It's Only Natural
Chapter XXII
The Wonders Of Chelation
There's a new therapy on the horizon that may prove a boon to many patients with disorders that heretofore have resisted some of our best efforts. This therapy is known as blood chelation. Chelation is a process in which a metal ion-such as lead, mercury, zinc, and calcium-becomes bound or chelated with a protein molecule to form a separate substance.
In medicine this process has been used in two ways: First, it is an excellent manner in which to combine certain mineral ions for use in nutritional supplementation. It is believed by many physicians experienced in this field to be one of the most satisfactory ways to prescribe supplemental minerals. Second, specific chelating agents can be injected into the veins to combine with mineral substances present in the blood with subsequent elimination by the kidneys. By this process the bloodstream and other tissues of the body can be freed of toxic or injurious substances. This second type of chelation is discussed here.
Because this procedure consists of introducing into the venous blood supply a substance not inherently natural to the body, although it is nontoxic, this method wouldn't normally come under the heading of natural treatment. Also, because chelation requires venous injection, it can only be done legally in this country by a medical or an osteopathic physician. We have added it to the therapies given at the Healing Research Centers, however, because there is no more practical nor harmless way of accomplishing its results. A great amount of evidence supports the claim that EDTA chelation not only can remove heavy metals from the blood, but also can help in increasing blood supply though arteries diseased by arteriosclerosis .
Despite such glowing claims, we haven't become fanatical about chelation at the Clymer Health Clinic; we use it only when we are sure that other less expensive and more natural treatments have been ineffective. Chelation by itself is rarely a complete answer to the patient's problem under any circumstances, because even though it may remove the immediate causes of his difficulties, unless he changes the habits that produced these difficulties originally, the condition will return again. Chelation aids the natural treatment of the patient, but it is not a substitute for the usual methods and techniques used at our Centers.
History
Chelation-this "new" method of therapy-has been used in medicine for more than twenty years, and it has been put to a wide range of applications in many medical centers throughout the world. The most universally used substance for this type of chelation is a compound called EDTA. EDTA was first used in 1948 to chelate lead from persons with lead poisoning, and it is still used for this purpose today. It has proven of particular use in children who have been poisoned by eating lead-base paints. Chelation has also been used in such conditions as mercury poisoning, radioactive metal toxicity, scleroderma, snake bite, and in calcinosis. Only somewhat recently have physicians begun to use chelation for vascular atheromatous disease.
Concurrent with the investigation of this agent in the common vascular disorders, biochemists and biophysicists are becoming intrigued with the wide range of physiologic metal chelation that occurs at the microcellular level of enzymatic reactions in the body-particularly in regard to such metals as potassium, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, calcium, zinc, and copper. Most basic chemical functions within our body are brought about through the operation of various enzymes and enzyme-like substances. Most enzymes are able to function properly because of certain specific amounts of various trace minerals that are a part of their integral substance.
If the trace mineral balance can be altered by various toxic substances in our body and the toxic substances can be removed through chelation, much of the future in medicine may well center on chelation. This work could open large vistas into a wide range of disorders for which both the cause and possible treatment have heretofore been vague or undetermined. Such conditions as the psychotic disorders, the so-called collagenous diseases, and many disorders of metabolism and enzyme deficiencies may be helped by chelation.
All physicians know that their offices are filled with patients with vague and unexplainable ills. Most of these patients are treated as neurotics and given various tranquilizers or are encouraged to undergo psychotherapy. Is it not possible that what these patients really have is a disorder of the enzymatic balance of their body, probably owing to the intake of the many toxic substances that now pervade our environment? If chelation can help to re-establish normal enzymatic function, think of what a boon it could be to a large percentage of our population. At present, however, the most immediately encouraging results of chelation are in the various so-called degenerative diseases, for which there have been very few successful therapies.
Disorders that Chelation Can Help
Following is a list of conditions successfully treated by chelation that has been assembled by physicians who did much of the early research work. Many of these problems are common and are generally considered incurable: scleroderma; digitalis intoxication; heavy-metal poisoning (especially acute plumbism); calcinosis (pipestem calcinosis of the vessels, prostatic calcinosis); vascular atheromatous disorders including atherosclerosis, atheromatous deposits, arteriosclerosis obliterans, peripheral vascular insufficiency with intermittent claudication, and acute brain syndrome secondary to cerebral ischemia secondary to calcific atherosclerosis; myocardial or coronary insufficiency; collagenosis; arteriosclerosis including cerebrovascular arteriosclerosis; arthritis including hypertrophic and rheumatoid; calcific tendinosis; calculi; diabetic retinopathy; multiple sclerosis; macular degeneration of the retina; cataracts; Parkinsonism; emphysema; poisonous snake and insect bites; calcified necrotic ulcers; heart valve calcification; hemochromatosis; calcific bursitis; calcified granulomas; and hypertension.
This list was made up for physicians, and many of the names may be so much Greek to you. I will try, however, to single out some of the more important conditions and describe them in simple terms.
Scleroderma
Scleroderma is little known, and yet it is a disease that most physicians will encounter in their regular practice. It often accompanies the vascular condition known as Raynaud's disease. In scleroderma, the skin of the fingertips becomes very hard, and can feel almost like bone. The EDTA chelation treatment for this condition is so successful that Medicare will pay for it. Medicare will also pay for chelation therapy in digitalis poisoning, which can occur when a heart patient has had large doses of digitalis for too long a time.
Lead Poisoning
Chelation is almost specific for lead poisoning (plumbism) and insurances under the banner of IND will pay for chelation when used for an overabundance of lead in the blood.
I have recently read propaganda put out by various oil companies attempting to convince us that we are worrying unnecessarily about the use of lead in automotive fuels. They say that the small amount of lead that these fuels put into the air isn't going to hurt us in any way, shape, or form. Not long ago the Philadelphia Zoo was having considerable trouble with illnesses of many of their animals. When blood tests were taken of the animals, high lead levels were found. This zoo is located near several large highways, and the zoo officials stated that they were definitely positive that the only way these animals could have obtained such high lead levels was from breathing the fumes produced by vehicles on these highways. If this can occur in zoo animals, it can surely occur in man. Toxicities with lead, mercury, and other heavy metals are today not just a possibility but are a definite endemic problem.
Arteriosclerosis
Pipestem calcinosis is merely one form of arteriosclerosis in which heavy deposits of calcium have been laid down in blood vessel walls to such a degree that the blood vessel feels like a pipestem when palpated. This problem is related to other vascular atheromatous disorders, including arteriosclerosis, atheromatous deposits, arteriosclerosis obliterans, and peripheral vascular insufficiency with intermittent claudication. All these conditions are related to fatty and mineral deposition on the blood vessel walls. These deposits diminish blood flow and raise the blood pressure. Depending on the vessels affected, we are presented with a variety of symptoms.
If the clogging is in the legs, it can cause intermittent claudication, in which the legs cramp after walking a short distance owing to lack of oxygen in the muscles. If the coronary arteries of the heart become narrowed, the condition is called angina pectoris. If they close off entirely, a heart attack or cardiac arrest results. If the affected vessels are in the brain, the clogging could cause a stroke; if it is just general diffuse narrowing, a loss of balance. forgetfulness, and the vague psychotic symptoms of the general senile syndrome may result. The symptoms are many but the condition is basically the same, and one that more and more physicians believe can respond advantageously to the chelation therapy.
Arthritis
What is here called hypertrophic arthritis is also known as osteoarthritis. According to many authorities, both this and rheumatoid arthritis respond well to chelation. Because in rheumatoid arthritis very little calcification occurs, such response must be related to the detoxifying effects of chelation and perhaps to its normalization of enzyme function. At present, its mode of operation is not certain, but physicians who have used it are convinced that it is beneficial in rheumatoid arthritis.
Eye Disorders
Diabetic retinopathy, macular degeneration of the retina, and cataracts seem to be due to deterioration of the blood vessels of the eye and the resultant poor circulation to the eye tissues. Wherever the disease is caused by impaired circulation, chelation will be of help.
Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's Disease and Emphysema
Chelation has also been suggested for treating multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, and emphysema. If these conditions have been treated successfully by chelation, as some authorities relate, such success is probably due to the correction of enzyme imbalances .
How Chelation Works
Chelation is a most interesting therapy, and it is of particular interest to the natural physician in that, like his remedies but unlike those of the allopath, most of its side effects have proven useful and not harmful. For instance many of the conditions such as emphysema and Parkinsonism, that have been helped by chelation were originally helped as side effects-the chelation had been given for some other problem, but in the process the emphysema and Parkinsonism were also helped.
If I may be allowed to theorize a bit, it seems that chelation could be called a natural therapy. Evidence shows it isn't the chelating agent alone that produces so much of the benefit, but rather that the chelating agent simply removes certain congesting and inhibiting substances that have held the vital healing force of the body in bondage. Once these bonds are loosened by EDTA, the vital force can go about its job once again to heal and stabilize the body.
Most physicians who use chelation have been surprised to find that their patients continue to report progress and improvement for several months after the original chelation therapy is finished. From their knowledge of the agent, these physicians know that there is no effect from the chelating agent itself over this period because ninety-eight per cent of the EDTA is eliminated within forty-eight hours. I believe only the liberating of the natural healing force of the body can account for these excellent prolonged effects.
When properly handled, chelation has proven entirely safe. However, it must only be carried out by those well versed in its requirements. The patients must be given a very thorough examination before chelation can be used. Those with healed tubercular lesions of the lungs and/or severe renal disease are generally not accepted for therapy. In the first instance, chelation might break down the calcium around the healed tubercular lesions, releasing the tubercular bacillus. In the second, because the chelated compound must be eliminated by the kidneys, a certain degree of kidney function must be assured or the toxic compounds released can't be eliminated and the kidneys are further damaged. If the condition is a matter of life and death, the physician may take a chance and use chelation with poor kidney function. There are many reports of this being done with great benefit to the patient.
Some practitioners give chelation therapy only in the hospital; such cautious care is not generally required. It is necessary, however, for each patient to be watched carefully during the chelation, and most physicians usually don't have the facilities for carrying this out. At the Healing Research Centers we are fortunate in having sufficient room and personnel for carrying out chelation safely and effectively without the cost and regimentation of hospitalization. A portion of our staff devotes its entire time and energies to caring for chelation patients. In this way, we believe we can give the most effective, safe, and inexpensive service.
Chelation treatments can be given as often as every day, or we can take our time and spread out the treatments to give the body time for its healing work. Patients who stay at our Centers are usually given five treatments a week; local patients may be treated by the more leisurely method. After the initial series is over, the patients are checked in three to six months; if necessary, another series of five treatments is then given. Many mild enzyme imbalance disorders can be helped with a simple series of five treatments. Almost all the conditions in which there is an overabundance of calcium require a full series of fifteen to twenty treatments.
Parting Words
In the years to come, you will hear more about chelation. It isn't a perfect cure, but it offers more help for certain heretofore untreatable disorders than any other form of therapy at present. By itself, chelation therapy can be very useful, but when combined with other forms of natural therapy it can be a godsend to those with certain afflictions. I hope that none of my readers ever need chelation therapy, but if the need should arise you can rejoice that such a method is available.