The Self-Treatment Guide

by Dean Moyer

Chelation therapy is a method used by physicians to remove calcium deposits from the arteries in an attempt to combat heart disease. It involves intravenous injections of a chemical known as EDTA (or ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid) directly into the bloodstream where it apparently dissolves the calcium.

When medical researchers first began to investigate heart disease it was believed that calcium deposits caused hardening of the arteries. However, as knowledge in this area increased, it eventually became clear that the calcium deposits lining the damaged arteries was merely a symptom of the disease and not the cause, after all.

A few proponents of chelation still believe that there are health benefits of removing the calcium deposits and that EDTA is a viable alternative to heart surgery. Unfortunately, there are only anecdotal stories to support this theory. All of the research indicates that chelation therapy is not effective for reversing or preventing atherosclerosis.

The Research

There has been very little research done on chelation therapy probably because most scientists are satisfied by the findings of the initial tests and have since moved on to other areas. So far, I’ve been able to find only two studies worthy of mention.

One study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association involving 84 people with coronary artery disease compared chelation therapy to an identical sham treatment where they omitted the EDTA. In this study, both groups improved equally whether they received the placebo or the real chelation treatment. [2]

As one author I read pointed out; if they hadn’t used a double-blind test involving a control group and a placebo, it would have been easy to mistakenly conclude that chelation actually worked.

Instead, the fact that the placebo worked just as well as chelation indicates that some other factor played a part in the improvements.

The second study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology was conducted to see if chelation was advantageous when used along with conventional treatment for coronary artery disease. The results of that study didn’t find any benefit to suggest the use of EDTA. [3]

The Answer Clearly Lies Elsewhere

The general consensus among medical experts is that chelation is not effective for the treatment of coronary heart disease or what we laymen would call “hardening of the arteries.”

It’s not a matter of conventional medicine being opposed to “alternative” treatments because conventional medicine developed the theory in the first place.

By the way, chelation therapy is not a “natural” treatment modality.

EDTA is a conventional drug — manufactured by mainstream pharmaceutical companies — and, therefore, any argument that chelation is being suppressed by “the establishment” is simply groundless.

This process is still commonly used by conventional medicine to remove heavy metals such as lead from the body and, if it were effective for atherosclerosis, they would be the first to utilize it.

Instead, most doctors recognize that removing the calcium deposits is simply not an effective treatment for coronary artery disease. It is nothing more than a futile attempt to treat the symptom rather than the cause. They have chosen instead to focus their efforts on finding a cure.

Bibliography:

1. Ernst E. Chelation therapy for coronary heart disease: An overview of all clinical investigations. Am Heart J. 2000;140:4-5.
2. Knudtson ML, Wyse DG, Galbraith PD, et al. Chelation therapy for ischemic heart disease: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA. 2002;287:481-486.
3. Anderson TJ, Hubacek J, Wyse DG, et al. Effect of chelation therapy on endothelial function in patients with coronary artery disease: PATCH substudy. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2003;41:420-425.

by Dean Moyer

I’ve been a “health nut” my entire life. In fact, I have a whole cupboard full of vitamins, minerals, herbs, essential oils and other products from the health food store to prove it. (Most of which I know I don’t really need.)

I quite literally can’t remember a time when I wasn’t aware of, steeped in, fed upon or indoctrinated with all the latest natural health trends.

But you know what? After years of taking all this stuff for this, that and the other thing… usually with no visible results… it finally started to dawn on me that taking a pill really wasn’t natural.

After all, these pills don’t grow on trees. They’re manufactured in some processing plant by a huge corporation that is no different than any other business except for the fact that they’ve decided to tap into the highly profitable and highly gullible “natural health” marketplace.

Time to Rethink Things

I think it’s time we health nuts stopped kidding ourselves.

I think it’s time we stop letting the multi-billion dollar health food industry pull the wool over our eyes. It’s time we quit swallowing all the hype and publicity found in the books and magazines and TV talk shows… and start to demand real scientific evidence to back up product claims.

It’s time we stopped falling for all the miracle pills and potions that they are literally trying to shove down our throats at $30.00 a bottle.

If we can’t (and I definitely don’t) trust the big drug companies… why do we turn right around and trust the big supplement makers?

After all, the so-called “natural” vitamin manufacturers are huge corporations run by the same type of people who run the giant drug companies. There isn’t a nickels worth of difference between them. They would sell you a worthless bottle of empty promises faster than you can say, “How much?”

And don’t think they wouldn’t.

Still Crazy After All These Years

Make no mistake… I’m still a health nut and a strong advocate for nutrition, exercise and natural, healthy living.

I still get a few products from the health food store — not because they’re “natural” — but simply because it’s the only place I know of to get certain items.

But I’m not as pill crazy as I used to be. I want to see scientific evidence before I shell out my hard-earned money for the latest wonder product. And when I do take something, I do so with the full knowledge that I’m taking a refined, processed chemical… NOT a natural food.

Now I’m not saying you should never take any kind of nutritional supplement… I’ll leave that decision up to you and your doctor.

However, for the most part, instead of pills to supplement my diet, I’ve chosen to do things like juicing and just making sure I eat a well-balanced diet of whole, unprocessed foods.

So far, I seem to be getting along just fine.

Don’t take any wooden nickels,
Dean

Someone sent me this the other day… I thought it was pretty funny:

1. I can’t reach my license unless you hold my beer. (OK in Texas)

2. Sorry, Officer, I didn’t realize my radar detector wasn’t plugged in.

3. Hey, aren’t you the guy from the Village People?

4. Wow, you must’ve been doin’ about 125 mph to keep up with me. Good job!

5. Are You Andy or Barney?

6. I thought you had to be in relatively good physical condition to be a police officer.

7. You’re not gonna check the trunk, are you?

8. I pay your salary!

9. Gee, Officer… that’s terrific! The last officer only gave me a warning, too!

10. Do you know why you pulled me over? Okay, just so one of us does.

11. I was trying to keep up with traffic. Yes, I know there are no other
cars around… That’s how far ahead of me they are.

12. When the Officer says “Gee, your eyes look red, have you been drinking?” You probably shouldn’t respond with, “Gee, Officer, your eyes look glazed, have you been eating doughnuts?”

The more research I do into so-called natural remedies, the more I run into one common denominator; placebo… placebo… placebo…

I wish it were not so. I wish I could report on scientific studies proving that the alternative treatments actually worked. But unfortunately, that is seldom the case.

Take for example, a recent blog post by Julianne Chickering entitled, Natural Remedies Are Not Inherently Sate, or Effective.

In her post she points to an article published in the July 24 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, which reviewed no less then 70 studies of alternative therapies currently being used for the treatment of menopausal symptoms:

As more and more women and health care providers shy away from the traditional estrogen treatment because of its possible associated risks, complementary and alternative treatments are becoming increasingly popular.

She then points out that even though these treatments are becoming “popular” that doesn’t have anything to do with how they perform:

It turns out, however, that the efficacy of these treatments relies a great deal on whether or not you believe them to work.

Keep in mind as you read this that it is not nature that failed here. Nature didn’t make a mistake. Science didn’t make a mistake. It is the so-called “alternative treatments” being peddled as “natural” that always turn out to be hoaxes.

Anne Nedrow, M.D. and colleagues reviewed 70 previously completed studies of complementary and alternative therapies used to treat menopause-related symptoms. Their findings… showed that a strong placebo effect was about the only consistent result.

Chickering goes on to write:

Included in the techniques studied were herbal supplements, acupuncture, massage, visualization techniques, and listening to sonic waves. Some of the therapies resulted in an improvement over no treatment when women were asked to rate symptoms such as hot flash frequency, sleep disturbance, sexual dysfunction, and quality-of-life changes; however, often the improvement was almost equivalent to the improvement experienced by the placebo group.

I truly believe that nature holds the key to curing most, if not all, of the diseases that plague mankind.

Whether it’s something as simple as understanding the biomechanics of exercise or as complex as stem-cell research, the more we can learn from nature the better off we’re going to be.

At the same time, there is little question that we consumers need to be more cautious when it comes to choosing alternative therapies. We need to investigate these products thoroughly before putting them into our bodies.

There are far too many people who are just out to sell us something… whether it’s the drug companies, the health food industry or the various quacks that masquerade as healers. We can’t afford to trust something just because it happens to be popular.

Fortunately, the scientific community is doing research into these so-called natural remedies and providing us with a second opinion that we can consider before making a purchase.

Do your homework,
Dean