MSM - For Arthritis, Allergies, and More
For more than fifteen years, 70 year old veteran actor James Coburn suffered from crippling rheumatoid arthritis. He explored life style, diet and special food allergy elimination diets, deep tissue massage, electromagnetic energy, homeopathy and even laying on of hands. The pain and stiffness remained with small improvements with each new therapy. In 1998 he was introduced to MSM (methylsulfonylmethane). "It was like a miracle," he says. "The pain stopped. In three days I started to swing a golf club." After six months of MSM the actor says that he has virtually no pain (1).
Mr. Coburn got back into acting and in March 1999 was awarded his first Oscar, in a forty-year career, for his performance in Affliction.
MSM is also known as dimethyl sulfone. The sulfur compound is a nutrient found in the human diet and the natural diets of virtually all other vertebrates. It is odorless and in its purified chemical form, it is a water-soluble, white crystalline solid. It belongs in the same chemical family as oxygen, and in oxygen depleted environments, sulfur often replaces oxygen as the source of chemical energy upon which life thrives. It's a dietary supplement that does not require a prescription. A daily dose of 1,000 mg is common, and for some conditions, doses as high as 2 to 6 grams may be appropriate.
MSM is rated as one of the least toxic substances in biology. Common table salt is much more toxic than MSM. However, some individuals have reported a "detox" reaction that passes in one to two days.
Where MSM is found
One of the world's prominent atmospheric chemists has suggested that MSM and its related compounds, DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide) and DMS (dimethyl sulfide) provide the source for 85 percent of the sulfur found in all living organisms (1). The cycle begins in the ocean where plankton release sulfur compounds, which is transformed in ocean water into a gas called dimethyl sulfide (DMS). The volatile compound rises up into the atmosphere where in the presence of ozone and high energy ultraviolet light DMS is converted into its cousins, DMSO and MSM. Both DMSO and MSM are water soluble and when they fall back to earth as rain they are rapidly absorbed by the root systems of plants where they concentrated a hundredfold. MSM and the sulfur it contains are incorporated into the plant's structure, then through plant metabolism the MSM, along with other sulfur compounds that it has spawned is ultimately mineralized and transported back to the sea. Then the sulfur cycle begins anew.MSM has been found in the blood and adrenal glands of cows (2), (3), and cows' milk is composed of between two and six parts per million MSM (4). Green vegetables (5) are another source of sulfur, particularly the cruciferous vegetables - Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower. However, everyday food preparation techniques can reduce MSM levels. Garlic, onions and asparagus, mustard and horseradish and sunflower seeds are also sulfur-rich. Protein sources of sulfur are the amino acids methionine and cysteine found in meat, fish, eggs and dairy products.
Sulfur is the eighth most abundant element in all living organisms. In the human body it forms part of virtually all tissues, especially those highest in protein, such as blood cells, muscles, skin and hair.
Experiments using MSM that contains radio labeled sulfur have shown that after ingestion, MSM gives up its sulfur to form the collagen and keratin of the hair and nails to form the essential amino acids methionine, cysteine and to form serum proteins (6).
From a healing perspective, there is something special about sulfur. No matter where one travels, chances are that somewhere near or far there will be a sulfur hot springs with a healing tradition attached to it. Mozart and Beethoven frequented a sulfur spring at Baden near Vienna. In Italy the elegant Salsomaggiore sulfur baths have attracted the likes of the wife of Napoleon I, Enrico Caruso and Luciano Pavarotti. Hot Springs, Montana beckons Americans to its "Big Medicine" waters, discovered by Native American tribes. It is said to produce relaxation and relief from arthritis, skin diseases, stomach ulcers, high blood pressure and many other conditions. Medical literature contains past references to the use of sulfur baths for healing, particularly arthritis (7).
The late Carl Pfeiffer Ph.D., M.D., a world-renowned expert on nutritional medicine, once described sulfur as "the forgotten essential element. Sulfur is a key component in the maintenance of normal body function (7). As an essential dietary element it is responsible for maintaining the conformation of the body's proteins by forming flexible disulfide bonds between certain amino acids and in maintaining the integrity of connective tissue.
Thiol (sulfhydryl) groups are vital for the catalytic function of many enzymes. Blood or urine samples usually will show some MSM in most people (8). But with age and because of the way foods are prepared, less MSM is present in the body than is desirable, and with normal aging low MSM levels are even more pronounced so that almost everyone is deficient, particularly individuals who eat fast foods.
What can MSM do For the Human Body? Dr. Stanley W. Jacob and researchers at Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU) have developed and worked with MSM for 20 years. Dr. Jacob is Gerlinger professor at the Department of Surgery at OHSU in Portland, who has used MSM for 20 years and at 74 continues to practice as a medical doctor, surgeon and research scientist.
In a phone interview he said that one of the major properties of MSM is that it is excellent therapy for preventing allergies and in its ability to reduce pain. MSM may help reduce inflammatory pain by blocking impulse transmission in the nonmyelinated nerve fibers that carry pain signals. MSM may also decrease pain by altering cross-linked collagen, resulting in less scar tissue. He believes MSM to be the most important substance we have had for the prevention of allergies since the advent of the antihistamine agents, which were introduced well over four decades ago. People taking MSM orally, or sometimes supplementing that with nose drops of diluted MSM, will not have the uncomfortable burning of the eyes or the running nose or hoarseness associated with allergies to pollens, dust and molds.
Anti-parasitic
At OHSU researchers have found that MSM has anti-parasitic properties against the two parasites they studied - giardia and trichomonas. The giardia is a parasitic infection of the small intestine, which causes poor absorption of nutrition in humans. It is usually the cause of water-carried diarrhea in the US. MSM has proven to be effective in controlling the symptoms and fighting the organism when it invades humans (9).Many women suffer from the discomfort associated with yeast infections, which are caused by a parasite called trichomonas. Symptoms include increased itching and discharge which may be malodorous and discolored. MSM can serve both as an oral supplement mixed with water or juice and as a diluted topical application.
Hyper acidity/heartburn
People who have become dependent upon antacids and products such as Tagamet and Zantec can be weaned off them by substituting MSM as a nutritional supplement. It has been shown to be more effective in doses of 3,000 mg per day.Clinical and Laboratory Studies with MSM
There have been many studies conducted under controlled conditions that show some of the potential MSM has as a therapeutic agent. Among the items studied are snoring, lupus erythematosus, breast cancer, colon cancer and rheumatoid arthritis.Snoring
Research at OHSU on 35 subjects suffering from chronic snoring has shown that MSM in a 16 percent solution administered to each nostril 15 minutes prior to sleep provided significant reduction of symptoms in 80 percent of the subjects after one to four days of use.As a control in eight of the patients who obtained relief with MSM, a saline solution was substituted for MSM without their knowledge. Seven of the eight participants in the studies resumed loud snoring. The change occurred within 24 hours of the substitution. After the MSM treatment was restored, the eight participants again showed a significant reduction of snoring. Ninety days after the treatment, none of the subjects reported any toxic reactions. (10)
Systemic lupus erythematosus
(SLE) is an inflammatory issue disease without known cause. It occurs mostly in young women (90 percent of lupus patients are women) but also in children. The disease may begin abruptly with a fever, like an acute infection, or after several months or years with periodic bouts of fever and fatigue. Most sufferers complain of painful joints as in arthritis. Patches of raised, red rash areas of skin also characterize the disease. A type of kidney dysfunction, lupus nephritis, is often involved at the onset later in the course of the disease, and urinary tract infections are also common. The disease can also affect the heart, lungs, spleen, blood and gastrointestinal tract. Systemic lupus erythematosus is considered an autoimmune disease since most patients are found to develop antinuclear antibodies in their blood at some time in the course of the illness (11).Experiments conducted on mice bred for their propensity to acquire lupus showed MSM to have a protective effect both before and after the onset of the disease. Mice maintained on a diet, including three percent MSM, in their water supply from an age of one month suffered lower death rates and liver damage than control groups drinking only tap water. After seven months 30 percent of the control group had died while none of the MSM fed mice had died. Also, when seven months old mice that were already showing signs of advanced lupus were fed the MSM diet, 62 percent were still alive after nine months, compared to 14 percent of the control group that received only tap water (12).
Breast Cancer
Research done at Ohio State University College of Medicine (13) shows that oral supplements of MSM can protect rats against the onset of breast cancer. Rats specially bred to be susceptible to breast cancer, when given certain carcinogenic compounds were fed a diet containing added MSM for eight days. Following this preliminary period, the rats were given doses of the carcinogen dimethylbenzanthracene orally. The health of the rats was monitored for nearly one year and compared to a similar group of carcinogen-dosed rats that had not received the MSM in their diet. Although there was no statistical difference in the number of tumors developed in the two groups, the MSM diet rats developed their first tumors some 100 days later than the non-MSM diet rats, and these tumors became cancerous some 130 days later than those in the control group. The average life expectancy of rats is two years. This would make 100 days the equivalent of about ten years in human life.Colon Cancer
The same researchers from Ohio State Medical College also studied the protection dietary MSM provides to rats injected with dimethylhydrazine, a compound that induces colon cancer (13). One group of rats was injected with the carcinogen. At two-month intervals the rats were examined for tumors under anesthesia. Rats without any appearance of tumors were returned to the experiment. Again, the number of bowel tumors occurring in the rats was statistically the same for treated and untreated rats over the entire nine months of the experiment. However, the time of appearance of the first bowel tumors was considerably longer in the MSM treated rats. The conclusion of the researchers was that MSM significantly lengthens the time of tumor onset compared to the controls.Rheumatoid Arthritis
Researchers at OHSU studied a strain of mice that were prone to spontaneous development of joint lesions similar to those in rheumatoid arthritis (14). They found that animals that were fed a diet that included a 3 percent solution of MSM in drinking water from the age of two months until the age of five months suffered no degeneration of articular cartilage. In a control group of mice receiving only tap water, 50 percent of the animals were found to have focal generation of articular cartilage.