enjoyed and well
loved by the Nash family. Mrs. Nash said, “We are so pleased to have Bronwyn on DMSO and hope it
will be available to others soon.”
From Santiago, Chile, Nicholas Weinstein, M.D., supplied the DMSO
aminoacid compound used for the Down’s syndrome treatment of young Billy King
in the United States. The child was suffering from trisomy 21 and had been treated
for eight years with traditional therapies, without any improvement. Then, for over
two years he was given DMSO therapy with an imported drug product. By the time
he was ten years old, the boy had experienced no unfavorable side effects and
improvement was definitely observed. His mother, Betty Lou King, reported,
“Billy has grown from a size five to a fifteen and has now complete control of his
bladder and bowels. He has gained a large vocabulary. His mongoloid looks are
diminishing.” The photographic comparison of changes in Billy King for just one
year are striking. He looks normal now whereas before the boy possessed the
facial characteristics of obvious Down’s syndrome. DMSO AMINOACID THERAPY FOR TRISOMIC CHILDREN
Medical teams working in clinical and pharmacological research from Canada, the
United States, Mexico, Argentina, and Chile use DMSO aminoacid therapy in an
ongoing search for new means to fight mental retardation. The combination of
ingredients is not yet approved by the Federal Food and Drug Administration and
any physician who employs the compound in this country risks a lot personally
and professionally. Parents don’t risk much because the medicine has been proved
safe after years of clinical trials—and the parents have hardly any other hope of
restoring their trisomy children to near normality. An experiment was carried out with a group of 18 children suffering from
trisomy 21. While they showed marked differences on an intellectual level, they
were pathogenically homogeneous, as they all had the typical symptoms. The
results obtained with this experimental group were checked against those of a
control group of 91 children of similar physical and mental ages who had Down’s
syndrome. Chief of research was Lydia F. De Coriat, M.D., Assistant Head of the
Neurological Service of the Municipal Pediatric Hospital, Buenos Aires,
Argentina, who is also President of the Argentine Association for the Scientific
Study of Mental Retardation. Dr. De Coriat used an evaluation technique on thechildren that covered four levels:
1
. Impression of the child’s parents regarding behavior at home, degree of
integration and language organization, and general deportment. 2
. The personal impression of the physician regarding clinical changes in the
patient including his or her general aspect, muscular tone, psychomotor
activity, appearance, and expression. 3
. A psychological evaluation made by comparing the IQ in repeated
psychometric tests. 4
. An evaluation of side effects, laboratory assays, and other supplementary
tests for the medication. For psychometric control of the development of the Down’s syndrome babies,
the Gesell test for child development was used. 1
 The Therman-Merril test was
used for older subjects. The neurological maturity of the 109 children of both
sexes, aged between two months and five years, was recorded. They had been
subjected to early stimulation since babyhood. Each child was studied and examined for six consecutive months. Only the 18
children of the group received treatment with DMSO aminoacid therapy. It
included the intramuscular injection into each child of five series of twelve
ampoules of the DMSO aminoacid compound every other day. Additionally, the
rhythm of stimulation and specialized learning for all babies and children were
maintained at previously determined levels. The diet was kept at an optimum, and
psychopharmacological and aminoacid oral treatments were continued where
necessary. The 91 children in the control group received only “basic treatment,” no
DMSO aminoacid therapy. The injections for Down’s syndrome children in the
experiment were supplemented by daily oral administration of one to three
capsules containing the DMSO compound for 180 days. Analysis of the results demonstrated “a tendency towards accelerated maturity
in the children treated, with marked progress in language integration; this could be
established in statistically significant degrees in the children treated, reported Dr.
De Coriat. “The side effects observed were minimal and did not make it necessary
to suspend 
treatment, save in the case of one child, with a probable allergic
exanthema.” (Exanthema is a skin eruption.) The researchers considered the results of this experiment positive and pointed
to the DMSO aminoacid therapy as a useful addition to conventional treatments of
Down’s syndrome.THE DMSO AMINOACID FORMULA
The DMSO aminoacid therapy used in this research is commercially available
under the name “Akron” in Argentina and “Merinex” in Chile. The amino acids in
these products are agents for the resupply of the nervous cells and are considered
indispensable for the biochemical process that controls the cerebral metabolism. The products have been used for the treatment of depressive neurosis, anxiety,
psychic disorders connected with menopause, apathy and fatigue of geriatrics, and
poor intellectual performance in children. With assistance from DMSO, the amino
acids penetrate the brain and activate the neuronal function, which is suppressed in
many syndromes of mental retardation. The earlier this DMSO therapy is begun,
the greater the possibility of achieving patient improvement, since the neuronal
change is then in full development. Neurologists and pediatricians in various Latin American and European
countries have taken advantage of the Chilean and Argentine investigations and
now use the products in mentally retarded and mentally deficient patients. The
amino acids comprising the DMSO formula are gamma-aminobutyric acid
(GABA), gamma-amino-betahydroxybutyric acid (GABOB), and acetylglutamine. Five milliliter ampoules are supplied for intramuscular injection, and there are
capsules manufactured for oral administration. Dosage is determined by body
weight of the child, as follows:
Up to 8 kg = 
1
⁄
4
 ampoule (1.25 cc)
8 kg to 12 kg = 
1
⁄
2
 ampoule (2.50 cc)
More than 12 kg = 1 ampoule (5.00 cc)
The treatment program with Merinex or Akron involves one intramuscular
injection every other day and swallowing two or three capsules daily during the
entire regimen. Injections are suspended every 40 days for a rest period of one
month, during which time only capsules are administered. The program must last at
least one year, in the course of which five series of twenty injections each and two
or 
three capsules per day according to the patient’s body weight are administered. Since mental retardation associated with syndromes of autosomal aberrations
(Down’s syndrome) is a very difficult medical problem, the manufacturers
recommend that after completing the one-year treatment, the patient be given a rest
of two months and then the treatment resume. The pharmaceutical researchers
involved with DMSO aminoacid therapy seem unable to entirely explain how itactually works to alter complications connected with the patient’s extra
chromosome. All they know is what they’ve observed in one clinical trial after
another. MORE THERAPEUTIC STUDIES ON SEVERE MENTAL
RETARDATION
In a paper presented at the third international conference on dimethyl sulfoxide
held in New York City under the auspices of the New York Academy of Sciences,
five prominent physicians, representing the disciplines of neuropsychiatry,
pediatrics, and genetics, from universities and hospitals in Chile, told of another
study of DMSO aminoacid therapy in severe mental retardation.
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:

        Those who
suffer from it are subject to humiliating social situations. The main cause is a
functional disturbance in the nervous system. More than washing the feet is needed
to bring relief and to eliminate the annoyance. The symptoms of bromidrosis are, besides the obvious smell, a sogginess of
the skin between the toes and tenderness of the flesh of the foot. There may be tiny
blisters on the balls of the feet or on the heels. Foot odor does not always yield quickly to treatment. However, there are
methods that will diminish the problem and maybe eliminate it altogether. Painting the soles of the feet with 50 percent DMSO is possibly one of them. Although it may seem you are merely substituting one bad smell for another, the
DMSO odor will go away in a day or two leaving the feet free of their own bad
odor—at least for a time. The longer you keep the DMSO on, the longer the foot
odor stays away. As an aside, I do advise that many people find dramatic relief from “smelly
feet” by eliminating sugar from the diet, taking adequate amounts of B complex
vitamins, and taking a zinc supplement. DANCER’S FOOT
Dancer’s foot is an inflammation and, in severe cases, a displacement or fracture
of the two small bones located beneath the head of the first metatarsal. As you
would suspect, it most frequently affects people who dance a lot. The sesamoid bones are located in tendons that run beneath the big toe joint. Their function is to lessen the friction as the tendons move. Unusual stress can
injure these two small bones. Dancing places an unusual weight on the sesamoids and damage can occur. Inflammation and pain jeopardize the dancer’s ability to perform. If he or she
ignores the pain, the small, tender sesamoid bones may fracture or be displaced. It
can happen to anyone and not just to dancers. In treating this foot problem, a diagnosis is mandatory. Then, appropriate
padding of the joint is called for after physical therapy measures reduce the
inflammation. DMSO with ultrasound proved excellent as the particular form of
physical therapy. It took inflammation out of the dancer’s foot condition right
away. The pad applied then is placed on the foot, in the shoe, or as part of an
orthotic to shield the sesamoids from undue stress. METATARSALGIA
Metatarsalgia, or Morton’s toe, is a sudden sharp, stabbing pain felt in the toes. Morton’s toe comes on from an inflammation of the nerve between the third and
fourth metatarsal bones that produces an agonizing feeling. Runners are sometimes
the victims of this neuralgic pain. Metatarsalgia is caused by the compression of a small toe nerve between two
displaced metatarsal bones. Inflammation occurs when the head of one displaced
metatarsal presses against another and catches the nerve between them. With every
step the nerve is rubbed, pressed, and irritated. Consequently, the involved nerve
becomes enlarged with a sheath of scar tissue that forms to protect it. The tissue
enlarges into a neuroma that must eventually be removed surgically to get total
relief of the pain. The podiatrist may bring relief of Morton’s toe using techniques other than
neuroma surgery. This can be done with injections of a local anesthetic mixed with
DMSO into the foot. A pad may be placed in the shoe to spread the metatarsal
heads away from each other. Or, orthotic appliances may be worn by the patient. The podiatrist takes the precaution of 
injecting very slowly, because intramuscular
injections may produce pain, though the local anesthetic tends to disguise it. Good
technique will avoid discomfort for the patient. FALLEN ARCHESSo-called “fallen arches” really are weakened feet that are so strained they have
developed symptoms. In the classic case of fallen arches, nearly all the bones of the foot change
position. The heel bone rolls inward, the ankle drops, the shin becomes more
prominent, the cuboid bone is forced outward, and both the big toe and the fifth toe
rise. The other bones sink, and the inner longitudinal arch “falls. ”
The victims feel pain and burning in the foot and tiredness and aching pain in
the legs. They cannot stand or walk for any length of time. Painful calluses may
grow on the ball of the foot because the front metatarsal arch falls, as well. Check yourself for fallen arches by looking for a “flatness” of your feet. Or,
stand before a mirror and observe the backs of your feet. Notice whether the heel
tendons bow inward toward each other. This is 
Helbing’s sign. Relief from the discomfort of fallen arches comes from treatment with a variety
of devices designed by the podiatry profession. The podiatrist may restore normal
function to damaged muscles and ligaments in three steps: (1) physical therapy
using DMSO and ultrasound to reduce the inflammation, (2) application of a
corrective strapping, and (3) making a pair of orthotics for the weakened feet. The
length of time you have the trouble and its severity determine how effective
DMSO three-step treatment will be. Realize that if nothing is done to manage the
fallen arches, there will be periodic episodes of pain as the symptoms appear, are
treated and disappear, and appear again. DMSO seems highly efficacious for acute foot problems but hardly effective
for chronic foot problems, except for chronic calcaneal spur inflammation. HEEL SPURS
On the heel bone, the 
calcaneus
, a spurlike growth of calcium, sometimes forms
where the muscles and ligaments of the foot are attached. One or more spurs grow
on the heel bone, but are padded by the flesh of the foot, so that the spur may take
years to become a problem. The heel spur hurts when you place your weight on the bone. Anyone may be
affected. Women are as likely to suffer from it as men. It is seen most often in
persons past forty, and the condition may be associated with arthritis or poor
circulation. The underlying cause is chronic foot strain brought on by weak feet, prolonged
standing, improper footgear, or structural misalignment of the feet. In each case,
the feet are inadequate to the tasks they must perform and strain brings onphysiological change with overgrowth of calcification. The pain comes actually not from the spur point but from the inflammation
around the muscles where they are attached to the bone. It is most severe when
you start to walk after a rest. For full relief of painful heel spurs, the doctor will diagnose and analyze the
problem and recommend a course of treatment. It should include ultrasound and
DMSO employed daily to take out the deep-seated pain of inflammation. The
DMSO impervious wrap is also excellent to strap onto the heel to pull out the
painful inflammation. ANKLE SPRAINS
The sprained ankle, a common injury, is the result of a violent twisting of the foot. You may sprain an ankle quite casually as you stroll along the street. You may
sprain it when you step upon an uneven surface, like a rock or a curbstone, when
you catch a high heel in a grating, or when you jump from any height. The more
active you are, the greater the possibility that you will sprain your ankle. Since a sprain occurs if the foot is twisted, it is most likely to happen when the
foot is somehow off balance. When the weight of the body comes down on the
foot, instead of being transmitted directly to the ground, it is caught on only one
side of the foot. The strain placed on the ligaments when the foot is off balance
and the weight suddenly thrust upon it will be greater than the ligaments can
withstand. Consequently, the ligaments that connect the anklebone and the
shinbone tear. The more violently the ankle is twisted, the greater the damage and
pain. Immediately after the sprain, the signs and symptoms of injury appear. Placing
any weight directly on the injured foot may cause pain. If the sprain is slight, the
ankle becomes tender and sensitive. If the sprain is severe, the ankle may become
hot, swollen, tender, and so painful that you cannot walk. The ankle becomes
discolored, sometimes red, sometimes blue. As the swelling increases, it is
accompanied by throbbing. Emergency care for a sprained ankle can begin even before you get to a
doctor. First, take weight off the ankle. Sit down. When a sprain is truly severe,
this suggestion is scarcely necessary, for in such cases walking will cause
considerable pain. But you can get some comfort within a few minutes by dosing
the torn ligaments or pulled muscles with 90 percent DMSO. You may feel some
burning or see redness appear, but the pain of inflammation will go out of theankle. Still, don’t bear weight on the ankle. The seriousness of the injury cannot
always be determined immediately, for the symptoms don’t appear all at once. The
sprain may seem to be only a temporary impediment, especially with the swift
application of topical DMSO, but using the ankle may easily increase the damage. Do not take the risk. The DMSO will reduce the swelling or prevent it from coming up altogether. Devise a proper support for the ankle by wrapping gauze over the DMSO-
moistened skin, covering with impervious plastic kitchen wrap, and taping with
one-inch strips of adhesive strapping over everything. Eliminating the pain,
remember, is not healing the sprain; support is mandatory to hold the torn
ligaments against the leg bone so that they don’t move much. Change the strapping
every four days, wash the skin each time, recoat with DMSO, and keep up this
procedure until there is no more pain from the direct pressure of palpation with
your fingers. *   *   *
The majority of sufferers of foot and leg problems, instead of seeking professional
care, turn to the many gadgets, special materials, and patent medicines that are
widely promoted as cures. Most of these products are, unfortunately, ineffective;
some must have been invented in the offices of the advertising agencies that
promote them. Others are “family recipes” that have been handed down from
generation to generation, given new names, packaged artfully, and marketed at high
prices. The money you spend for foot gadgets often is utterly wasted. Still, the public
goes from one “remedy” to another in its never-ending search for relief. There are no panaceas. The only truly effective products for use on the feet
are those that have been tested and proved in laboratories, in clinics, and in
doctors’ offices. Yet the one medication that seems to be most applicable to foot
and leg problems—as close to a panacea as we can come—is DMSO. It is useful
for a broad range of lower limb difficulties and should be considered as an
excellent emergency remedy and follow-up therapy for the many troubles that
plague our feet. CHAPTER 9
Using DMSO in Head and Spinal Cord
Injuries
Clara M. Fox of Toutle, Washington, was stunned September 15, 1979, to learn
that her son Bill had a near-fatal injury that left the young man completely
paralyzed. Through a series of hospital transfers during the first six hours, William
J. Shaal was taken to the University of Oregon Health and Science Center in
Portland after his devastating accident. It was a lucky move because DMSO is a
therapeutic ingredient used in this institution’s surgical intensive care unit. George
Greccos, M. D. , the physician attending Bill Shaal’s case, made intravenous
infusion with the experimental drug an integral part of his treatment during the first
ten days. Bill had a broken neck; he was paralyzed from the site of injury downward. He
couldn’t willfully urinate, defecate, move any limbs, talk, eat, or perform any other
kind of voluntary function. With his head cleanly shaven, ugly but necessary steel
tongs were drilled into his skull to keep the spinal column immobilized. Thin ropes
and pulleys with weights attached stretched his neck at the crucial point, in order
for it to come back into place and possibly heal. He remained in traction for forty-
five days after coming out of intensive care where he had teetered between life and
death for four days. The youth was eventually hospitalized for over six months. Spinal cord injuries are extremely serious, and lacerations or cuts across the
cord inevitably leave the accident victim permanently without function. An acute
transverse cord lesion causes immediate flaccid paralysis and loss of all sensation
and function of the autonomic system below the level of injury. The flaccid
paralysis gradually changes over hours or days to spastic paraplegia due to
exaggeration of the normal stretch reflex. The limbs exhibit spontaneous jumps or
spasms. Later, if the spinal cord in the lumbosacral region is not entirely severed,
extensor or flexor muscle spasms appear, and deep tendon reflexes and autonomic
reflexes return very gradually. Depending on how complete the trauma to the cord is, there may be only
partial motor and sensory nerve loss. Voluntary movement could return but it isdisordered; sensory loss is determined by which portion of the spinal tract is
affected. The lost or impaired senses may include the sense of posture, vibration,
light touch or pain, temperature, and deep touch. A half-cut through the cord
results in spastic paralysis, loss of postural sense on the side cut through, and loss
of pain and heat sense on the opposite side. With an injury such as that sustained by young Bill, the severed nerve
processes in the cord cannot recover and damage often becomes permanent. Still,
if there is any movement or sensation during the first week after the injury, the
signs are favorable for some recovery. Any dysfunction remaining after six months
is likely to remain permanent. Severe cord injury above the fifth cervical vertebra is usually fatal. Bill’s was
at that point. Certainly there is motor and sensory loss, and the reflex arcs that
control the bladder, sexual activity in men, and bowel function are destroyed. While DMSO works effectively for healing spinal cord lesions when
administered intravenously within ninety minutes of the injury, Bill Shaal did not
get the DMSO until seven hours later. Yet, after several days he began to have
distinct feelings in his shoulders and arms, then in his upper chest to just below the
nipples. His family was overjoyed to see that his senses were returning, Clara Fox
said, “. and before he was taken off the drug, he was even beginning to
experience feelings and sensations in his bladder and kidneys, asking for his urinal
time and again, and in each case, actually urinating in it. Of course you can
imagine the excitement that came with each new discovery. ”
This was phenomenal, because Bill’s problem was so serious that Dr. Greccos,
when he met the family coming into the hospital the first time, showed them the
patient’s X-rays and explained that their son might not live. He said most of the
reason Bill had even made it that far was due to his excellent physical and mental
condition. The physician added candidly that if Bill did live, he would
undoubtedly be paralyzed for the remainder of his life, from the site of injury in his
neck on down. During the course of the first two weeks, the patient fought off three bouts of
pneumonia and a very bad urinary tract infection. It is not uncommon for victims
of cervical cord damage to have respiratory difficulties and bladder problems. The
family members, the patient, 
and the doctor realized, however, that DMSO had
literally saved the young man’s life by drawing the fluid and pressure from his
spinal cord and head while slowly restoring feeling in his body. Without
intravenous infusion of the drug, he would have died. Much of the cartilage in the patient’s neck had disintegrated. Bill needed anoperation to remedy this, and it was performed five weeks after the hospital staff
had taken him off DMSO. The surgical procedure involved implanting two
stainless steel surgical rods in the back of his neck, fused together with some bone
and muscle taken from his left hip. The operation was definitely successful. A physical therapy program had been incorporated as part of the rehabilitative
process, but postoperative pain prevented the patient from participating in it. He
needed more fervor in exercising but couldn’t find it in himself. As the days rolled
by, he slowly deteriorated, which the young man and his mother traced to the need
for reintroducing DMSO intravenous treatments. The only thing the hospital staff
allowed was some topical applications of the drug to the painful areas in his neck,
shoulders, arms, and other parts of his body. DMSO on the skin did minimize the
pain. Then some family members began to notice smooth and fluid motions in Bill’s
legs when they applied the solvent. His mother described these motions to the
hospital staff, but her descriptions were dismissed as probably the spontaneous
jumps or spasms of paralysis from hemisection of the cord. The nurses and
medical students in this teaching hospital regarded the motions as simply natural
leg spasms that occur from time to time. “Then one day, one of his legs made such a motion while Dr. Greccos was
standing by talking to him. The doctor came out of Bill’s room with a look quite
close to awe and wonderment, and flatly stated that now he realized what we were
talking about, and instantly agreed that this indeed was not a regular spasm, but
something quite different on which to speculate in the coming weeks,” said his
mother. “For close to three months after they took Bill off the DMSO, we fought
daily to have the intravenous procedure continued, without much luck. But we
finally got our point across shortly after the Christmas holidays, and they did
agree, but with certain stipulations. ”
The medical staff wanted to move the patient across the city for a series of
neurological tests run on special equipment at Good Samaritan Hospital. If these
tests indicated any hope of noticeable improvement to which they could credit
DMSO, then they would put him back on 
the drug twice a week for a number of
weeks. After that, he would be returned to Good Samaritan for another series of
the same tests and reevaluated. If there were not significant changes, then the IV
DMSO would be discontinued. “From that time on,” reported Mrs. Fox, “Bill quickly and steadily improved,
to the point where he could now tolerate maximum occupational and physical
therapy for three to five hours per day without any pain; just sheer exhaustion fromworking himself so hard. He jumped from lifting two-and-a-half pounds of weights
on his right arm and wrist, to between fifty to sixty pounds; and from one-and-a-
half with his left arm and wrist to between thirty-five and forty. By being able to
accomplish this, he has worked back his triceps [muscle] in the right arm, which
up to then had been gone; and I might add, a very good biceps muscle of which he
is extremely proud, and ready to take on anyone in a good arm wrestling match. And slowly but surely, the left triceps is coming around, and we are increasingly
confident that before long, he will also have all of that back. ”
On March 13, 1980, Bill was taken back to Good Samaritan Hospital to have
the earlier tests rerun and reevaluated. The results were nothing short of amazing. All readings in the prior tests indicated his dramatic improvement. Additionally,
the patient showed that he had nerve sensory motions in his right foot. The patient
was being restored to near what he had once been. He was permanently dismissed from the hospital. Bill came home able to feed
himself, brush his teeth, shave, comb his hair, dress, and bathe himself. Where six months before he was more dead than alive and the family prepared
for his lifetime of complete paralysis, now the young man was able to operate his
manual wheelchair aptly by himself. Even a month before, he couldn’t manipulate
the wheelchair alone. But DMSO intravenous injections had changed all that. “During the last six months, I have spent many hours in Dr. Jacob’s clinic with
his beautiful and caring staff, watching miracle after miracle happen right in front
of my eyes,” wrote Clara M. Fox to Claude Pepper, then Chairman of the House
of Representatives Select Committee on Aging. “I have seen people who have
been totally paralyzed for twenty years or more being treated and starting to move. The wonder in their eyes is indeed a sight to behold. I have witnessed the awe in
the eyes and actions of a young couple whose child is being treated for Down’s
syndrome, and listened with rapt attention as they relate how far that 
child has
come from death’s door to today. I have sent or personally brought people with
various illnesses or pains to Dr. Jacob’s clinic and seen them smile with utmost
satisfaction at having been cured or helped after years of discomfort and pain. And
then I have sat back and watched Dr. Jacob absolutely ecstatic after another
successful case of treatment. How very proud and happy he is to be able to help
this human race of ours. “I have also done a lot of reading and research into the full and real story of
this remarkable drug, and I can only summarize with all my hopes and prayers,
along with millions of others, that this humble man can see all his work and dreams
materialize into that final success of having DMSO returned to the market by theFederal Drug Administration, so that all Americans might have the chance to be
helped or saved through all those efforts. I urge everyone connected with this
possibility to please check carefully all the facts, and help to answer these
prayers. ”
DMSO RESEARCH INTO REVERSING NEUROLOGICAL
DISORDERS
Laboratory experiments are continuing with DMSO used to treat simulated trauma
created in the spinal cords of monkeys. Under ideal conditions, the external factors
and reproducibility of the monkey injuries are closely controlled, and “the effects
of DMSO have been often dramatic, sometimes unusual, and seldom without
effect,” says Jack C. de la Torre, Sc.
A functional disturbance in the nervous system.
What is the primary cause of bromidrosis?
The treatment involves a three-step process: physical therapy using DMSO and ultrasound, application of a corrective strapping, and the creation of an orthotic device.
What is the recommended treatment for fallen arches, according to the text?
Dr. de la Torre's research aims to understand how DMSO works to reverse the effects of neurological disorders.
What is the main goal of Dr. de la Torre's research on DMSO?
The dosage is determined by the patient's body weight, with instructions to administer one ampoule every other day and 2-3 capsules daily.
What is the recommended dosage for DMSO aminoacid therapy for patients with Down's syndrome?
The primary goal of DMSO is to reduce the pain and inflammation, allowing the patient to participate in physical therapy and wear an orthotic device.
What is the primary goal of DMSO in the treatment of fallen arches?