Can You Believe...Sulfur?

Before you begin reading this post, let me say that I do not give medical advice, and nothing in here should be misconstrued as medical advice. (I hope that's a good enough disclaimer. :) ). I am not in any medical profession, nor do I have any interest in any vitamin or food supplement company. I just want to share with you something that's been a terrific help in my life. And it came about almost "by accident"...well, I didn't plan it, but maybe God did.

Sulfur! That's what comes up from those springs at Yellowstone Park, isn't it? That's what you read about being in the bowels of the earth..and what some authors use to represent hell. Sulfur. The smell of rotten eggs. When someone recommended that I take MSM, a sulfur compound, I remembered DMSO. A couple decades earlier, I knew someone who was taking DMSO and smelled of sulfur at public meetings. Uh, uh; no way was I taking this stuff!

But somehow I found out that MSM is formulated differently from DMSO and it doesn't make you smell like sulfur at all. And the capsules don't smell like anything; they go down easy. Okay, so far I've told you what it's not: smelly. Now I should tell you why I'm talking about it.

One day, several years ago, I woke up with my toe hurting so badly I could hardly walk. I was sure I had fractured it. The doctor examined it and said, "Gout." Hmm, I hadn't done any of the dietary "things" that might cause it, but who knows about nature and disease. But when the x-rays came back, the office staff called me and said, "It's not gout. It's just arthritis." I said, "Just?" She said yes, arthritis can be very painful. Oh yeah. "Just" simply meant it's nothing to worry about or treat. A friend said to me, "PLEASE try taking MSM." Okay, if you put it that way.

I began taking one capsule every day. Of course, my acute flare-up with my toe subsided, and of course, being a skeptic, I figured it would have anyway (and quite possibly it would). But I just kept taking my capsule of MSM each day.

Suddenly one day something dawned on me! I hadn't had a cough for months! I hadn't had a cough since I began taking the MSM! From childhood I could set the calendar by my annual coughs, that later turned into semi-annual. More recently I had begun having them at least four times a year, usually lasting about six weeks each. Sometimes I'd go to the doctor: no bronchitis or pneumonia or anything, "just a cold". But then I'd go to the grocery store and begin hacking and gagging so much that people would avoid me or ask me WHAT I was going to give them; why I was there and not at home or in the hospital. (I kid you not. People asked me that.) When I was diagnosed with dust allergy, I began taking allergy shots, but quit taking them... long story. After stopping the shots, the four-times-a-year prolonged coughs had resumed. But now they were gone.

So why would sulfur, "an important component of joint cartilage and other body tissues", according to my bottle from GNC, have anything to do with allergies? It was the only thing I had done differently, the only thing in my life that had changed. And then I remembered that allergies were one of the topics in the book I'd borrowed from the library, The Miracle of MSM: The Natural Solution for Pain, by Stanley W. Jacob, M.D.

I'm not sure how I would have gotten through the other stresses of the past four years - while coughing (and hence, not sleeping). Who would have thought that I could keep my allergies at bay for about ten cents a day? I am SO grateful to God, and to my friend, for introducing me to MSM. So I decided that I really ought to share my story. If you have arthritis or allergies, or know someone who does, I suggest you get this book and read it.

Two cautions I would like to mention. First of all, if I had a medical condition that required checking before taking drugs, I would also check before taking a new mineral supplement. Also, I remember reading in The Miracle of MSM that if you are on a blood thinner, you shouldn't take MSM on a regular basis...or was it in the higher doses the author recommends? I would have to read the book again. (And I have now requested it from the library again.) You see, I am not recommending that you run out and buy the bottle and start taking MSM. I am recommending that you get the book and read it. :) (You may be able to get it from your public library.) Then decide for yourself what you think is best.