Chelation Therapy in the Context of the Anti-aging Pyramid  

Chelation is a natural process of life used by many biological systems to transport minerals in and out of tissues.

It is also currently used for many pharmacological processes in conventional as well as in alternative medicine.

Life cannot exist without the process of Chelation /
	Hemoglobin, Catalse, Citochrome C and Peroxidase are all chelates of Iron.
	Vitamin B12 is a chelate of Cobalt.
	Chlorophyll is a chelate of Magnesium.
	Tetracyclines act through the chelating of Zinc.

In this article we are however concerned mostly with a man made chelating agent which spans many decades of use and has an illustrious if not, as we will see, most contrasted history: ETHYL-DIAMINE TETRACETIC ACID ( EDTA )  

Chelation therapy, in the context of anti-aging therapy, is one I am most interested in promulgating.

One of the main benefits of EDTA Chelation therapy is its ability to quench free radicals.  Free radical pathology (oxidative stress) is the kernel of all aging processes.

Chelation therapy has therefore far-reaching benefits and is one of the best rejuvenating therapies.

As British researchers have noted, concentrations of aluminum, lead, mercury, cadmium and arsenic increase as we age.  When we remove toxic metals that have accumulated over the years, we, in essence, are restoring our cells and enzymatic systems to a younger and healthier state.  By removing calcium from the walls of the vast capillary bed, we reduce the rigidity of the vessels and create a larger capillary pathway.  This enhanced capillary circulation brings nutrient-rich blood to the most distant of our body’s cells, and carries away waste and carbon dioxide.  

CARDIOMYOPATHIES AND TOXIC METALS

Historical data on Chelation Therapy

Year1983 /

The revolutionary concept of Chelation began all the way back in 1893 when the Swiss Nobel Laureate, Alfred Werner broke away from the simplistic linear Valency Concept and envisioned the Stereothrophic ring formation

Year 1930 /

EDTA was first synthesized in Nazi Germany in the late 1930 for industrial purpose.  The German textile industry was concerned with the possibility that the USA and other western Countries might embargo the Acetic acid used to remove Calcium from their heavy waters and turned to their chemists for a substitute.

The result was a product 4 times more capable of binding to calcium the Ethyl-diamine-tetra-acetic acid. (EDTA ).

Years 1933 and 1935 /

A patent for EDTA was filed in Germany in 1935.  The medical application of EDTA therapy was however first conducted in USA.  The work of the chemist, Frederick Bersworth in 1933, at Clark University in MA, paved the way.

His research was encouraged by the desire of the government to find safe antidotes against possible chemical warfare that relied on heavy metals Intoxication. (Nothing is new under the sun!!)

EDTA emerged as one of the most effective substances.

Year 1941 /

Bersworth applied for the EDTA patent .He chooses the NaEDTA

Year 1947 /

Their observations generated the interest that prompted the physicians at Walter Red Army Hospital to use EDTA to dissolve renal and bladder calculi

Year 1955 /

In 1955, Dr. Norman Clark, Sr. reported on the benefits of using EDTA Chelation therapy to remove pathological calcium deposits and how this procedure could be used to treat a variety of clinical disorders. A year later, he reported on the beneficial effects of this therapy for patients with angina pectoris due to coronary artery disease. Several clinical studies confirmed this initial observation.

Norman Clark and other pioneer in the clinical use of EDTA Chelation therapy created ACAM, an organization of more than 450 physicians, who use Chelation therapy to treat cardiovascular disease in their practices.

In a retrospective study of 844 patients with cardiac disease, Olszewer and Carter using objective criteria reported 76.9% marked improvement and

17%  good improvement.

In that same study, of 1130 patients with peripheral vascular disease, 91% exhibited marked improvement and 8% showed good improvement.  A small double-blind placebo controlled published study by the same authors involving patients with intermittent claudicatio,resulted in highly significant findings with all of the treatment group and none of the placebo.

In a 1991 study, Rudolph ET. al. clearly showed the reversal of atherosclerotic plaques in the carotid arteries of patients receiving EDTA Chelation therapy. 

Thirty patients with significant carotid artery atherosclerotic stenosis were evaluated with doppler ultrasound imaging before and after 30 EDTA infusions over a 10 month period.

The results were striking and highly significant. Overall intra-arterial obstruction decreased by more than 20%. Patients with more severe stenosis had even greater reduction. Results were significant at P < O.O01.23

Unacceptable bias /

In 1992 a group of Danish vascular surgeons conducted a bogus trial of EDTA Chelation therapy for intermittent claudicatio.

This study was followed by an acrimonious debate in the media for at least a year between chelating physicians and the surgeons.

The study is flawed and biased. The experimental design included having patients chew up and swallow multivitamin and mineral tablets containing iron during the infusion. . The iron would combine with EDTA and interfere with the Chelation process Contrary to the ACAM protocol, which the investigators claimed to be following, the researchers used disodium EDTA without magnesium.

Disodium EDTA without magnesium or local anesthetic causes burning at the infusion site in a significant number of patients, rendering the double blind attempt impossible  Yet no difference was found in this symptom between the control group and the treatment group.

During interviews conducted by chelating physicians participants in the study, testified to extreme investigator bias and confusion about controls and treatment groups.

A Finnish study implicated excessive iron in the body as a major risk factor for heart disease caused by the Fenton reaction in which iron is responsible for excessive production of hydroxyl radicals.  Removal of excessive iron by EDTA Chelation therapy is probably one of the important benefits.

Chelation therapy is very useful in hemosiderosis.

Mechanisms of action of EDTA Chelation therapy /

The basic action of EDTA is to bind or chelate minerals, which are then removed from the body, primarily through the kidneys. This activity results in a variety of physiological changes, such as the lowering of serum calcium.  This drop in calcium then stimulates the parathyroid glands to mobilize calcium from the tissues. It is this mechanism that is implicated in the reduction of calcium content in the newly formed atheromatous plaques.

EDTA controls reduction in lipid peroxidation, one of the most damaging of all free radical effect.

EDTA also reduces platelet aggregation and improves mitochondria function, as we will see in the slices on cardiomyopathies.

Toxic metals often take the place of important minerals in vital enzymes rendering them ineffective. Removal of toxic metals is one of  EDTA main function.

Overall benefits /

Because of its complex mechanisms of action, Chelation therapy has been effective in promoting the healing of a wide variety of seemingly unrelated ailments, such as cardiovascular disease, Parkinson’s disease, impotence and multiple sclerosis.  According to Chelation experts, Dr. Elmer M. Cranton and Dr. James P. Frackelton, “EDTA Chelation therapy combined with supplemental antioxidants and reduction of deleterious life style habits ,acts to prevent and partially reverse many common age-associated diseases, which cause disability and death through a common pathway of free radical pathology.”

Toxic metals and cancer /

Toxic metals play a large role in many diseases and their removal alleviates many disparate conditions. Chelation therapy reduces free radicals and restores immun-functions.

In an 18-year retrospective study conducted in a Swiss city adjacent to a heavily traveled highway, Dr. Cranton and Dr. Walter Blumer found that patients who were treated with calcium EDTA for lead toxicity had 90% less incidence of cancer compared to untreated city residents, who constituted the control group.” Toxic metals trigger the worse types of oxidative stress.      

Although EDTA Chelation therapy is approved by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) for lead and digitalis toxicity, it has remained controversial because of its other “off-label” uses.  And yet even the American Medical Association admits  that up to 60% of all prescriptions written by mainstream physicians are for other than approved uses.

Another often heard criticism is that the therapy has not undergone double-blind controlled studies. Interestingly enough, according to a report released by the federal government’s Office of Technology Assessment, only 10% to 20% of the treatments used by mainstream physicians have been evaluated in controlled clinical studies.    In reality, a double blind study was attempted, but funding was withdrawn by a pharmaceutical company after the initial offer.  Although this company stood to financially benefit from the research, the industry at large would have lost significant revenues from products sold for the treatment of cardiovascular disease, cancer and other ailments. 

Chelation therapy suffers from the same dilemma as do many other successful alternative treatments – the lack of adequate funding to document its clinical success. .

Chelation therapy is currently being used effectively by over 1,000 physicians in the United States and has helped hundreds of thousands of people.  The best way to find a physician who has been properly trained (board certified) in Chelation therapy is to contact the American College for Advancement in Medicine.  Safety of EDTA Chelation therapy

A clinical study in 1961 established the safety of EDTA Chelation therapy when an appropriate protocol is followed.

In 1986 /

An END was issued by the FDA to study EDTA in the treatment of peripheral vascular diseases.  The FDA waived all safety requirements, safety having been established behind doubt when following the ACAM protocol.

It is estimated by ACAM that over 500,000 patients have received 10 to 12 million infusions of EDTA  without a single fatality attributed to the treatment. What other treatment can make such a claim?

REFERENCES:

1.  Clarke NE, Clarke CN, Mosher RE: The in vivo dissolution of metastatic calcium. American J Med Sci 1955; 229:142-149.

2. Clarke NE, Clarke CN, Mosher RE: The treatment of angina pectoris with disodium EDTA. Amer J Med Sci 1956; 232:654-656.

3. Clark NE: Atherosclerosis, occlusive vascular disease and EDTA. Am J Cardiol 1960; 6(2):233-236.

4.  Meltzer LE, Lawrence E, Ural M, Erdal, Kitchell JR, Roderick

J: The treatment of coronary artery disease with disodium EDTA. In: Metal-Binding in Medicine, 132, Seven MJ(edit), Philadelphia. 32 Lippincott, 1960.

5  Kitchell JR, Palmon F Jr, Aytan N, et al: The treatment of coronary artery disease with disodium EDTA; a reappraisal. Amer j Cardiology 1962; 11:501-506.

6.  Lamar CP: Chelation therapy of occlusive arteriosclerosis in diabetic patients. Angiology  1964; 15:379-394.

7.  Lamar CP: Chelation endarterectomy for occlusive arteriosclerosis.  J Am Ger Soc 1966; 14(3):272-294.

8.  Nikitina ER, Abramova MS: Treatment of atherosclerosis patients with Trilone-B .Kardioloaiia 1972; 12(11):137-139.

9.  Casdorph HR: EDTA Chelation therapy, efficacy in arteriosclerotic heart disease. J Holistic Med 1981; 3(l):53-59.

10.Olszewer E, Carter JP: EDTA Chelation therapy: a retrospective study of 2,870 patients. Medical Hypothesis 1988; 27:41-49.

11.Cranton EM, Frackelton JP: Current status of EDTA Chelation therapy in occlusive arterial disease. J Holistic Med 1982; 4(1):24-33.

12. Olszewer E, Sabbag FC, Carter JP: A pilot double-blind study of sodium-magnesium EDTA in peripheral vascular disease. The National Medical Journal 1990; 82(3);173-177.

13. Unpublished communication, available from ACAM

14. Culdager B, Jelnes R, Jorgensn SJ, et al:EDTA treatment of intermittent claudication--a double blind, placebo controlled study. J Int Med 1992; 231:261-257.

15. Frackelton JP:Unpublished communication to Dr. Jules Hallum of the Office of Scientific Integrity, National Institute of Health in Bethesda; April 29; 1992.

16. Gordon GB, Vance RB:EDTA treatment for atherosclerosis--history and mechanisms of action. Osteooathic Annals 1979;4:38-62.

17. Halstead, BW: The  Scientific  Basis  of  EDTA  Chelation Therapy, Colton, California. Golden Quill Publishers, Inc., 1979; 113p.

18. Cranton EM, Frackelton JP: Free radical pathology in age-associated diseases: treatment with EDTA Chelation, nutrition, and antioxidants. A Textbook on EDTA Chelation Therapy: Special issue of the Journal of Advancement in Medicine 1989:2(1,2): 17-54.

19.  Salonen JT: High stored iron levels are associated with excess risk of myocardial infarction in Eastern Finnish men. Circulation 1992; 86(3):803—811.

20. Meltzer LE, Kitchell JR, Palmon F Jr.: The long term use, side effects and toxicity of disodium ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA). Am J Med Sci 1961; 242:51-57.

21. Cranton EM: Protocol of the American College of Advancement in Medicine for the Safe and Effective Administration of EDTA Chelation therapy. A Textbook on EDTA Chelation Therapy: Special issue of the Journal of Advancement in Medicine    1929;2(1,2): 269-305.

22. Cranton EM(editor): A Textbook on EDTA Chelation Therapy:

Special issue of the Journal of Advancement in Medicine 1989; 2(1,2) : 416p, New York, New York, Human Science Press, Inc.

23. Rudolph CJ, McDonagh EW, Barber RK: A nonsurgical approach to obstructive carotid stenosis using EDTA Chelation. Journal of Advancement of Medicine 1991; 4(3):157-168.