Chelation Therapy: Unproven Claims and Unsound Theories according to the Quackwatch naysayer.
Alternative Heart Treatment Moving Into the Mainstream according to a Newsmax Health report published October 14, 2015.
Apparently the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health agrees, since they just awarded an $800,000 grant to Mount Sinai Medical Center of Florida and the Duke Clinical Research Institute, for a second study on chelation therapy. This follow-up study is to be a follow-up to the original study called the T.A.C.T. Trial, published in the American Heart Journal. The original study demonstrated that chelation therapy cut the risk of death for some heart patients by half, especially those who are also diabetic.
Since the last 1950, when the statin drugs first came available commercially, the mantra of heart disease prevention has been "take your statin drugs, eat a low fat diet, and do some exercise." How well is that working out for us? We have an epidemic of diabetes in the 21st century. Almost 10% of the population is diagnosed with diabetes, and it is estimated by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) that almost 30% of the population has diabetes but just hasn't been diagnosed yet, because they haven't checked.[1]
Recent findings suggest that in fact statins may cause diabetes - but that's the subject of a different article.
The following article appeared in MedScape on 10-16-15: "The Statin Diabetes Conundrum: Short-term Gain, Long-term Risk or Inconvenient Truth?" [2] The author opines: "I believe the full effect of statins in diabetes and the risk of statin-induced diabetes has been obfuscated by focusing upon short-term observations, combined clinical end points, and meta-analyses while quietly overlooking the lack of mortality benefit demonstrated in multiple well-conducted RCTs." In conclusion, the author states: "Reports that conclude that the benefits of statins outweigh the risks have probably underestimated the long-term risks of statin exposure and the deleterious consequences of long-term diabetes."
Suffice it to say that statins may not be the 100% pure gold for the treatment of heart disease that they have been purported to be. Diabetes is widely recognized as a significant risk factor for the development of both heart disease and cancer, once the patient has had diabetes for at least 8 years. One study reported a 363% increased risk of developing diabetes after taking statins for 15 years. Statins are generally prescribed for life, and most patients continue to take them - possibly because their insurance continues to pay for statin drugs.
Be that as it may, there are other forms of therapy for heart disease that may be more effective and less damaging. And the National Institutes of Health has finally made it possible to do the studies that would confirm or disprove this hypothesis.
Chelation therapy with EDTA (Ethylene Diamine Tetraacetic Acid) has been in use by "alternative" physicians since the 1950s. One of my colleagues had a strong family history of heart disease and experienced disabling heart disease by his late 20s. He began chelation therapy, and is still going strong at the age of 80, with no evidence of heart disease or diabetes. [3]
Is chelation therapy entirely without risk? There have been scattered reports of adverse effects - especially when the disodium form of EDTA was used incorrectly. Overall the therapy is very safe when done correctly with the appropriate medical monitoring of blood levels. In fact, chelation therapy can improve kidney failure - as reported in a 2003 article published in the New England Journal of Medicine.[4]
So... if you have heart disease, have trouble walking without chest pain, or leg pain, I urge you to consider chelation therapy. Your insurance will pay for the statin drugs, but not the chelation therapy. That may change in the distant future, but at the moment, the sad truth is that chelation therapy is not mainstream, no matter what the newspapers may say.
Mediterranean diet - or even low glycemic diet - get off the statin drugs, repair your nutritional status, give your mitochondria something to work with, and get the lead out with EDTA chelation therapy, and you may have a longer productive life.
To read more about chelation therapy, click here.
Call us at 480-240-2600 to speak with one of our new patient coordinators for further information or to schedule a free 15-minute phone consultation with one of our practitioners.
[1] http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/data/statistics/2014statisticsreport.html Downloaded 10/16/2015.
[2] DuBroff RJ. The Statin Diabetes Conundrum: Short-term Gain, Long-term Risk or Inconvenient Truth. Evid Based Med 2015;20(4):121-123.
[3] Gordon GF. Chelation and Cardiovascular Disease. Townsend Letter; 322:89-92 IMay 2010).
[4] Lin JL, Lin-Tan DT et al. Environmental Lead Exposure and Progression of Chronic Renal Diseases in Patients without Diabetes. NEJM 348;4:277-86 (Jan 23, 2003).