A warning
I suffer from generalized tendon and ligament damages all over my body after an adverse reaction to fluoroquinolones antibiotics. The worst of my articular issues though (because it is not healing but just steadily getting worse and worse even after a year) is patello-femoral cartilage damage. After reading this thread I started reseaching a little about DMSO... and a "cartilage DMSO" search yielded this study :
http://www.ncbi.nlm..../pubmed/9749514Effect of dimethylsulfoxide on articular cartilage proteoglycan synthesis and degradation, chondrocyte viability, and matrix water content.
CONCLUSIONS:
DMSO, in relatively low concentration, is detrimental to articular cartilage PG synthesis in a time-dependent manner. Dehydration of the cartilage and chondrocyte death also occur with increasing time of DMSO exposure. Significant PG degradation occurs on the third day of culture with daily DMSO exposure.
CLINICAL RELEVANCE:
As a joint lavage solution, DMSO has potentially deleterious effects on the metabolism of chondrocytes.
Needless to say, Im not going to apply DMSO on my pre-arthitic knees...
That's completely the opposite effect that was documented by MRI to have happened to my Achilles tendon and three ligaments in my foot. Four months of two-to-three times daily application of DMSO and they healed without immobilization, which my surgeon, Dr. Robert Joseph in LA said was considered to be medically impossible. He said, "But the MRI shows that they are healed and you can quote me on that."
Sounds like they need to do a longer term study. Perhaps there is a rebound effect that causes tendon and ligament recovery. Although I loathe the smell effect from DMSO, a powerlifter friend recently referred my to this site:
http://www.dmso-use....z_solution.html
Telling me that it produces no odor because it is so pure. I bought some and stuck it in the fridge for emergencies, but I have yet to try it out so I can't really vouch for his claim. (Honestly, the website looks a little 1990's - ish)
No. There have been hundreds of DMSO studies conducted. You might read http://www.dmso.org/...ation/jacob.htm
DMSO is well documented to heal connective tissue injuries. Go to any race horse stable in the world and ask them what they do when a million-dollar horse starts limping.
DMSO is widely used to treat tendinitis where race horses are cared for. And horses don't respond to placebos.
Vets know it works and saves animals from euthanasia.
To read about DMSO's use with race horses, see "[url="http://It%20is%20widely%20used%20to%20treat%20tendinitis%20where%20multi-million%20dollar%20race%20horses%20are%20cared%20for.%20And%20horses%20don't%20respond%20to%20placebos.%20Vets%20know%20it%20works%20and%20saves%20animals%20from%20euthanasia,%20which%20saves%20money.%20To%20read%20about%20DMSO's%20use%20with%20race%20horses,%20Google%20"Western%20Horseman%20magazine%20April,%201996%20DMSO.""]Western Horseman magazine April, 1996 DMSO[/url]."
The two best (cheapest) places to buy DMSO are DMSO.net - I buy their 99.9% liquid and their 70/30 (30% aloe) gel for milder problems.
...and then from DMSO.com - I buy their 90% gel for acute problems. Their prices for the 99.9% liquid are higher than .net's.
I didn't know there were gels when I treated the torn ligaments and Achilles, so I just rubbed the liquid on with cotton swabs.
The gels are way easier to work with.
I've had friends who had migraines rub DMSO where it hurts and the migraine is gone in a few minutes.