One of the best household personal pharma items in the bathroom cabinet
I've enjoyed using DMSO for myself, family, and patients since the mid 1990's.  It's likely one of the best household personal pharma items in the bathroom cabinet.<br /><br />Recently I noted some people saying you can use DMSO together with wintergreen oil as a local analgesic. Well, time for me to try it!<br /><br />According to Wiki references, Thirty ml (about 1 fluid ounce) of oil of wintergreen is equivalent to 55.7 grams of aspirin, or about 171 adult aspirin tablets (US).  This conversion illustrates the potency and potential toxicity of oil of wintergreen. [1]<br /><br />Patients should definitely be aware that excessive use of DMSO together with Wintergreen oil applied to the skin could have an outcome similar to the excessive use of aspirin, (note: aspirin is not methyl salicylate, but rather acetylsalicylic acid), such as bleeding and so on.  In other words, it might not be a very good idea for patients to relentlessly apply large combinations of DMSO and Wintergreen Oil, day in and day out, or over vast surfaces of the skin.<br /><br />So on the one hand, it appears that DMSO together with Wintergreen oil is no more dangerous than aspirin; but on the other hand, it can be just as dangerous as aspirin for those that are relentless in its excessive application.  I hope I haven’t scared anyone away.  The fact is that DMSO used with other medicines is extremely powerful & useful.  In some instances, such as the treatment of poisonous spider bites, the combo of DMSO with other meds is the best medicine available (per the empirical studies I have read).  And like all powerful medicines, you have to be intelligent in its application.  Thank God the corporate-sponsored US FDA was unable to bar its use!<br /><br />Regarding safety: Is there a difference between taking aspirin pills and applying methyl salicylate transdermally (note: transdermally means DMSO carrying the medicine across the skin)?  According to one peer-reviewed study, there is no difference; “No significant difference was detected between baseline and 6-hour thromboxane levels for either aspirin.” [2]<br /><br />Does Wintergreen oil mix well with DMSO?  I don’t know, but will give it a try.  For DMSO to effectively carry medicine across the skin barrier, two conditions must be met:<br /><br />1) The molecular weight of the medicine must about 350 moles or less, [Molecular weights of everything can be gleamed by online search or Merck index – If the medicine weighs more, then the chemical is just too big to pass through the skin barrier];<br /><br />2) The medicine must be able to fully dissolve into the DMSO, [Vitamin C for instance does not dissolve well at all – wherein many hormones from testosterone, estrogen, to corticosteroids, dissolve and are carried across the skin very well by DMSO].<br /><br />My personal experience has found a great deal of success in using DMSO to transdermally carry many antibiotic ointments and corticosteroids across the skin – Hence, vastly improving their effectiveness!<br /><br />SUNBURN:  I have never seen anything work nearly to the degree of DMSO (particularly with aloe gel) on preventing sunburn!  I cannot begin to recall the innumerable successes of patient-use whose skin turned Beet Red under the Caribbean sun.  I have never seen an instance of ‘sun burn’ occurring in a single patient provided they applied it soon and frequent!  I am not endowed with a great deal of eloquence.  Even if I had the skill, I do not believe I could adequately describe the remarkable achievements of this physician in using DMSO (and aloe gel) in preventing sunburn among over-exposed patients in the Caribbean.<br /><br />The caution for people is to realize that DMSO has the ability to carry many chemicals across the skin and into the capillaries, and blood stream.  Patients are advised to keep this in mind.  It might be extremely harmful to apply DMSO and then work with poisonous chemicals you don’t want in your blood stream; [examples: gardening chemicals such as glycophosphates, insect killers (including mosquito spray), certain cleaning products, and maybe even sun screen].  The great news is that this is a wonderfully powerful & useful medicinal tool; and you are a grown adult that does not need some government bureaucrat to hold you by the hand, and do everything for you!<br /><br />Power to the People!<br /><br />[1] Johnson PN: Methyl salicylate/aspirin equivalence: Vet Hum Toxicol 1985; 26:317-318<br /><br />[2] Tanen DA, et al., Comparison of oral aspirin versus topical applied methyl salicylate for platelet inhibition. Ann Pharmacother. 2008 Oct;42(10):1396-401. doi: 10.1345/aph.1L128. Epub 2008 Aug 12.
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