There are techniques that the general population knows nothing about
because the traditional medical establishment isn’t aware they
exist, having this knowledge suppressed over the years by various
powerful organizations. The techniques I?m talking about deal with
the treatment and prevention of diseases involving the blood vessels
of the body.
These diseases?coronary artery disease, cardio-vascular disease
(precursors to stroke), peripheral vascular disease (precursor to
gangrene), and cerebrovascular disease (precursor to stroke and
dementia) are the major causes of disability and death in our world
today.
The traditional approach to these diseases relates to surgery and
drugs. Your case of severe hardening of the arteries need not lead
to bypass surgery, heart attack, amputation, stroke or senility.
The use of a chemical called EDTA (ethylene diamine tetraacetic
acid) has been used in this country for these diseases for decades.
Probably 700,000 people have benefitted by this technique. Despite
what you might have heard about chelation therapy, administered by a
properly-trained physician and given in conjunction with lifestyle
and dietary changes with the use of specialized nutritional
supplements, the procedure is an option to be seriously considered
by persons suffering from coronary artery disease, cerebral vascular
disease, brain disorders resulting from circulatory disturbances,
generalized atherosclerosis and related ailments which lead to
senility and accelerated physical decline.
Clinical benefits from chelation therapy vary with the total number
of treatments received and with the severity of the condition being
treated. More than 75% of patients treated have shown significant
improvement from chelation therapy. More than 90% of patients
receiving 35 or more treatments have benefited when they have also
corrected dietary exercise and smoking habits, which are known to
aggravate arterial disease. Symptoms improve, blood flow to diseased
organs increases, need for medication decreases, and the quality of
life improves.
What Is Chelation
Chelation (key-lay-shun) is a chemical process by which a metal or
mineral (like lead, mercury, copper, arsenic, aluminum, calcium,
etc.) is bonded to another substance. It is a process basic to life
itself and goes on naturally in our body at all times. The chelation
that we do artificially is similar to just using a chemical (EDTA)
instead of the natural chemicals of the body. Chelation is one
mechanism by which such common substances such as aspirin,
antibiotics, vitamins, minerals, and trace elements work in the
body.
Hemoglobin, the red pigment in blood which carries oxygen, is a
chelate of iron.
What Is Chelation As A Medical Treatment
Chelation is a treatment by which a man-made amino acid called
ethylene diamine tetraacetic (EDTA) is administered to a patient
intravenously, prescribed by and under the supervision of a
fully-licensed physician. The fluid containing EDTA is infused
through a small needle placed in the vein of a patient’s arm. The
EDTA in solution bonds with metals in the body and carries them away
in the urine. Abnormally-situated nutritional metals, which speed
free radical damage, and toxic metals, such as lead, are most easily
removed by EDTA.
Chelation Treatments
Also, EDTA rearranges essential minerals in the body, meaning that
the EDTA takes some essential minerals that are where they are not
supposed to be and puts them into areas of the body where they are
supposed to be and where the body needs them.
How often is the chelation therapy given?
Chelation therapy is a course of treatments which usually consists
of anywhere from 12 to 50 separate infusions, depending on each
patient’s individual status. Twelve to fifteen treatments once or
twice yearly is the average number required for definite benefit in
patients with various pathologies. Some patients may eventually
receive more than 100 infusions. Each treatment takes from three to
four hours or longer and patients normally receive one or more
treatments each week. Over a period of time, these injections halt
the progress of the free radical disease, which is the underlying
condition triggering the development of atherosclerosis?and many
other degenerative diseases of aging?giving the body time to heal
and time to restore blood flow through diseased blood vessels. After
several months these injections bring profound improvement to many
metabolic and physiologic processes in the body. The body’s
regulation of calcium and cholesterol is improved by normalizing the
internal chemistry of cells.
Chelation benefits every blood vessel in the body, from the largest
to the tiniest capillaries and arterioles, most of which are far too
small for surgical treatment or are deep within the brain and other
vital organs where they cannot be safely reached by surgery. In many
patients, the smallest blood vessels are the most severely diseased.
The benefits of chelation occur from the top of the head to the
bottom of the feet, not just in short segments of a few large
arteries which can be bypassed or opened by other invasive
treatments.
Do you have to go to a hospital to be chelated?
No, in most cases it is an outpatient treatment available in a
physician’s office or clinic.
Does it hurt? What does it feel like to be chelated?
Being ?chelated? is quite a different experience from other medical
treatments. There is no pain, and in most cases, very little
discomfort. Patients are seated in reclining chairs and can read,
nap, watch television, do needlework or chat with other patients
while the fluid containing the EDTA flows into their veins. If
necessary, patients can walk around. They can visit the restroom,
eat and drink as they desire, or make telephone calls, being careful
not to dislodge the needle attached to the intravenous infusion they
carry with them. With the newer Calcium-EDTA IV push there is even
less discomfort since the calcium helps the veins and this push
takes only a few minutes.
Are there risks or unpleasant side effects?
EDTA is relatively non-toxic and risk-free, especially when compared
with other treatments. The risk of serious side effects, when
properly administered, is less than 1 in 10,000 patients treated. By
comparison, the overall death rate as a direct result of bypass is
approximately 3 out of every 100 patients undergoing surgery,
varying with the hospital and the operating team. The incidence of
other serious complications following surgery is much higher,
including heart attacks, strokes, blood clots, permanent brain
damage with personality changes and prolonged pain. Chelation is
more than 300 times safer than bypass surgery.
Occasionally, patients may suffer minor discomfort at the site where
the needle enters the vein. Some temporarily experience mild nausea,
dizziness, or headache as an immediate aftermath of treatment, but
in the vast majority of cases, these minor symptoms are easily
relieved. When properly administered by a physician expert in this
type of therapy, chelation is as safe as taking aspirin. Patients
routinely drive themselves home after treatment with not difficulty.
If EDTA is given too rapidly or in too large a dose, it may cause
harmful side effects, just as an overdose of any other medicine can
be dangerous. Reports of serious and even rare fatal complications
have stemmed from excessive doses of EDTA, improperly administered.
If you choose a physician with proper training and experience, one
who is an expert in the use of EDTA, the risk of chelation therapy
will be kept to a very low level. The American College of
Advancement in Medicine (ACAM) provides training and examines
physicians for competence in the specialized field of chelation
therapy. A physician who has successfully completed the ACAM courses
is knowledgeable in the safe and effective use of EDTA chelation
therapy.
While it has often been stated that EDTA chelation therapy is
damaging to the kidneys, the newest research (in one study
consisting of kidney function tests done on 383 consecutive
chelation patients, before and after treatment with EDTA for chronic
degenerative diseases) indicates the reverse is often true. On the
average, there is significant improvement in kidney function
following chelation. An occasional patient may be unduly sensitive,
however, and physicians expert in chelation monitor kidney function
very closely to avoid overloading the kidneys. Treatments must be
given more slowly and less frequently if kidney function is not
normal. Patients with some types of severe kidney problems should
not receive EDTA.
What types of examinations and testing must be done prior to
beginning chelation therapy?
Prior to commencing a course of chelation therapy, a complete
medical history must be obtained. A detailed listing of diet will be
analyzed for nutritional adequacy and balance. Copies of pertinent
medical records and summaries of hospital admissions will be
obtained. A thorough, head-to-toe physical examination will be
performed. A complete list of current medications will be recorded,
including the time and strength of each dose. Special note will be
made of any allergies.
Blood and urine specimens will be obtained for a battery of tests to
insure that no conditions exist which may be worsened by chelation
therapy. An electrocardiogram and chest x-ray will be ordered. A
hair specimen will be tested for tissue levels of various
nutritional and toxic metals. Non-invasive tests will be performed,
as medically indicated, to determine the status of arterial blood
flow prior to therapy. A consultation with other medical specialists
may be requested. Follow-up examinations and testing will be
performed at regular intervals during and after therapy.
Is chelation therapy new?
Not at all. Its earliest application with humans was during World
War II when the British used another chelation agent, British Anti-Lewesite
(BAL) as a poison gas antidote. BAL is still used today in medicine.
EDTA was first introduced into medicine in the United States in 1948
as a treatment for industrial workers suffering from lead poisoning
in a battery factory. Shortly thereafter, the U.S. Navy advocated
chelation therapy for sailors who had absorbed lead while painting
government ships and dock facilities. Physicians then observed that
adults receiving EDTA chelation treatments who had atherosclerosis
also experienced health improvements?diminished angina, better
memory, sight, hearing, sense of smell and increased vigor. A number
of physicians then began to treat individuals suffering from
occlusive vascular conditions with chelation therapy and reported
consistent improvements.
Chelation therapy remains the undisputed treatment of choice for
lead poisoning, even in children with toxic accumulations of lead in
their bodies as a result of eating leaded paint from toys, cribs or
walls.
But from 1964 on, despite continued documentation of its benefits
and the development of refined treatment methods, the use of
chelation for the treatment of arterial disease has been the subject
of controversy.
Is it legal?
Absolutely. There is no legal prohibition against a licensed
physician (M.D. or D.O.) using chelation therapy for whatever
conditions he deems it to be correct, even though the drug involved,
EDTA, does not yet have atherosclerosis listed as an indication on
the FDA-approved package insert. The FDA does not regulate the
practice of medicine, but merely approves marketing, labeling and
advertising claims for drugs and devices in interstate commerce.
Natural Chelation & Detoxification
It costs millions of dollars to perform the required research and to
provide the FDA with documentation for a new drug claim, or even to
add a new use to marketing brochures of a long-established medicine
like EDTA. Physicians routinely prescribe medicines for conditions
not yet included on FDA approved advertising and marketing
literature.
Several respected physician organizations sponsor educational
courses in the proper and safe use of intravenous EDTA chelation.
The American College of Advancement in Medicine publishes a
physicians? protocol for the safe and effective method of treatment
with EDTA. This protocol is used in training courses and in a
certification program for chelating physicians. ACAM’s educational
programs for physicians, followed by oral and written examinations,
lead to credentials which certify demonstrated competence in the
proper use of EDTA chelation therapy.
On the question of legality, the interpretation of laws pertaining
to ?informed consent? is evolving in the courts and it is now
possible that a physician who withholds information about the
availability of other treatment choices, such as chelation therapy,
prior to performing vascular surgery (along with all other treatment
modalities) could be found legally liable. Withholding information
about a different form of treatment may be tantamount to medical
malpractice, if as a result, a patient is deprived of possible
benefits. Thus, it is the doctors who refuse to recognize and inform
their patients of chelations who are risking legal liability?not
those chelating physicians who provide an innovative treatment which
they feel to be the safest, the most effective and the least
expensive for many of their patients.
What proof do you have that it works?
Initially, most patients, regardless of what their original medical
problem might be, state that after about the 5th treatment they feel
they have more energy and their mind is more clear.
Physicians with extensive experience in the use of chelation therapy
observe dramatic improvement in the vast majority of their patients.
They see angina routinely relieved, patients who suffered searing
chest pains when walking only a short distance are frequently able
to return to normal, productive living after undergoing chelation.
Far more dramatic, but equally common, is seeing diabetic ulcers and
gangrenous feet heal. Many individuals who had been told that their
limbs would have to be amputated because of gangrene are thrilled to
watch their feet heal with chelation, although some areas of dead
tissue may have to be trimmed away surgically. The approximately one
thousand American physicians practicing chelation therapy have
countless files to prove they are able to reverse serious cases of
arterial disease. Men and women often arrive at their offices near
death with diseases caused by blocked arteries. Weeks or months
later, they?re remarkably improved. There is a wealth of evidence
from clinical experience that symptoms of reduced blood flow improve
in more than 75 percent of patients treated.
In addition, several research studies have been published with
results of before-and-after diagnostic tests using radioscopes which
prove statistically that blood flow improves following chelation.
Regardless of blood flow studies, if cladication is relieved, if
angina becomes less bothersome, and if physical endurance or mental
acuity improves, such benefits would be quite enough to justify EDTA
chelation therapy. Quality of life and relief of symptoms are far
more important than the results of laboratory tests.
What does it cost?
The older Sodium-EDTA therapy which consists of a 3 to 31/2 hour IV
drip would cost about $100 per treatment. However, with the newer
Calcium-EDTA which is given as an IV push over 5 to 7 minutes costs
only $50 per treatment.
What about bypass surgery?
Coronary artery bypass surgery, the popularly-prescribed procedure
in which occluded portions of major coronary arteries are bypassed
with grafts from a patient’s leg veins, has never been proven by
properly controlled studies to offer an advantage over non-surgical
treatments, other than relief of pain in a minority of patients who
cannot be controlled with medicine. It has even been suggested that
the relief of pain following surgery might result from the cutting
of nerve fibers which carry pain impulses from the heart and which
also stimulate spasm of coronary arteries. It is not possible to
perform bypass surgery without interrupting those nerves.
Indeed, the most recent research suggests that many of the 400,000
or more bypasses and other invasive procedures performed each year
for the relief of pain and other symptoms brought on by clogged or
blocked arteries are not necessary. A good case against rushing into
surgery is made by the findings of a ten-year, $24 million study
conducted by the National Institute of Health (NIH) which compared
post-operative survival rates of ?bypassed? patients with a matched
group of equally diseased patients treated non-surgically.
The study uncovered no additional benefits for most patients who had
been operated upon, compared with non-surgical therapy. It is
important to note that the non-surgical therapy reported in that
study did not include either chelation therapy or the new calcium
blocker drugs, and that only half of the patients received beta
blocker drugs. Having surgery didn’t improve their chances to live
longer, live healthier, live better, or enjoy life more, when the
results where statistically analyzed. The incidence of heart attacks
(myocardial infarction) and both employment and recreational status
were the same in patients treated surgically and non-surgically,
even without using chelation therapy for the non-surgical treatment
group.
Most important, cardiovascular surgery does nothing to arrest or
reverse the underlying disease which exist in varying degrees
throughout the body. It is at best a piece-meal ?cure? for a
system-wide problem. Bypassing a restricted portion of the body’s
blood vessels can have little lasting benefit when the same
degenerating condition which caused the most extreme blockage at one
or two sites must of necessity be taking place everywhere,
throughout the circulatory network.
One thing the general public is not fully aware of is that many
people who have one bypass operation later have a second bypass.
Sometimes the blood vessels that weren’t bypassed become clogged;
sometimes the transplanted vessels used in the first graft become
filled with new plaque; sometimes the transplants malfunction or
turn out to be too small for the job. As a matter of fact, studies
have shown that by ten years after surgery, grafted vessels had
closed in 40 percent of patients, and in the remaining 60 percent,
half developed further coronary narrowing. Once you?ve had a bypass,
your chances of having another go up about five percent a year.
After five years, some specialists estimate your chances of
receiving a second operation could be as high as thirty to forty
percent. And some patients go on to even a third operation, or more.
And approximately two to three out of every 100 patients undergoing
bypass surgery die as a result of the procedure?even more if they
are severely ill at the time of surgery. The balloon treatments and
other invasive procedures to open arteries are also risky.
Chelation patients are frequently able to return to work and to
resume their sports and other activities, without the need to
undergo surgery. Chelation is equally as effective in patients who
have previously undergone one or more bypass operations or balloon
procedures. If they stay on a proper diet, exercise regularly,
continue to take the prescribed program of nutritional supplements
and receive periodic maintenance chelation treatments (monthly, more
or less, depending on the severity of the underlying medical
diagnosis) they can usually go many years without suffering further
heart attacks, strokes, senility or gangrenous extremities.
If you, like most people eager for additional information about
chelation therapy, have been told you have advanced arterial
disease, you may have been advised to have vascular surgery. If so,
it is essential for you to understand the nature of your disease and
all possible treatment choices, before you can make an intelligent
decision concerning the various options. Even if chelation and other
non-surgical therapies should fail, bypass still remains a choice.
Why can’t chelation be taken by mouth in pill form, instead of by
intravenous injection?
Chelation therapy is gaining recognition so rapidly that there is
growing interest in developing a safe and effective oral chelator.
Many nutritional substances administered by mouth are known to have
weak chelating properties. But, none have the spectrum of activity
of intravenous EDTA. Many nutrients such as vitamin C and the amino
acid cysteine have the ability to chelate metals weakly. To label
nutritional supplements containing vitamins and amino acids as ?oral
chelation? however, is misleading.
EDTA can be taken by mouth in small doses but less than 5 percent is
absorbed and only if taken without food. The utilization of EDTA by
mouth is not adequate to treat established disease, although
preventive and maintenance benefits might be obtained by that route.
Claims are being increasingly made for the use of vitamin
supplements containing weak chelators in patients with
atherosclerosis. There is nothing new about the benefits of
vitamin-mineral supplements, which have recently been aggressively
and deceptively marketed as ?oral chelation.? The use of
vitamin-mineral supplements by mouth is a routine adjunct to a total
program of chelation therapy, but the do not provide significant
chelation by themselves. There are no potent oral chelating agents
now available which are safe to take by mouth and which produce
improvement comparable to intravenous EDTA.
Heavy Metal Toxicity
Is it true that chelation therapy combats atherosclerosis by acting
like a ?liquid plumber??by leeching calcium out of the
atherosclerotic plaque?
No. Before recent medical breakthroughs in the area of free radical
pathology, it was hypothesized that EDTA chelation therapy had its
major beneficial effect on calcium metabolism’that it stripped away
the excess calcium from the plaque, restoring arteries to their
pliable precalcified state. This frequently offered explanation’the
so-called ?roto-rooter? concept?is not the real reason, as
previously postulated, that chelation therapy produces its major
health benefits. The fact that EDTA does remove some abnormal
calcium is now felt to be one of the less prominent aspects of its
benefits.
More importantly, EDTA has an affinity for the so-called transition
metals, iron and copper, and for the related toxic metals, lead,
mercury, cadmium and others, which are potent catalysts of excessive
free radical reactions. Free radical pathology, it is now believed,
is the underlying process triggering the development of most
age-related ailments, including cancer, dementia and arthritis, as
well as atherosclerosis. Thus EDTA’s primary benefit is that it
greatly reduces the ongoing production of free radicals within the
body by removing accumulations of metallic catalysts which
accumulate as a person grows older at abnormal sites in the body,
speeding the aging process.
This is a greatly oversimplified explanation of what actually
occurs. For those of you with a decided interest in the scientific
technicalities, you can send for the manuscript entitled ?Free
Radical Pathology in Age-Associated Diseases: Treatment with EDTA,
Nutrition and Antioxidants? by Doctors Elmer M. Cranton and James P.
Frackelton. For a fuller explanation of the many issues involved,
written in popular form for the general public, you might enjoy
reading ??Bypassing Bypass? by Dr. Elmer M. Cranton and Arline
Brecher. Both publications, as well as others, are available from
the American College of Advancement in Medicine, 23121 Verdugo Drive
Suite 204, Laguna Hills CA 92653, (714) 583-7666. Telephone before
ordering to find out costs, or you may purchase them from our office
or in the bookstore. Also, you can find information from Garry
Gordon’s, M.D, web site at Gordon Research.
Why haven’t I heard about chelation before?
If EDTA chelation therapy is as safe and effective as indicated by
scientific studies and by the experience of hundreds of doctors, why
haven’t you heard more about it? That is a good question!
Until quite recently, relatively few patients have been informed
that this therapy is available. Most heart specialists may not have
even heard of the treatment and would be reluctant to prescribe it
if they had. The American Medical Association has not yet approved
chelation therapy for atherosclerosis, although it does endorse its
use in the treatment of lead and other heavy metal poisoning. Many
insurance companies will not compensate policy holders for chelation
therapy unless it is given for lead poisoning. If chelation therapy
is given for atherosclerosis, it is often labeled ?experimental? or
?not customary? by medical insurance companies and payment is
denied. They deny payment to patients even though they do pay for
bypass surgery, and even though chelation might have saved them tens
of thousands of dollars.
Traditional medical organizations, politically powerful, have
consistently attempted to suppress chelation therapy, perhaps
because of large vested interests in other methods of health care.
The cost of all medical care for victims of heart disease in the
United States in 1986, including coronary bypass surgery and
prescriptive drugs, exceeded $40 billion. Obviously, many hospitals
and physicians would be in serious financial difficulty, and might
even have to find other outlets for their services, if this
procedure, which might displace a gigantic industry, become
universally popular.
Physicians who remain skeptical about chelation are those who have
never used it. They are either completely uninformed about the
extensive research that has been done to document the safety and
effectiveness of chelation therapy, or they are committed by
training or source of income to other therapeutic procedures, such
as vascular surgery.
What else is involved in a complete program of chelation?
Your Lifestyle Counts. Chelation therapy is only part of the
curative process. Improved nutrition and improved lifestyle are
absolutely imperative for lasting benefit from chelation treatments.
Chelation is not in and of itself a ?cure-all??it merely reduces
abnormal free radical activity, allowing normal control mechanisms
to come into play so that free radical damage can be repaired and
health can be restored with the help of applied clinical nutrition,
antioxidant supplementation and lifestyle corrections. Chelation
therapy involves all of these factors. Chelation is also compatible
with other forms of therapy, including bypass surgery.
In addition to receiving the necessary number of chelation
treatments, patients eager for long term benefits should be warned:
chelation alone won’t last for long. Individuals suffering any form
of free radical disease must be prepared to improved the diet that
started the disease, take nutritional supplements, be physically
active and eliminate destructive lifestyle habits such as tobacco
and excessive alcohol.
Nutritional Supplements. A scientifically balanced regimen of
nutritional supplements reinforces the body’s antioxidant defenses
and should include vitamins E, C, B1, B2, B3, B6, B12, pantothenate,
PABA, and beta carotene. A balanced program of mineral and trace
element supplementation should include magnesium, zinc, selenium,
manganese and chromium. The exact prescription for nutritional
supplements is determined individually for each patient, based on
nutritional assessment and laboratory testing.
Destructive Habits. It is important to eliminate the use of tobacco
altogether, but if that is not possible, a marked reduction in
exposure would be helpful. This applies to cigarettes, pipe tobacco,
cigars, snuff or chewing tobacco. It has been consistently observed
that patients who continued to smoke following chelation have
demonstrated less improvement and for a much briefer time in
comparison to non-smokers.
Only relatively healthy adults are able to tolerate alcoholic
beverages without generating more free radicals than they can
detoxify. Anyone who drinks more than one or two ounces of pure
ethanol in 24 hours (four eight-ounce glasses of beer, four small
glasses of wine, or two to three shot glasses of hard liquor) risks
free radical damage. Even that amount is harmful on a regular basis.
Victims of chronic degenerative diseases should usually avoid the
consumption of alcohol.
Exercise. Finally, physical exercise is very helpful. Even a brisk
45-minute walk several times per week will help maintain the health
benefits and improved circulation resulting from chelation therapy.
Lactate normally builds up in tissues during sustained exercise and
lactate is a natural chelator produced within the body.
Which brings us to the final question!
Is chelation therapy for you?
Only you can make that decision. But Dr. Gordon says that at some
time or another every man & woman should undergo a series of
treatments to greatly benefit ones health since all of us have large
quantities of heavy metals stored in our bodies.
Chances are your doctor won’t help you decide. Patients who choose
chelation often do so against the advice of their personal
physicians or cardiologists. Many have already been advised to
undergo vascular surgery.
Occasionally, a patient never hears about chelation until he is
hospitalized and a friend or relative begs him to look into this
non-invasive therapy before proceeding to surgery. In an
impressively large number of instances, a new patient comes for
chelation on the recommendation of someone who has been successfully
chelated.
Chelation therapy is probably the most successful method to extend
maximum life span but this has yet to be proven by the scientific
method. It certainly is the best procedure for having a healthy and
more symptom-free time as you age.
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