This sulfurous byproduct of wood processing can penetrate deep into the body—and into many health problems, Cate Montana reports
Few health products have had as checkered a career as dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). In fact, the acronym for this highly versatile byproduct of the wood pulp industry might as well stand for Demonized, Misunderstood, Scorned and Overlooked. An organosulfur compound with the formula (CH3)2S=O, as a polar aprotic solvent, DMSO has some serious rockstar qualities in the chemistry world.
Polar means it has strong magnetizing qualities, and DMSO molecules have strong positive and negative poles. But they also have an “uneven charge distribution,” which is what gives DMSO its dissolving superpowers. Aprotic means it can’t donate protons (hydrogen ions), which enables it to speed up certain reactions while preventing unwanted side effects.
DMSO can act as either an acid or a base depending on what other chemicals are present. Basically, it’s so versatile and gets along with so many other substances that it’s been dubbed “the Switzerland of solvents.”
Nontoxic, relatively inert and stable at high temperatures with an extraordinarily high freezing/melting point of 65.3°F (18.5°C), DMSO is an industrial solvent for many products, including paint, hydrocarbons, synthetic materials, salts and even gases. As a laboratory solvent, it’s used in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, in biological studies and as a delivery vehicle for drug therapies. DMSO also acts as a cryoprotectant and is added to cell cultures and tissue samples to prevent the formation of ice crystals, which may damage the samples.
The health applications of DMSO and its healing capacities are so far-reaching, there’s good reason many have labeled it a “miracle cure”—a perception and designation that created enormous problems soon after it began to receive public attention in the 1960s. For DMSO is not so much a miracle cure as a miracle helper when it comes to treating an enormous variety of health issues.
DMSO is clinically proven to have a low toxicological profile, meaning it’s not harmful to the human body. And it’s extremely biocompatible.
Methionine, cysteine and taurine are all sulfur-containing amino acids vital to our health. Sulfur is a macro-mineral found in human breast milk and one of the most abundant minerals in the body.
Sulfur compounds, such as SAMe (9S-adenosylmethionine), MSM (methylsulfonylmethane) and glucosamine (chondroitin sulfate), have clinical applications in the treatment of numerous conditions, from depression to congestive heart failure.1 Sulfur dioxide is produced in human tissue and regulates cardiovascular processes.2
Although it’s like many other sulfur compounds, because of its unique chemistry, DMSO demonstrates broad-spectrum therapeutic effects.
Fight pathogens. It’s clinically proven to be antibacterial and is effective against Staphylococcus aureus, Group B Streptococcus, Escherichia coli, Corynebacteria and other bacterial species.3 It’s also antifungal and antiviral.4
Heal tissue. Lab studies show DMSO helps rapidly heal and regenerate tissue after burns without scarring.5 In rats, it was found to help heal corrosive esophagitis—damage to the esophagus from acid reflux or (accidental or otherwise) ingestion of alkaline substances such as bleach and other household cleaners6—and to ease pain from wounds, especially burns.7
Low‐concentration DMSO has successfully treated diabetic skin wounds in mice.8 DMSO promotes tissue regeneration and is used by plastic surgeons to help speed breast reconstruction.9 It also helps promote nerve regeneration and is especially effective for healing nerve injuries common in arm and leg trauma, including simple ankle sprains.10
Relieve pain and inflammation. Because it’s rapidly and easily absorbed through the skin and slows pain signals through nerve fibers to and from the brain, it can rapidly relieve musculoskeletal pain when applied topically.11 By suppressing the production of inflammatory signaling proteins, DMSO is also effective for treating autoimmune disorders, including autoimmune forms of arthritis.12
In the sports arena, DMSO is famous for treating injuries, inflammation, joint pain and stiffness, and joint pain from movement under loading.13
Restore brain function. Clinical data suggests it’s a powerful treatment for stroke victims, reducing neurologic disability and enabling them to regain upper and lower body movement and fine motor skills.14 Testing in roundworms showed that by regulating neurotransmitters, DMSO protects against the production of abnormal amyloid-beta proteins and plaques in the brain, which have been linked to Alzheimer’s disease.15
Boost skin and eye health. DMSO also treats skin cancer, herpes simplex, fungal infections and pressure ulcers.10 It is often used in skin rejuvenation treatments and is an excellent therapeutic agent and drug vehicle for eye diseases.4 And because it protects cells against harmful agents such as free radicals, DMSO shows anti-aging and longevity benefits in roundworm and fruit fly studies.16
Destroy cancer. Last, but far from least, DMSO is making a rapid entry into the cancer field in treating various cancers, making chemotherapy more effective, and easing side effects of both chemotherapy and radiation. One of the major characteristics of cancer cells is that they’re immature and don’t differentiate into the various types of cells they should. As well, cancer cells are aggressive and resistant to various treatments.
In new studies, DMSO shows promise for transforming cancerous cells into mature, noncancerous ones.17 At relatively low concentrations, it blocks cancer cells from multiplying, shrinks and breaks up cancer cells, and brings about apoptosis (cell death).18
Studies show that DMSO stimulates the production of the tumor suppressor protein HLJ1 by activating a gene that controls cell maturity, multiplication and apoptosis.19 DMSO alone, as well as combined with other drugs, can prevent tissue damage caused by radiation treatments.20
DMSO assists many chemotherapy drugs to enter cancer cells, making chemotherapy more potent.21 As a result, the amount and duration of chemotherapy can be reduced, producing fewer toxic effects on the health of the patient. As well, it effectively prevents many complications that follow higher doses of chemotherapy.
It also ushers chemotherapy drugs through the blood-brain barrier, making once-unreachable brain tumors vulnerable to treatment.22 And finally, it has proven invaluable in mitigating the pain so many people suffer from various cancers.
Although dimethyl sulfoxide was discovered in Russia as early as 1867, it didn’t come into use until the 1950s, when the large American paper manufacturing company Crown Zellerbach decided to develop useful chemicals from its tree pulp waste. A sulfur alkylating agent was purified by distillation and oxidized to make dimethyl sulfoxide, DMSO, and its solvent capabilities quickly made it commercially viable.
Medicinal use began when Oregon Medical School researcher Stanley W. Jacob, MD, discovered DMSO’s antifreeze properties could be used to preserve transplanted organs without any danger of ice crystals forming in the tissues. As the story goes, one day Jacob spilled some DMSO on his hands and within minutes experienced its characteristic garlic taste in his mouth.
Realizing that DMSO had the ability to pass through the skin and other cellular membranes, he began experimenting to see if it could be used for transdermal drug delivery. The big pharmaceutical companies quickly got involved.
Meanwhile stories began circulating about DMSO’s curative powers. Rumors of injured animals coming to drink from runoff and puddles around pulp mills began to circulate throughout the Pacific Northwest, as did stories of DMSO being used to miraculously heal the wounds of local lumberjacks. Reports of lame thoroughbred race horses being healed with topical applications of DMSO added to the excitement.
But then, in 1964, the drug company Merck submitted DMSO data to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that included a report from a veterinarian claiming DMSO caused abnormal changes in the eyes of lab animals. Simultaneously, a story about an Irish woman using it on her sprained wrist and then dying of unknown causes three days later hit the news.
Both stories were reported in The Wall Street Journal, at which point the FDA jumped in and banned all clinical trials with DMSO in the US. The ban has since been lifted, but so far, the only FDA-approved use of DMSO for humans is a 50 percent DMSO solution for direct injection into the bladder via a catheter to treat interstitial cystitis (bladder pain syndrome).
Today, the vast majority of DMSO products are made from manufacturing processes that have nothing to do with wood pulp. There are two common methods of creation. The first is the methylation (replacing a hydrogen atom with a methyl group, CH3) of dimethyl sulfide (DMS), an organosulfur compound with the formula (CH3)2S. The other is “direct sulfuration of methane,” combining methane and sulfur, then reducing the results to DMSO.
To this day, few practicing physicians even know about DMSO and its stunning variety of applications. Dr Amandha Vollmer (online at yummy.doctor), a naturopath from Toronto, Canada, first heard about DMSO in college but ignored it because it was presented only in the context of sports medicine.
After several years in practice, she saw a tiny bottle on the shelf at a local health food store one day and bought it. “I didn’t touch it for weeks and weeks,” she says. “And then I treated a gardener who had this awful rash on his arms. He kept touching me, and, sure enough, I got it too.
“Unfortunately, what worked for him didn’t work for me. But then I recalled DMSO is good for skin rashes, and I put the 90 percent solution all over my arms. It started burning and turning red and itching worse. But then, within two days, it cleared everything up. That’s when I started researching it.”
DMSO enthusiast and retired chiropractor Charles Ruckel didn’t start researching it until after he quit practicing. “I was amazed learning about all its uses,” he says. “Most importantly, as a solvent, it has the ability to increase circulation.
“We have over 60,000 miles of blood vessels in the body. And in traditional Chinese medicine, one of the main diseases they talk about is blood stasis—the slowing or pooling of the blood, which may cause pain and other symptoms. So, anything that can increase circulation, which DMSO does, is a blessing.”
Ruckel says DMSO works wonders when combined with other healing substances. For example, when his neighbor (who is a nurse) told him how embarrassed she was about not being able to help her husband with carpal tunnel syndrome, he advised using DMSO along with Traumeel cream—a homeopathic trauma cream with calendula, arnica and other natural ingredients.
“I told her to alternate its use with castor oil. And the other day she was like, ‘Oh, my God, I can’t believe how it’s working so well, so quickly.’ But I had to caution her to alternate the DMSO with the cream and then the oil and not to combine all three. Sometimes too many cooks can spoil the soup.”
Vollmer, who has written a book called Healing with DMSO (Ulysses Press, 2021), cautions that sometimes people get scared when they see even the slightest side effects because DMSO has been demonized for so many years and so little is understood about how it works.
She emphasizes that in the process of using DMSO to treat some conditions, such as cataracts, other symptoms can arise that are part of the healing. A few of her many elderly patients who have healed cataracts using a 20 percent DMSO saline eyedrop solution she produces have experienced temporal arteritis, an inflammatory blood vessel condition with symptoms of headache, pain in the temples, double vision and difficulty opening the mouth.
“This can happen if you’ve got protein waste from the cataracts—little bits of old calcifications from damaged tissue—moving out of the eyes,” she says. “The DMSO is dissolving the cataracts and moving the waste out through the temporal artery. It’s temporary, but people get scared. And yet the only solution they have is to keep using the DMSO drops until it’s done.”
She talks about another case—an eight-year-old boy who was having terrible gut pain. After several trips to the hospital, when the doctors still didn’t have a clue what was wrong, his mom came to Vollmer. She put him on an internal DMSO protocol appropriate for his weight, and the pain moved and then became worse.
“Everyone was freaking out,” she remembers, “and I was like, ‘Okay, I know it’s scary, but just stay with me. I’ve seen this before. Whatever this is, it’s moving it. We just need to keep on the protocol to move it through the intestines.'”
She added topical DMSO and castor oil packs to soothe the pain. A couple of days later, she says, the boy expelled a black, tarry goo with chunks.
“It was unbelievably fetid—I mean, the odor was at a vomitous level,” she says. “God knows what he ate. But after that, everything was healed. So, if you’re using DMSO and starting to move stuff, just know you can have weird symptoms. In the end, you just have to trust the process.”
Because of its ability to transport other substances through the skin, be certain the area of application is dry and free from dirt, lotions, cosmetics, sunscreens, detergents, etc. before applying DMSO. Be sure your hands are clean, and use only pharmaceutical-grade DMSO at 99.9 percent purity or greater, mixing it with distilled water or pure aloe vera to adjust the concentration.
DMSO producers and healthcare providers such as Vollmer and Ruckel advise using a solution of 50 percent DSMO or less on face and neck areas. As well, topical concentrations of DMSO should be kept below 70 percent in areas of the body where there is reduced circulation. It’s advisable to start with a lower concentration and, depending on skin reaction, work your way up to a higher concentration.
On average, DMSO mixed with distilled water in a 70 percent solution is well tolerated by most people. Apply on and around the injury in a wide area at least three times daily. According to Vollmer, a layered approach, using several applications approximately 15 minutes apart, is also effective for pain and symptom reduction.
Patients experiencing chronic pain may have to apply DMSO for as long as six weeks before a significant change occurs, but it varies from person to person. Overall, the more chronic the issue, the longer the treatment with DMSO is required.
NOTE: Whatever comes in contact with DMSO solutions will be absorbed through the skin along with the DMSO.
These are some common side effects of using DMSO:
People vary as far as skin sensitivity is concerned, so it’s wise to treat a test area before using a broad application. Depending on the concentration, you may notice warmth, redness, itching and local hives on and around treated skin.
These symptoms usually disappear within a couple of hours, and using natural aloe vera can help mitigate or prevent this reaction. Because of these side effects, some practitioners advise going on a liver-cleansing diet before starting to use DMSO.
“One of the reasons people get that garlic taste in the mouth or some people get rashes from using DMSO is because the liver isn’t functioning very well,” says Vollmer. “When that’s the case, the body pushes toxins out through the skin because the liver is not able to handle the load and the body gets overwhelmed with the waste material being released.”
NOTE: Do not use DMSO in any form on bites, stings, poison ivy or poison oak. “DMSO is not the remedy for that, and you could spread the irritation,” says Vollmer. “Once the bug bite is settled down, perfect. Let the body sort things out first, and then you can use the DMSO afterward.”
Internal use of DMSO has many benefits, including reducing autoimmunity and general inflammation, increasing blood circulation, and healing injured tissues. “You can reach any part of the body by taking it orally, which opens things up for all kinds of applications,” says Vollmer.
“Half the battle is getting treatment to an area, and DMSO enhances circulation to hard-to-treat areas. Once there, it can act as a tissue regenerator and oxygenator. It helps the repair of actual tissues, improves cellular communication throughout the body and removes waste products.”
According to Vollmer, it can also be used to transport supplements, such as an herb or a homeopathic remedy, to a site that needs healing. DMSO is best used internally under the guidance of a health professional.
NOTE: Do not drink DMSO with enzymatically active juices like pineapple or papaya juice. Do not take DMSO orally if you have metal amalgam fillings in your mouth.
Back in 2022, Rita, a 52-year-old resident of Salt Lake City, Utah, was a patient of Amandha Vollmer. She wasn’t very knowledgeable about DMSO, but she had read Vollmer’s book and had some on hand in the medicine cabinet.
The afternoon of August 31, she was watching her granddaughter and started feeling “weird.” Her vision was a little off, but she ignored it throughout the day.
However, when the girl’s father came to pick her up that evening and asked Rita a question, she couldn’t answer him. She couldn’t even tell if she’d answered him.
“Everything started leaving from there,” she says. Although unable to talk, she managed to mumble “MMS” to her husband. (MMS, “Miracle Mineral Solution,” is a controversial supplement containing sodium chlorite.) He immediately made some and gave it to her. Then he got on the MMS Telegram chat online, looking for answers.
“Everybody started telling him, ‘She needs DMSO right now! Right now!’” Rita says. “They told him the amount to use in water, and I took it immediately. And within 30 minutes, everything came back. I kept using it every hour throughout the evening. And I kept using it every few hours over the next three days.”
She says she was exhausted for a couple days afterward, but then that cleared up. She refused to go to the doctor even though looking at her symptoms convinced her that she’d suffered a mini-stroke.
“I don’t like going to doctors. Besides, the DMSO nailed it,” she says. “Took care of it good. It was intense, but we got through it, and I’ve been great ever since.”
What do you think? Start a conversation over on the... WDDTY Community
Great news! Discounts are available based on your cart total. Check the details below:
