DMSO is a wide based Peyronie's treatment

Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) was first synthesized in Germany in 1866.  Since then it has been available as a pulp-industry by-product for many years. Its principle use is currently that of an industrial solvent. While it is in use in medical and surgical treatment, it can be used in DMSO Peyronie's therapy.

In 1964 Dr. Stanley W. Jacob and others at the University of Oregon Medical School were the first to describe the remarkable medicinal properties of DMSO.  In this first work with DMSO they applied it to intact human skin, and discovered it penetrates rapidly and produces a wide range of pharmacologic actions.  Some of these are anti-inflammation properties, local analgesia, stopping bacterial growth in it presence, increased renal function to reduce edema, a carrier action with drugs it is coupled with, softening of collagen (the primary component of the Peyronie’s disease plaque), nonspecific enhancement of immunity, dilatation of blood vessels, and reduction of blood platelet adhesion.  As a result, DMSO has been used widely to treat various conditions (arthritis and bursitis, acute and chronic musculoskeletal trauma, scleroderma, chronic urogenital disorders, and unresponsive postoperative pain syndromes). To date, little to no local or systemic toxicity or tissue destruction has been noted in humans when DMSO is administered.

Of special interest in Peyronie’s disease treatment, when normal tissue is injured or deteriorates for any reason, the damaged tissue naturally produces chemicals called "free radicals."  It just so happens that DMSO is a potent scavenger of these radicals, maintaining the normal integrity of cells and tissues. These free radicals exert further harm to the damaged or aging cells, and thus prevent or slow the healing process.  Using DMSO in the treatment of Peyronie’s disease seems to make sense because it can be applied locally over the superficial surface of the plaque region.  Not only that, but it can be used to bring in other therapies directly into that same area – a double benefit. DMSO has been called "the most controversial therapeutic advance of modern times."  However, the 40 year controversy since it first made medical headlines seems to be bureaucratic and economic, rather than scientific. More than 10,000 articles on the biologic actions of DMSO have been reported in the scientific literature, along with 30,000 articles on the chemistry of DMSO. These reports and studies strongly support the contention that DMSO is a truly significant new therapeutic principle.

Currently, DMSO is a respected and approved pharmaceutical agent in more than 125 countries, but not the U.S. In 1970, the FDA approved DMSO for the treatment of musculoskeletal disorders in dogs and horses. Many veterinarians consider DMSO to be the most valuable therapeutic substance in their armamentarium.  Later, in 1978, DMSO was given FDA approval as a therapy for interstitial cystitis, a painful and disabling urinary bladder inflammation.

In many ways, DMSO is the "aspirin" of our time. If aspirin had been introduced in 1963, as was DMSO, with its multiple beneficial therapeutic properties, aspirin surely would have been similarly restricted.

DMSO became prescriptive for humans in the USSR in 1971, in therapy of various musculoskeletal problems. Dr. V. Balabanova of the Moscow Institute of Rheumatology estimates that approximately 50 percent of the Russian population who have arthritis will receive DMSO as part of their therapy. There are more than one hundred articles in the world's literature relating to DMSO and arthritis. This widespread and common use is based on the well-established pharmacologic actions of DMSO to reduce pain, reduce inflammation, soften scar tissue and contracted fibrous tissue elements, remove free radicals, increase circulation and stimulate healing.  No one with Peyronie’s disease can deny the value of these functions in the repair of the Peyronies plaque.

Based on research from around the world, DMSO has proven to be an effective treatment for many illnesses that otherwise have no known therapy. DMSO is safer, far less expensive, and at least as effective for a variety of problems for which the medical community is presently using other, less effective, and more costly treatments. In 1972 the National Academy of Sciences evaluated the scientific data on DMSO and determined it was a least as effective as other currently approved treatments for three musculoskeletal inflammatory human conditions. Yet, it has not been given FDA approval for these same conditions. Certainly, one of the most important questions about any new medicinal therapy is safety.  The only potentially serious side effect is the occasional patient who is allergic.  In Peyronie’s disease treatment, this is reduced simply by the small area to which DMSO is applied and the administration of topical vitamin E and urea with the PMD-DOMSO formulation created by PDI.

A careful review of the published literature on DMSO shows there is not a single death which can be definitely attributed to this agent. Since it first appeared in the mid-1960s, hundreds of millions of treatments have been applied worldwide, showing that DMSO is a substance of extraordinary low tissue toxicity. At that time the FDA had received data submitted by approximately 1,500 U.S. physicians concerning over 100,000 DMSO applications, all showing safety and effectiveness. The pharmaceutical companies submitting this positive data were Squibb, Merck, and Syntex, all who would have suffered economic harm if this inexpensive therapy was made more popular and readily available.  With the withdrawal of their support, all further U.S. DMSO research and documentation of effectiveness has stopped.  Thus, the large drug companies blocked further interest or use in a safe, easy, effective and inexpensive substance that could help stop the progression of Peyronie's disease, so they could develop drugs in which their profit potential was much greater.

Much of the resistance to the use of DMSO in Peyronie’s disease can be thought to be more political and economic, than scientific.  For these reasons, the Peyronie’s Disease Institute has used DMSO in its therapy program from the onset.   TRH