DMSO: NEW HOPE FOR ARTHRITIS?
MONDAY, MARCH 24, 1980
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
SELECT COMMITTEE ON AGING,
Washington, D.C.
The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 a.m., in room 1302,
Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Claude Pepper (chairman
of the committee) presiding.
Members present: Representatives Pepper of Florida, Bonker of
Washington, Ford of Tennessee, Oakar of Ohio, Lloyd of California,
Mica of Florida, Hopkins of Kentucky, and Drinan of Massachu-
setts.
Staff present: Charles H. Edwards III, chief of staff; Yosef
Riemer, deputy chief of staff; Val J. Halamandaris, senior counsel;
David Holton, chief investigator; Kathy Gardner, professional staff
member; Nancy Smythe, investigative researcher; Marie C. Brown,
executive secretary; Molly Clark, secretary; Henry Hicks, profes-
sional staff member; Nancy Hobbs, minority staff director, Subcom-
mittee on Retirement Income and Employment; Larry Parkinson,
minority staff director, Subcommittee on Health and Long-Term
Care; Walter Guntharp, minority staff director, full committee; and
Bob Branand, minority general counsel, full committee.
OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN CLAUDE PEPPER
The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order, please.
The subject of this hearing this morning is a matter that may be
of great importance for a great many millions of people in our
country.
Back in the late forties when I was a member of what we over
here call the other body, the Senate, I was then very painfully
aware, although not personally, fortunately, of the pain inflicted
upon millions of Americans by arthritis, bursitis, and rheumatism.
I was the principal author of the bill which resulted in the estab-
lishment of the National Institute on Arthritis, Metabolism, and
Digestive Diseases.
Arthritis is not a new interest on my part. I have been trying to
help find something that will give relief to millions of our fellow
citizens, most of them elderly people, from the great pain and
deformity which it causes.
So when we heard from a number of sources about this drug
dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), that Dr. Jacob has provided the initia-
tive for, we were very keenly interested. I know an army of mil-
lions out there would rise up and call us blessed if we could give
them even a measure of relief from the pain that they experience
daily and nightly from arthritis.
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