MSM - A Cure for Rheumatoid Arthritis?

I was reading an article that was posted on RAW's facebook page that particularly pissed me off this morning: Celebrities Inspire Natural Solutions for Rheumatoid Arthritis

Notice the topic of the article. "Celebrities Inspire Natural Solutions for Rheumatoid Arthritis." Now, notice the picture on the front of the article. That's Aida Turturro, who, as far as I can tell, has never, ever said that natural solutions are the answer to RA. She doesn't even mention alternative methods anywhere I can find on the net. She is an RA activist who recommends seeing a doctor, taking your meds, watching your diet and, if you can, exercising (though she does acknowledge that many people with RA are not able to exercise regularly).

I can also find no information about Kathleen Turner ever having used natural "medicines." Maybe she has. Maybe Turturro has too. I know that I sure have. When you are in the amount of pain we experience, we become desperate for relief.

That's where the problem is. Articles like this one, and companies that sell natural "remedies" know about this desperation, and are willing to take our money, whether or not those "remedies" help.

So, all we're left with is James Colburn claiming he'd been "cured" by MSM. I went on a google hunt for it. It's also called Methylsulfonylmethane, methyl sulfone, crystaline DMSO and dimethylsulfone (DMSO2). All of the studies I was able to find, which weren't many, mind you, were small, inconclusive, and/or a long time ago. You'd think that if it were a cure for RA, someone would be pretty famous for it by now, right? Right.

Enter Quackwatch, a very good site which details all sorts of quackery. Here is their article about MSM. Please read this at your leisure. I just wanted to quote two parts of it for this post:

"Herschler's patent documents claim that "the average diet is deficient in methylsulfonylmethane because it is readily lost during conventional food processing, such as frying, dehydrating, dilution with synthetic fillers and other poorly nutritional additives, cooking, radiation or pasteurizing, and long-term storage" [4]. This statement is absurd, because the amount of sulfur in protein foods is not affected by processing. Since Americans tend to consume more protein than they need, "sulfur deficiency" is very unlikely and would not occur without obvious evidence of severe malnutrition. If it could occur, the remedy would be to eat adequate protein, not to supplement with MSM."

"No published research studies link MSM to any of the health claims made by its marketers. Sulfur needed in human metabolism comes from dietary protein. MSM supplements probably make little or no contribution to the body's sulfur requirements. Thus there is no good reason to use MSM supplements."

That's pretty much the same thing I've found all over the internet. Karl Loren would like for everyone to believe that James Coburn was cured by his "medicine," nevermind that he has been warned several times by the FDA that his claims of the therapeutic properties of his products defined them as drugs, which of course were not approved by the FDA.

So what's wrong with this magical "cure?"

* False hope which could prevent someone from getting proper medical treatment, which could lead to a lot of damage that could affect someone for the rest of his or her life.

* Spending money which could be better used toward real medicines for the disease, or for research, or you know, just take yourself to a nice dinner, in which you'll get all the MSM you'll need.

* The annoyance of taking 10-40 capsules a day (yes!).

* Magical thinking, which is similar to false hope, but which places the blame of the "cure" not working on the patient.


hat tip to who is karl loren?