Chelation Therapy

Chelation therapy is one that is therapy using an amino acid that is made by man called EDTA. Intravenous chelation therapy has been used for many years to treat poisoning from metals like lead. The issue lies in the idea that many medical professionals have promoted chelation therapy as an alternative medicine to treat things like arteriosclerosis, coronary artery disease, peripheral vascular disease as well as some mental diseases.

Over time anyone who proposed that chelation therapy could be used for anything other than heavy metal poisoning was looked at in a strange light. The doctors all like to argue about whether the studies used to either support chelation therapy or refute chelation therapy are valid. This debate about chelation therapy by physicians leaves the average person quite perplexed as to whether or not chelation therapy is a viable treatment for ailments.
The basis to chelation therapy is of course EDTA. Both sides of the fence are alright with admitting that EDTA can remove toxins from the human body. The way that it works is when EDTA is injected into the bloodstream it runs around and picks up all of the toxic metals like lead, arsenic and aluminum out of the major organs. These metals a held onto by the EDTA until they are expelled through the urine.

The beginnings of chelation therapy and the use of EDTA goes back to when the battery factory workers who were poisoned with lead in the 1940’s. It was seen by physicians that the use of EDTA for lead poisoning victims resulted in the lessening of discomfort from their blocked arteries among other side effects like better memory and sight. The doctors then assumed that the lessening of pain from blocked arteries was because of the EDTA grabbing a hold of the calcium in the body, specifically in the arterial plaque in the blood vessels, and removing it from the body. With the calcium gone from the plaque the plaque dissolved and the circulation improved again.

Unfortunately for the believers the calcium removal was later disproved and that was one of the first major hits that chelation therapy has absorbed over time. The next theory that the scientists came up with was that the EDTA removed the toxic chemicals and along with them removed the free radicals. With the free radicals gone the arteries were left in peace to heal themselves and therefore reducing their signs of heart disease. Modern scientists know that antioxidants can help get rid of free radicals which may be why large doses of these antioxidants are given to the chelation therapy along with the EDTA.

The chelation therapy debate has not stopped and though there have been a ton of chelation therapy studies done every year the problem of disagreement stands. Many of the scientists that are against chelation therapy claim that the studies that support chelation therapy are that way because the ones doing the research have a large stake in it.

It is going to be a hot topic for many years but chelation therapy is still here and will likely stay as long as there are chelation therapy believers and patients willing to undergo it.