Chelation Therapy

What is Chelation Therapy? How does it Work?What Conditions Benefit from it?

What is Chelation Therapy?

Chelation therapy is a highly effective treatment for clearing heavy metals, excess calcium, and artery-damaging chemicals from the bloodstream. Although it was first used to treat heavy metal poisoning, chelation has since proven valuable for the treatment of heart disease and other circulatory disorders.

Chelation Therapy Enhances Blood Flow

How Does Chelation Therapy Work?

Chelation involves the intravenous administration of a powerful antioxidant called ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA). EDTA enters the bloodstream and latches onto heavy metals such as lead, iron, and cadmium that can cause free radical damage to the arteries. By binding to these heavy metals and carrying them out of the body through the urine, EDTA reduces the body’s toxic metal burden and helps slow the process of atherosclerosis.

EDTA also removes excess calcium from artery walls, making them more responsive and better able to dilate. Since calcification of the arteries is a major factor in atherosclerosis, this is yet another way in which chelation restores the integrity of arteries and enhances blood flow. As an added benefit, EDTA chelation has blood-thinning effects and discourages the formation of potentially dangerous blood clots that can cause a heart attack or stroke.

During treatment, which lasts one-and-a-half to three hours, you relax in a recliner while EDTA is administered slowly through an IV. A complete course of EDTA chelation therapy consists of about 30 treatments, usually done one to three times per week.

A Surprising Discovery

EDTA chelation therapy was originally designed as a treatment for heavy metal poisoning, and its effectiveness for heart disease and circulatory disorders was discovered only by accident in the 1950s. As World War II veterans afflicted with lead poisoning from painting battleships underwent chelation to “get the lead out,” physicians noticed that those who had chest pain or leg pain due to atherosclerosis were experiencing almost unbelievable improvement in these symptoms.

During the past 50 years, over a million patients have undergone chelation therapy for a wide range of circulatory problems. Chelation has given heart disease patients an alternative to invasive heart surgery and has enabled patients with intermittent claudication to increase their walking distance. It has been used to alleviate angina, to reduce high blood pressure, and to spare diabetic patients from limb amputation.

Chelation has an impeccable record of safety. An FDA safety review spanning 30 years revealed no evidence of significant toxicity. And of over 500,000 patients nationwide treated with chelation therapy using the protocol established by the American College for the Advancement of Medicine (ACAM), not a single fatality has occurred. Compare this to coronary artery bypass surgery, which has a fatality rate of 4 percent. This means that for every 500,000 patients who undergo bypass surgery, an estimated 20,000 will die.

Safety is one thing, but effectiveness is another, and this therapy is effective. A 1993 review of 40 published and 30 unpublished studies involving over 25,000 patients who underwent EDTA chelation demonstrated that 87 percent benefited from this therapy.

What Conditions Benefit From Chelation?

Virtually any condition in which atherosclerosis or poor circulation are contributing factors can benefit from chelation. Here is just a partial list:

Cardiovascular disease
Cerebrovascular disease
Diabetic complications
Heavy metal toxicity
Hypertension
Intermittent claudication
Memory disorders
Peripheral neuropathy
Peripheral vascular disease
Slow healing wounds