MMS – Industrial Bleach Marketed as an Autism Cure

What was once known as Miracle Mineral Supplement, but for legal reasons had to change its name to Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS), is a 28% sodium chlorite solution in distilled water currently being sold online as a cure-all tonic. Unlike other panaceas that also don’t work that are currently being sold online, MMS has the ability to do real harm. This is because when it is mixed with an acidic solution, as instructed, it generates chlorine dioxide – a powerful disinfectant that has been used in the past as a water purifier.

Jim Humble, the man who coined the name MMS and who is also the self-styled Archbishop of his own church (Genesis II), believes that this chlorine dioxide is a wonder compound capable of curing all of man’s ailments. He and others who promote MMS believe that chlorine dioxide will only interact with pathogenic bacteria, viruses, cancer, etc. whilst leaving normal healthy human cells alone.

In reality, chlorine dioxide is a bleach that will react with whatever it comes into contact with. It has no magical abilities and even ingesting relatively small amounts of the compound can lead to unpleasant side effects including nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea whereas higher doses can lead to hemolysis and even death.

What makes MMS particularly horrendous is that it recently has been promoted online as a cure for autism. A “bishop” in Jim’s church named Kerri Rivera wrote a book called ‘Healing the Symptoms Known as Autism’ in which she recommends not only giving autistic children hourly doses of MMS but also advocates the use of MMS enemas. It should come as no surprise that giving a child an enema of what is essentially bleach will damage the lining of their bowel. This often leads to the child passing fibrinous material and bits of intestinal mucosa. This, you’d think, would be a warning sign to the parent that they are damaging their child but those who promote MMS say that the materials these children are passing are parasites and that it is a sign of them becoming well.

Just over a year ago I published a video and a podcast critical of the people who promote this dangerous woo whilst at the same time warning those who may be looking into using it. Both did moderately well but what really surprised me was the amount of people who contacted me after watching the video telling me that chlorine dioxide was in fact not a bleach.

For those of you who don’t know, a bleach is a chemical that whitens materials such as cloth, paper, or hair . It does this by either breaking or reducing the chemical bonds in the chromophore (part of the molecule responsible for its colour). To show MMS’ bleaching properties I decided to buy it online (which rather unsettlingly is very easy to do) and then see what it would do to part of a black sock. 

I placed a few drops of chlorite solution and citric acid “activator” on the sock and almost instantaneously I was overpowered by the smell of chlorine and, despite opening all of my windows, this lingered for some time. After a few hours, there was a lighter patch where the MMS was placed. Just to clarify, a bleach is a chemical that whitens materials and MMS was capable of doing this – ergo MMS is a bleach. END OF STORY! Still don’t believe that chlorine dioxide is a bleach? Google it and you will see that it’s used in industry as a BLEACHING AGENT!

One last thing before I finish! I did originally make up a solution of chlorite solution and citric acid in a shot glass and placed a small amount of fabric inside to see what happened. Unfortunately I had to cut the experiment short as the solution began to damage the plastic making it turn yellow and crack. If it can do that to plastic, what do you think it’s going to do to your insides?!?!?