Detoxing from chemicals and toxins is a popular trend, with many people engaging in juice cleanses and other natural detox methods. But medical chelation therapy is also a powerful option for removing heavy metals like lead and mercury from the body.
Chelation drugs bind with metallic elements, and the resulting complexes are excreted through urine. However, these compounds have many drawbacks, including poor metal selectivity.
Why Chelation Therapy?
Heavy metals like lead, mercury, iron, and arsenic can poison the body if they build up in large amounts. These metals are known as neurotoxins, and they can cause many symptoms, including fatigue, depression, eczema, apathy, hair loss, brain fog, constipation, indigestion, low blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, muscle weakness, memory problems, headaches, and more. In addition, several people may be exposed to mercury from amalgam “silver” dental fillings or consume mercury-rich fish such as Tuna, King Mackerel, and Sea Bass.
Chelation therapy uses medicine that sticks to these metals and removes them from the bloodstream. These medicines- chelating agents- are given through an IV tube in your arm. The most common is EDTA (EthyleneDiamineTetraacetic Acid), but others may be used depending on your needs. During treatment, the agent binds to a toxic metal ion in your blood and then carries it out of the body through urine.
Some alternative health practitioners advocate chelation therapy for a wide range of conditions, such as autism and Alzheimer’s disease, even though there is no evidence that these diseases are caused by heavy metals and the risks of the treatment far outweigh any possible benefits. The primary use for chelation therapy today is to treat diagnosed metal poisoning.
However, there is also a concern that chelating agents bind to and remove some metals your body needs, such as copper and zinc, leading to a deficiency in these substances. This can have dangerous consequences, as in the case of a 2-year-old girl who died after receiving the wrong type of What Are the Side Effects of Chelation Therapy?
Chelation therapy removes toxic metals like mercury and lead from your body, and it’s one of the standard treatments for certain types of metal poisoning. However, some alternative health practitioners claim it also helps treat conditions such as heart disease, autism, and Alzheimer’s disease.
So, where to get chelation therapy near me? During a chelation treatment, you get an IV drip of a medication called a chelating agent. These agents bind to heavy metals in the bloodstream and create a compound passed out of your body through urine. Chelators are only approved to treat metal poisoning because they’re unsafe at higher doses and can cause side effects such as nausea and vomiting.
In 1956, a doctor named Norman Clarke used chelation therapy to treat workers exposed to lead-based paint. He found that 19 of 20 lead-poisoned patients showed improvements in their angina pectoris, which is chest pain caused by restricted blood flow to the heart. He also noticed that a few of these patients had improved circulation in their legs (intermittent claudication), suggesting that the chelating agent loosened and removed deposits from their arteries.
Since then, some doctors have claimed that chelation therapy can help with other conditions. However, these claims haven’t been proven with scientific evidence, and most of the time, chelation therapy exposes patients to unnecessary risks for little benefit. Chelating drug for lead poisoning at a doctor’s office.
How Chelation Therapy Works
Chelation therapy uses medicines called chelators to remove heavy metals from the body. When injected into the bloodstream, these chemicals “bind” with and then remove toxic metals like lead, mercury, arsenic, copper, iron, or aluminum. The chelators are then excreted through the urine. These chelating drugs are very effective at reducing the levels of toxic metals in the body.
The Food and Drug Administration approves only one chelating drug for general use, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA). Doctors have also developed several other less chelating toxic medicines that are safer than EDTA.
Chelation advocates claim this chemical cocktail can help remove plaque or fatty deposits from clogged arteries. They believe that the chelators bind with calcium in plaque to dissolve it. However, scientists have yet to prove that EDTA or other chelating agents work this way.
Some healthcare providers and supplement companies use chelation to treat conditions they claim are caused by heavy metal poisoning. These include autism, Alzheimer’s disease, and heart disease. But, there isn’t any evidence that heavy metals cause these conditions, and chelation can have serious health complications.
The most common side effect of chelation is burning at the injection site, called a vein. Other side effects may include fever, headache, nausea, or vomiting. Some people may have difficulty absorbing certain nutrients while undergoing chelation therapy. This is because chelating agents bind with and remove so many different metals from the body that some essential vitamins and minerals are left behind.
What Other Conditions Can Chelation Therapy Treat?
Chelation therapy is FDA-approved for only a few specific indications, such as poisoning by heavy metals like iron, arsenic, and mercury. However, many people use chelation therapy for conditions not approved by the FDA, including cardiovascular disease and autism. They may claim that chelation therapy prevents heart attacks and stroke or improves the mental function of people with Alzheimer’s disease. However, there’s no scientific evidence that these claims are valid.
Some practitioners believe chelation therapy can treat heart disease by treating the deposits (atherosclerosis) clogging arteries. They think the EDTA in chelation therapy sticks to and removes calcium from these deposits, thus reducing the risk of future heart problems. However, the Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy (TACT) didn’t show that EDTA treatment reduces heart attack or stroke risk; other studies haven’t confirmed these results.
Another potential problem with chelation therapy is that it can remove other metals your body needs, such as copper and zinc. This can lead to a deficiency of these essential substances, which can cause health problems such as low blood levels of calcium and damage to the kidneys. In addition, if the chelating drugs aren’t appropriately administered or for too long, they can cause severe side effects such as hypocalcemia and damage to the liver or kidneys. This is why chelation therapy should only be used with prescription drugs under a doctor’s supervision.