New Jersey may ban alternative heart therapy

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From: http://www.app.com/app2001/story/0,21133,621245,00.html

New Jersey may ban alternative heart therapy

Published in the Asbury Park Press 9/23/02

By JAMES W. PRADO ROBERTS

STAFF WRITER

E. s says a controversial medical treatment is the reason he is

alive today.

Herbert Camp, with Dr. Ivan Krohn, gets chelation therapy for swollen ankles.

Camp says chelation has improved the circulation to his feet.

Since the treatment, his blood pressure dropped, and he no longer suffers

angina attacks. " I believe it saved my life, " s, 76, of Ocean Township,

said.

But New Jersey soon may become the only state to ban the treatment, chelation

therapy, for patients like s who want to avoid heart surgery.

The American Heart Association and the chairman of the state Board of Medical

Examiners, which regulates physicians in the state, called the therapy

unproven.

Some patients disagree. Billie West, 64, of Neptune said chelation healed

sores on her legs, enabling her to walk again. Stefan Stos, 72, of Toms River

said he can mow his lawn again without shortness of breath.

First used in the 1940s to rid the body of lead and other heavy metals,

chelation (pronounced key-LAY--shun) therapy is conducted by infusing the

drug EDTA into a patient over the course of about two hours. Used in metal

poisonings, the drug binds to metals in the blood stream, which are passed

out of the body in urine.

The intravenous drug treatment also is used by about 20 doctors in the state

on thousands of patients to treat hardening of the arteries. The doctors who

use the therapy say that in all but the most acute cases, chelation can be

used to help patients avoid bypass surgery and other invasive procedures.

Dr. Allan Magaziner, who said he has 1,000 chelation patients in his Cherry

Hill practice, contends it can reduce the risk of stroke and heart attack.

His first patient was his mother, who was once told 16 years ago she needed

open-heart surgery or she would die, he said.

" She has never had bypass surgery, and she is still alive today, " Magaziner

said.

However, until now, there have been no rigorous medical studies of the

treatment, and conventional cardiologists and heart surgeons say that because

there is no evidence that it is beneficial, it shouldn't be used.

But, on Aug. 7, in the first large-scale study of the treatment, the National

Institutes of Health announced a $30 million, five-year review involving

2,372 patients to evaluate whether chelation is safe and effective. More than

800,000 patient visits for chelation were made in 1997 in the United States,

according to the health institutes.

No deaths have been reported, but there have been some rare side effects such

as kidney injury, according to the institutes.

The state medical board is considering banning doctors from treating patients

with chelation therapy unless they have heavy metal poisoning, the only

ailment the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved for the use of

EDTA, according to board Chairman Dr. V. Harrer.

" My concern is that people are delaying significant treatment because they

feel they are getting a benefit from chelation therapy, " even though there is

no scientific evidence to claim that chelation therapy treats heart disease,

Harrer said.

Physicians who use chelation therapy to treat patients with arteriosclerotic

heart disease believe the drug can clean out cholesterol plaque deposits in

the body's circulatory system if patients also exercise and improve their

diets. Performed once a week at first, each treatment costs about $100. It is

not usually covered by medical insurance.

If chelation is banned in New Jersey, " some of the older folks will just die

quietly, " said Dr. Ivan Krohn of Brick, who treats some 70 patients with

chelation therapy. " They will have heart attacks and strokes and just go

downhill. It would kill people by withholding treatment. "

More than 500,000 Americans die of coronary artery disease every year. It is

the leading cause of death among Americans.

" The only thing that chelation clears out is the wallet, " said Dr.

Dennis, chairman of the cardiology department at Deborah Heart and Lung

Center, Browns Mills section of Pemberton, and the immediate past president

of the heart association's branch that covers New Jersey, Connecticut, New

York City and Long Island.

Nevertheless, Dennis said he had philosophic concerns over the medical

board's banning doctors from using approved drugs and treatments for

alternative therapies. Doctors routinely use prescription drugs to treat

ailments even though the FDA has not cleared the drug for that purpose. One

drug approved only to treat high blood pressure has been used to stem heart

failure as well, Dennis said.

" If they ban (chelation) and it turns out to be effective, I think they would

be in some trouble, " Dennis said.

On July 10, the state medical board voted to propose regulations banning the

use of chelation therapy except for patients with heavy metal poisoning. The

next month the National Institutes of Health announced that it was funding

its five-year study. Then in August, more than 50 members of the public

attended a medical board meeting to tell board members how chelation saved

their lives. In response to both the public response and the NIH study, the

board referred the issue to its executive committee for further study.

" It's on hold, and no final decisions are made one way or the other, " said

Genene , a spokeswoman for the state division of Consumer Affairs,

which oversees the medical board.

Herbert Camp, 81, of Wall, who started chelation treatment for swollen ankles

this month, said chelation has improved the circulation to his feet. After

three weekly treatments with Krohn, during which EDTA is infused for more

than two hours, his feet don't feel like ice at night anymore.

" My feet get warmer, " Camp said. " I used to put three blankets on the foot of

my bed in the summer. "

Now, he said, he doesn't use as many blankets.

W. Prado : (732) 643-4223 or jwr@...