Can DMSO help memory loss

The short version: no study here shows DMSO improves memory in people. The only memory data is from mice, and DMSO was just the solvent.

The retrieved records contain no human trial of DMSO for memory loss or dementia. The closest match is a mouse study where curcumin improved learning and memory in a mouse model of Alzheimer's risk, and DMSO was only the liquid used to dissolve the curcumin before injection [1]. That tells you nothing about DMSO as a treatment. A chemical paper on oxidizing yeast glucan with DMSO is off-topic and not evidence for anything here [2].

What the records do show is the harm side. A systematic review of 109 human studies found DMSO's common reactions are stomach upset and skin irritation, mostly short-lived, and that reactions appear to rise with dose [3][4]. Nausea hit about 12 in 100 people overall and vomiting about 7 in 100 [4]. Skin burning or stinging hit about 16 in 100 with skin application [4]. Garlic breath hit about 11 in 100 [4]. Heart-related reactions like low blood pressure appeared only with intravenous DMSO, about 4 in 100 [4]. None of these studies tested memory as an outcome.

This search cannot see unpublished or negative trials, and it surfaced no human cognitive-outcome study at all. That absence is a fact about the search, not proof DMSO fails. But the burden sits on anyone selling DMSO for memory, and they have not met it.

My call: don't use DMSO for memory loss. There is no human evidence it helps, and the known harms are real. Confidence: moderate that the evidence does not support it; low on any long-term cognitive risk, because nobody here studied it.