Parents Give Their Children Bleach Enemas to 'Cure' Them of Autism

Whether you have AIDS, malaria, cancer, or autism, there is a product sold on the internet that claims it can cure you. That product, called Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS), sounds a lot like other pseudoscientific remedies—but unlike many suspect forms of new age medicine that are scientifically unproven but benign, MMS can actively harm you in serious ways. That's because it's a solution of 28 percent sodium chlorite which, when mixed with citric acid as instructed, forms chlorine dioxide (ClO2), a potent form of bleach used in industrial pulp and textile bleaching.

Obviously, this is not exactly something you want to put in your body. And yet some parents are giving this dangerous substance to their children, both orally and through enemas, in the belief that it will cure their child of autism.

The FDA has been aware of MMS for some time; in 2010 it issued a warning that the product turns into "a potent bleach" that "can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and symptoms of severe dehydration" if ingested. There are reports of at least one possible death from MMS use, and in January children were removed from a home in Arkansas on the suspicion that parents were giving them the solution in some form. Media investigations have shown that the substance will quickly bleach cloth, leading one scientist to tell North Carolina's WFMY News that she would only use it to clean her shower.

...

If this all sounds a little cultish, that's because it is. MMS was "discovered" by a man named Jim Humble, a former Scientologist who started his own church, called Genesis II, of which he is now the self-styled Archbishop. The church appears to be little more than a marketing organ for his alleged miracle cure, though it's worth noting that the site doesn't sell the actual wonder product it extolls, but offers a host of supplementary materials like a $199 "MMS Home Video Course" and information on expensive MMS seminars.

MMS enthusiasts talk casually, like they're swapping recipes, about how many inches to insert the catheter into their child's rectum.

Much more at: http://www.vice.com/read/parents-are-giving-their-children-bleach-enemas-to-cure-them-of-autism-311