Well at the time we were stopped from buying DMSO from the drug store, we were told the reason was its transporting capabilities and the possibility of carrying a substance into the blood stream with the DMSO made it dangerous. At that point we could no longer buy it.
There was no internet and we were all too busy to really go try to find out the truth about the stuff. Those Chinese instructors were always rubbing stuff on you, everyone had his own jar of stuff. But it did work and the DMSO made it work a lot faster.
Hrdgain, everything you said made sense about molecular size. But if it were dissolved in water then the DMSO would slowly absorb it in the skin. My point was why go through the entire body to get where you want to go. BUT I'm just telling you what we were told why it was stopped from being sold to anyone on the street. I never knew much about it, myself, I didn't even like it as a linament period. I was just curious as to this transporting thing. I read (or tried) a few articles on the stuff but really didn't understand what they mean't in the explanations. Maybe people just believed in this so much, they healed themselves with belief.