DMSO: The Tree-Derived Healing Partner Big Medicine Doesn’t Want You to Know About

Most folks have no idea that one of the most versatile healing substances on the planet doesn’t come from a laboratory at all. It comes from trees. Yep, trees. DMSO, or Dimethyl Sulfoxide, is pulled out of lignin during the wood-pulping process. It’s not some synthetic cocktail cooked up in a beaker. It’s been here all along, waiting for people to notice.

It first showed up in the 1800s in the chemistry world, but it didn’t step into the medical spotlight until the 1950s and ’60s. That’s when Dr. Stanley Jacob at the University of Oregon started poking around and realized DMSO could do things that made drug companies very nervous. When a natural, non-patentable substance can outperform their products, well, let’s just say the welcome mat disappears real quick.

What Makes DMSO Special?

I’ve worked with DMSO for years, and I keep finding new ways it can help the body heal. Here are some of the heavy hitters:

1. Cryoprotective Power: Ever wonder how they keep hearts, organs, and even stem cells from getting freezer-burned during storage? DMSO lowers water’s freezing point and keeps ice crystals from shredding delicate tissue.
2. Potent Anti-Inflammatory: Works like aspirin or ibuprofen without trashing your gut. It tames swelling and pain naturally.
3. Free Radical Scavenger: Acts like a magnet for the little troublemakers that keep inflammation cycling through your body. Break the cycle, heal the damage.
4. Vasodilation Boost: Opens up blood vessels so nutrients can get in and waste can get out faster.
5. Cell Permeability Wizard: Helps your cells take in the good stuff and flush the bad stuff.
6. Transdermal Superhighway: This is one of my favorite features: rub it on your skin and it’s inside you within 10–20 minutes. It’ll carry things like CBD, essential oils, MSM, or hyaluronic acid deep into your tissues where they can really work.
7. Pain Shield: Calms down nerve signals and protects tissue from mechanical or chemical injury.
8. Radiation Protection: Counteracts damage from radiation exposure.
9. Heavy Metal Detox: Binds to nasty toxins like cadmium and hauls them out of your system.
10. Scar Tissue Softener: Helps dissolve and loosen up scar tissue and stiffness after surgeries or injuries.

Using DMSO Safely

DMSO is powerful, which means you need to respect it. Here’s what I tell folks:

• Start Clean: Whatever’s on your skin is going inside you. Wash well before applying.
• Dilute When Needed: Straight DMSO can dry or irritate skin. Mix with at least 10% distilled and filtered water before use. Mixing it with aloe vera is a game-changer.
• Don’t Worry About the Garlic Smell: That’s just DMSO meeting water inside your body.
• Mind Your Containers: Store in glass or polypropylene plastic, never silicone or reactive plastics.
• Watch Your Meds: DMSO can speed up drug absorption. Check with a healthcare provider if you’re on prescriptions.
• Forget the Sulfur Allergy Myth: People allergic to sulfa drugs aren’t automatically allergic to DMSO. Different chemistry entirely.

The FDA Shuffle

The FDA has played a strange game with DMSO. They officially approve it for just one human condition, interstitial cystitis (a painful bladder problem), yet at the same time, they quietly use it in drug delivery systems, preservation work, and research labs. It’s the kind of “yes, but no” double-talk that makes you wonder who’s pulling the strings.

The Research Is There

A quick search on PubMed pulls up thousands of peer-reviewed studies. Yet if you go to mainstream sites like WebMD, you’ll find a watered-down version of the truth, often because their advertisers are pharmaceutical giants.

Why I Keep It Around

I keep DMSO in my shop, in my home, and in my travel kit. It’s not just for big injuries—it’s for daily aches, inflammation control, detox work, and helping other good remedies go deeper. It’s like having a multi-tool for your health.

I like to keep some mixed 50/50 with Wayne Rowland Silver Water in a spray bottle for cuts and scrapes. That way, I can carry the pathogen-killing properties of silver deep into the wound, and I heal quicker.

If you’ve never looked into DMSO before, it might be time. Nature put this one in the tree just for us.

~ Herb Roi Richards, Author of DMSO Dimethyl Sulfoxide for Humans: Recipes and Treatment (2022)