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.