The Chlorine Dioxide Controversy

 

Stephanie Seneff, PhD
January 22, 2021

Chlorine dioxide (CD) is a strong oxidizing agent that has found many applications in wastewater treat­ment and food disinfection. It is popular among campers as a way to disinfect water taken from a lake or stream prior to using it as drinking water. In recent years, it has become a popular treatment choice among alternative medicine specialists for various diseases and conditions, despite the fact that the mainstream medical establishment has come down very hard against it. To say that it is con­troversial would be an understatement.

A gas at room temperature, chlorine dioxide is highly soluble in water. It is made by mixing 28 percent sodium chlorite solution with an acid such as citric acid or hydrochloric acid. With its very simple molecular structure (one chlorine atom and two oxygen atoms), CD spontaneously breaks down into hypochlorite and superoxide. These two molecules are very commonly produced by living cells, particularly by immune cells in response to an infection.

Jim Humble, originally trained as an aero­space engineer, is the person most responsible for bringing to light the many special benefits of CD. While using CD as a water-treatment solu­tion during a gold mining expedition in South America, he made a serendipitous discovery. He observed that CD quickly restored health to victims of malaria, evidence of CD’s apparent ability to strengthen the immune cell response to infection. Intrigued by this success story, he became completely committed to sharing his discovery with the world, and to exploring CD’s benefits in treating other diseases. This became for him a lifetime obsession.

On the first page of one of his books on CD, Jim Humble “humbly” claims that CD is recommended as a treatment for a wide range of diseases. These include “cancer, diabetes, hepa­titis A, B and C, Lyme disease, MRSA, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, HIV/AIDS, malaria, autism, infections of all kinds, arthritis, acid reflux, kidney or liver disease, aches and pains, allergies, urinary tract infections, diges­tive problems, high blood pressure, obesity, parasites, tumors and cysts, depression, sinus problems, eye disease, ear infections, dengue fever, skin problems, dental issues, problems with prostate (high PSA), erectile dysfunction, and many others.”¹

Many of these diseases have been linked to glyphosate exposure, either because their rate is rising alarmingly in lockstep with the rise in glyphosate usage or because glycine dysfunction in particular proteins could cause the diseases. Glyphosate is the active ingredient in the herbi­cide Roundup, which conventional agriculture uses liberally on crops to control weeds and as a desiccant; as a result, it is a widespread contaminant in our food supply. I have written extensively on the idea that glyphosate, acting as a glycine analogue, might be getting inserted into proteins during protein synthesis by mis­take in place of the coding amino acid glycine.^2,3 If this is true, it would explain the stunning correlations that are found between glyphosate usage on core crops and the rise in prevalence of many of these debilitating diseases.⁴

CHLORINE DIOXIDE TREATS AUTISM

Kerri Rivera is the mother of an autistic child. Like many other parents of autistic chil­dren, she was desperate to find a way to improve her child’s autistic symptoms. She spent over a million dollars trying to find a treatment that would work to heal her son. She was sufficiently impressed with the improvements she witnessed following CD treatment that she decided to become actively involved in promoting the idea that it might be useful for autism.

Kerri has developed a protocol to treat autism that includes various nutritional supple­ments (such as chondroitin sulfate and vitamin D) and a modified ketogenic diet that eliminates gluten and casein. Although the protocol can also include a number of other components— anti-parasitic medications, humic and fulvic acid, black seed oil, digestive enzymes, binders, thyroid supplements, ionic foot baths and hy­perbaric oxygen—she believes that an essential aspect is the idea of frequent tiny doses of CD throughout the day.⁵

Kerri uses a questionnaire called the Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC) as a metric of progress.⁶ A high score means more severe autism, and a score under ten indicates that the child is not autistic. She has helped thousands of children. Over six hundred chil­dren have had their autism completely reversed through Kerri’s protocol (meaning they achieved a score of under ten); she maintains that chlorine dioxide is the key to this success. Kerri refers to CD as an “inexpensive, broad spectrum, gentle anti-pathogenic.” I am not aware of any other practitioners who have been able to achieve such dramatic results in treating autism. Some of Kerri’s patients have parents who refuse to use chlorine dioxide due to the controversy surrounding it; none of those children have had their autism successfully reversed. Predictably, the mainstream media have tried hard to dis­credit her work, and Amazon even removed her book, Healing the Symptoms Known as Autism.⁷

My hunch is that CD is a miracle worker in part due to its ability to break down glyphosate nonenzymatically. If small doses are taken throughout the day, the hope is that natural mechanisms in place to detoxify hypochlorite (into which CD breaks down) can keep pace with exposure levels, such that it never causes sufficient harm to lead to permanent damage.

OZONE AND CHLORINE DIOXIDE: POSSIBLE MECHANISMS

Paracelsus presciently wrote in the 1500s: “The body possesses the high art of wrecking but also restoring health. . . . Poison is in ev­erything, and no thing is without poison. The dosage makes it either a poison or a remedy.” This is an apt remark regarding chlorine dioxide therapy and also ozone therapy. Alternative medicine specialists find ozone therapy to be useful in treating infected wounds as well as a number of difficult diseases, such as circula­tory disorders, geriatric conditions, macular degeneration, viral diseases, rheumatism and arthritis, cancer, severe acute respiratory syn­drome (SARS) and AIDS.⁸ Ozone has been used in medicine for at least one hundred fifty years, but—probably because like chlorine dioxide it is inexpensive and not patentable—the medical establishment likes to play up the risks and play down the benefits.

Both ozone and chlorine dioxide are oxi­dizing agents, and, as such can cause oxidative damage. However, both are also powerful antimicrobial agents and perhaps more impor­tantly, both are able to break down glyphosate nonenzymatically.^9,10 Both are commonly used in water treatment plants as disinfectants. This is very fortunate from the standpoint of glyphosate contamination; I suspect that we would have had a much bigger problem with glyphosate expo­sure through the water supply if this was not the case. Chlorine dioxide can be purchased without prescription to be used for purifying lake water or river water for safe drinking while camping in the wilderness.

Glyphosate was likely an important con­tributor to the catastrophic failure of the water supply in Flint, Michigan, where dangerously high levels of lead were found in the drinking water.¹¹ This occurred during a period when the water supply was temporarily diverted to a river source, and the river ran through agricultural areas where glyphosate was routinely used on GMO crops. A water treatment plant that had been in disrepair was hastily brought back into action before it had been properly refurbished. I suspect this meant that significant levels of glyphosate remained in the water. Notably, glyphosate was first patented as a pipe clean­ing chemical due to its ability to strip metals from pipes. Although this has not been properly researched and therefore remains speculative, I believe it is possible that there were high levels of glyphosate in the water that ran through the lead pipes supplying water to Flint, and this caused much more of the lead to be stripped off of the pipes into the water.

The medical establishment maintains that chlorine dioxide—a simple, inexpensive, non­patentable molecule—is a dangerous substance that should never be used in medicine. However, this is a gross exaggeration. Oxygen is highly reactive as well, but that does not mean that we advise people not to breathe.

CHLORINE vs CHLORINE DIOXIDE

Chlorine is superior to chlorine dioxide in breaking down glyphosate, but chlorine is definitely too toxic to take medicinally. Chlo­rine also reacts with organic matter to produce highly toxic chlorinated products, whereas chlo­rine dioxide does not. In fact, chlorine dioxide has very different chemical properties than pure chlorine. CD preferentially oxidizes sulfur in sulfur-containing molecules.¹² This could be highly beneficial in overcoming deficiencies in sulfite oxidase, due either to genetic defects or toxic chemical exposures such as glyphosate.

Hypochlorite (one of CD’s breakdown prod­ucts) reacts with the sulfur-containing amino acid taurine to produce taurine chloramine. Taurine is generally considered to be inert, but taurine chloramine is capable of getting oxi­dized to sulfate, particularly with the help of gut microbes. Thus, it is possible that CD enhances the bioavailability of sulfate to the body through this mechanism. I have written several papers arguing that sulfate deficiency is a common problem associated with many diseases, most notably with autism. I have proposed that tau­rine, which is stored in large quantities in the brain, heart and liver, may be serving as a buffer for supplying sulfate, mediated by hypochlorite, when sulfate levels drop too low.¹³

Both hypochlorite and superoxide (another CD breakdown product) are common oxidizing agents naturally produced by immune cells in their fight against pathogens. Thus CD enables the immune cells to be more effective in fighting pathogens in the gut. CD may also be a source of chloride to help the stomach maintain an acid pH. The parietal cells in the stomach release hydrochloric acid through chloride channels to maintain acidity. Insufficient stomach acid re­sults in impaired ability to metabolize proteins, leading to autoimmune disease.

CHLORINE DIOXIDE vs ANTIPSYCHOTICS

Risperidone (brand name Risperdal) is an atypical antipsychotic drug prescribed to treat aggressiveness and irritability associated with schizophrenia and mania associated with bipolar disorder. In 2006, the drug was approved for use to treat similar symptoms associated with autism. Its manufacturer, Johnson & Johnson, is now facing over thirteen thousand lawsuits based on severe side effects of Risperdal.

Most striking is its ability to induce the growth of breasts in males (gynecomastia), but it also causes an increased risk to hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) and diabetes, seizures and tardive dyskinesia (uncontrollable spontaneous movements), among other unwanted effects. Elderly patients are at increased risk to cere­brovascular events, stroke and death. A lawsuit in Philadelphia led to a jury decision to award the plaintiff, Nicholas Murray, eight billion dol­lars, including punitive damages.¹⁴ Nicholas has autism and was originally prescribed Risperdal to treat sleep disorder in 2003.

Risperidone and aripiprazole (Abilify), both atypical antipsychotics, are the only drugs approved for treating the symptoms of autism. I downloaded data available from the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) website, just for the year 2017, to compare side effects for these antipsychotic drugs and for chlorine dioxide. In 2017 alone, there were 22,759 events where risperidone was listed as the primary drug responsible for the reactions, and another 10,736 events where Abilify was listed as primary. There were only three cases where chlorine dioxide was mentioned at all as one of the drugs being taken, and it was never listed as primary.

I gathered more detailed information for ris­peridone, focusing on the fourth quarter of 2017. In just three months, from October through December of 2017, there were 3,216 cases where gynecomastia was reported; 450 cases reporting weight gain; 75 cases of galactorrhoea (exces­sive or inappropriate production of milk); 69 attempted suicides, of which 29 were successful; 37 cases with fatigue; 20 involving cardiac or respiratory arrest; 20 reporting tachycardia; 19 cases of neuroleptic malignant syndrome (a life-threatening reaction); 19 cases of acute kidney injury; and 15 cases of coma.

These antipsychotic drugs are being widely prescribed to autistic children. A study published in 2013, involving over thirty-three thousand children with autism, found that 64 percent of them had been prescribed at least one psychotropic medication, with 35 percent taking more than one psych drug concurrently.¹⁵ Clearly, the hype in the media arguing against chlorine dioxide is way out of line in the face of these adverse reactions to pharmaceutical drugs commonly prescribed for autism.

SUMMARY

CD is a powerful oxidizing agent. This can be beneficial, not only for keeping patho­gens in check but also for breaking down toxic chemicals and for oxidizing sulfur to produce sulfate. Clinicians treating children with autism have found that CD has an amazing ability to reverse autism. I know of no other medicine that can claim such an extraordinary effect. It makes sense to me that it would be useful for autism, because I have identified sulfate deficiency and glyphosate toxicity, as well as gut dysbiosis due to an overgrowth of pathogens, as all being features of autism.

An important thing to keep in mind is that it is necessary to administer small doses at fre­quent intervals throughout the day. In this way, the dose is never high enough to cause oxida­tive damage because antioxidant defenses can keep up with production of reactive molecules. CD’s ability to treat malaria suggests that it might also be of benefit in treating Covid-19. It is intriguing that hydroxychloroquine, another chlorine-containing molecule that is commonly used to treat malaria, has shown promise in treating Covid-19.¹⁶

 

REFERENCES

1. Humble J, Lloyd C. MMS Health Recovery Guidebook (first edition). James V. Humble; 2016.
2. Samsel A, Seneff S. Glyphosate, pathways to modern diseases V: Amino acid ana­logue of glycine in diverse proteins. Journal of Biological Physics and Chemistry. 2016;16:9-46.
3. Seneff S, Morley WA, Hadden MJ, Michener MC. Does glyphosate acting as a glycine analogue contribute to ALS? Journal of Bioinformatics, Proteomics and Imaging Analysis. 2016;2(3):1-21.
4. Swanson N, Leu A, Abrahamson J, Wallet B. Genetically engineered crops, glypho­sate and the deterioration of health in the United States of America. Journal of Organic Systems. 2014;9:6-37.
5. Thomas JP. Autism can be cured – How to use the chlorine dioxide protocol to recover broken lives. Retrieved November 11, 2019 from https://healthimpactnews.com/2019/autism-can-be-cured-how-to-use-the-chlorine-dioxide-protocol-to-recover-broken-lives/.
6. Rimland B, Edelson SM. Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC). Autism Research Institute. Retrieved October 20, 2019 from https://www.autism.org/autism-treatment-evaluation-checklist/.
7. Rivera K, McDaniel K, Bender D, Humble JV, Kalcker A, Ruggiero M, Sands RL. Healing the Symptoms Known as Autism (second edition). AutismO2l; 2014.
8. Elvis AM, Ekta JS. Ozone therapy: a clinical review. J Nat Sci Biol Med. 2011;2(1):66-70.
9. Assalin MR, De Moraes SG, Queiroz SCN, Ferracini VL, Duran N. Studies on degradation of glyphosate by several oxidative chemical processes: ozonation, photolysis and heterogeneous photocatalysis. J En­viron Sci Health B. 2010;45(1):89-94.
10. Mehrsheikh A, Bleeke M, Brosillon S, Laplanche A, Roche P. Investigation of the mechanism of chlorina­tion of glyphosate and glycine in water. Water Res. 2006;40(16):3003-3014.
11. Teller M. Lead in the water: Flint’s cautionary tale. Wise Traditions, Spring 2016;17(2).
12. Kutchin AV, Rubtsova SA, Lezina OM et al. Studies on oxidative transformations of thiols, sulfides and alcohols in the presence of chlorine dioxide. Pure and Applied Chemistry. 2017;89(10).
13. Seneff S, Lauritzen A, Davidson RM, Lentz-Marino L. Is encephalopathy a mechanism to renew sulfate in autism? Entropy. 2013;15:372-406.
14. Mundy J. Has J&J lost its way? LawyersandSettle­ments.com. October 25, 2019. Retrieved October 30, 2019 from https://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/legal-news/risperdal/has-j-and-j-lost-way-23155.html.
15. Spencer D, Marshall J, Post B et al. Psychotropic med­ication use and polypharmacy in children with autism spectrum disorders. Pediatrics. 2013;132(5):833-840.
16. Risch HA. The key to defeating COVID-19 al­ready exists. We need to start using it. Newsweek, July 23, 2020. Retrieved September 25, 2020 from https://www.newsweek.com/key-defeating-covid-19-already-exists-we-need-start-using-it-opin­ion-1519535.

This article appeared in Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts, the quarterly journal of the Weston A. Price Foundation, Winter 2020

 

 Chlorine Dioxide, the Universal Remedy that Drug Companies Hate   

Source: https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/the-chlorine-dioxide-controversy/#gsc.tab=0