Toxic (a\/k\/a \u201cheavy\u201d) metals in our environment, mainly lead, mercury, cadmium, aluminum, and arsenic have always been a serious health risk but with recent rollbacks of the Environmental Protection Agency by the Trump Administration, we can expect trouble ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Statisticians predict an astonishing 160,000 unnecessary deaths over the next decade from the air and water \u201crollbacks.\u201d The total number of pollution-related chronic illnesses manifested as breathing difficulties, skin cancers, liver and kidney dysfunction, cognitive decline, and so forth is pretty much beyond calculation. That cough you can\u2019t seem to clear? Probably some crap in the air that\u2019s getting stored up in your lungs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019ve got some chronic symptom, like fatigue or a persistent cough, and you\u2019ve been told \u201ceverything\u2019s fine,\u201d well, maybe it\u2019s not. I recommend getting yourself tested for toxic metals especially if you gave a history of exposure (like living in Chicago with our lead laden pipes). Just ask your family doctor to order \u201ctoxic metal screen\u201d to include the metals listed above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Your levels should all be very close to \u201czero\u201d and if not, you should get retested after having them \u201cprovoked,\u201d getting them unlocked from your vital organs so you can actually see how much of a toxic metal issue you\u2019ve got. Your family doctor may be unfamiliar with the provoking process, so you can either schedule with us or hunt around for a doctor who practices Functional Medicine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To rid yourself most completely of your toxic metal load, depending on the metal, you may need to undergo chelation therapy. <\/em><\/strong>Intravenous chelation (pronounced key-LAY-shun) therapy using EDTA (ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid) has been a respected and widely used FDA approved medical treatment for heavy-metal poisoning\u2013especially lead poisoning\u2013for more than 50 years. By the way, \u2018chelation\u2019 comes from the Greek \u2018chela\u2019 or \u2018claw.\u2019 The EDTA molecule acts like a claw to remove and discard the toxic metal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During treatment, EDTA is administered intravenously and the drug travels throughout the body gathering up molecules of lead, arsenic, and aluminum from various organs. EDTA will also work for elevated levels of mercury but there is evidence that oral DMSA (dimercaptosuccinic acid), the same agent used in the provocation test, is a little better for this, so that when there is a large toxic load of several metals, both EDTA and DMSA are used together. Depending on the degree of toxicity, treatments are weekly for about 12 to 16 weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When EDTA Chelation Became Controversial<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n EDTA was first used medically in the 1940s to treat workers from battery factories who had developed lead poisoning. In the early 1950s, Dr. Norman Clarke, Sr., director of research at Providence Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, was using EDTA for lead poisoning and found that his<\/p>\n\n\n\n patients also reported less pain from angina (chest pain due to blocked coronary arteries). In addition, they noted improved memory, better sight, hearing, and smell, and an increase in energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Word of this apparently unexpected benefit from intravenous EDTA spread rapidly especially after publication of bestsellers like \u201cForty Something Forever\u201d and \u201cByPassing ByPass.\u201d Heart disease was very much on the rise during the last half of the 20th century and the \u201cgo-to\u201d treatment for angina (chest pain) was coronary bypass surgery. When a nonsurgical option became available, like EDTA chelation, the public was very enthused. Physician directed \u201cChelation Centers\u201d opened around the world advertising benefits for prevention and treatment of heart disease, peripheral vascular disease (blockage in the legs) and the mental deterioration of small strokes. Interestingly, as of today, there are 197 titles of chelation therapy books<\/a> on Amazon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the time Clarke and other doctors postulated that it was EDTA\u2019s effect on calcium within the body that might account for these results. They theorized that, during chelation, the EDTA could be grabbing onto the calcium within the arterial plaque lining blood vessels and removing it, the way it removed lead in poisoning cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the calcium gone, they felt, the plaque dissolved, circulation improved (not only to the heart, but also to the brain, eyes, and other organs) and patients reported feeling better. One writer at the time even dubbed chelation therapy \u201ca Roto-Rooter for the arteries.\u201d Unfortunately, X-rays and biopsies later showed that chelation had no effect at all on calcium within the arteries, and this early theory was discounted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A second, more widely accepted theory\u2013and one that continues to be popular\u2013suggests that, by removing toxic metals, the EDTA also removed a significant source of destructive oxygen molecules known as free radicals. With free-radical production slowed, the arteries could then heal, shedding their plaque and lessening the symptoms of heart disease. Today antioxidant vitamins are thought to play such a key role in \u201cmopping up\u201d free radicals that they\u2019re added to the chelation IV to enhance the antioxidant EDTA. In other words, during an EDTA IV, you\u2019re literally bathed in a bouillabaisse of antioxidants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In response to the widespread acceptance of EDTA chelation, about ten years ago the Federal Government decided to fund some serious research<\/a>. Did chelation successfully treat or prevent heart disease? The answer was a solid \u201cwe\u2019re not sure.\u201d Apparently EDTA did not prevent progression in someone with known heart disease but did prevent second heart attacks in someone who already had had one, especially if they were diabetic as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ENTER THE STENT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n What pretty much sounded the death knell for EDTA chelation as a treatment for heart disease was the coronary artery stent. Chest pain? \u201cPositive\u201d stress test or mild heart attack? Your cardiologist will schedule a coronary angiogram, \u201csee\u201d your blockage point, and open it up with a stent <see picture<\/a>> and you\u2019re often discharged the next morning. Currently, 1.8 million stents are inserted annually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n EXIT THE STENT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you are actually having a heart attack, inserting a stent will likely save your life. But if you\u2019re just having angina (chest pain with exertion), even though you may have visible blockage on an angiogram, recent research has shown that inserting a stent will not increase your chances of not later having a heart attack any better than medication and all the lifestyle changes that have been recommended for years. Opening the visible blockage so that blood can run freely to your heart does look like the answer to relieve your symptoms or protect you from a heart attack. But statistics say otherwise<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And yes, this may mean renewed interest in researching EDTA chelation as a preventive measure for heart disease prevention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CHELATION, A FINAL THOUGHT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I know I have veered off course here going from EDTA as treatment for toxic metals to EDTA as treatment for heart disease, but there are a couple of important issues here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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