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DR. CROUT: Controlled trials demonstrating that it really works for some of the
claims that it's- that it's touted for.
WALLACE: But controlled trials with DMSO are difficult, because that would
involve something called "double-blind" tests, where neither patient nor
investigator knows who is getting a drug, who is getting a placebo. And that can't
be done with DMSO, because the smell of the drug gives it away. What the FDA
says is needed is proper testing, and that, for instance, is to treat comparable
groups of patients with and without the drug over a long enough time to evaluate
its consequences, good or bad. And this, say the doubters in the medical
establishment, has just not been done with DMSO.
The National Academy of Sciences, you know, looked over a lot of the work that
has been published about DMSO, right?
DR. JACOB: Yes, they did.
WALLACE: And the National Academy of Science's committee said, in effect, that
only a few were scientifically sound, that most of the DMSO studies had been
inadequately set up and carried out.
DR. JACOB: I don't agree with that conclusion, because I personally have published
several dozen articles on DMSO, and I've been associated with two New York
Academy of Sciences symposia. There was no one on that committee, Mike, who
had actually ever treated a patient with DMSO, to my knowledge-
WALLACE: Uh-hmm.
DR. JACOB: -and I think that that makes a difference.
WALLACE: This young mother, Sandy Sherrick of Riverside, California, suffered
severe whiplash and nerve damage in an automobile accident two years ago. When
we first met her last November, she was in agony. No pain-killer, no therapy, no
doctor, it seemed, could help.
SANDY SHERRICK: Oh, the pain was extremely bad. I was to the point where I
cried continuously. I did not cook meals. I did not clean. I barely got myself
dressed.
WALLACE: And this went on for how long?
SHERRICK: Months. They finally got to the point where they just told me, "You're
going to have to live with it. The weather's going to affect you, and you're just
simply going to have to live with it."
WALLACE: Then she heard about DMSO. And as a last resort, Sandy Sherrick - as
you can see, still very much in pain - flew to Portland, Oregon, to be treated by Dr.
Jacob. We went with her. She received her first dosages intravenously.
DR. JACOB: This will run in about an hour, an hour and half...
SHERRICK: I can taste it.
DR. JACOB: You can taste it?
SHERRICK: Yes.
