alt Hacker News> “They’re throwing up and vomiting and having diarrhea and rashes,” Eaton said … Some adherents advise parents that the disturbing effects indicate that the treatment is working, ridding the body of impurities
A time traveler from the 17th Century would be familiar with this sort of quackery. I guess not everyone can sell alchemy, so some make do with other branches of “science”.
Funny you should say that. I was reminded of Paracelcus who had the idea 'Only the dose makes the poison'. He was thinking that low doses of poisonous substances could be curative ... similar to this idea of using chlorine dioxide, with the crucial point here being the amount that is safe is tiny.
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorine_dioxide#Safety_issues... the EPA "has set a maximum level of 0.8 mg/L for chlorine dioxide in drinking water", which is certainly much higher than the amounts in MMS.
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_Mineral_Supplement (for example) - "Following a May 2010 advisory which indicated that MMS exceeds tolerable levels of sodium chlorite by a factor of 200".
Summarising, the idea of toxicity of chemicals and dosage was first explored by an alchemist (Paracelcus) in the 1500s, which is the 16th C. - so yes, 17th C. medics might have been able to point out how crazy this all is, let alone 21st C. people of any kind.
It's been 500 years, people.