The Truth About MMS

First, what it is:

❝Sodium chlorite solutions are frequently marketed in alternative medicine circles as ‘Miracle Mineral Solution’ (MMS), a panacea for a wide array of illnesses. Distributors of MMS advocate that when mixed with citric acid, it exhibits efficacy against autism and cancer, as well as against various microbial pathogens including SARS-CoV-2-19❞

~ Dr. Ruth Dudek-Wicher

So, what does the science say about this?

Sodium chlorite cures autism: True or False?

False! Or at least, and we’ll say child here because it is invariably a matter of parents trying to cure their children of autism, it will not cure autism except insofar as it could kill your child and then indeed you would no longer have a child with autism.

Learn more: Dangerous Trend: Chlorine Dioxide and Autism

Why “chlorine dioxide” when we were talking about sodium chlorite? It’s because marketers advocate for mixing it with citric acid, which produces chlorine dioxide.

In other words, please do not drink bleach or give bleach to others to drink.

Sodium chlorite kills cancer cells: True or False?

True! However, it also kills non-cancerous cells, i.e., the rest of you. So this is a little like the old “yes, this thing kills cancer cells in a petri dish, but so does a handgun”.

Let’s look at the science here. For example,

❝The anticancer activity of CIO₂ was assessed on DMS114 small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) cells and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) as control by WST-1, Annexin V, cell cycle analysis, and acridine orange staining. We for the first time investigated the possible therapeutic effects of long-term stabilized ClO₂ solution (LTSCD).

Our preliminary findings showed that LTSCD significantly inhibited the proliferation of SCLC cells (p < 0.01) with less toxicity in HUVEC cells. Additionally, LTSCD induced apoptotic cell death in SCLC cells through nuclear blebbing and vacuolar formation.

LTSCD can be a therapeutic potential for the treatment of SCLC. However, further investigations are required to assess the LTSCD-induced cell death in SCLC both in vitro and in vivo.❞

Read in full: The Anticancer Potential of Chlorine Dioxide in Small-Cell Lung Cancer Cells

Sounds promising, doesn’t it?

Just one problem, and it’s found in the bonus content you got if you clicked through to read the study

❝This article has been retracted by the Editors-in-Chief due to the presence of fundamental errors and methodological flaws which undermine the credibility of the study’s results and conclusions.

The authors disagree with the decision to retract.❞

Oops!

Sodium chlorite kills pathogenic microbes: True or False?

True! Mostly. It doesn’t kill all pathogenic microbes, but it does kill many. So that one is a health claim that can be at least somewhat justified by good science.

Unfortunately… Do you remember that satirical song about the pharmaceuticals industry, featuring the fictional wonder-drug paracetamoxyfrusibendroneomycin? It has a couplet that goes:

🎵 We tested it on animals, and none of them survived!
But that’s ok ‘cos when we wrote the paper up, we lied 🎵

If you’ve never heard this song, here it is on YouTube 🙂

More seriously, this is more or less what happened in the case of sodium chlorite.

❝This study evaluates the in vitro antimicrobial efficacy and cytotoxicity of acidified sodium chlorite (ASC), a source of chlorine dioxide.

Therefore, we aimed to elucidate the activity of ASC against biofilms of Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterococcus faecalis, Streptococcus mutans, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, and Lactobacillus sp. or an organic acid (ASC1, ASC2, respectively). The lowest antimicrobial concentration of ASC registered was 0.002992% (29.92 ppm) but did not exhibit stronger antimicrobial activity than polyhexamethylene biguanide. Biofilms of S. mutans and E. coli were the most susceptible to tested formulations. Biofilm formed by L. rhamnosus displayed susceptibility to concentrations lower than the minimum biofilm eradication concentration (0.09575%, 957.5 ppm). In the in vitro cytotoxic assay towards eukaryotic fibroblasts and in vivo model of Galleria mellonella larvae concentration-related increase of cytotoxic effects was observed.

Chlorine dioxide generated from ASC does destroy pathogens, but effective levels (around 30 ppm) also damage skin cells and caused high mortality in the in vivo model.

Our findings demonstrate that these concentrations of ASC which can effectively eradicate biofilms, also pose potential health risks due to their in vitro and in vivo cytotoxicity.❞

In other words, yes it can eradicate biofilms, but alas, it can also eradicate you, so please don’t.

You can read this paper in full, here: Antimicrobial properties and toxicity challenges of chlorine dioxide used in alternative medicine

As an aside, “toxicity challenges of chlorine dioxide used in alternative medicine” is really a very polite way of putting it. Because yes, that sure does present challenges.

Want to learn more?

Check out:

How To Know Whom To Trust In The Health World

And also: How Science News Outlets Can Lie To You (Yes, Even If They Cite Studies!)

Take care!