In the States, DMSO is only approved to be used for the symptomatic relief of patients with interstitial cystitis. There have been a lot of studies done using it though and I have known a handful of people who have used it for anti-inflammatory properties and swear that it’s been very useful. The one thing I do highly recommend if you are going to use it is to be very careful with where you purchase it and how you store it. DMSO penetrates the skin and acts as a strong transporter for other chemicals/pharmaceuticals through the skin into the blood stream, so if it becomes contaminated, what-ever your batch of DMSO is contaminated with will also be transported into your system.
I’m using it because I have fluid in my shoulder. Loading up on Ibuprofen and using the DMSO once a day. It itches like hell for the first about 5 min. then it seems to taper off.
Guess I’ll post and let those who are curious know how it works!
Be careful with DMSO; it’s pretty scary stuff. Only buy pharmaceutical grade DMSO. You should ALWAYS wear rubber gloves while handling it & applying it, and be extremely careful not to contaminate it with anything. ONLY apply it to freshly-cleaned skin. As LevelHeaded said, it is a very potent co-transporter. It’s used very often in the horse industry to help aid recovery of various tendon & ligament injuries and swelling.
I’ve personally seen cases of toxicity in horses due to the “wicking” action of DMSO as owners / trainers aren’t particularly careful when it comes to storage and allow it to become contaminated. There are numerous reports of heavy metal toxicity related to DMSO - mercury toxicity is often found as some horse owners still use mercury “blisters” on legs and then later apply DMSO… there have been studies that show mercury, arsenic, lead, etc can be found at significant levels within the bone marrow within 30 seconds of applying DMSO.
I can personally vouch for the effects on your breath… it causes a strong garlic or metallic taste in your mouth if you use it. As a veterinary student I once got some on my wrist while applying it to a horse and it was almost instantaneous and slightly nauseating.