CHELATION THERAPY

CHELATION THERAPY

By Lawrence Wilson, MD

Chelation therapy is the use of specific substances, some natural and some synthesized chemicals, to rermove toxic metals from a person. The chemicals used include extracts of cilantro and chlorella, some herbs and patented products such as Metal-Free, NDF and others. They also include vitamin C, sulfur-bearing amino acids and other natural substances. Others are synthetics including DMPS, DMSA, EDTA, penicilamine, deferoxamine and several others.

The word, to chelate, means to grab onto something. Thus, chelating agents are substances that have a strong ability to grab on to toxic metals and dislodge them from the tissues so they can be removed.

Chelation therapy is different from the concept of chelated minerals. These are minerals that are tightly bound to specific mineral transporters so that they are absorbed faster and better into the body inside the intestinal tract. In fact, our bodies chelate minerals in the stomach and intestines in order to absorb them properly.

Chelation therapy, however, has nothing to do with absorbing minerals. It has to do with removing minerals by the use of specific types of chemicals that scavenge them and remove them from the body.

HOW EFFECTIVE IS CHELATION THERAPY?

Chelation therapy definitely works to some extent and is excellent in many cases. There are thousands of studies of its use. It is not medically accepted only because it competes with heart bypass and other common surgeries, which are major sources of income, literally in the billions of dollars, for physicians, hospitals, drug companies and others who sell or supply various medical items.

The claim that chelation is not well-provien or rthat it is more dangerous than most surgery is false. Such thoughts are unfortunately the rule in medicine, but represent either ignorance or greed, and nothing more. It is a sad reflection upon a profession that supposedly is there to help the people, not harm them or take their money. The statistics on bypass surgery, for example, show clearly that there are many side effects that would be prevented if chelation were tried first. The cost is at least half and usually much less than that. If chelation failed, then surgery might be considered, but that is not the case most often.

In summary, any doctor who says chelation is untried, dangerous or other objections either has not looked into the matter enough, or has a vested interest in a surgery or drug therapy that competes with chelation therapy.

WHEN TO USEE CHELATION THERAPY

In fact, although it is helpful in some cases, I do not recommed intravenous chelation very often at all. It simply is not needed, when even cheaper and safer and more effective methods are usable, as they are most of the time.

Nor do I recommend oral or suppository-based chelating agents often, either. Again, the reason is there are better methods than these as well. However, they are better, as they do not involve needles in the veins, the cost is lower and they are safer than intravenous chelation theraoy.

Let us discuss when I would recommend intravenous or oral chelating agents to be used without other methods.

1. Multiple Sclerosis. I would recommend intravenous or oral chelation to anyone with multiple sclerosis, especially if it is advanced. This is because this illness is characterized by symptoms that are often due to mercury and other toxic metals that are deposited deep in the brain. It is not an easy disease to treat, in my experience. I am aware of the nutritional protocols involving liver injections, B vitamins and other nutrients. However, these are symptomatic only. That is, they control the condition, but they do not cure it. This is far better than nothing. I believe, however, that if the mercury can be removed, the results would be far better. Thus, chelation may be of benefit. The programs we do are not strong enough to dislodge enough mercury fast enough in most cass to do the job, so intravenous chelation is best.

2. Other Conditions That Do Not Respond Well To Our Program, Properly Undertaken. Any condition, and this includes many health conditions, that does not respond to conventional or holistic treatment of the type we offer, may respond to intravenous chelation. The other situation would be one in which the patient cannot do our methods of treatment for some reason.

The exception that I am aware of is cancer and perhaps a few other conditions. These need specific therapy aimed at removing a life-threatening situation in many cases, even those in which the extent of the real problem appears to be understood well. For cancer, I recommend the Kelley Metabolic Cancer Therapy, as coordinated by Mrs. Pamela Mcdougle at (208) 424-7600. This is one of the few illnesses where we recommend a specific therapy. The reason for this is that cancer is a fatal illness unless handled correctly. We don’t like most conventional cancer therapy, nor do I like most holistic alternative cancer therapies.

The reason I say this about cancer is not that these therapies are not helpful in some cases. It is that this is a complex and serious condition that should be handled in the best overall manner. Few doctors or hospitals or other facilities are equipped to do this, in my view. This, of course, includes the “famous” cancer centers in New York, San Francisco, Dallas, and other major hospitals.

However, for conditions other than cancer, and perhaps there are a few others, if a condition does not respond to the methods described in many other articles on this site, or the person is unable to use our methods, then chelation is worth a try, I would suggest.

WHY NOT USE CHELATION MORE OFTEN?

Problems with chelation therapy, particularly when done intravenously, include the following four:

1) It is not a totally body/mind/spirit approach to health and healing. This means that it often unbalances body chemistry and other levels of functioning. It is fine for a short time, perhaps, but over the long term can have very detrimental consequences for health.

This critique is true of almost all natural or holistic or complementary methods, not just chelation, when they are used often by themselves, or with minimal nutritional, lifestyle and other types of regimens. They become dangerous because they ignore the total picture of a human being and focus more on just a toxic metal. This is never the best use of any natural or even conventional therapy.

This objection can be overcome quite often by simply insisting the patient follow the diet we recommend, the lifestyle suggestions we make, use other products to replenish vital minerals and other nutrients that may be lost during chelation and other general supportive measures in addition to the chelating agent.

2. Removal Of Beneficial Minerals. This objection is harder to overecome. All chelating agents I am aware of remove many minerals. The agent that is used is chosen by the physician so that the suspected toxic metal will be removed most of all. However, without exception, they remove other, vital and often essential minerals from the body. This means they do some damage while they remove the offending toxic metal.

This objection cannot be overcome. All that the doctor can do is give the patient the best diet possible, replace minerals in intravenous or oral manners and hope that the chelator does not remove too much of a vital mineral.

However, this problem with chelators of all kinds, including natural ones, can have serious consequences over time. Vital minerals protect us against toxic metals. That is, millions of enzyme binding sites throughout the body can accept what is called the preferred mineral for that enzyme, such as zinc, magnesium or selenium. If, however, a deficiency exists of that mineral, the enzyme can accept a substitute, which is usually a toxic metal.

As deficiencies slowly develop of the vital minerals, more and more unusual minerals, including toxic metals, are absorbed into the body and utilizied in vital enzymes to keep the body going. This is the origin of most illnesses, on a mineral/enzymatic level. Thus, this objection is a strong one, especially if chelation is used over a period of months or years. However, it is far less damage, in most cases, than the damage done by surgery or drugs, which is often far worse.

3. Toxic Effects Other Than Mineral Depletion. This objection applies most to the synthetic chelators. Many of these, in particular, but even some natural chelators such as cilantro extract or chlorella, can have other toxic effects. I will list a few of them, but there may be others, depending on the particular agent.

a. Too many vital minerals lost. By this I mean that the body loses too many natural minerals in the process of removing the toxic metals.

b. Hard on the kidneys. This is a common problem that was identified many years ago. Dr. Paul Eck recommended against intravenous chelation for this reason. If the agent were given very slowly, this might not be such an issue. But this is less convenient for the doctor and patient, so it is rarely done.

c. Redepositing of the toxic metal in even more vital organs or tissues. This is another serious objection to the use of powerful chelators. The cause of this problem can be with the patient. The patient’s body may not be able to eliminate the toxic metals that are removed from storage sites in the body by the chelator. Thus, they are allowed to circulate in the blood and can redeposit in the brain, lungs, liver or elsewhere, causing even more damage in the long term.

This has occurred in patients I have seen, and is quite a common unfortunate reaction. It might have been avoided if the patient had followed a totally holistic protocol of diet, nutritional supplements, detoxification protocol and lifestyle modification to enhance the function of the eliminative organ. Once again, most doctors using chelators do not do this, unfortunately.

d. Overall imbalances. This is a vague objection. Any time a powerful drug is given, it can have untold effects of which we are not aware. Thus, one must use caution with chelating agents, and most doctors are aware of this problem. Occasionally, for instance, the chelator depletes calcium to such an extent that the patient goes into muscle spasms or even a seizure. These are relatively rare effects, but it is another reason for caution with all such therapies. We do not have this worry when we use only natural agents nearly as much, though they can occur with extracts of cilantro, for example. Citlantra extract is commonly recommended for mercury toxicity.

e) Not Nearly As Effective As Other Methods. This may sound suprising, since chelation is often considered the most powerful and reliable way to remove most toxic metals. The truth is, it is not.

I know this to be true because of a number of patients it whom I have worked. They had previously undergone 40 or more chelation treatments. This is usually considered enough to rid the body of lead, mercury or other metals. However, when these patients went on our program, they began to eliminate significant amounts of the toxic metals that was supposedly removed.

This can be explained rather easily. It is known that most chelators, if not all of them, do not leave the arteries and veings if given intravenously. If given orally, many do not leave the intestinal tract. In other words, these agents, which are often larger molecules, cannot be directly absorbed into the body cells (fortunately, as they would be quite toxic). This limits their ability to lock on to many toxic metals stored deep within the tissues and organs. This is why their effectiveness is sometimes limited, compared with methods such as sauna therapy and others that I will mention below.

Other reasons for lack of effectiveness of chelation are factors such as a poorly nourished patient, a tired patient, an imbalanced body chemistry in the patient, impaired eliminative organs in the patient, and other possible subtle reasons. These are discussed in more detail below.

CONDITIONS IN WHICH TO DEFINITELY EXERCISE CAUTION WITH CHELATION

In the following scenarios, be extra cautious with chelation, if you decide to use it.

a) Impaired Elimination. Make sure the patient has daily or twice daily bowel movements. Make sure the patient drinks plenty of water, particularly distilled or reverse osmosis water, which by themslevs help rid the body of some metals. If possible, make sure the skin is active by suggesting sauna therapy. Even deep breathing is helpful for chelation success. These measures, of course, will help every other therapy as well, even drugs and surgery.

b) Low Metabolic Energy. If the patient’s energy level is low, as revealed on a properly performed and properly interpreted hair analysis, preferably wait until this is corrected. In many cases, the chelation will then be unneeded. However, if it is needed, it will be much safer. See the article on this site about Fatigue and How To Improve Energy for more on this topic. Here suffice it to say that available energy helps all therapies, including drugs and surgery, to work better.

For all these reasons, I do not recommend synthetic chelators except in the few instances listed earlier such as multiple sclerosis. I consider them unnecessary and toxic. Nutritional balancing science, which is more work for the doctor and for the patients, along with sauna therapy and other detoxification protocols, is much more effective, safer and less expensive. I also do not use high-dose vitamin C, high-dose niacin, cilantro extracts or chlorella to help remove toxic metals. I have found them unnecessary and they can have unintended side effects.

HOW I RECOMMEND MOST PEOPLE REMOVE TOXIC METALS

Toxic metal exposure is universal today. Everyone has some! Please note this. All children are born with some toxic metals that pass through the placenta from the mother. In addition, vaccine exposure is a huge source, along with food, water, pharmaceuticals, over-the-counter drugs, cosmetics, and many more environmental sources. These include but are not limited to air pollution, contact with toxic metals in machinery and even offices and more.

Thus. I do not spend the patient’s money and time trying to detect toxic metals. Hair analysis is used to assess body chemistry, but toxic metals are one of the least important measures on the test, from our perspective. Far more important is the patient’s energy level, oxidation type and oxidation rate, elimination, assimilation of nutrients and more.

Then we recommend a total program that includes the following methods to reduce ALL the toxic metals and ALL toxic chemicals in the body at the same time.

1) Reduce exposure from all sources. This is obvious but often not enough attention is paid to this factor. It means changing the diet, drinking pure water and perhaps lifestyle changes such as cleaning up the home and work environments.

The only exception to this is that people with serious illness, especially cancer, should NOT undergoes dental amalgam removal until the cancer is gone. This is most important. The mercury released during amalgam removal, even with the most stringent protocol, can kill a cancer patient.

2) Assist the eliminative organs to function better. Eliminative organs that function excellently are essential for toxic metal removal, since all methods for removing toxic metals depend on them. The cause of most symptoms and problems associated with toxic metal elimination is due to poorly functioning eliminative organs.

Ways to improve the eliminative organs include sauna therapy, enemas, diet, colonic irrigation, skin brushing, deep breathing , herbs, nutrients, energy balancing and other methods to improve the activity of the liver, kidneys, bowel, lungs and skin.

3) Inhibit the sympathetic nervous system. Many people do not have adequate nerve energy going to the eliminative and digestive organs due to excessive sympathetic nervous system activity. The sympathetic nervous system inhibits the digestive and eliminative organs.

Excessive sympathetic nervous activity is very common. Methods to do this include diet, reducing stimulants, emotional control, psychotherapy and relaxing therapies such as massage, meditation, yoga and many others. Certain nutrients and herbs also reduce sympathetic nervous system activity. These include calcium, magnesium, zinc, valerian root, hops, passionflower, pancreas, kidney and liver herbs and supplements for these organs, and more.

4) Increase the energy level. The body has a natural capacity to remove toxic substances provided adequate energy is available. However, the overall energy level of many people is so low that elimination is compromised.

The best way to increase the energy level is by balancing the oxidation rate and correcting defects in the energy pathway, or the steps required to produce ATP from food. This is done with specific diet, supplements and lifestyle modification.

Other natural therapies such as chiropractic, body work and acupuncture may also help balance the body to assist the energy level. Plenty of rest and sleep are also essential. Avoiding excessive exercise or any exhausting activity is also most helpful.

5) Supplement with toxic metal antagonists. Specific minerals given in the correct dosages will compete for absorption and compete metabolically with toxic metals. For example, zinc will help reduce cadmium, calcium antagonizes lead, sulfur and molybdenum antagonize copper and selenium antagonizes mercury.

6) Increase rest and sleep. This assists the organs of elimination, reduces sympathetic nervous system activity, and frees up energy that can be used by the body for detoxification.

7) Chelation therapy. I use sulfur-bearing amino acids such as cysteine (NAC, also), methionine, taurine and natural products on occasion such as zinc, selenium and some vitamin C. I don not like high-dose vitamin C over long periods of time, however, as it is very yin in Chinese medical terminology. I do not recommend often the sympthetics, such as EDTA in any form, penicillamine, defoxamine, DMPS, DMSA and others. Also, I do not generally use cilantro or chlorella in any form. These are not needed in my experience, if the other methods are used above.

WHICH OF THESE METHODS ARE MOST IMPORTANT?

I have listed the methods of toxic metal removal above in the order of importance that we consider generally best. Chelation is at the bottom of the list because I find that it is not as helpful as many believe. It can, without a doubt, remove toxic metals. However, the other methods are also excellent and much safer in many instances.

CHELATION THERAPY AND LAYERING OF TOXINS

Toxic metals are in fact layered in the body. One may have mercury at one level, with a deeper layer of arsenic, and another of lead, followed by some more mercury. I do not mean that the metals are in vertical layers, but they are at different levels of the tissues. Some are more deeply buried than others.

This is an important point because it can explain why chelation therapy is not as effective as it may seem. What occurs when the doctor picks a chelating agent to remove lead, for example, is that it attacks the lead at the level of toxicity that is available for removal. However, it cannot reach lead that is more deeply buried. As a result, retest blood, hair, urine, feces or other types of tests will show a decline in the patient’s lead level.

What is missing is that this only represents one level or one layer of lead toxicity, as that is all that can be accessed at this time. In order to remove more lead, much more time and a healing program to reduce general toxicity is required. This chelation does not provide on its own, thus limiting the amount of toxic metal that can be removed at one set of chelation sessions.

Another aspect of the layering phenomenon is that we do not know which layers or levels are accessible at any given time. Thus we prefer a program that addresses all the toxic metals as well as all the toxic chemicals at once. This covers the bases in a much more comprehensive way, although it may be slower in removing a particular metal. Hence, the recommendation that one may want to use mercury chelation for multiple sclerosis, since mercury is usually, though not always, the major culprit among the toxic metals. Other factors may play a role, but among the metals we find mercury of greatest importance.

A problem with chelation therapy is that it forces out particular toxic metals with no regard for the layering phenomenon or order of elimination. Penicillamine forces out copper, deferoxamine forces out iron and aluminum, DMPS and DMSA force out mercury and so forth. In contrast, our methods do not force out anything. They encourage the body to heal itself and the toxic metals and chemicals are removed in the order of importance the body decides is best.

This method is safest because it is impossible to know exactly which metal should come out first, which next and so forth. The layering configuration will differ depending on the person and his or her particular exposure patterns to the metals.

WHERE DO SAUNAS FIT IN FOR TOXIC METAL REMOVAL?

In my experience, saunas are the finest single modality for toxic metal elimination. They combine a number of effects that together produce wonderful results. They are also safe and very cost-effective when one can build or buy a light sauna for several hundred dollars or less. Click here

for information about saunas.

In essence, sauna therapy helps rejuvenate the skin, the largest eliminative organ in the body. It helps decongest the internal organs by shunting blood to the body surface. It helps to spare and protect the kidneys, as most all toxins eliminated by the kidneys can be eliminated in the sweat.

Heating the body assists it to kill pathogenic microorganisms, and helps destroy weaker, toxic metal-laden cells. Saunas also drastically increase circulation, assisting to dislodge stored toxins and assisting nutrients to reach all the cells to improve energy output.

The sauna is also a powerful inhibitor of the sympathetic nervous system. According to Guyton's Textbook of Medical Physiology, when heat is supplied from outside, normal heat production, a sympathetic activity, shuts down. Also, shunting blood to the body surface to remove heat requires and causes inhibition of the sympathetic system.

Infrared energy supplied by far infrared and infrared light saunas adds other benefits such as deep tissue heating, decoupling of toxins from water molecules, production of heat shock proteins that help regenerate cellular structures, and more. Saunas also have a long history of safety that extends over literally thousands of years..

For all these reasons, saunas are the finest single modality for toxic metal removal. As added benefits, they are also the best methods I have found to remove toxic chemicals, another serious health hazard. They are also powerful infection-fighters, and able to dig out old chronic infections that deplete one's energy and secrete biological toxins that are hidden causes of systemic disease.

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