Tuesday, June 09, 2009

MMS for CFS

MMS, or 'Miracle Mineral Supplement' is a water purifier being used to self-treat a variety of infections and chronic health problems. There is plenty of discussion now on the web about the use of MMS and based on many reports MMS can be helpful for Lyme and also for CFS. However, after some experimentation with MMS I have learned that the standard MMS protocol does not work well, what helps me is to use a very low dose pulsing strategy. Here is what I have learned.



MMS appears to be a very powerful self-treatment for infections of all type, the active ingredient is Clorine Dioxide, a powerful anti-microbial. This is a report of my experience with MMS, and not a description of the chemistry or story of MMS. If you do not know much about MMS, I suggest you go to Jim Humble's website and get his free eBook (Part I), or go to other MMS sites, particularly the documentary video site. There are also several videos on YouTube about MMS.

Initially, I followed the protocol suggested in Jim Humble's eBook, and worked up my dose by adding a drop or two each day. When I got to about 9 drops I started noticing some pretty strong symptoms. Then I had a problem measuring a dose, and added a few extra drops, I believe I had about 12 drops that day. The resulting Herx 'knocked my socks off.'

Apparently, taken in the larger doses suggested for malaria and other serious conditions MMS can make people with CFS quite ill. Presumably this is from the huge die-off, or Herxheimer effect, my symptoms from the larger doses were consistent with what I have experienced many times as die-off or Herx.

The improvement in my overall symptoms was quite noticeable, in particular I usually experience a boost in my energy levels, and that lasts through much of the day. In particular, I can tolerate more activity, even some low-level physical activity with less post-exertion malaise. This is perhaps a 15% improvement in energy and activity levels for me, and that has persisted now for about a year. I still have had some low periods and sick days, but overall, MMS has been a consistently positive experience. A few hours after my morning dose, I feel really good, like a neurological release of endorphins of some sort. I have no idea what that is, but it has happened many times several hours after a dose. This is similar to what I have read about with Rife and Magnetic Pulser self-treatments with some people with Lyme. So maybe the MMS was acting strongly against the Lyme. Hard to say.

Anyway, here is where I have ended up. The larger doses just are way too much. The detox from the herx becomes unbearable after a few days at 5-6 drops. And I have noticed that when I take regular days off MMS, lower doses produce a productive herx and give me just as much energy boost and 'good feeling' as daily higher doses, but without as much herx detox problems.

So, right now I am just taking 1-3 drops of MMS about 4-5 times per week. On the off days I must take Vitamin C in the mornings, that seems to help the adrenals become less depleted during the day. This seems particularly important as Vitamin C can not be taken close to an MMS dose.

Here is an example week:

Sunday - 1 drop MMS
Monday - 2 drops MMS
Tuesday - off day, take Vitamin C and mineral supplements
Wednesday - 2 drops MMS
Thursday - 3 drops MMS
Friday - off day, Vitamin C and mineral supplements
Saturday - off day OR 1 drop MMS

Every Day - probiotics or active yoghurt (8-12 hours after MMS, so in the evening usually)

Every Day - self-talk and occasionally other herx-management self-treatments (
see my previous blog posts)

This protocol can and does at times produce mild herx-type symptoms, so a person using MMS for CFS/Lyme should be prepared for that. I continue using many of the same herx self-treatments I have used for years, and written about previously. This includes self-talk, which I find helpful when the herx gets bad sometimes. The herx from this CFS MMS protocol seems delayed, sometimes it hits 8 hours after the dose, and sometimes it hits 24-36 hours later. I have not found any particular pattern to that, except that with the lower dosing the herx is more tolerable if and when it does hit.

One more important observation, when I was first experimenting with MMS I was not taking any days off, and I started having non-herx symptoms that I recognize from past experimental treatments I have tried as mineral depletion and possibly depletion of other resources. So I make sure to take days off every week and supplement with extra minerals at times, and that seems to allow me to tolerate more long-term use of MMS. I have read of people taking the higher doses suggested for serious illnesses for months and even years without breaks, they obviously do not have CFS. So I believe people with CFS need to be very careful with MMS, taking lower doses and pulsing.

One other comment, I was studying the Marshal Protocol (Benicar & pulsed low-dose Minocycline against biofilm bacteria colonies) at the time I was first experimenting with MMS, and I learned that a few people have completely recovered from CFS using the MP (this is a subset, many have not had that improvement). So the MP influenced me to try a low-dose pulsing approach. Here is the reason. MMS produces
Chlorine Dioxide (ClO2), which is the 'active' antimicrobial in the treatment. While studying the industrial uses of ClO2 I learned that ClO2 is used in industrial applications to destroy biofilm bacterial colonies! Well, as the MP is targeting biofilm bacteria infection, this interesting fact made me curious about using an MP style protocol of MMS for CFS. The hope was that low-dose pulsed MMS, which seemed to work for me, might be breaking down some of the biofilm bacterial colonies being targeted by the MP.

I have been using MMS on and off for about a year now. The use of regular probiotics, occasional vitamin C and minerals, and self-management of the low-level herx that results all seem very helpful. There have been no negative effects that I can discern, but I am not sure that the improvements are as dramatic overall as some other people claim for their illnesses. Some people are saying that you must take MMS morning and evening for CFS, I have tried that a little, and experimented with evening dosing for awhile. There was some sleep improvement after taking MMS at night. However, I could still only tolerate a cumulative dose of 1-3 drops 3-5 times per week. So I could not take doses morning and night and decided that the increased energy during the day was important and I have stayed with morning doses. I may be a highly sensitive person because I have read that other people using MMS for CFS are taking a dose morning and night.

After a year now I will continue to take MMS in the morning, roughly following the protocol outlined above. One last observation, on the off days I mostly just rested at first, but I am now noticing an occasional immune activation that differs from a regular herx on the days off MMS. So perhaps the MMS is helping the immune system become activated now in some important new way. Time will tell.

Overall, I am very impressed with MMS. Based on my experience MMS does help CFS and possibly Lyme. However, for people with poor detox, like most of us with CFS and many with Lyme, smaller dosing and a more conservative schedule than what is recommended by Jim Humble and others promoting MMS seems to be important.

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