I could not believe it but yes DMSO is being sold for topical use in humans. I do not think this will last very long, I think it is only approved for use in humans for interstitial cystitis. The fact that this stuff is being sold OTC for human topical use is frightening.
We used to supply an equine preparation consisting of nearly pure DMSO to horse people, I almost passed out when I saw a cattleman after a long day, take the bottle and apply it to his (very, very, very,
dirty arm), like it was icy-hot or something. His comment was something along the lines of, "cleans you right up, and takes away the stiffness, all in one". I was speechless…… I was trying to quantify in my head how much "shit" was being carried into his body. I wish I remembered the story that was told to me that was a means of deterrent when it came to humans using DMSO as a topical liniment. The story was so outrageous that I could never tell it. I wish I had it in writing, it would be a great couch post…
This substance is a very efficient transdermal delivery system in which I do not think should be made available to the general public OTC. IMO.
I did however stumble across some interesting information that might be of some use to fellow bees...
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR MEDICINE8: 553-560, 2001Makoto Nakamuta et al.
Medline (PMID=11605027)
http://www.dmso.org/articles/information/muir.htm
Dimethyl sulfoxide inhibits dimethylnitrosamine-induced hepatic fibrosis in rats."Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) is known to have beneficial properties as an anti-inflammatory and anti-ischemic agent in a variety of tissues (14). In addition, DMSO has been reported to protect the liver against injury induced by drugs and chemicals such as acetoaminophen, bromobenzen, thio-acetamide, and carbon tetrachloride (15-19). Although these beneficial pharmacological actions have been well-established, little is known about the effects of DMSO on the hepatic fibrosis."
Interesting.... I have only used it as an equine liniment and cellular cryopreservative.
m_e