Top Health Benefits of MSM for Pain Relief, Skin and Lungs

The comments below reflect the personal experiences and opinions of readers and do not represent medical advice or the views of this website. The information shared has not been evaluated by the FDA and is not intended to diagnose, treat, or prevent any disease or health condition. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional for medical concerns.

Increases Energy

1 User Review
5 star (1) 
  100%

Posted by Maz (Sydney, Australia) on 01/18/2010
★★★★★

I have started using 3000mg of pure MSM (capsule form) and also found my energy levels are through the roof! I'm taking msm for melasma but this is a fantastic side effect

Sorry for all the posts but I think this website has changed my life!

Maz :)


Inflammation

1 User Review
5 star (1) 
  100%

Posted by Sdm (Northern New Jersey ) on 12/27/2017
★★★★★

BETTER BUT WITH SIDE EFFECTS

It's very interesting that you speak of headaches as this is supposed to be a brief side effect when starting this supplement. Another side effect I found was hair loss in the beginning but it levels out & soon there's new hair growing in. I'm not sure how much in need of this supplement my body was, I took it to relieve inflammation in the body & for that, after one month, I felt the difference & had no more discomfort or pain, plus your skin begins to feel softer. I wish there was a blood test which could reveal every single nutrient or vitamin a human may be seriously lacking in their life!

Replied by Jay Sc
(USA)
07/19/2021

https://www.greatplainslaboratory.com/organic-acids-test

"I wish there was a blood test which could reveal every single nutrient or vitamin a human may be seriously lacking in their life!"

Fabulous test to tell you just that.


Joint Pain

3 User Reviews
5 star (3) 
  100%

Posted by Paula (Mississauga, Canada) on 11/12/2013
★★★★★

I totally agree that too many people aren't taking the right dosage and the right brand of MSM to see result. I was experiencing really bad headaches that were 24/7. I had low energy and I hate to say I was having trouble sleeping.

But the pain relief in my joints has been amazing and getting better by the week.

I have arthritis in both knees (bad), in both hips and lower back. I have terrible pain in both feet. (Sport injuries) Had surgeries on one foot and both knees, one twice.

I started off I thought on a low dose and increased gradually over the weeks but still suffered the headaches. I went for acupuncture 2x and got amazing relief. I will gladly suffer the detox symptoms knowing they are releasing from my body and knowing MSM is healing my body pain.

I take absolutely no medication for anything other than Advil when in dire straits. I will try anything natural and give it ALOT of time before I give up. It has been 6 weeks since starting on MSM and I am up to 8 grams a day. I plan to get to 12g. Every week I feel improvements and I am hopeful for a complete remission from my arthritis within the year with the help of acupuncture or other natural means to assist MSM to get me there.

I gotta say I love what MSM is doing for my skin, hair and nails. My hair is staying beautiful and curly and FULL when it always goes flat and pretty straight in our Canadian winter climate. My skin is hydrated and healthy for the 1st time in my whole life. This is only after 6 weeks. I can't wait to see how I feel months from now. Pain has been my mate for too long and finally I am feeling the distance from it. Give it time. Give it at least a year. You all owe yourselves that. Change the brand if you have to until you find one that works. Don"t just try one.

Distilled MSM and a reputable brand is paramount.


Joint Pain
Posted by J. Episcopo (Fredericksburg, Virginia (USA)) on 05/06/2007
★★★★★

I have successfully used MSM (the recommended Lignisul type) for many years to allleviate allergy symptoms and pain in my wrists, elbows and knees. It is important for anyone considering a new remedy to read about it beforehand. Some people think that more is better and learn the hard way that each of us has limitations. I like this forum and found it very helpful.


Joint Pain
Posted by Aujah (Huntington Beach, CA) on 01/06/2006
★★★★★

Editor's Choice

When i was a child my right hip would make a popping sound when i walked. Later on in life, after having a full pain in my hips i found out that my legs are different lengths and was on my way to having arthritis at the age of 21. A friend recommended MSM to help with my nail and hair growth (i can't keep up with how fast my hair and nails grow now). After a week of taking MSM my joint pain was completely gone!!! i was not expecting it at all. Every once in a wile i will forget to take MSM for a few days and my hip pain is back in full swing. I am hooked and it sure is nice to have such strong nail's and healthy long hair.


Knee Pain

3 User Reviews
5 star (3) 
  100%

Posted by Elyn (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Usa) on 12/12/2010
★★★★★

I started on powdered MSM 6 weeks ago for my arthritic knees. Although they still twinge on occasion, they're MUCH better. One additional delight was that the nasty heel spur that I've been suffering with since about Christmas last year-- the pain is GONE!!! I don't understand! My chiropractor said the MSM didn't cure it -- it just is masking the pain and that I need to be taking calcium in addition. The MSM tastes funky at first-- my husband won't touch it. It's an acquired taste but I don't notice it anymore. I highly recommend it.


Knee Pain
Posted by Karen (Sydney, Nsw) on 10/03/2010
★★★★★

I have really bad knees which seemed to be getting worse each week... I bought MSM on ebay here in Australia.. 400 gms and the cost was $20 for the MSM and $5 to send... I started on one teaspoon a day and have increased it to 2 teaspoons a day in orange juice, ( one teaspoon in each glass)... I wouldn't be able to walk if I hadn't started on MSM , as the pain was so severe.. I read the powder form is much bettr than the tablets as the tablets have fillers.. All I know is within one day of taking MSM, the pain was gone... I combine MSM with Castor oil.. The Castor oil I rub into the front and back of my knees.... It is fantastic... Look for the MSM that has some lumpy bits in it.... That way you know it has no fillers... It was the best $25 I've ever spent and the tub should last at least 3 months...


Knee Pain
Posted by DL (BH, CA) on 05/04/2006
★★★★★

BETTER BUT WITH SIDE EFFECTS

I recently bought powdered MSM for a sports knee injury. The pain in my knee literally went away overnight after the first dose on MSM. I got excited and doubled the dose for the next 5 days. At that same time, I started to have anxiety attacks when I lay down to sleep. It felt as though my lungs weren't getting enough oxygen and I started to get paranoid that I was going to stop breathing during the night! My chest felt as though it had an enormous amount of pressure on it. After a few days of this, I realized it had to be the MSM and stopped taking it. My breathing issues went away 48 hours after stopping the MSM. In the future I will take much less of this!


Melasma

1 User Review
5 star (1) 
  100%

Posted by Carrie (Mississauga, Canada) on 01/20/2008
★★★★★

I have been suffering from melasma for about 4 years now. It's on my forehead,and both my cheeks. I have tried everything from bleaches, cosmelan to IPL. Everything is short term. Just as recent as December, 2007, I started taking MSM, vitamin C as well as applying apple cider vinegar on my face. The results are amazing. For the first time in 4 years I can actually say my face has improved and I don't mind going out without makeup. It's only been 6 weeks and I intend on using this remedy to see if it'll get even better. I do hope my experience and information sharing will help someone out there, that has melasma. Good luck!!


MSM for Pets

1 User Review
5 star (1) 
  100%

Posted by Kim (Boise, Idaho) on 12/12/2008
★★★★★

Editor's Choice

I just found this site and love it. I read all on MSM. I have been using it for over 10 yrs. I first heard of it when my Bullmastiff ripped a musle in his back leg completely in half. He could not use his back leg at all. After about 7-10 days on 1TBS of MSN a day he started using his leg a little at a time. When he began using his leg regularly I then just added a sprinkle to his water eveyday. In about 6months I noticed his eyes had cleared up. He was almost blind when I adopted him.

During this time I read everything I could about MSM and found that it does detox you among other things. If you read anything on detox you will find that it is important to go slow, after years of use of perscription drugs, and loads of other toxins we breath and eat every day it is not suprising to me that so many people had bad reactions. I also noticed that almost every one was still taking perscription drugs as well as MSM. Some of the side effects if not all of them sounded like basic detox results. You must slow down your detox. Your body was telling you it needed more water. Was it tap water? You should have several BM aday your body is purdging things out. If I were havig these side effects I would do more research on detox side effects and how to slow down and treat natually. For instance look at what happens to drug addicts. It can be life threatening! Remember more is not always better and education is the answer. I hope you all find the answers you are looking for.

Another thing to try- If you have a sick dog put MSM in a bowl about a tablespoon. Right next to his food. I use loose not caps. I have done this with healthy animals as well. But every single time the ill dog has lapped it up. I give it to all my animals birds, turtles, snakes, hedgehog, lizard, cat, dog,and tortis. Animals instinctivly know what they need. They have always taken it when offered. Good luck to all of you.


Pain

2 User Reviews
5 star (2) 
  100%

Posted by Art (California) on 08/28/2020
★★★★★

Editor's Choice

Many people swear by MSM as an effective pain reliever in oral and topical application, but like other supplements, alternatives and prescription medications, it works excellently in some and not at all in some and in some, there can be unpleasant side effects.

As an example of this I will describe what happened with my sister and my neighbor who were both using mag oil (MO) for diverse body pain issues. Both were getting approximately 80% pain relief using Magnesium Oil (MO). My neighbor noticed, after years of use, that MO pain relief was declining and she came over to ask what I thought about it.

Previously she was using borax for pain management and it worked extremely well for her, but her doctor asked her to stop taking it, but did not explain why to her. From that point forward, her pain level increased and her quality of life (QOL) decreased very noticeably. I noticed when I would see her outside that she was moving very poorly and was obviously in pain. She normally had very good posture, but when I saw her outside, she was bent over and could not stand straight up. From that point forward she was using MO to effectively relieve the majority of her pain for years, but more recently she told me that MO seemed to be losing effectiveness for her and was wondering what else she could use. I asked her about going back on borax and she said her doctor was insistent that she not go back on borax, but still gave her no reason. Oddly, her doctor was not offering her anything to help her pain even though he could clearly see that she had deteriorated.

From that point forward, she started using topical MSM and that alleviated about 90 % of her pain so she was thrilled! She wasn't good with taking it orally because she couldn't get past the bitterness of it at the dosage she wanted to take and that dose made the MSM capsules too impractical for her. I was watching her and how she was moving and clearly the topical MSM was doing wonders for her. She was standing straight again and moving like a healthy 65 year old(she is in her early 80's). Needless to say, she is now a very happy lady!

On the other hand, my sister who is currently using MO to relieve pain in her neck and upper back with very good effect, wanted to give topical MSM a try also. First she tried it orally and found it to be too bitter to tolerate so she applied it similarly to how she normally applies MO and she was horrified to find out that almost immediately after applying MSM topically, she got that unbearable bitter taste in her mouth again! To add insult to injury, she also lost her sense of smell and taste for 2 to 3 days! She is now back on MO.For me, MSM and DMSO offer me no pain relief at all or at least none that I am able to discern, but I recognize that its effects vary widely from person to person. Borax on the other hand works unbelievably well for me while I have seen many people who did not benefit from borax. It's a lot about trial and error to see what works best for you.So there you have it, sometimes supplements work incredibly well for one person while being a nightmare for someone else or just not effective for the purpose!

Art

Replied by Art
(California)
08/28/2020
2326 posts

I forgot to mention regarding my neighbor and MSM applied topically, she told me that it makes her skin softer and her hair fuller. She said she just spritzes her hair and skin with her spray bottle of MSM. Another friend that uses MSM from a spray bottle recently told me that her skin had started feeling rough and the MSM spray made it feel smooth again!

Art

Replied by Rsw
(Oh)
08/29/2020

Hi Art,

My husband stopped using the borax hand cream when he read that that even topical use might be a problem for people with kidney disease. That may have been the case with your neighbor. He is now using MSM, also, and having some pain relief with it. Thank you for your always helpful, well researched posts that have benefitted so many here.

Replied by Art
(California)
08/29/2020
2326 posts

Hi Rsw,

Regarding borax, a few things. Borax has a low toxicity that is even lower than table salt or roughly similar. If you look for studies on kidney toxicity from borax, if you can find any, they will have used dosing that is way beyond Ted's recommendations and there will be health issues under such conditions just as there would be if you consumed similar high doses of salt. You will be more likely to find studies showing that borax may have positive effects on the kidneys. Borax moves through the system quickly and Ted's actual protocol prevented any potential for toxic borax buildup because he called for 4 days supplementing and 3 days off.

The 3 days off was long enough to allow borax to clear, yet still get the very long lasting benefit of borax against multiple forms of arthritis with the 4 days on borax. I look at borax as more of an actual treatment that can reverse arthritis for every extended periods of time or possibly indefinitely, but I consider MSM as a very good pain reliever and antiinflammatory for some, but not me.

My experience with borax even when I was doing 5 days on and only 2 days off, is that it put my arthritis into remission for over 12 years now and I had a kidney and liver test done about a year ago with no problem with my kidneys or liver. I was concerned about taking borax when I was first contemplating starting on it, so I did as much reading as possible on it and I think that is what finally convinced me to start taking it as the very first box of borax I bought sat on the shelf for at least three months before I finally started taking it!

Another point is that I do not even take borax 3 days a week now. I probably average two times per week at most now and have gone well over three months with no return of symptoms after years of use. My psoriatic arthritis was "severe" and affected the majority of joints in my body. I may even be cured, but I won't stop taking borax because of its many other health effects in humans.

Topically applied borax is very poorly absorbed through the skin and that is why when I made a hand lotion for my brother in law, I was not sure if enough would be absorbed through the skin and dermal layers to be effective. It was, but it was slower than had he taken it orally. I think Ted once said that lower dosing would work, but it would just take longer to work and I think my brother in law's case tends to confirm what Ted said. I do not mean this as a knock on MSM because MSM works very well for some people in relieving pain and reducing inflammation and you can not really compare apples to oranges.

In the case of your husband, where he believes that borax will or could damage his kidneys at the dosing that Ted came up with, it may be better to follow what he believes rather than always being bothered by the idea that he is damaging his kidneys by taking borax. How are you doing and does the problem (OLP) persist or have you been able to figure out a resolution?

Art

Replied by Art
(California)
08/29/2020
2326 posts

Rsw,

I forgot to ask if your husband used the borax hand lotion long enough to see any benefit?

Thank you!

Art


Pain
Posted by Shelley (Quebec) on 09/13/2017
★★★★★

MSM: Headaches and nightmares and excessive thirst as a side effect but wow, almost pain free. Had pain in knees, neck, hips, wrists, elbows, and shoulder, feet, back, fingers on right hand. I can function again without pain. Been only a week and a half since taking it.


Pills Vs Powder

1 User Review
5 star (1) 
  100%

Posted by Koekoe (South Africa, North West) on 05/19/2013
★★★★★

Just want to say that I get the same results with the MSM pills as with the powder. The pills definitely work as well.


Prevented Hip Replacement

1 User Review
5 star (1) 
  100%

Posted by Freda (Gauteng) on 02/12/2021
★★★★★

Editor's Choice

I have been taking MSM intended for horses, for the past 12 years. Started after hip replacement. Second hip was also in a bad way. Recent X rays indicated cartilage growth sufficient to never have second hip done!! Needless to say I have no arthritis or any other pains. I am 79 years old and walk 3km 4 times/week.

Replied by Annie
(GA)
02/13/2021

Hi,

How much MSM do you take daily? Thanks.

Replied by Cheryl
(US)
02/14/2021

I was checking into https://kalahealth.com/ingredients/msm/. One is for humans and the other for animals. The animal one is cheaper and appears to be the same/similar. Do you know if it's ok to use the animal version? Thank you

Replied by Janet
(Greeneville, TN)
05/18/2021

I bought a 2 lb of MSM at tractor supply for horses. A lady friend told me I could personally use it and I'd appreciate any information you could give me. I appreciate your response and have a good day.


Rosacea

1 User Review
4 star (1) 
  100%

Posted by Jillery (North America) on 01/16/2014 86 posts
★★★★☆

I just started taking MSM orally and received my MSM cream today. I am taking it for rosacea and so far so good. I take 2K am and pm. It does not seem to energize me. I am hoping it will help lessen the pain in my left foot also.



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