MSM (methylsulfonylmethane) also known as dimethyl sulfone, is a naturally occurring sulfur compound found in normal human diets and those of virtually all other vertebrates. In its pure chemical form, it is odorless, essentially tasteless, white, water-soluble, crystalline solid. 
MSM is found naturally in the human body.
The natural level of MSM in the circulatory system of an adult human male is about 0.2 parts per million.
Normal human adults excrete from four to eleven milligrams of MSM per day in their urine. In mammals, the concentration of MSM in the body's various storehouses decreases with age, possibly as a result of changing diet or body metabolism. Some research suggests that there is a minimum concentration of MSM that must be maintained in the body to preserve normal function and structure.
Experiments using MSM that contains radiolabled sulfur (35S) have shown that after ingestion, MSM gives up its sulfur to form the collagen and keratin of the hair and nails, to form the essential amino acids methionine, cysteine, and to form serum proteins.

TOXICITY:MSM is rated as one of the least toxic substances in biology, similar in toxicity to water. Common table salt is much more toxic than MSM. The lethal dose, LD5O, of MSM for mice is over 20 g/kg of body weight. When MSM was administered orally to human volunteers, no toxic effects were observed at intake levels up to 1 gm/kg of body weight per day for 30 days. Intravenous injections of 0.5 gm/kg daily for five days per week produced no measurable toxicity in human subjects. MSM has been widely tested as a food ingredient without any reports of allergic reactions. An unpublished Oregon Health Sciences University study of the long term toxicity of MSM over a period of six months shows no toxic effects. More than 12,000 patients have been treated at the Oregon Health Sciences University with MSM at levels above 2 grams daily with no serious toxicity.

Scientists don't yet know precisely the normal functions of MSM in the human body. At the Oregon Health Sciences University there have been many observations of what MSM can achieve in the way of health and well-being when taken as a dietary supplement in doses of 250 to 750 milligrams per day. The following are some conditions helped by MSM.

CLINICAL & LABORATORY STUDIES WITH MSM.
There have been many studies conducted under controlled conditions that show some of the potential MSM has as a therapeutic agent. These include studies on snoring, lupus, breast cancer. colon cancer, and rheumatoid arthritis. The following is a brief description of these studies:

Systemic lupus erythematosus
SLE is an inflammatory tissue disease without known cause. It occurs mostly in young women (90% of lupus patients are women) but also in children. The disease may begin abruptly with a fever, like an acute infection, or over several months or years with periodic bouts of fever and fatigue. Most sufferers complain of painful joints as in arthritis. Patches of raised, red rash areas of skin also characterize the disease. A type of kidney dysfunction, lupus nephritis, is often involved at the onset and later in the course of the disease, and urinary tract infections are also common. The disease can also affect the heart, lungs, spleen, blood, and gastrointestinal tract, SLE is considered an autoimmune disease since most patients are found to develop anti-nuclear bodies in their blood at some time in the course of the illness.
Experiments conducted on mice bred for their propensity to acquire lupus showed MSM to have a protective effect both before and after the onset of the disease. Mice maintained on a diet including 3% MSM in their water supply from age one month suffered lower death rates and liver damage than control groups drinking only tap water. After seven months, 30% of the control group had died while none of the MSM-fed mice had died. Also, when mice seven months old and already showing signs of advanced lupus were fed the MSM diet, 62% of the mice were still alive after nine months, compared to 14% of the control group that received only tap water.

Rheumatoid arthritis
Researchers at Oregon Health Sciences University studied a strain of mice that were prone to spontaneous development of joint lesions similar to those in rheumatoid arthritis. They found that animals that were fed a diet that included a 3% solution of MSM in drinking water from the age of two months until the age of five months suffered no degeneration of articular cartilage. In a control group of mice receiving only tap water, 50% of the animals were found to have focal generation of articular cartilage.
 

Allergies
MSM, or methylsulfonylmethane, is a natural, organic sulfur compound, found in all living things, and it is the fourth most prevalent mineral in the human body. The natural MSM is in no way harmful to the human body, and there have been no known cases of allergic reactions to it. Sometimes people think not only of the sulfa drugs, but also of the “bad” sulfurs, such as: sulfa, sulfate, sulfite and sulfide. 

Dosage:
Due to its positive wide-spectrum effect, particularly in maintaining healthy cell formation, dietary nutritional supplementation of MSM is recommended at a daily rate of 2,000 to 6,000 mg. The optimum effective dosage would depend on the body size, age, the MSM blood level prior to administration, and the nature and severity of the condition you are treating. This means you can experiment with different doses to find out what works best for you. Studies suggest that the systemic concentration of MSM declines with age, so you would want to boost your supplementation as you grow older.

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