Ah, my expert Mom, good for you. We saved the life of a foal who had a severe head injury. The vet injected DMSO into her carotid artery and saved her life. He did that several times over about 10 days.
DMSO administered topically or taken orally will stop a stroke. It is the only thing that will dissolve bloodclots. If EMT units were allowed to use DMSO in an IV on the way to the hospital with a stroke victim, 95% of them would leave the hospital, walking, if they choose, with no after affects.
DMSO is a powerful solvent, and it has many uses, healthwise. Just remember to wash your hands before using it. It is not dangerous. And it’s ability to carry things in through the skin is a benefit.
Hope you never have a stroke. DMSO could be a life saver. Sorry you will miss out on that one of many, many benefits.
It also has significant benefit in various cancer treatments.
Vetinarians and athletes have used DMSO for years (since the mid ‘60’s when Dr Stanley Jacob, MD did his initial work on the health benefits of DMSO).
Hope you never need an organ transplant. Dr Jacob’s was head of the transplant team at a University Hospital in Oregon, and discovered that the best way to preserve organs was immersed in DMSO as they were delivered from donor to recipient. That is still the case today.
I keep DMSO on hand and we use it for various things, including joint pain, and to have in case of stroke or other health issue benefited with DMSO.
In the 1960’s, in an industrial environment, we used DMSO as an industrial solvent because it is SAFE.
Are you also afraid of MSM (Methyl Solfonyl Methane? MSM and DMSO are cousins, just different oxidation states. Either in the body will go back and forth as one or the other. Only you and the FDA are afraid of DMSO...the FDA is afraid of it because it has benefits over drugs that Big Pharma wants to sell, and the FDA is in the business of protecting Big Pharma, not you or me.
Many chemicals (natural and man-made) in our environment are toxic, but have no chance to exert their toxicity because our bodies have several lines of defense against them. Your skin has a layer of dead cells, called the stratum corneum, that serves mostly as a physical barrier, although some of its action is chemical. If you ingest or breathe in a potential toxin and it manages to bypass the epithelial layer of the respiratory or digestive tract and gets into your blood, your liver attacks it with detoxifying enzymes, which changes it to a form that can be filtered by the kidneys. Cells do not like to have chemicals enter; very few chemicals can pass freely into cells, and they are choosy about the chemicals they internalize.
DMSO is a wonderful solvent, and can leech chemicals from containers. It is not normally stored in plastic because of this property, but if stored in a glass bottle and the wrong kind of stopper or lid is used, it will leach chemicals from the stopper or lid liner.
Knowing how susceptible DMSO is to dissolve any chemical in its environment, and knowing that it permeabilizes the cell membrane and acts as a carrier to carry all of those chemicals right into the cell where they have no natural access and have no business being, I do not want that stuff anywhere near me. Or, to illustrate: if you spill ricin on your skin, not much will happen. But if you spill ricin dissolved in DMSO on your skin—well, it was nice knowing you.
DMSO also interacts with DNA and changes its structure. I have used it in PCR experiments for that property. The fact that it interacts with DNA, however, is a red flag for me—any chemical that directly interacts with DNA and changes its structure is a potential carcinogen. Altering the DNA structure can cause mistakes in the DNA during cell division; even without changing the DNA sequence, a change in structure can alter gene expression, causing too much or too little of the gene product, which has pathologic consequences.
I am well aware of the use of DMSO as a cryoprotectant, since I have used it countless times to freeze cells. Your use of the example of using it to protect organs (from ice crystal damage) for transplant is a bit misplaced on me: with my strong moral convictions against organ transplantation, I would never be a transplant recipient.
Yes, I am aware that “alternative medicine” advocates have promoted the use of DMSO. However, as a medical professional, I am also aware that “alternative medicine” practitioners rely minimally, if at all, on evidence to inform their practices. I firmly support basing medical practice on evidence, which means on exhaustive testing and observation.