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By A Midwestern Doctor, Jan 29, 2025
Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) is a simple chemical that is remarkably effective for treating a wide variety of health conditions (e.g., chronic pain, injuries, arthritis, strokes, spinal cord injuries, and a variety of autoimmune conditions). Because of this, once it was discovered, it quickly spread through America like wildfire with incredible (and almost impossible to believe) data behind it. Likewise, after I created a renewed interest in DMSO through this series, I received hundreds of almost unbelievable testimonials which were virtually identical to what people reported 60 years ago.
Note: this testimonials can be found in the comments at the bottom of this article. If you have a story you would like to share, please add it there as well.
This in turn raises a fairly straightforward question. If something that effective had been discovered, and both the medical community and the public got behind it, why hasn’t anyone heard of it? Briefly, for a variety of political reasons (which I detailed here#), the FDA realized the agency would greatly benefit from DMSO being outlawed. In turn, the FDA was willing to go to war against America (e.g., the agency fought Congressional subpoenas and hearings for more than a decade) to keep away from us. To justify this, the FDA continually argued that DMSO was incredibly dangerous, when in reality, the data showed it was one of the safest substances in existence.
Since a renewed interest in DMSO is now forming, the purpose of this article will be to present all the the toxicity data on DMSO (so individuals can be more informed on the potential risks of the therapy) and to provide a place to collect all the testimonials readers have shared about their experiences with DMSO.
Introduction
My time in the medical field has led me to accept many medical practices are adopted because of politics or economics rather than because existing evidence shows they work. Nonetheless, certain instances of this happening still astound me to this day, particularly the blacklisting of DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide) as:
•This simple chemical is incredibly safe and effective and treats a wide range of challenging medical conditions that impact millions that still lack an effective therapy (outside of DMSO).
•Because of its efficacy, once discovered, it took the country by storm, resulting in millions using it, the scientific community getting behind it and publishing thousands of studies on DMSO, numerous pharmaceutical companies making large investments to bring it market, professional athletes promoting it, numerous governors, congressional representatives and senators (on behalf of both themselves and their constituents) pressuring the FDA to give it a fair chance for decades and state legislatures independently legalizing it because the federal government would not.
•Many approved pharmaceutical products take advantage of DMSO’s properties to work (e.g., in those products, DMSO is often classified as an inert “vehicle”). Similarly, DMSO is FDA approved for one condition (interstitial cystitis) and is approved for a wide variety of veterinary uses (e.g., the same conditions it treats in humans).
•Over the past 40 years, more than 10,000 articles on the biological implications and 30,000 articles on the chemistry of DMSO have appeared in the scientific literature—much of which, as I’ve shown here is remarkably compelling and paradigm shifting in healthcare.
•Yet, despite all of that, DMSO was effectively erased from history. It is now widely seen as an unproven and dangerous therapy, and even within the natural health field, most people do not know it exists.
Because of all that, I’ve felt a responsibility to use this platform to get the knowledge on DMSO out, which I began by presenting the strong case that DMSO is an incredible therapy for:
•Circulatory disorders like Reynaud’s and varicose veins.
•A wide range of neurological disorders, including ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes, and spinal cord injuries leading to paralysis or dementia.
•Allowing patients who’ve had decades of chronic pain (from a variety of different causes) to get their lives back.
•Healing a wide range of injuries (e.g., sports injuries, traumatic impacts) and chronic musculoskeletal problems (e.g., spine and shoulder issues) and wounds (e.g., burns or surgical incisions).
•Chronic rheumatic conditions (e.g., arthritis).
•Complex protein disorders (e.g., amyloidosis).
•Down Syndrome.
In turn, I’ve received numerous reports from readers (I’ve been gradually sharing here) from readers who’ve experienced rapid life-changing benefits from DMSO, very similar to the data I provided, which showed DMSO had an 80-90% success rate in treating.
Yet, despite all of this, I’ve still only touched the tip of the iceberg of what can be done with DMSO (e.g., in upcoming articles I will also review how DMSO is also quite helpful for a variety of eye, ear, dental, gastrointestinal, and autoimmune conditions such as tinnitus and macular degeneration, along with also having remarkable utility in treating cancer, challenging infections and debilitating collagen disorders). As a result, I’ve also received numerous queries from readers who inadvertently discovered many of those benefits when they used DMSO for a chronic pain condition.
For example, some of the more recent reports I’ve received include:
After AMDs articles, I used DMSO on an acute bruise and it completely took the pain away AND resolved the swelling that was developing. 🤯🤯🤯🤯. It’s hardly even tender today. Incredible
Dear MWD, you are so right on learning to doctor yourself. I don’t travel without DMSO, ivermectin and aspirin. Two nights ago at bedtime I developed chest pains that radiated between my shoulder blades. Being in New Mexico (Oh, Lord, don’t let me die in New Mexico) I put DMSO along my carotids on my neck and took 2 aspirin. In an hour the pain was gone and I slept soundly. Scared the hell out of my poor husband.
After reading this I got a tub of 70/30 gel and applied it to my sons feet three times per day. He was riding his skateboard barefoot and crunched his toes under his feet. No broken bones.
Within three days he said he felt no pain or discomfort at all. For the sort of injury it was it seemed like the sort of thing which would take weeks to stop hurting and for all discomfort to end for a sixteen year old!
Excellent research - I've given DMSO to my mom and it has helped her arthritis immensely.
I am an 81 year old woman who was injured by the first of a series of 2 Shingrix shots in 2019. I never took the second shot. Eight days after receiving that shot I developed excruciating pain in my arms, hands, legs and feet. Although being told by two doctors that the vaccine did not cause the pain, the neurology team at a major medical institution diagnosed my condition as acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy(AIDP), on the spectrum of Guillame Barre. They treated me with gabapentin which relieved the pain. However, I was left with neuropathy in my feet which caused severe and painful spasms in my feet along with numbness on the bottom of my feet. After several weeks seeing a neurologist, I asked her what could be done to help this situation. She said there was nothing. After this article I started using DMSO on the bottom of my feet and over the tops of my toes when I went to bed. The first time I used it, I had no spasms which always happened at night when I was trying to go to sleep. I’ve now used it for 3 days and still no spasms. It’s like a miracle. I’ll continue using it to see if it helps resolve the numbness in my feet. God bless you, AMD. I never would have tried this without your articles and would have suffered needlessly forever. I owe you a great debt. Thank you. I’m telling everyone about DMSO and sending your articles as well. Your contributions are, without doubt, some of the most important I have read.
Likewise, a grateful reader reported their wife (a retired nurse) had a fall that injured her back and left her in severe pain and unable to walk which chiropractic did not help, and then a few days later, the ER could not help either. However, rather than accept an admission to the hospital, she took DMSO, her back worked itself out, and she was spared months of recovery with the standard of care.
Note: I’ve also received reports on a variety of other conditions (e.g., one subscriber shared a DMSO mixture shrunk their hemorrhoid), and another shared DMSO has gradually been shrinking their cataract.
If we take a step back, it should be clear that DMSO should be in widespread use, but instead something very wrong happened with DMSO which resulted in it getting blacklisted. This was due to the FDA continually doubling-down on an unshakable ideological crusade against DMSO that I believe ultimately resulted from the FDA not wanting to lose its grip over the practice of medicine in the United States (as the therapeutic potential of DMSO greatly threatened the FDA’s ability to control how medicine was practiced).
In turn, I believe what happened is a critical story to be told because:
•The entire story of DMSO is a remarkable example of thousands of dedicated scientists and doctors giving everything they could to bring this critical innovation to the public and thus highlight the incredible potential our scientific apparatus has to address the problems that plague humanity. In contrast, because of the decades of rigid suppression of independent science, we’ve become habituated to science being unable to solve our basic problems—something that urgently needs to change.
•The FDA’s gross misconduct with DMSO set the stage for what the agency continues to do to this day, and helps to explain why so many remarkable treatments have been withheld from the public while dangerous and ineffective ones are continually pushed upon the public (e.g., consider what happened throughout COVID-19).
Is DMSO Safe?
Throughout the FDA’s war against DMSO, the FDA has always cited two reasons to justify its conduct.
•That no evidence existed DMSO worked, which as I showed in the first and second part of this series, was an absurd claim as data from thousands upon thousands of patients showed DMSO worked dramatically better than the existing therapeutic options.
•That DMSO was an incredibly dangerous drug that it was critically important to protect the public from—something I’ve argued was a patent lie.
Note: these lies now extend far beyond America. For example, this posting by Health Canada, beyond characterizing DMSO as a dangerous solvent, makes numerous demonstrably false claims about DMSO and declares no evidence exists for DMSO’s efficacy—which is extraordinary given how many of clinical trials have proven DMSO works and how easy many of those studies are to locate.
Furthermore, beyond the above points being absurd, the existing standards within the FDA are that if unmet medical needs exist or there is no viable cure for a serious illness, those standards can be loosened (hence why the COVID vaccines were approved, or more recently, why an incredibly unsafe and ineffective Alzheimer’s drug was approved despite the FDA’s outside panel vetoing it and resigning in protest once the FDA overrode them. In the case of DMSO, this is particularly relevant as many of the diseases DMSO was proven to treat (e.g., Down Syndrome, Spinal Cord Injuries, Scleroderma) are severe illnesses that have remained incurable for decades.
All of this thus raises the question. How safe is DMSO? Since that data is relevant to both understanding the FDA’s crusade against it and likewise for anyone considering using it, I have done my best to compile all of that data here..
The Safety of DMSO
No drug is completely safe. However, I consider DMSO to be one of the safest drugs I know of for a few key reasons.
1. It was subject to intensive scrutiny and a wide range of toxicology studies (as the FDA was desperate to find a reason to justify their prohibition on it). Nonetheless, nothing was found.
2. Rather than be toxic to cells, cells can tolerate very high concentrations of DMSO and in many cases, DMSO can protect cells from dying or rescue ones that were in the process of dying. All of this is extraordinarily unusual.
3. A large number of animal studies (in at least 11 different species—including fish) have shown a lack of toxicity for DMSO.
4. Clinical trials consistently show a lack of toxicity from DMSO.
5. DMSO does not accumulate in the body, so it has no cumulative toxicity.
6. Millions of people have used DMSO, many of whom have used it for years if not decades (e.g., taking it daily for over 50 years). Still, despite this (outside of a few easily preventable mishaps which will be discussed below), no serious issues have emerged.
For context, DMSO has a safety profile that is orders of magnitude greater than drugs that are routinely taken without a thought being given to their safety.
I will now attempt to summarize all the pertinent data I’ve found on DMSO’s safety. Some of this may sound concerning, but it needs to be seen in the context that it was found by using very high doses of it, as an immense amount of research was devoted to finding any possible way DMSO could be toxic (something rarely done for most drugs) and as a result, much of this is not applicable to how most of you will use DMSO.
Note: while this is a bit lengthy, I felt it was important to share all the toxicology data I could locate so that I did not inadvertently filter any potentially useful information and create a biased or misleading reference.
Median Lethal Dose (LD50)
One of the most commonly used methods to determine a substance’s toxicity is to see how high a dose of it needs to be given to kill 50% of the exposed animals (which leads to countless tragic and, in my eyes unnecessary animal deaths each year). Part of why this value is needed is because each drug has both a toxic dose and an effective dose, and the goal is to find something in between those two that can be prescribed to people.
In turn, when the therapeutic index is narrower, the drug is harder to use without side effects and often is given in more controlled settings (e.g., at an IV infusion center) so it is less likely someone will accidentally get a toxic dose. Conversely, drugs with a wide therapeutic index require less oversight in their administration.
Note: one of the major problems with how medicine is practiced now is that (in order to make drugs easily marketable products) standardized doses are always used. This in turn results in many patients receiving inappropriate doses (e.g., ones that are too high), and both I and my colleagues thus believe one of the most critically important forgotten arts of medicine is knowing how to chose an appropriate dose (a subject which I discussed in further detail here).
Since there was so much controversy around DMSO, an immense amount of LD50 data was obtained that showed DMSO is far less toxic than a variety of commonly used substances.
Note: as toxic doses approaching the DMSO’s LD50 were used in animals, tissue injury would also occur (e.g., vein irritation, vasoconstriction and necrosis after intravenous application, hemorrhagic gelatinous and edematous lesion at the site of muscular or subcutaneous injections, or liver damage)—much of which was thought to be due to osmotic injuries to the tissues created by the high concentrations of DMSO. However, if the animals survived, this damage typically went away within a week.
In short, to reach the LD50 of DMSO, you would need to drink roughly two quarts of it within an hour, which is more DMSO than daily DMSO users ingest over two months.
For comparison, many commonly used substances are 10-100 times as toxic as DMSO:
Note: LD50s are typically written in mg/kg rather than g/kg due to their higher toxicity. Additionally, some variation exists in the LD50s for the substances listed above (hence why I attempted to present an approximate range).
Additionally, none of the previously cited LD50 studies assessed topical applications of DMSO. This is because a limit gets reached as to how much DMSO can be absorbed through the skin, and that amount is far below the LD50 (e.g., in a previous article I cited cases of people who were going to lose a limb or finger which was then soaked in DMSO and the only side effect they experienced was the tissue fully recovering).
In mice, the LD50 of topical DMSO was estimated to be 50g/kg, as mice survived being dipped (immersed) up to their necks in up to 60% DMSO, while rats survived being dipped in up to 80% DMSO, or up to 60% DMSO three times per week for 26 weeks—with the dipping sessions often lasting 24 hours.
Note: the main changes observed in the repeatedly dipped rats were ulcerous dots on the belly and back, eye changes (lens clouding and near-sightedness) and slight changes in the blood and liver—all of which were reversible. Conversely, when 100% DMSO was painted over their entire body each day, no adverse effects occurred (which again demonstrates that the toxic dose was quite high).
In humans, it is not practical (or ethical) to dip them in vats of DMSO all day long, but the closest approximation of that was attempted (subjects were repeatedly fully covered with DMSO gel so they could receive 1g/kg a day of DMSO—a dose 3-30 times higher than what is typically used by patients) and then monitored for 90 days. Despite this extraordinarily high dose being received each day, no toxicity was observed (whereas with virtually any other drug on the market, serious issues would emerge from repeatedly receiving that high of a dose)
Note: in monkeys, the LD50 of topical DMSO was established to be over 11g/kg, while the oral LD50 was established to be over 4g/kg.
In addition to the LD50 studies, a variety of other safety studies were also done on animals which likewise found (through an extensive battery of tests) that DMSO had negligible toxicity. For both length considerations, and because I don’t believe many of you want to hear about all the other grotesque animal studies that were done to appease the FDA, I am not listing and summarizing them here. However, for those researchers who are interested, the two best resources I’ve found on DMSO’s toxicology are this textbook on the pharmacology of DMSO (which has a lengthy discussion about the existing toxicology data and can be read on the internet archive here) and this well-referenced 2019 book that was written by two of the leading pioneers of DMSO.
Since I have read through approximately 100 studies that stated a similar side effect profile (DMSO was safe and typically caused the same reactions at comparable rates), rather than list each of them, I will just share the most pertinent information.
Note: one of the most detailed summaries of DMSO’s animal toxicology data can be found here.
Common Side Effects
Two side effects are frequently seen with DMSO usage that often decrease with successive applications of DMSO:
•A temporary (and sometimes uncomfortable) irritation of the skin when DMSO is administered topically that typically disappears in 10 minutes (and at most 20) and varies widely in how it feels (e.g., some find it pleasant, others find it extremely unpleasant). Typically this irritation can be alleviated by immediately washing it off with water, and it is generally advised to avoid further irritating the skin by scratching the irritated area.
Studies find this irritation affects 50-85% of users (particularly blonde or red haired and fair skinned individuals or those already prone to skin reactions), and is more common at higher concentrations or when gels (rather than liquid DMSO) are used. Because of this, it is typically advised to not use more than 70% DMSO topically (outside of emergencies like a stroke) although many (e.g., readers here) tolerate 100% DMSO without issue. In roughly 15% of patients this reaction is “marked,” in 3.5% it is enough that the patients stop using DMSO (with those reactions clearing within 10 days of stopping DMSO and the clearing being accelerated with topical hydrocortisone), and in 0.1% of patients the reaction is severe enough that it requires suspending the treatment. Additionally, in some patients, repeated applications to the same area can cause drying and scaling of that skin (which will heal in time but also responds to aloe vera). Finally, when DMSO is ingested orally, a much lower concentration needs to be used to avoid irritating the GI tract.
Note: while some people are fine with the taste of oral DMSO, most find prefer to mix it with something else to mask its flavor.
•When DMSO is metabolized, if the body is unable to fully oxidize it (e.g., due to reductive stress) some of it instead is reduced to dimethyl sulfide, which in turn is excreted through the skin and lungs (and hence the breath), leading to a significant number of DMSO users (but not all of them) developing a characteristic garlic or clam like odor that typically lasts for a few hours but in some cases can last for up to 72 hours. Because of this side effect, DMSO users who experience it typically structure their social life and when they take DMSO so that the odor will not occur at inconvenient times (e.g., when they wish to have physical intimacy with their spouse).
Note: this odor increases with greater doses of DMSO.
In turn, with the exception of one headache, every negative response to DMSO a reader here has reported here was either this odor or skin irritation.
Severe Side Effects
The most significant danger of DMSO is having an allergic reaction to it (e.g., generalized body rashes). Compared to most drugs, this effect is fairly rare (estimates range from 1 in 1000 patients to 1 in 2000 patients), and fortunately has not been documented to lead to severe allergic reactions that can be fatal (e.g., in a sample of 2000 patients, 2 patients experienced minor difficulties with breathing that quickly reversed with treatment). Nonetheless, it is generally advised to check for an allergic reaction to DMSO (the process for which is described here) before beginning significant topical use of DMSO or internal use of it. Additionally, individuals who shown signs of an allergy to DMSO (from a positive patch test) often also have pre-existing allergies to other substances (e.g., eggs), which is some cases common tests do not detect.
Note: DMSO has not been shown to create allergic tendencies (e.g., it didn’t create sensitivities to pollens in the environment)—which for instance is one of the major issues with certain childhood vaccines.
The other significant effect of DMSO is that prior to it drying, it will drag chemicals (but not bacteria) which are on the skin where it is applied to the body. Incidents of this nature are extremely rare, and typically, it occurs when someone was in the vicinity of a pesticide (which was on their skin and resulted in them getting ill), but I have also heard of a few more severe cases like this one:
My Dad told us of an adverse event related to DMSO use during his working career: lab technicians liberally used DMSO’s excellent solvent characteristics to clean glassware. One technician was a heavy smoker and immersed a hand in DMSO. Almost immediately he had a severe reaction and was rushed to the hospital where he almost died. He was found to have severe nicotine poisoning … the DMSO transmitted the nicotine stains from his fingers directly into his bloodstream.
Note: I have read a few reports of individuals who typically didn’t react to DMSO having significant reactions to DMSO when it was applied to parts of the body (e.g., the hair) where other compounds were present. For this reason, it is generally a good idea to always clean an area before applying DMSO to it, wait until DMSO dries (which takes about 20 minutes) before letting anything (e.g., synthetic clothing) contact the skin and to use clean (e.g., purified) water when diluting DMSO.
That all said, deaths from DMSO are incredibly rare, and despite millions of people using it, only three deaths have ever been associated with it.
The first (in 1965) involved an Irish woman who had been on a course of antibiotics and an anti-anxiety medication who continued to use DMSO despite having an allergic reaction to it, and then died of what was reported to be an anaphylactic reaction. It was never determined if DMSO was the responsible agent for her death.
The second case came from oral DMSO and was reported at this conference (but I could not find any additional information on this “overdose” beyond what was listed in FAERS report 13555640).
The final case is a still unsolved medical mystery where a woman with end-stage cervical cancer (who was also taking DMSO), presented the the ER, died shortly after (from cervical cancer) but simultaneously sickened many of the workers around her (e.g., 3 fainted around her, 5 required hospitalization, with 1 being in the ICU for 2 weeks). One theory put forward was that the medical oxygen and electrical shocks she received caused the DMSO in her to be converted to dimethyl sulfate, a theory many chemists then disagreed with (hence making it an unsolved mystery). I personally believe this theory is impossible as she was tachycardic at the start (whereas a DMSO overdose slows the heart rate) and because the metabolite of DMSO that is exhaled (dimethyl sulfide) and hence what would have been in contact with the medical oxygen, unlike DMSO, cannot react to become dimethyl sulfate. Rather, if DMSO was at fault, I believe it is much more likely a contaminant was present in the DMSO she got from the hardware store.
In comparison, far more deaths can be conclusively linked to almost every other pharmaceutical on the market.
Moderate Side Effects
DMSO often reduces the toxicity of another pharmaceutical (e.g., it makes chemotherapy less damaging to the rest of the body), but in some cases it can instead enhance the toxicity or strength of the pharmaceutical. At the time when this was researched, it was shown to occur with alcohol and barbiturates due to altering their metabolism and DMSO’s parasympathetic enhancing effects, but it likely occurs with other drugs as well (e.g., benzodiazepines). However, to the best of my knowledge, no other potentiating effects have been observed.
Additionally, a study evaluating the effect of DMSO on the Shwartzman phenomenon (tissue necrosis which occurs following the repeated introduction of a toxin to the body) injected a bacterial toxin (LPS) under the skin and then followed it with an IV injection of LPS. If DMSO was applied topically after the first injection, the reaction at the injection sites was enhanced following the second LPS injection, while if DMSO was applied topically after the second injection (when the severe Shwartzman phenomenon would occur) DMSO prevented the reaction, but if IV DMSO was given after the first injection, no change occurred, but when IV DMSO was given after IV LPS, all 6 rabbits died within 2 hours.
This is one of the only examples I have come across of DMSO making something become significantly more dangerous (with the others being that if carbon tetrachloride was fed to rats with a feeding tube, injecting DMSO into the abdomen made it more toxic and if DMSO was given topically in conjunction with mustard gas, mustard gas became more toxic to the skin), but given how many drugs DMSO could interact with, it’s quite possible other interactions exist (e.g., DMSO makes both antibiotics and chemotherapy more effective and simultaneously makes chemotherapy less toxic).
In turn, I’ve received numerous questions on if a harmful interaction exists between DMSO and anticoagulants like Eloquis (leading to excess bleeding) or metal prostheses (leading to their components being leached into the body). I can see numerous reasons arguing for why DMSO might be harmful, beneficial or inconsequential in each case and to the best of my knowledge, no harmful interactions have been reported in any of these cases—but unfortunately, since neither issue has been extensively studied (except when DMSO is mixed with stem cells), I can’t actually state with confidence there isn’t an interaction.
Note: while DMSO has strong anti-platelet activity (detailed here), I have come across a few papers that mentioned that while DMSO prevented dangerous clots, it did not affect the blood coagulability of subjects. The most detailed paper I found assessing this question found DMSO had the typical U-shaped curve of a zeta potential restoring agent, which meant at very low doses it caused blood to gel together, at most doses it dispersed it, and at high doses (which would not be found during medical DMSO therapy) it clumped blood together, along with also having a U-shaped curve of the recalcification time—all of which led the authors to conclude DMSO probably has an inconsequential effect on blood clotting, except possibly when it reached low levels as it was being eliminated from the body (where in practice it has not actually been shown to cause clotting). Simultaneously, another researcher found that at under 1% concentration, DMSO accelerates blood clotting, whereas above 5% it slowed it, which suggests it would not cause excessive bleeding with anticoagulant therapy.
Simultaneously, in the places I would have expected to see the other drug reactions be listed, they weren’t. For example, this was part of a memo Merck sent out to their clinical investigators on September 8, 1965, summarizing their experiences with approximately 4,000 patients who had received DMSO anywhere from once to daily for 18 months in a list that is fairly representative of the side effects seen now:
Approximately 85 percent of patients experience a typical histamine-type reaction at the site of application, usually transient mild itching and burning and some erythema. This is not considered to be a true adverse reaction to the drug but a typical side effect. A fine vesiculation, occasionally at the site of application, is also usually transient. After prolonged administration, drying, mild wrinkling and occasionally some scaling of the skin is not uncommon. This is no worse than after a mild sunburn.
A few cases of generalized dermatitis have occurred. This is usually a wheal and erythema reaction of a histamine type occurring at sites distant from the area of application. Rarely may this generalized dermatitis be so severe. The drug should be discontinued if a generalized dermatitis develops.Rarely, serious or potentially serious hypersensitivity reactions may occur. One fatal reaction has been reported in a patient who continued to receive the drug after signs of extreme sensitivity developed.
There has also been a report of laryngeal edema of a mild degree in one patient.
Other unusual reactions have included hypotension in a few patients.
A few cases of mild paresthesias have been noted. Re-evaluation of most of these cases has shown that these were in patients with a strong emotional overlay. Elimination of this type of patient from the clinical studies has greatly reduced this type of reaction.
Some patients have noted a tranquilizing or sedative effect. In most cases this has not been severe enough to warrant concern.Sedation may occur more in elderly patients with cerebral arteriosclerosis. In the younger individual it occurs more often before meals. It may occur after the first application and, if it is observed, the patient should be cautioned about driving or pursuits that may harm himself or others. Some patients have noted an apparent potentiation of sedatives like barbiturates or alcohol. These findings have not been observed in the laboratory.
Some patients have a garlic or oyster odor on their breath after topical administration of DMSO. There have been a few cases of mild nausea. All of these effects have disappeared when the drug was discontinued.
Blood chemistries have been followed on a large number of patients, and these have not shown significant changes.Â
Earlier studies included oral administration of the drug. This route of administration is not being investigated at the present time. (Oral and parenteral studies may be initiated at a later date.) These patients received 30 to 60 ml. per day orally for a period of two weeks, and weight loss from 5 to 10 pounds was noted in 50 percent of the patients. This may have been from loss of appetiteÂ
Note: aspirin, heparin, and warfarin were in use by 1965 but were not mentioned in this document. It’s hard for me to assess if artificial joint replacements would have been evaluated since the technology had only been on the market for a few years, especially since on one hand patients with replacements would be more likely to enroll in these trials (due to complications from the surgeries) but simultaneously, may have been less attractive clinical trial investigators (since the technology was still moderately new).
In each of the studies I’ve looked at, the authors consistently noticed a lack of side effects, excluding irritation of the skin, a garlic odor, occasional nausea, and vomiting, and once a large enough sample size exists, the 1 in 1-2000 risk of an allergy to DMSO. Additionally, when DMSO is given intravenously, there is often a temporary slowing of the heart rate, and in some cases, either an osmotic hemolysis of weaker (older) blood cells when DMSO is used at higher concentrations (30-40%) is infused intravenously (which often causes blood urine but does not affect kidney function), or significant urination and in some cases a fluid overload or hypernatremia when low concentrations (below 10%) are used.
Note: this concentration dependent effect of IV DMSO led to a variety of research to determine the optimal dose that is without either of these issues. When we use intravenous DMSO in practice, we use a fairly low concentration and have not run into the fluid overload or hypernatremia issue (which I believe is due to us using a much lower total dose of DMSO). Likewise, doctors who use higher concentrations of IV DMSO will evaluate a patient’s blood count throughout the treatment to ensure they don’t cause hemolytic anemia.
In the most extensive safety study conducted on DMSO (done in cooperation with the FDA from 1967 to 1968), from a pool of 400 volunteer prisoners, the healthiest volunteers (e.g., no pre-existing conditions) were selected to either be the 33 controls or to be the 78 who received 80% DMSO gel given at 3-30 times the normal dose (done by stripping them and covering their entire body with DMSO) each day for either 14 or 90 days, all of whom were then monitored on a daily basis by a large team of doctors (e.g., many specialists). Alongside regular physical examinations, the subject’s blood work, eyes, EEG, bone marrow, EKG, and cerebral spinal fluid were routinely assessed.
From this large volume of data, the only abnormality detected was an occasional transient blood work change, but except for a transient (likely histamine-induced) increase in eosinophils during the first few weeks (which occurred in 23 [51%] of the 45 DMSO treated subjects) and 8 (31%) of the controls, none of these changes appeared to be related to DMSO.