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Kavin Can’t Even: Don’t be Inane, Autism is Innate. Bleach and Organic Foods Can’t Cure It.

Author’s note: This is the 4th in a series on science-related gaffes that should greatly hinder readers’ ability to “even.” Please share on social media with hashtag #KavinCantEven!

While it certainly isn’t a recent phenomenon, the news of parents giving autistic children bleach enemas, otherwise known as “Miracle Mineral Solution,” has made recent headlines. To be honest, I only learned about it a few weeks ago. Miracle Mineral Solution has been marketed in recent years with bogus claims of alleviating or even curing ailments ranging from the common cold to cancer. It’s disturbing enough when consenting adults administer this industrial bleach to themselves. Parents dosing innocent children with MMS should be reported to CPS.

For the life of me I cannot fathom how this has been happening for years. The very symptoms caused by this poison, like diarrhea and vomiting, are touted as evidence that the treatment is “working” by detoxifying the autism. This is preposterous, and suggests irrational, almost cult-like delusions. This cult is led by Kerri Rivera, who promotes a book and website hawking a horrific MMS protocol, claims that the protocol has cured 164 children of autism to date, and charges for Skype consultations. I won’t mince words, this woman and her cronies deserve to rot in prison for life.

Autism cannot be cured. Evidence is building that while autism has both environmental and genetic causes, genetics play a predominant role. Shortly after scientists linked high-confidence genes with low functioning autism, I wrote a piece called Sorry Dr. Oz and Jenny McCarthy: More scientific proof vaccines, GMOs don’t cause autism. From that article:

“[S]cientists have now linked mutations in over a hundred genes to autism in two recent studies published in Nature. Unlike the heritable variants I mentioned, about 30 percent of those found in these studies are de novo mutations, meaning they occurred either within the sperm or egg cell from which the baby was conceived, or early in embryonic development. In conjunction with inherited variants, these de novo mutations appear to contribute to causing the more severe, lower IQ autism symptoms on the ASD spectrum. Higher-functioning autism seems to be influenced by inherited variants rather than de novo mutations. Notably, many disease-causing mutations are recessive, meaning that a child must inherit two defective copies, one from each parent. Interestingly, autistic individuals with any of six of the strongest causal variants are heterozygous, meaning they only inherited a defective copy from one parent.”

Even more recently, a study of hundreds of identical versus fraternal twin pairs suggests that heritability of autism ranges from 56% to 95%. While this doesn’t eliminate the role of environmental contribution to autism, it sure as hell corroborates the fact that YOU CAN’T BLEACH AWAY AUTISM.

Rivera with an asinine slide in her presentation "Healing the Symptoms Known as Autism"
Rivera promotes autism disinformation in her outrageous presentation “Healing the Symptoms Known as Autism”

You guys, I seriously can’t even with these moms claiming that autism can be cured. Make no mistake, there is no cure for the spectrum of disorders known as autism. First, Zen Honeycutt of the “Kavin is bullying us” anti-GMO women went on the Dr. Oz show claiming she cured her son of his “autism symptoms” by switching to an organic diet. See here for a detailed description from yours truly on how glyphosate works and why it doesn’t cause autism.

Now I come to find out that Kerri Rivera is preying on parents to the tune of 100 Euros per hour for a Skype consultation. Ms. Rivera makes Moms Across America look like cuddly albeit misinformed puppies in comparison. Either Rivera doesn’t understand that autism is caused by complex interactions between multiple genetic loci and environmental factors, or she’s a predatory con artist. Moms like Zen Honeycutt and Kerri Rivera sully the name of motherhood. While Zen and her Moms Across America deserve to be debunked as publicly as possible to help prevent more moms from being hoodwinked about GMOs causing autism, Kerri Rivera deserves far, far worse.

I can’t even. If this tragic spread of autism misinformation is affecting your ability to even, make sure to share this post on Facebook and Twitter with hashtag #KavinCantEven. If you know of anyone switching to a GMO-free diet to avoid or cure autism, have compassion. Try and explain the truth as tactfully as possible. If you know of anyone administering industrial bleach enemas to his or her child, demand that it stop immediately. If the parent refuses, file a report with your local Child Protective Services.

Read the rest of the Kavin Can’t Even series:

 

Featured image © 2015 Kavin Senapathy

Kavin Senapathy

Kavin Senapathy is a mom of two, co-Executive Director of March Against Myths, public speaker, Forbes contributor and author in Madison, WI. She is also co-author of "The Fear Babe: Shattering Vani Hari's Glass House". Follow her on Facebook and twitter @ksenapathy

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4 Comments

  1. These are the same parents who are convinced that TEH TOXINZ are harming their kids? So they give them toxic enemas?

    I really will never understand their wiring.

  2. I am a part of a group of moms of kids with autism. There are about 200 moms on a closed FB group, of moms who live in my local area (Calgary, Alberta). While there is definitely some woo (homeopathy), anti-vaccine crap, Food Babe garbage, whenever anything truly harmful comes up there is always a huge outpouring of “don’t do it, lady!”. While I do think not vaccinating is harmful to kids, in my mind there is a sliding scale of harm and MMS is way on the super harmful side. MMS and chelation therapy are, in my mind, two of the most abusive procedures that can be done to anyone, especially to cure something that cannot be cured.
    Thankfully this issue was raised in my moms’ group in a “can you believe people do this?”, not “here is what I am going to try to cure my child”. I posted links to this article and the two previous Grounded Parents What’s the Harm articles on MMS, in case there was anyone unfamiliar who might think it is a good thing.

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