If you are searching for any of the following topics:

• MSM made by our supplier, Cardinal Nutrition, the only patented, American made manufacturing  source for OptiMSM as featured on Healthy Solutions by Mariette Hartley.
  

• Methylsulfonylmethane is economical and available in many forms and products.
  

• Many of our products are 100 % pure Optimsm 
  

• Methylsulfonylmethane for fast, natural relief from arthritis and joint pain

Look no further. Please review our catalog and price list here. 

Amazing MSM

How do you spell pain relief? These days, more and more people are spelling it M-S-M. OptiMSM is a nutritional supplement rapidly establishing a reputation as a safe, natural and effective solution for many types of pain and inflammatory conditions, including:

• - Degenerative wear-and-tear arthritis

• - Rheumatoid arthritis

• - Chronic back pain

• - Chronic headaches

• - Muscle pain

• - Fibromyalgia

• - Tendonitis and bursitis

• - Carpal tunnel syndrome TMJ

• - Post-traumatic pain and inflammation

• - Heartburn

OptiMSM, The only patented, American made MSM, stands for Methylsulfonylmethane, a natural substance present in food and in the human body. You can read about this in Dr Jacob's book, The Miracle of MSM, which is available for purchase in our catalog. Double click this link to our price list and catalog. With permission from Dr  Jacobs, We have reprinted a small portion of information from The Miracle of MSM.

The Side-Effects Epidemic

Treatment of pain typically revolves around pharmaceutical drugs and has contributed to sales that have made the pharmaceutical industry the nation's most profitable as measured by return on investment. While many conditions are so painfully severe that they require powerful medication, there is a serious downside to widespread usage-the issue of safety.

Adverse reactions to medical drugs are believed responsible for more than 100,000 deaths and 1.5 million hospitalizations in the U.S. each year, according to reports in the Journal of the American Medical Association and other leading medical publications. Fatal drug reactions are, in fact, among the leading causes of death.

Medical authorities continually caution physicians and patients alike regarding the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAIDs) for pain conditions. They frequently cause ulcers, serious side effects, and even fatalities. Recently, one such drug was removed from the market shortly after it was approved because of four deaths and illness necessitating liver transplants among eight of its users. Many of our patients come to us with drug-induced symptoms. They are often unable to continue taking NSAIDs pre-scribed by other physicians because they cannot tolerate the side effects of stomach pangs, acid reflux, and nausea.

Steroidal drugs such as cortisone are also widely prescribed to reduce the inflammation associated with a wide array of painful conditions. These are important drugs but they frequently lead to unhealthy weight gain, high blood pressure, a characteristic moon face," and even diabetes.

OptiMSM-Relief Without Side Effects

Stanley W. Jacob and Ronald M. Lawrence, are medical doctors with nearly ninety years of combined clinical experience treating severe and debilitating pain problems. Dr Jacobs participated in the development of MSM and was the first physician to use MSM in the treatment of patients nearly twenty years ago. They  have both repeatedly seen MSM significantly ease the suffering of patients with different types of pain and inflammatory conditions and restore their ability to function more normally. In their opinion, MSM can greatly reduce the staggering amount of disability and loss of productivity caused by chronic pain.

People continually tell them: "I wish I had had known about MSM before. "MSM has given me my life back." "Thank God for something natural that relieves my pain without giving me any side effects." - "Nothing worked for me before this." - "It's like a miracle."

In their book you will encounter many such remarks from individuals who previously experienced multiple side effects from their medication or whose doctors told them there was nothing more that could be done for them, that they would have to learn to live with the pain. MSM offers a natural way to reduce pain and inflammation without serious side effects. It may even deliver as much or even more relief as some of the standard painkillers-it just doesn't work as fast. (That's because MSM is not a drug; it is a nutritional supplement.)

But you will often begin to experience noticeable easing of pain and discomfort, along with more energy, and in general feel better, within days.

The good news is that MSM is readily available as an inexpensive nutritional supplement in our catalog. You can purchase it in capsule form to take with a meal as you would any vitamin supplement or use it in crystal form and mix in a 1/4 cup of hot water (this is the least expensive form), you can also buy it as a cream, lotion, or gel and apply it directly to your skin for additional relief from pain and inflammation.

You don't need a prescription. It is safe for adults and children alike.

Don't confuse MSM with MSG-monosodium glutamate. MSG is a taste-enhancing agent that frequently causes allergic reactions known as "the Chinese Restaurant syndrome." After many thousands of cases we haven't heard of MSM producing allergic reactions.

In Chapter 3, they tell you how to use MSM and maximize your personal experience of natural pain relief. They give you the practical information on how much to take and answer commonly asked questions about the supplement.

Where Has MSM Been Until Now?

You may be wondering that if MSM is so good why haven't you heard about it before? Until now, there has been little written about it except for a few booklets and articles in nutritional and veterinarian publications.

The Miracle of MSM  is the first comprehensive report on MSM. Veterinarians have used MSM for more than fifteen years ever since an article on it appeared in an equine journal in the early 1980s. Use by humans goes back nearly twenty years, when Dr Jacob began recommending it for patients who came to the world-famous  Pain Clinic at the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland.

MSM was developed from the medical experience DMSO. You probably have heard of DMSO and may possibly have used it. DMSO is a well-known therapeutic agent derived from trees. MSM is made from DMSO. DMSO is widely used around the world for relief of arthritis, muscle and skeletal disorders, acute head and spinal cord trauma, athletic injuries, and other conditions. In the U.S., it is approved by the FDA for the treatment of interstitial cystitis, a painful inflammatory disorder of the bladder. MSM delivers many of the remarkable healing properties of DMSO-but without the annoying odor of DMSO.

Thousands of people, young and old, with various chronic pain conditions, have come to the Portland clinic, often as a last resort because medical treatments weren't working, and have been helped with MSM. It was among such seriously ill people that the benefits of MSM were first observed.

With interest in alternative medicine and natural remedies soaring, MSM has been brought out of its relatively limited clinical confines into the mainstream of nutritional supplement users. Now its remarkable benefits are being enjoyed by many people interested in natural relief from pain, with no side effects.

MSM is a source of sulfur, a mineral element critical to the normal function and structure of the body. Sulfur is a raw material for the protein and connective tissue that make up our body mass, for enzymes that conduct countless chemical reactions, and for powerful natural compounds that protect us against toxicity and harmful oxidative stress.

Sulfur also has a long history of healing but it has been overlooked in our current fascination with vitamins and minerals. When asked to think of minerals important for health, most people know that calcium is good for their bones, that iron is important for their blood, that zinc is needed by the prostate. But rarely does anyone mention sulfur.

DMSO and  MSM

In this chapter we will look at the MSM's "pedigree" and its connection to DMSO and sulfur.

In the late 1970s, Robert Herschler suggested studying the properties of DMSO metabolites. Along with other members of the faculty at Oregon Health Sciences University, we began to look at dimethylsulfone, DMS02 -another scientific name for MSM which is the major metabolite of DMSO. When DMSO enters the body approximately 15 percent of it is converted to MSM, its major breakdown component. That means the body attaches an oxygen atom to a portion of the DMSO molecules and they become DMS02--or MSM. A smaller percentage of DMSO is converted to DMS--dimethyl sulfide. DMS is responsible for producing the odor as well as any skin irritation that may occur.

MSM does not produce the DMSO odor. When taken orally or topically, no part of it is converted to DMS.

From prior research, we knew MSM remains in the body longer than DMSO. In a 1967 study, conducted at Merck Sharp & Dohme Research Laboratories, excretion through the urine of orally administered DMSO was complete after 120 hours, 11 whereas DMSO, excretion was much more prolonged, lasting until 480 hours or beyond."

The researchers suggested that one reason for the longer retention in the body was "possibly more extensive tissue binding." Our observations over the years agree with this assessment. Major DMSO researchers, in fact, have theorized that many of the benefits of DMSO are due to the long lasting influences of the DMSO fraction converted to MSM.

Dr Jacobs remarks "As I began using MSM with patients, I found it produced many-but not all-of the DMSO effects. I consider the following to be MSM's most significant actions":

• It is an analgesic. It relieves pain.

• It reduces inflammation.

• It passes through cellular membranes of the body, including the skin.

• It dilates blood vessels (vasodilatation) and increases blood mow.

It is a cholinesterase inhibitor. Cholinesterase is an enzyme that stops excessive passage of nerve impulses from one nerve cell to another. I have seen MSM provide swift relief of constipation associated with aging. By blocking the action of cholinesterase, MSM helps restore normal bowel activity (peristalsis).

It reduces muscle spasm. Injury or inflammation commonly cause spasm in a muscle or group of muscles. Spasm involves a sudden contraction, which is followed by pain and interference with function. Spasm can be felt by a physician's touch or measured with electromyography.

If you apply an MSM gel or cream to an affected area and then feel the muscle again later, or measure it electrical the muscle is looser, the area less tender. MSM taken orally produces a muscle-relaxing effect.

It alters the cross linking process in collagen, thus reducing scar tissue. Cross linking is the process in which new structural proteins are linked to existing healthy tissue at the sites of surgical incisions or traumatic damage in the body.

It has antiparasitic properties, particularly for giardia, a protozoan parasite that causes diarrhea.

It has an immune normalizing effect, as observed in some autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, LUPUS, and scleroderma.

One of the factors that set DMSO and msm apart is that they are small molecules. DMSO tips the scales at a molecular weight of 78; msm, 94. By chemistry standards, they are featherweight molecules. They mimic water in this respect.

Water has a very low molecular weight and passes through tissue. DMSO and MSM pass through the skin and into the tissue below. Just like DMSO, msm is very useful when employed as a topical gel, cream, or lotion to help in the relief of local pain and inflammation.

Unlike DMSO, however, msm cannot transport medication with it.

Another difference between the two compounds is that DMS0 is a proven and powerful free-radical scavenger, that is, an antioxidant, whereas MSM's antioxidant significance at this point is unclear.

Free radicals are unstable molecular fragments that launch an oxidative attack on DNA, cell membranes, enzymes, and proteins, disrupting normal cellular activities and trigger the inflammatory process. Such cumulative oxidative damage is similar to the rusting of metal and contributes to premature aging and the development of serious disease. Every disease known to medical science is associated with an increased activity of free radicals.

One of the first things we set out to learn about MSM was its safety. In long-term toxicity trials with laboratory animals we found no toxic effects with oral doses of 8 grams per kilogram (2.2 pounds) of body weight. Most people take from 2 to 8 grams total as a daily supplement.

To determine the lethal dose of MSM, or of any substance, we used a standard test known as LD-50. LD stands for lethal dose. The number 50 refers to the amount of the substance required that would result in the death of half the number of laboratory animals used in the test.

For MSM, the findings determined that the LD-50 was more than 20 grams for each kilogram of body weight. To put that into perspective, the LD-50 of common table salt you use for cooking is 15 to 3 grams per Kilogram of weight. MSM thus rates as one of the least toxic substances in biology and medicine. It compares to water, which has an LD-50 rating also greater than 20 grams per kilogram of weight.

In follow-up experiments with human volunteers, we found no toxic effects at intake levels of up to I gram per kilogram of body weight per day for 30 days. That means about 68 grams for an average 150-pound person. A few patients have taken more than 100 grams orally of MSM daily without any side effects. But these were extremely unusual cases involving very sick patients under my personal care. Do not take that much on your own, Please refer to Chapter 3 for details on how much MSM to take,

In a paper presented to the New York Academy of Sciences in 1982, Herschler and I described the actions, benefits, and nontoxicity of MSM for the first time. In the ensuing years, I continued to use MSM with great success in my clinic and found that it was well-tolerated and provided wonderful relief for people with pain, inflammation, constipation, and other common problems.

Veterinarians became interested in MSM and found it beneficial for horses and dogs suffering from arthritis and lameness. Many people, seeing the benefits for their animals, started buying MSM from veterinarians and tack shops and using it themselves. Word spread over the years-first from patients and then from animal owners. Finally, with the explosion of interest in alternative medicine and natural remedies that has occurred during this decade, a number of manufacturers saw the promise of MSM as a nutritional supplement and began marketing it.

Now, MSM has the potential to join the growing array of natural substances such as melatonin and St. John's Wort that can be used by a broad number of people to reduce common health problems.

MSM in Nature

In its natural state MSM is an inconspicuous sulfur molecule found in the atmosphere, in plants, animals, and the human body. Chemically, it consists of two hydrocarbon units (groups of hydrogen and carbon atoms) attached to a unit with one sulfur and two oxygen atoms. The molecule is one-third sulfur by weight.

Would you like to try this food supplement for your health condition? We provide the highest quality, the widest variety and lowest prices from the best suppliers, check our catalog and price list and place your order for msm.