For Horses or Humans: The Real Scoop on DMSO with Todd Bailey
May 14, 2024Welcome to this myth-busting chapter in the Herbal Mana World! We get asked all the time, "Does it really matter where I buy my DMSO?" The short answer is a resounding yes! Whether you're using DMSO for your aches or your equine friends, the quality of DMSO you use can make a big difference in your health and well-being. Here at Herbal Mana, we're all about helping you Hurt Less - Live More, and ensuring you have the best possible products and ingredients is at the heart of that promise.
Join our Co-founder Todd as he clears up some myths, breaks down some facts, and gets you on the path to feeling great! No complicated science talk, just straightforward, helpful info from someone who’s been there - with a pinch of his usual humor.
More of a reader? No worries! Here's what happened:
Todd: Hello, this is Todd Bailey from Herbal Mana. Hey, today I’m gonna do something a little differently. Chris, over in our customer service department, our customer support, uh, had a really good idea.
She started gathering questions that we see popping up regularly. Or at least more frequently than others. Chris started making a list of those for me so that I can address those questions. I’m going to start doing that from time to time, perhaps even weekly. That's going to give me a chance to answer some of the more common questions.
The first one is interesting! “What’s different about our DMSO?” It’s a question that I can answer a little more broadly to start with. First, What is DMSO? Why does it work?
DMSO is a naturally occurring substance in the sulfur family. It’s a byproduct of wood pulping, juicing trees to make paper. It’s a really interesting substance! It works to help resolve pain; it’s a free-radical scavenger. The free radicals stay together at sites of injury and inflammation and exacerbate the condition. It’s a simplified explanation, but I’m not a doctor, so I've got to stay with the simplified explanation.
It is a free radical scavenger and an antioxidant. It also helps block the peripheral nerve C fibers, which are used to signal pains from the injury site to the brain and back again as part of the signaling mechanism. So it settles down the inflammation, it settles down the brain signaling.
So it’s really handy, but what is it? Like I said, it’s that substance that comes from tree pulp. It’s in the sulfur family. Okay, DMSO. We were asked what’s the difference. But we were also asked this question just this morning. “How long can I take it? Is it something unnatural being introduced to the body?
Actually, Dimethyl Sulfoxide is part of the Sulfur family. And if you look at substances that are naturally occurring in your body and you rank them, number 1,2,3,4,5,6,7… number 7 is sulfur. Sulfur would also include things like MSM. If you’ve got joint issues, deteriorated cartilage, or Arthritis, as I do, your doctor is probably telling you to take many things, including MSM, which is sulfur-based. MSM helps the body heal and control inflammation.
So, as far as taking the DMSO or using it topically, you can do it indefinitely. Unless, of course, you get a skin irritation and then back off for a while to try to figure things out. But you can use it for a very long time. I’ve been using it daily, multiple times a day, for, gosh, it’s going to be 5 years! Then it was a little less faithful before that.
I’ve known about it since I was a kid. This is where we get to the real answer: the difference between our DMSO and other DMSO. When you go looking for DMSO, you don’t want to go to the feed store. I grew up on a ranch. My first exposure to DMSO was with D & B Supply. D & B supply is where we would go to get vet supply medicine for the animals, and you can get DMSO. It’s marketed in particular for horses. If a horse had an injured joint, soreness, or inflammation, you’d put DMSO on it, and it worked wonders!
Well, that’s not the DMSO that we use because that DMSO is not pure enough for us, for people. We need something that is pharmaceutical grade. Typically we are looking for 99.995% pure. It’s interesting that that tiny little fraction, that tiny little piece that keeps us from 100%, it’s just a water molecule or two or maybe a few. Because DMSO is hygroscopic - which simply means it pulls water right out of the air. So, getting to 100%, yes, it’s possible. But don’t take the lid off!
You might even find with some of your products that if you leave the lid off it will start to get a bit of a garlic smell. That’s the water being drawn out of the air combining with the DMSO, and you get a bit of a garlicky smell. If you were to emulsify the cream, say it’s Inner Warrior or Pain Warrior. If you emulsify the cream, it will allow the water, the tiny bit of water there to be dispersed, and then you’re back to the odorless.
So when you’re looking for DMSO, you do want to find something that’s pure—99.995%—and then you want to do what you can to keep it pure. If you leave the lid off and get a little bit of a garlic smell after leaving the lid off, stir it up really well and put the lid back on; it’s not a problem. It’s just the smell when you combine the water molecules with the DMSO.
“Where should I rub the Sleep Cream?” Anywhere! Well, actually, you want to rub sleep cream somewhere that it allows good absorption. I’ve got a couple of places that I like it. I’ll put it on my neck because I have a good blood supply, but that’s the second-best place.
By far, the best place to put the sleep cream is on the bottoms of your feet! The bottoms of your feet have the largest pores on your body and they allow the absorption of the molecules, all the goodness that is in the sleep cream. So - RUB THAT ON YOUR FEET! And you can do it more than once per night. A few nights ago, I used it when I went to bed. I woke up pretty restless about 4 hours later, I just couldn’t settle. Put Sleep Cream on the bottom of my feet. I keep a jar of it right there on my nightstand. So, that’s where you use it. The bottom of your feet is by far the best.
It will absorb anywhere on your body, but you want it to absorb as much as possible. And the other key for the bottom of your feet—you’ve got that nice, thick, tough skin. This is really helpful because the skin being a little bit thicker on the bottoms of your feet makes the Sleep cream, and any essential oils you happen to rub there absorb into that skin layer, and then they’re slowly released into the body. So you’re dosing for an hour or longer. And it’s just because of the way that everything is released through that thick skin layer. So, I count on my feet for sleep because I want the goodness from the Sleep Cream released into my body over time because I’m hoping to sleep for quite some time. Anyway, great questions!
Alright, as far as other purity issues for DMSO. We ran into a problem every winter when we were shipping DMSO. The problem with DMSO is that it freezes at a relatively low temperature. Well, excuse me. A relatively high temperature. If I want to freeze some water to make my ice cubes, it's 32 degrees Fahrenheit. But DMSO, DMSO will freeze solid at 66.2 degrees Fahrenheit. Which is not particularly warm, not particularly cool. It’s a little bit below room temperature for most folks. Unless you grew up in the house I grew up in, and gosh, that's probably room temperature. At 66.2 degrees, the DMSO will slowly freeze. It will solidify, and it can even look kinda crystally and form little crystals. So you have to thaw it.
Now, you can’t just take the frozen DMSO, put it on the counter in the room that’s 70 degrees a little above freezing point, and have liquid DMSO in an hour. If you’re only a little higher in the temperature, it’s going to take a while to melt. I do something to speed that up. I take my DMSO. If it’s my spray or whatever it happens to be and put it in a Ziploc bag and immerse it in warm water. Keep refreshing the warm water because i want to get the DMSO thawed and back to it’s normal liquid state quickly. I do not microwave it. Don’t do that cause it's gonna make a mess. Just warm it up by running it under hot water. I prefer to do it in a Ziploc bag. Pure DMSO will do that. If you have DMSO that is industrial grade, it will not freeze at 66.2 degrees. You may have to go lower depending on what impurities. Now, if it’s got that smidgin of water, that’s not going to make a real difference. But if you have a lot of other impurities, then the freezing point could be quite a bit lower.
All the DMSO that we use is pharmaceutical grade, 99.995% pure or better, so we’re getting the good stuff. We’re not buying it at the feed store. But anyway, that’s an interesting question, and it’s come up many times, and I like it. It’s a good, thoughtful question. We should be very cognizant of what we’re putting in or on our bodies.
We’re not putting the DMSO in, but when we put it on, it is being absorbed. So, this is an astute question, and it comes up fairly regularly, which I really like. We tend to have a very informed crowd following Herbal Mana, which is a lot of fun. A lot of fun indeed.
Alright, that's the questions I have for today. These segments are going to be fun. You ask, we answer. If there are other topics you might have in mind, like how to put the cream on, we love to hear them, and we’ll address them. So, that’s it for today!
Final Thoughts
Curious about what Todd puts on his feet for sleep? Want to see the difference 99.995% Pure Pharmaceutical Grade DMSO can make for you? Whether you're dealing with daily discomfort or looking for reliable inflammation management, our DMSO products are crafted to meet the highest standards of purity and efficacy. Dive deeper into the world of effective, natural relief with DMSO. Your journey to "Hurt Less - Live More" begins here!