Chlorine Dioxide: A Horrific Treatment for Autism

I have written before about a product being sold as Miracle Mineral Supplement.  It claims to cure everything from cancer to malaria, but is actually one of the most dangerous quack products out there.

Miracle Mineral Supplement is actually sodium chlorite, a toxic and reactive compound.  The instructions for Miracle Mineral Supplement tell users to “activate” the product by combining it with citric acid.  The result is a chemical reaction which produces chlorine dioxide.  Chlorine dioxide is a gas, although it can dissolve into water.  It is not something you would ever want to be exposed to in any quantity.  It is a powerful oxidizer and bleaching agent.  The most common use of chlorine dioxide is in the paper industry, where it is used to bleach wood pulp.  It also is used for fumigation and disinfection purposes.

Chlorine dioxide is very toxic and in high doses it could easily be fatal.  In low doses, like those which might be produced from the Miracle Mineral Supplement product, it is not likely to be fatal, but it can be highly irritating to the skin, the respiratory tract and the eyes.  It is, after all, bleach.  It’s not quite the same as household chlorine bleach (that is sodium hypochlorite) but it is a bleaching agent – one more powerful than the bleach used for household cleaning or whitening laundry.

Despite this, some people still swear by the stuff and use it at their own peril.

One of the most horrific uses, the treatment of autism:

It is one thing to use this nasty chemical on oneself, but it is being pushed as a treatment for autism and is being used primarily on children by believers.   Autism is a neurological condition that exists because of developmental issues that arise before birth, even if it is not obvious until some time later.   There is no cure for autism, as such. However, intensive therapy, special education and social groups can result in major improvements in the prognosis for many autistic children, especially those who do not have a severe case of autism.

Chlorine dioxide certainly has no benefit to autistic children.  It is hard to imagine anything more harmful to a child with social developmental problems than to subject them to the painful and damaging effects of an oxidizer.  If nothing else, it can easily harm the natural inclination to see parents as protective and trusted.

Yet that is exactly what some are pushing.  The website cdautism.org pushes a book and is run by a group of quacks who actively encourage the use of chlorine dioxide to treat autism.  The side claims autism is “avoidable, treatable and curable” and recommends chlorine dioxide, which it calls “an inexpensive, broad spectrum, gentle, anti-pathogenic.”

Here is what one page on the site states:

MMS – Master Mineral Solution

What is MMS?

MMS stands for Master Mineral Solution.  It’s chemical name is Chlorine Dioxide (ClO2). ClO2 is a gas that is produced as a result of combining 2 liquids, Sodium Chlorite (NaClO2) and citric acid.  When added to the sodium chlorite, the citric acid brings the combined pH level to under five, causing the sodium chlorite to become unstable and release chorine dioxide. (ClO₂) Chlorine dioxide is an oxidizer with a lower oxidation potential (.95 V) than any of the other oxidizers in the human body.

Why MMS for Autism?

We know that autism is made up of:

• Virus

• Bacteria

• Parasites

• Yeast

• Heavy Metals

• Inflammation

• Food allergies

MMS is proven to kill pathogens through oxidation, and to neutralize heavy metal compounds.  In turn inflammation is reduced, as well as some food sensitivities.

But I heard that MMS is the same thing as chlorine bleach?

Not True.

Activated MMS (sodium chlorite + citric acid) is chlorine dioxide (Cl02).  Chlorine bleach is sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl).

ClO2 ≠ NaOCl

Similarly, oxygen = O2 and ozone = O3. The formulas can appear similar, however it is safe to breathe oxygen and not safe to breathe ozone.  O2 ≠ O3

But, there is no way that MMS (chlorine dioxide) can differentiate between pathogens and beneficial bacteria.

Not True.

There are differences between pathogens and beneficial bacteria. In the first place:

• Pathogens create a waste material that is poisonous to the body.
• Beneficial bacteria do not generate any poisonous material.

Further,

All organisms and body cells have an ORP (Oxidation Reduction Potential) that can be either positive or negative. The ORP is the electrical charge that cells exert on other things in their immediate environment. Oxidizers (i.e. chlorine dioxide) also have an ORP, mostly called Oxidation Potential, and all oxidizers have a positive potential.

• All pathogens (poison producers) have a negative ORP.
• All beneficial bacteria have a positive ORP.

Positive charges repel one another. Thus the chlorine dioxide never touches the beneficial bacteria and thus the beneficial bacteria are not destroyed. On the other hand, pathogens have a negative ORP. Remember the rule that opposite charges attract one another. Thus the pathogens are attracted to the oxygen and are destroyed instantly.

I heard MMS can cause tissue damage…

Not True.

Chlorine dioxide (ClO2) has an oxidation potential (strength) of  .95 volts.  Human tissue can withstand 1.28 volts of oxidation potential (the potential of oxygen) therefore chlorine dioxide is simply too weak of an oxidizer to harm healthy tissue.  Pathogens, heavy metal compounds and poisons cannot withstand the oxidation potential of chlorine dioxide and are therefore oxidized and destroyed when they come in contact with it.

Isn’t MMS Snake Oil?

Not True.

Snake oil does not play a critical role in the recovery of 85 children (as of February, 2013) with Autism. Our children are getting better, and no amount of rhetoric can take that away.

How do I get started?

Watch the MMS Baby Bottle Video

You can start off on Day 1 making an 8oz Baby Bottle with one activated drop, apply one ounce 8 times a day, this way you will get into the habit of the minimum of 8 doses right from the first day. Make sure if you are activating the drops of MMS in your baby bottle that it is clean and DRY!  If not your drops will not activate!

Well, the information here is just flat out wrong.  It is snake oil and the only children who “recovered” were self-reported and unverified.  It can damage tissue.  It is bleach, even if it is not the same kind used in common household bleach. Also, autism has absolutely nothing to do with parasites or heavy metals.

The recommended protocols are nothing less than chilling.  In addition to making children drink the stuff, the site talks a lot about the use of enemas, which it recommends multiple times a day. It claims that the enemas mean “Bye bye autism.” Here is another video explaining exactly how to do it. Seriously, watch it. It’s stunning.

Yes, you did read correctly. If you have a special needs child who is struggling with social development, forming attachments and communication, the remedy is to take off their pants, stick a hose into their rectum and pump in a fluid that contains an oxidizer which irritates tissue. Do this multiple times a day. It will surely improve their condition.

The site NoMoreBleach has documented a number of the problems that users of MMS have reported in their autistic children.   They are about what you would expect:  parents talk about their efforts to “heal” their children, but then report things like their children having stomach aches, or “a sore bum” that “still looks raw and painful.  His bum is always itchy.”  Others have reported fever, vomiting, genital pain, vaginal discharge or diarrhea.  Many have reported their children getting worse or acting out more.

This should really not surprise anyone.  If you force children to inhale or drink a bleaching agent or put it into their rectum, you can expect it will cause a great number of painful and potentially dangerous complications.  Yet the advice is often the same: keep dosing them, because it will either get better or you are just seeing the signs of detoxification or healing.

And yes, people do continue to defend this stuff and rail against the sites that have reported the realities, often citing the supposedly improved cases, which have never been demonstrated against any scientific controls.

I am sure that some of the supporters of this lunacy do indeed believe it and really are that stupid.  However, those who are pushing this hardest and profiting from it are nothing less than evil.  Yes, I realize “evil” is a loaded word and not generally seen as being the most rational term to use in debate.  That said, I cannot think of anything else to call it.  Trying to convince people to feed their autistic children bleach or give it to them in enemas are simply evil.

More details from a article in the Huffington Post on the subject and how this “movement” has expanded

Info from Respectful Insolence on ScienceBlogs

Ban Chlorine Dioxide/MMS as Autism Therapy

No More Bleach