Sodium chlorite (activated to chlorine dioxide)
synthetic
MECHANISM CLAIMED
Proponents claim that diluted sodium chlorite, activated with an acid (citric acid or citrus juice) to form chlorine dioxide and taken orally in drops, kills pathogens inside the body and thereby cures or prevents a wide range of unrelated diseases, including cancer, HIV/AIDS, autism, hepatitis, malaria, and COVID-19.
MECHANISM ACTUAL
Chlorine dioxide is an industrial bleaching and water-disinfection agent. The FDA states it is not aware of any research showing sodium-chlorite products are safe or effective for treating any illness in a person who ingests them, and warns that ingestion causes severe vomiting, diarrhea, and life-threatening low blood pressure from dehydration, among other dangerous effects. A 2025 in vitro laboratory study found that, at the lowest concentration tested, acidified sodium chlorite was not more antimicrobially effective than a standard antiseptic, and that it was cytotoxic to mouse fibroblast cells (the L929 line) in culture, with cytotoxicity rising from about 26% to 96-98% across the concentrations tested; this is a laboratory finding about the chemical's properties, not a clinical trial of any of the marketed disease-cure claims.
INTERVENTIONS USING IT
NOTES
Sodium chlorite is an industrial chemical, most commonly used to bleach textiles, pulp, and paper and to disinfect water. When acidified (mixed with citric acid or another acid activator, as the marketed protocol directs), it generates chlorine dioxide, the same bleaching agent used industrially. The U.S. FDA states it is not aware of any research showing these products are safe or effective for treating any illness, and describes the mixed product as chlorine dioxide bleach.