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On the heels of Scott Gavura’s superb post yesterday on dietary supplement regulation in the US and Canada, I bring you one of the most egregious and obscene product cases I have seen in 15 years of teaching on botanical and non-botanical products: Miracle Mineral Solution. Please accept my apologies in advance for not having a scholarly post for you today – this is just too unbelievable not to share with Science-Based Medicine readers.

On July 30, the FDA released this warning:

FDA NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release: July 30, 2010

Media Inquiries: Elaine Gansz Bobo, 301-796-7567, [email protected]

Consumer Inquiries: 888-INFO-FDA

FDA Warns Consumers of Serious Harm from Drinking Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS)

Product contains industrial strength bleach

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers not to take Miracle Mineral Solution, an oral liquid also known as “Miracle Mineral Supplement” or “MMS.” The product, when used as directed, produces an industrial bleach that can cause serious harm to health.

The FDA has received several reports of health injuries from consumers using this product, including severe nausea, vomiting, and life-threatening low blood pressure from dehydration.

Consumers who have MMS should stop using it immediately and throw it away.

MMS is distributed on Internet sites and online auctions by multiple independent distributors. Although the products share the MMS name, the look of the labeling may vary.

The product instructs consumers to mix the 28 percent sodium chlorite solution with an acid such as citrus juice. This mixture produces chlorine dioxide, a potent bleach used for stripping textiles and industrial water treatment. High oral doses of this bleach, such as those recommended in the labeling, can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and symptoms of severe dehydration.

MMS claims to treat multiple unrelated diseases, including HIV, hepatitis, the H1N1 flu virus, common colds, acne, cancer, and other conditions. The FDA is not aware of any research that MMS is effective in treating any of these conditions. MMS also poses a significant health risk to consumers who may choose to use this product for self-treatment instead of seeking FDA-approved treatments for these conditions.

The FDA continues to investigate and may pursue civil or criminal enforcement actions as appropriate to protect the public from this potentially dangerous product.

The FDA advises consumers who have experienced any negative side effects from MMS to consult a health care professional as soon as possible and to discard the product. Consumers and health care professionals should report adverse events to the FDA’s MedWatch program at 800-FDA-1088 or online at www.fda.gov/medwatch/report.htm.



Even with this forceful warning, the product website is still live and it is full of the most unreal claims I’ve seen in any online marketing scheme:

This Breakthrough can save your life, or the life of a loved one.

Please read. The answer to AIDS, hepatitis A,B and C, malaria, herpes, TB, most cancer and many more of mankind’s worse diseases has been found. Many diseases are now easily controlled. More that 75,000 disease victims have been included in the field tests in Africa. Scientific clinical trials have been conducted in a prison in the country of Malawi, East Africa. Separate tests conducted by the Malawi government produced identical 99% cure results. Over 60% of the AIDS victims that were treated in Uganda were well in 3 days, with 98% well within one month. More than 90% of the malaria victims were well in 4 to 8 hours. Dozens of other diseases were successfully treated and can be controlled with this new mineral supplement. It also works with colds, flu, pneumonia, sore throats, warts, mouth sores, and even abscessed teeth (it’s the only thing that controls and cures abscessed teeth). The inventor believes that this information is too important to the world that any one person or any group should have control. The free e-book download on this site gives complete details of this discovery. Please help make sure that it gets to the world free. There are many medical facts that have been suppressed and this invention must not be added to that list. The name of the e-book is The Miracle Mineral Supplement of the 21st Century. This book tells the story of the discovery, and how to make and use it. This book can save your life. Give it a try.

No. No. Don’t give it a try.

Instead, please follow this advice from FDA if you are a consumer who has stumbled upon this post in a search term query:

The FDA advises consumers who have experienced any negative side effects from MMS to consult a health care professional as soon as possible and to discard the product. Consumers and health care professionals should report adverse events to the FDA’s MedWatch program at 800-FDA-1088 or online at www.fda.gov/medwatch/report.htm.

Blogging colleague, Liz Ditz, brought me this information from the “inventor’s” Q&A blog:

Is taking MMS IV much more efficient than drinking it? Should I stop taking my medication for HIV? Posted by: admin in AIDS, HIV, Intravenously (IV), MMS General, tags: AIDS, HIV virus, Intravenous treatment, iv, medications, vomit Please treat me as your son and tell me what best should I do to get rid of this HIV virus. Would you tell me to stop my three drugs medication and when? Is it ok to overlap MMS with current medication? Should I take MMS IV if it’s much more efficient than drinking it? Stopping medication is a big decision for me to make as I always felt to rely on them in order to live. Please help me with your experience and testimonials. ===== MMS IV is much more effective than taking by mouth. Stop the drugs immediately. HIV is not dangerous. It does not cause AIDS. What causes AIDS is the drugs that you are taking, each one is extremely poisonous. That causes AIDS. The vomiting was a good sign. It means you body is getting rid of bad stuff. It takes a certain amount of courage to stop the drugs, but you really know that they are bad, and that they will not help you live longer. Just depend on the MMS as it is a thousand times better. Read the MMS data a few times. See the logic. Ask yourself that is not more logical that taking poisons. Visit http://www.miraclemineral.org for the MMS book and DVD and http://www.jimhumble.com for more info. Keywords: Intravenous treatment, HIV virus, AIDS, medications, vomit, iv

In cases such as these, the US Federal Trade Commission has more power to intervene than even the FDA. False advertising to the point of directing the consumer to harm themselves is much more their purview. In fact, some readers will recall that in 2001 the FTC ran “Operation Cure All,” a multi-agency initiative to target internet health fraud in cooperation with Health Canada.

But I’m wondering where the FTC is in the case of Miracle Mineral Solution. A site search conducted at the time of this post revealed no FTC action against the marketers or manufacturers of this bleach product. I am simply stunned that this product website and associated promotional materials remain online.

This is not a case of a supplement adulterated with a prescription drug or containing trace amounts of heavy metals. This is an active scheme directed not only to driving the consumer to use a harmful product (and even inject it IV), but also encourages the discontinuation of beneficial prescription drugs.

I will be filing a complaint today with the FTC – I encourage those of you so inclined to do so here.