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MIKE WALLACE: What is the substance being rubbed on the neck and back of this
young woman to deaden the agonizing pain she's suffering after an automobile
accident? It's the same substance this quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons uses to
override the pain that he says would otherwise keep him from playing football, the
same substance that enables this woman, with crippling arthritis, to play the piano
again. It's a drug called DMSO. It costs four dollars a quart to manufacture, and
you cannot buy it in your drugstore. Tonight, we'll tell you why.
"THE RIDDLE OF DMSO"
MIKE WALLACE: DMSO - 15 years ago news of this potential miracle drug flashed
across the medical horizon: dimethyl sulfoxide. It was touted as a pain reliever
which would also work miracles on burns, on acne, even on spinal cord injuries; a
kind of jack-of-all-trades among drugs. The medical literature was full of stories
about it, some of it pro-DMSO, but much of it con, skeptical, even derisive. The
Journal of the American Medical Association editorialized against it. And the
FDA, the Food and Drug Administration, refused to okay it for general use; said it
has never been proved effective. Nonetheless, two states, Oregon and Florida,
have legalized it for prescription. And the black market in DMSO has become
nationwide. That's how many Americans get it. Meantime, the puzzling story of
DMSO continues.
It is largely fueled by the efforts of one man, Dr. Stanley Jacob, an associate
professor of surgery at the University of Oregon. For 15 years, this man - some
would say this zealot - has been pushing DMSO because he believes so deeply,
despite the doubters, in what DMSO can do.
Dr. Jacob, isn't a drug that has so many alleged uses from arthritis to tennis elbow,
from burns to spinal cord injuries, from mental retardation to baldness. Isn't a drug
like that automatically suspect?
DR. STANLEY JACOB: No question. And I think that that's one of the reasons it's
having problems. And if I had it to do all over again, maybe the major mistake that
I made, Mike, in the beginning was to tell it the way it was. I think if I would have
said it was good for a sprained ankle, but only if the ankle sprain were on the left
side, DMSO maybe might be approved today.
WALLACE: Because its use is legal in Oregon, patients make the journey to Dr..
Jacob's office there almost as if it were a domestic Lourdes. As we've seen, Dr.
Jacob treats some of his patients topically for their bruises, their aches and pains;
but some others of his patients, some of the most desperate, are young people left
paralyzed from auto and motorcycle accidents. These he gives DMSO intravenously
to relieve the pressure on their damaged brains, to reduce the swelling in the brain
or spinal cord. And sometimes, apparently, he gets dramatic results.
MRS. WEBER: It took the swelling out of the spine, and they told my husband on
the phone that I would- I'd probably be in a chair, paralyzed, for the rest of my
life. And so, we're really excited with the results.
WALLACE: Another Oregonian, transplanted to Georgia, swears by DMSO. June
Jones is second-string quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons. Time was, he says, he
could hardly raise his arm to throw a football. He said he'd be out of the game
without DMSO.
JUNE JONES: My problem is in my shoulder, so the simple thing for me to do is I
just put this on like this.
WALLACE: Just that much, about an inch worth?
JONES: I put about an inch worth, and I'll rub it-- rub it all around the area. And
I'll just leave it sit - sometimes I put on a little bit more than that-
WALLACE: Uh-hmm.
JONES: -and I'll just let it sit like that for, oh, anywhere from twenty minutes to
thirty minutes, fifteen to thirty minutes. And-
WALLACE: Boy, it smells, already!
JONES: Yeah, it— in fact, in about, well, maybe in about five minutes, I'll be able
to taste it.
WALLACE: That's one small special characteristic of DMSO it smells like garlic
and tastes like oysters.
