Mercury is one of the heavy metals that can be removed with chelation therapy. See more modern medicine pictures.
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Few therapies have created a divide between conventional and nontraditional medicine quite like chelation. Dating back nearly 60 years, this method began as a remedy for heavy metal toxicity. But when chelation was enlisted to battle heart disease, controversy erupted, with both supporters and naysayers still holding strong today.
Developed in the 1930s, chelation is actually a generic term for the removal of heavy metals from the body ("to claw" in Greek). A chelator is a substance that attaches and binds to a metal. A relationship between heavy metal treatment and the relief of heart-related symptoms was discovered accidentally in the mid-1940s when doctors noticed patients receiving treatment for heavy metal toxicity experiencing improvement related to existing angina or chest pain. While current data merely supports that heavy metals can make these symptoms worse, not cause them, lead is known to elicit elevated blood pressure and mercury is strongly linked to heart disease.
One of the common chelators used today, often to remove lead from the body, is ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA). In the 1950s, research started to look at chelation and vascular disease. EDTA slowly began to develop a greater following as a treatment for heart disease in the '60s [Source: Clarke]. During this time, another medical procedure was being developed, the coronary artery bypass graft, or bypass surgery. Bypass surgery was seen as the conclusive treatment for heart disease, since the problematic obstruction in the heart vessel would actually be “bypassed” by a healthier vessel taken from elsewhere in the body. This began a great divide between cardiologists and conventional practitioners, and those who continued to pursue chelation for treatment.
Several physicians continued to use chelation to treat those with a history of heart disease. Patients often drove from surrounding areas to receive EDTA chelation treatments. Costs for such therapies were often paid in cash as insurance typically did not (and does not today) cover chelation for heart disease. Small studies regarding chelation have been done, but none large enough to truly distinguish the possible benefits of this therapy. Recently the National Institutes of Health commissioned the Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy (TACT). This study, which will use the intravenous form of EDTA chelation, is designed to investigate the benefits of chelation for those who have already had a heart attack.
Chelation can actually be done through various mediums. Many medications are available as conventional medical treatments for the chelation or treatment of heavy metal exposure, including EDTA. For someone found to have a toxic heavy metal burden of lead, mecury or some other metal, chelation could be the best option. Chelation can be done through an intravenous route, orally or through rectal suppositories. It can be administered over several weeks or months. Depending on the route chosen, treatments may be given only once or twice a week. The intravenous treatment is typically given over a 1 1/2-3 hour period. These are only a few of the chelation options available.
See the next page to learn more about chelation supplements.
