Does Chelation Therapy Work?
Chelation therapy involves the intravenous injection of EDTA (ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid) into the bloodstream. EDTA is a chelating agent, meaning it binds or attaches itself to metals or minerals and takes these out of the body together with urine. It is normally used to treat cases of heavy metal poisoning.
But chelation therapists claim that this amino acid can also unclog arteries and treat heart disease. People who dread undergoing heart bypass surgery will naturally find this promise attractive even though it has no scientific basis.
“Chelation therapy is used most often in cases of heart disease, but its promoters also claim it is effective against kidney diseases, emphysema, multiple sclerosis, gangrene, psoriasis and other serious diseases. However, no controlled trials have shown chelation to be of help with any of these conditions. In 1985, the American Health Association concluded that chelation therapy is unproven for heart disease and can be dangerous as well,” according to Dr. Stephen Barrett, a psychiatrist, consumer advocate, prizewinning author and board member of the National Council Against Health Fraud Inc.
Other reliable medical organizations which have rejected chelation therapy on the grounds of insufficient evidence are the American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, the American Medical Association and the American College of Physicians.
The use of EDTA for atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) was first proposed in 1949 by Dr. Norman E. Clarke, then director of medial research at Detroit’s Providence Hospital, who noticed a marked improvement in patients who received chelation therapy. The dangers of this procedure, however, were known a short lime later.
“In 1956, the influential Journal of the American Medical Association reported a case in which a patient who was receiving chelation therapy for lead poisoning died of kidney failure. Later studies indicated that when given too rapidly or in high doses, EDTA can cause neuromuscular spasms, abnormal heartbeat, convulsions and even kidney failure or respiratory arrest,” said Bill Lawren in Longevity magazine.
Proponents of chelation therapy said that these dangers can be avoided by lowering the dose. If the three-gram protocol or less is followed, EDTA supposedly has no side effects and can spare patients the trouble of bypass surgery. But this is not always so.
“Although life-threatening side effects can supposedly be avoided by limiting the dose to less than three grams daily, cases of kidney damage have been reported with lower doses. EDTA is excreted by the kidney, so it is particularly toxic to those with impaired kidney function. This medication can also cause problems with blood pressure, calcium levels, and blood clotting,” warned the editors of Consumer Guide’s “Cholesterol: Your Guide for a Healthy Heart.”
Another thing to consider is that the plaques that block the arteries are composed mainly of cholesterol — not calcium which chelation therapy supposedly removes. Even if calcium were removed from the plaques that block the blood vessels, the patient still wouldn’t be cured of atherosclerosis.
“The fact is that atherosclerotic plaque does not contain any appreciable amount of calcium until very late in the disease. Most such plaques are composed of a sac containing cholesterol, covered over by tissue that has no calcium in it. When calcium does form, it contributes only a small and inconsequential portion of the plaque. Even if chelation did in fact suck out whatever calcium there is in such an obstruction, blood flow within the artery would only be minimally increased, if at all,” according to Dr. Isadore Rosenfeld of the New York Hospital — Cornell Medical Center in “Modern Prevention: The New Medicine.” (Next: The lowdown on colonics.)