Dual-Healing by DMSO: antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties

The discovery of DMSO's benefits for inflammation and pain was somewhat accidental, as it was initially studied as an industrial solvent, but researchers found that it had unique biological properties, most notably the ability to penetrate skin and membranes quickly.

Learn more about DMSO's ability to travel through the skin, in our featured article: Transdermal Magic: DMSO’s Pathway through the Skin.

Naturally, DMSO’s skin-penetration ability led to investigations into its medical potential, where scientists observed that patients using it for various conditions reported significant reductions in swelling, heat, and pain at the site of their injuries, through anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects. For this reason, DMSO quickly became produced at the pharmaceutical grade level that VitalFlow guarantees, and it's now strictly used with this purity standard in research on conditions ranging from sports injuries to chronic arthritis.

DMSO's Mechanism of Action (to Combat Inflammation and Oxidative Stress)

So how does DMSO work to calm inflammation and protect your cells? Let’s dive into its clever mechanisms of action step by step, to fully understand its beneficial potential for oxidative stress and inflammation: 

• As a powerful antioxidant, DMSO acts like a sponge for harmful molecules called free radicals (or Reactive Oxygen Species - ROS), which are unstable compounds that damage cells and fuel inflammation. 
• By neutralizing these disturbers, DMSO reduces oxidative stress, a key driver of chronic issues. 
• DMSO calms the immune system's overreaction by dialing down the production of inflammatory signals called cytokines (like TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1β). Think of cytokines as alarm bells that tell your body to send immune cells to a site, causing swelling and pain; DMSO helps quiet these alarms. 
• DMSO also stabilizes cell walls, preventing fluid from leaking into tissues and reducing swelling (edema), and it may interfere with the production of other pain-inducing chemicals like prostaglandins. 
• Some of its direct pain relief comes from a temporary, local numbing effect on nerve fibers - for more information on Pain Relief specifically, check out our blog article Pain Relief: DMSO’s Rise in Medicine

Conditions where DMSO reduces inflammation, oxidative stress and pain

This combination of actions makes DMSO particularly helpful for a wide range of conditions where oxidative stress and inflammation are central problems, and research on this ability is still ongoing. 

For acute issues like sports injuries—sprains, strains, or bruises—DMSO can help reduce immediate swelling and pain. For chronic conditions, its value may be even greater. In arthritis (both osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis), it can address the underlying inflammation damaging joints, thereby easing stiffness and pain.

It's also been studied for tendonitis, bursitis, and post-surgical recovery to manage swelling and discomfort. Even in complex cases like interstitial cystitis (a painful bladder condition) or neuropathic pain from shingles, DMSO's ability to modulate the immune response or directly block pain signals, offers potential relief, showcasing its versatility beyond just typical inflammatory injuries. 

Skin penetration, and the importance of DMSO Purity

Of course, DMSO is able to do all this through its exceptional ability to penetrate skin to deliver its own effects on reducing inflammation and oxidative stress as we saw here, but also by helping other molecules cross the skin and aid in the body’s recovery and healing.

Because of this ability, it is extremely important that DMSO used on the skin avoids any contact with contaminants, from the production process till its application, because it risks the chance of those contaminants entering the skin too. For this reason, all DMSO products manufactured for Vital Flow are rigorously tested for 99.99% purity. 

To learn more about how DMSO can cross the skin barrier to provide benefits such as reducing inflammation and oxidative stress, check out our next blog article, Transdermal Magic: DMSO’s Pathway through the Skin.

If you’re particularly curious about DMSO’s Purity, you can learn about the DMSO manufacturing process and Vital Flow’s stringent purity standards in the article Not All DMSO is Created Equal: A Guide to Purity Grades and their Importance