The Medical Advisor

Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) is one of the more unusual compounds in medicine. It has anti-inflammatory, analgesic, membrane-active, antioxidant and drug-delivery properties, and decades of laboratory research have examined its effects on platelets, vascular tone, ischemia, tissue injury and the blood-brain barrier. These properties have generated a provocative hypothesis: could DMSO improve circulation, reduce vascular injury and protect tissue during ischemic events such as stroke? The hypothesis is biologically plausible, but the clinical evidence is much less definitive than some popular accounts suggest. DMSO has demonstrated important vascular and neuroprotective effects in laboratory and experimental models, while human evidence remains limited and insufficient to establish DMSO as a standard treatment for acute stroke, myocardial infarction, deep-vein thrombosis or peripheral arterial disease. Clinical bottom line: DMSO should currently be regarded as an investigational o...

Key Points DMSO is a remarkably safe chemical that protects cells from otherwise fatal stressors (e.g., freezing, burning, shockwaves, ischemia) Since the heart, brain, and spinal cord are particularly vulnerable to injury, DMSO can produce miraculous results when those injuries happen Despite decades of research, many serious shortcomings exist with how we treat strokes (including brain bleeds), heart attacks, and spinal cord injuries As I will show here, had the FDA not sabotaged DMSO’s adoption, in addition to countless lives being saved, millions could have been protected from a lifetime of disability or paralysis Generated using DALL·E—OpenAI’s legacy image model Introduction If I were stranded on a desert island or knew the world was ending and I could only bring a few therapies with me, one of them, without a doubt, would be DMSO. This is because:  It effectively add...