Health Minutes 12/03/2002 Chelation therapy

[Guest guest]

Chelation therapy

12 March 2002

with Norman Swan

There's a theory around that a variety of

metals are

involved in atherosclerosis — the

pathological process that leads to heart

disease and stroke.

Some people take this idea further and say

that if you leach out these metals — like

lead, copper, magnesium, zinc, iron, and

especially calcium — from your system, you

could halt or reverse heart disease.

It's called chelation, and there's an

industry out there giving intravenous

infusions of a chemical called EDTA which

is supposed to bind the metals and

eliminate them.

In chelation treatment, the so-called

'good metals' are often returned in

supplements.

Chelation therapy is expensive though, and

while there is a little evidence to

suggest it doesn't have major side

effects, the question is whether it's

worth the time and money.

And an even bigger issue when you have a

potentially life-threatening condition is

whether you'd abandon regular and proven

therapies for chelation.

The balance of evidence from trials to

date have not shown benefit, and a new

study has just been published where they

tried to fix up deficiencies in previous

research.

The people in the trial had definite heart

disease — proven on X-ray, or by the fact

they that they had already had a heart

attack or angina.

Then both the chelation and the placebo

groups were tested repeatedly for their

exercise tolerance and the time they took

to develop signs of reduced blood going to

the heart. They were all also put on the

best medical treatments available.

The results showed that everyone improved

but the chelation made no extra

difference.

So if you're offered chelation, it's

probably best to save your money.

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