37
Congress does something about this, the people are not going to
benefit.
Mr. FORD. Thank you.
Mr. Jones?
Mr. JONES. I have not had any side effects other than the basic
smell. I occasionally, during the 6-month period when I used it
regularly, maybe on the third day I would get a redness in the skin
and that would go away as soon as I wiped it off, maybe within an
hour. As far as our teammates that I have given the drug to, no
one has had any side effects other than the same thing, some skin
is more sensitive, and the smell. Those are the only side effects.
Mr. FORD. Dr. Reedy?
Dr. REEDY. My experience in utilization in my private practice
outside the realm of sports medicine has been essentially nonpri-
marily, because I choose to use it within the confines of the field of
sports medicine as I had made that decision with Dr. Jacob about
it. I would say however, that I would like very much to use it in
my patients with arthritis and acute ankle injuries because about
50 percent of my practice is sports medicine. So I would be very
anxious for it to be released so I could use it more extensively.
Mr. FORD. I don't know whether the next witness would like to
testify first, Mr. Chairman.
The CHAIRMAN. As soon as we finish questioning the four, then
we will call Dr. de la Torre and Dr. Paul.
Mr. FORD. I wanted one final question before the witness testifies
as to what negative effects are there in the use of the DMSO.
Dr. DE LA TORRE. I was going to talk about this in my statement,
but I can answer the question.
Mr. FORD. Excuse me. I can wait until the witness testifies.
The CHAIRMAN. All right, suppose we wait for Dr. de la Torre's
testimony.
Mr. FORD. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The CHAIRMAN. Thank you.
Mr. Hopkins?
Mr. HOPKINS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
First, Mr. Jones, you are not a physician, yet you prescribed
DMSO to a friend of yours on the same basis that any of us would
have. I am not a lawyer, but I would be delighted to defend you in
any lawsuits that might be coming your way. We might make a
pretty good team.
Let me ask Dr. Jacob, if I may, apparently DMSO has the ability
to penetrate the skin rapidly, getting into the bloodstream. What if
a person had been spraying roses or peaches or something and had
some poison from the spray on his skin, would it carry that poison
into his bloodstream?
Dr. JACOB. It might very well. It is not always wise enough to do
the right thing. It obviously could. It would not carry bacteria or
viruses because of the molecular weight of both bacteria and virus
is too large to carry DMSO, but it might carry another chemical
through the skin.
Mr. HOPKINS. Why do they use DMSO in Canada and not in the
United States?
Dr. JACOB. It is prescriptive in Canada for scleroderma. They
accepted the studies in Canada and FDA did not here.
