How DMSO Protects and Heals Internal Organs – Dr. Joseph Mercola

Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) is a remarkably safe¹ naturally occurring compound that can treat a variety of challenging conditions. Since DMSO is incredibly effective for treating chronic pain, arthritis, and injuries like sprains or burns² (discussed further here), it quickly spread across America as a miracle drug.

Thousands of studies were conducted to confirm its value, and before long, hundreds of thousands of people considered it to be the most important therapeutic ever discovered. Unfortunately, due to politics, the FDA turned against DMSO and refused to relent³ even once:

Since publishing those articles, I’ve received over a thousand reports from people of the remarkable effects DMSO has had on them (which can be read here), that while unbelievable, are almost identical to what people across America reported before the FDA buried DMSO.

Reversing Organ Degeneration

The following process underlies many disease states:

In rapid cases, this is easy to recognize (as cells will rapidly die after a traumatic injury or having their blood supply cut off), whereas in slower cases (e.g., those arising from a chronic illness or toxicity), the issue often is that the cellular repair process becomes frozen and unable to bring the cells back to normal functioning.

Many regenerative medical therapies in turn, seek to “unfreeze” this cell danger responseso that the normal function of the cells can be restored.

DMSO is uniquely suited to reversing this process as, especially when done early in the rapid cases following a severe injury (whereas the more gradual and chronic ones we often see frequently require systemic regenerative therapy). This is because:

The majority of the pertinent studies evaluating DMSO’s interactions with the heart (e.g., the previously mentioned ones) evaluated its ability to protect the heart from ischemic events like heart attacks and to improve the circulation within the body.⁵⁹

Gastrointestinal Tract

Numerous randomized controlled trials conducted in Iraq found DMSO was highly beneficial for gastrointestinal diseases:

One evaluated 136 patients with recurrent attacks of proctosigmoid ulcerative colitis that were not being prevented by their prophylactic medical regimen. For those receiving standard care, 51% recovered in two weeks compared to 84% of those also receiving DMSO. Over the next year, 25% of those continuing to receive standard care had a relapse rate, whereas only 5% of those receiving DMSO did.60

One evaluated hospitalized patients with pelvic fractures or hypovolemic shock who were at risk for a stress induced gastric ulcer. Of the 58 controls, 22% developed an ulcer, whereas of the 57 receiving DMSO, only 4% did. Additionally, none of those receiving DMSO deteriorated or required emergency surgery, whereas 8 controls and 1 allopurinol recipient did (of whom 3 then died).61

One evaluated 302 consecutive patients with previous symptomatic duodenal ulceration that was shown to have healed, and who were smokers and social drinkers, to receive four different treatments. Of the 220 available for evaluation, 65% who received a placebo had a recurrence of the ulcer, 30% of those who received cimetidine, and 13% of those who received oral DMSO.62 Note: Similar results have been obtained by American physicians in a smaller number of patients.63

One evaluated 363 consecutive patients whose duodenal ulcers that did not heal despite 3 months of treatment with cimetidine (and who were cigarette smokers or social drinkers), were given either cimetidine twice a day alone or with DMSO or allopurinol. In 315 patients who were evaluable for analysis, at 8 weeks, 60% of those who had cimetidine recovered, whereas 100% of those who received DMSO recovered. Additionally, the one year relapse rate was 29% for cimetidine alone and 7% in those who took DMSO.64

One evaluated 238 patients with symptomatic acute duodenal ulceration who were smokers and social drinkers were randomized to receive for 8 weeks cimetidine or 8 weeks of a half dose of cimetidine plus oral DMSO (400mg two times a day) or allopurinol. After 8 weeks, 69 of the 87 (79%) who only received cimetidine recovered, whereas all of the 85 who received DMSO did. Additionally, 67% of those who received cimetidine over the next year relapsed, compared to 6% of those who took DMSO.65

One evaluated 101 patients presenting with hematemesis (coughing up blood) due to erosive gastritis (a fairly dangerous condition). It gave them either saline or oral allopurinol and DMSO orally every 6 hours for 5 days. Of the 50 controls and 48 who were treated (along with 2 who left because they could not tolerate the treatment), 29% of the controls and 8% of who were treated had further episodes of hematemesis (with three of the controls requiring subsequent surgery — one of whom died). Of those who remained stable, a subsequent endoscopy showed evidence of hemorrhagic inflammation in 44% of controls and 9% of those who were treated.66 Finally, DMSO also has been shown to help with irritable bowel syndrome, acute or chronic gastritis, peptic ulcers, enterocolitis, and mucomembranous colitis.67

Liver

In addition to DMSO protecting the liver from injury, DMSO can sometimes heal the liver. For example, 12 patients who had terminal liver cirrhosis who agreed to stop drinking all alcohol for the duration of the program were put on daily DMSO program.

Of the 8 who chose to continue the program for 6 months, all had improved health, significantly reduced vomiting, and improved liver function tests, and rather than all being dead within one year as expected, they were in better condition than they had been at the start of the study.⁶⁸

Gallbladder

• A rat study created obstructive jaundice by ligating (cutting off) the common bile ducts and found that laboratory values showed DMSO mitigated the expected pathologic effects.⁶⁹
• A Japanese study found that injecting 90% DMSO mixed with 5% hexametaphosphate into the biliary tract effectively dissolved gallstones within the liver and was safe for the patients.⁷⁰

Lungs

Additional data supports the protective role of DMSO for the lungs:

DMSO has also been shown to treat acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a challenging condition that frequently results in being placed on a ventilator (e.g., this happened throughout COVID-19).

In a hamster study and a mouse study, where a toxin was used to induce ARDS, DMSO significantly reduced the resulting lung damage and fluid leakage (which effectively drowns ARDS patients).^73,74 A third mouse study found DMSO prevented all of them from dying (whereas 58% of controls died).⁷⁵

In the one human study where IV DMSO was used for ARDS (given intravenously at concentrations under 10%) it was found to produce a dramatic improvement in all three patients who received it (e.g., one patient’s lungs were completely normal after a week) and prior to receiving DMSO all three were near death.⁷⁶

Note: In the one case when DMSO was nebulized, the improvement occurred in 1 hour.

Finally, DMSO can help chronic lung conditions.