The idea to post more about this recently came from reading a bit of
the thread about carpal tunnel and ASTYM. I had to look ASTYM up to
see what it was, and that got me thinking, and doing things a little
differently, and thinking it might be useful to write a teensy bit
more about my own experiences. I already wrote about stretching,
massage, exercise, nutrition, electrical stimulation (and let’s not
leave out another of the most important aspects, rest). The latest
thing I tried is DMSO, and I found myself thinking “why the heck
wasn’t I using this 20 years ago?!”. To which I answered myself
"well, I did try it 20 years ago, but the real question is ‘why the
heck haven’t I been using it for the last 20 years?’ ". To which I
have to admit that I don’t have a very good answer. I must not have
thought that it was that great back then, or that I wasn’t really
having enough of a problem to think it was worth the trouble and
expense of using it, or whatever. Whatever. I will be using it for
the next 20 years, because the stuff works great, and looks to be
benign, for the most part, and failed approval for human use largely
because certain groups of people sometimes don’t want people in
general to be able to benefit too much from something that’s very
beneficial, but also very cheap, and non-regulatable, making it a
lousy thing to try and make money off of. I haven’t looked into it’s
history that much, but it appears to have fallen into that nefarious
- and mostly unnecessary, i.m.o. - category of treatments that
people can do for themselves, that work, but for whatever reason,
have not made it through the established medical channels to get
official approval. Anyway, I’ve also ordered a book, by Dr. Morton
Walker, ‘DMSO : Nature’s Healer ’ (How To use DMSO To Relieve Pain,
Increase Circulation, Repair Tissue Damage, and Fight Degenerative
Diseases). I mentioned this to my wife, who casually relayed details
of how her and her ex husband used to use DMSO all the time when they
used to work out lifting weights. They used to have sore muscles,
strains, etc., and “rub some of that stuff on and be back in the gym
in no time”. Mr. Ex was doctor of internal medicine, by the way, so
these weren’t your average bozo experimenting with fringe treatments.
Or maybe it is frings, and if so, I could give a flying fig. It was
Senor Serendipity working it’s ways of wonder again, like it usually
does, that facilitated me acquiring my current tub of wonder gel. I
had called one local propane provider, but they were taking too
long, so I dropped in on another one, one that I’ve been driving by
for almost four years now without knowing what it was. ’ So-and So’s
Propane and Feed’, the sign (sort of ) says, so I walk in and look
around on the shelves while they doodle with my paperwork. Pills
and potions and ointments and brushes and other assorted doodads,
all intended for horse care and maintenance , and sitting there
innocently was a little white jar, 1 lb. of 90% DMSO gel, not
approved for use on humans, to be sold as a solvent only. Commonly
and widely used on horses though . More will probably be posted here
about it’s use, straight from the horse’s mouth, as it were (or will
be).
Dar Shelton