Can potassium-iodide mixed with DMSO speed up my healing of my scar?
I am applying DMSO together with Unique vitamin E and Super CP Serum daily to my scar as you suggested.
However recently I read a post that claims adding potassium-iodide (also called SSKI to the DMSO will help reducing the scar as well. Is this something you could confirm as a good strategy?
Thanks
Rik
Greetings Rik,
No, I do not think it is a good strategy.
I have heard of SSKI (potassium iodide) for treatment of Peyronie’s disease. That information comes from the website of Jonathan V. Wright, MD of the Tohoma Clinic. He has some interesting things to say about it. He is an intelligent and provocative author. I like his work, and he is a good man. I just have a difference of opinion with Dr. Wright in this particular area.
However, there is a problem with the idea of using SSKI for PD: Dr. Wright is the only one saying it. His concepts and opinions might very well be correct, and SSKI might be the best therapy imaginable for PD. But I doubt it. Why? Because, from what I can determine, there has been absolutely no research or study of this subject for PD or DC by anyone at any time. It is all conjecture and theory, even if it is interesting and makes sense, it is still unfounded at this time. It is a far more unfounded idea than anything you will find on the PDI website.
The intent of PDI is not to present all Alternative Medicine therapies for your review just because they are non-medicinal in nature. We do not advocate what we advocate simply because they are “natural” or easy to acquire without a prescription. Those therapies you find on the PDI website are there simply because there has been research (often a lot of it) that supports the use of a particular Alt Med therapies for PD, in spite of the fact that there is in addition contradictory research to the positive findings. We take the position that a least we are using those therapies that have satisfied a considerable percent of researchers to suggest the possibility of adequate efficacy. If taken as a group, in aggressive doses and high combinations, we stand a good chance of creating sufficient synergy to initiate a healing response in the body.
SSKI does not fall into that description. It has not been studied. When it is studied and receives a positive review from several independent sources we will likely consider adding it to the lineup.
Keep reading Dr. Wright’s articles, he has a lot of good information for all of us.
In the meantime, why are you still looking at things that are so marginal when there is a wide swath of therapies with some level of proven veracity at your disposal that you are not using? TRH
I’m not sure I understand your logic. Shouldn’t patients use SSKI for their Peyronie’s disease treatment even without research to back it up, if it meets the following criteria: inexpensive, easily obtainable, trivial or zero side effects and anecdotally effective?
I gather that SSKI meets the first three criteria, so at first glance it seems like it couldn’t hurt and could possibly help. My concern about SSKI is that I can barely find any anecdotes at all.
Sure, there’s the assertions of Dr. Wright, and those assertions are referred to or copied and pasted on many other websites. But I’m not seeing Peyronie’s disease patients stepping forward and saying “This worked for me.”
Without anecdotes in support (and I have to wonder why Dr. Wright has not published any before and after photos of his treatment — you’d think at the least he would have rec’d such photos from some enthusiastic readers), the whole SSKI idea for Peyronie’s disease seems at first glance to be just a waste of time.
Greetings John,
Many men have asked me about SSKI over the years. Apparently Dr. Wright’s website, and that page about SSKI, have great popularity with men who have Peyronie’s disease. As a consequence I have perused Dr. Wright’s writings and his ideas many times, and find him to be a gifted and knowledgeable person. I respect Dr. Wright.
When I developed the Peyronie’s Disease Institute after successfully treating my own PD, I employed on the website all of the different internal and external therapies that I used in my own rehabilitation. After some time I began getting questions about SSKI from people who were using Alternative Medicine and wanted information about Dr. Wright’s ideas. I was intrigued to say the least, since he lays out some very reasonable ideas for SSKI to treat Peyronie’s disease. But when I tried to cross-reference his information about SSKI and Peyronie’s disease I found I could not do it; there is little information available about SSKI and none about using it for PD. Just as you, I could not find anyone who has used it successfully. The stance that I have taken with the 16 different PDI therapies is that each one of them must either be found mildly or moderately successful in one or more scientific research programs when studied as a solo therapy (but would likely be far more successful when used in combination with other therapies, like vitamin E or acetyl-L-carnitine or PABA), or a longstanding treatment that has been used with success in similar soft tissue problems and is highly regarded as a traditional therapy (acupuncture, ultrasound therapy or soft tissue stretching). As a result I found I could not in good conscience suggest that others use SSKI or add it to the PDI lineup of therapies. TRH