How2Day: Symptoms of Chelation

The controversy over the value of chelation therapy to treat heart disease is one of the most acrimonious in medical science today. Stockbyte/Stockbyte/Getty Images
The long-running controversy over the value of chelation therapy for the treatment of coronary heart disease is one of the most acrimonious in medical science. The American Heart Association maintains that no convincing clinical evidence exists that this treatment has any effect on breaking down arterial plaque deposits that lead to heart attacks and strokes. Many other medical bodies, including the American College of Physicians, the American Medical Association and the Mayo Clinic, concur. Advocates, including the American College for Advancement in Medicine, charge that institutionalized medicine has ignored or debunked a wealth of clinical evidence demonstrating that chelation can prevent and cure heart disease, the leading cause of death in the U.S.

Ever since the 1940s, intravenous administration of the man-made amino acid EDTA (ethylenediamine tetra-acetic acid) has been used to treat victims of heavy metal (lead, mercury, copper) poisoning. By a process of chelation (key-LAY-shun), the EDTA binds to the metal molecules, which are then secreted from the body in urine and feces. In the early 1960s, this therapy began to gain popularity as a non-surgical treatment for atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). The theory advanced by advocates is that EDTA also breaks up calcium, a substance in plaque, softening arterial deposits to the point where they can dissolve and be eliminated from the body naturally.

Both opponents and advocates of chelation therapy agree that adverse side effects are possible, among them headaches, diarrhea, nausea, fatigue, joint pain, muscle cramps, convulsions, skin irritation and kidney damage. In the U.S., about 30 deaths have been linked to EDTA, including two children in 2005. According to the advocacy site, Chelation.Org, though, all known deaths have been caused by medical mistakes and the improper administration of the drug; when side effects occur, they tend to be minor and easily reversed by adjustments in treatments. In 2005, a Canadian-led research study [Bio Med Central] noted that with proper dose control and monitoring, "EDTA is not considered to be a particularly high-risk therapy and there is little doubt that it is safer than ordinary bypass surgery."

Chelation clinics like the Infusion Center in Houston maintain that ample clinical evidence exists to demonstrate that this therapy can prevent and cure heart disease, stroke, senility, diabetic gangrene and other disorders. Some advocates also believe that it has value in cancer therapy (denied by the American Cancer Society) and as a treatment for autism, an even more controversial claim.

In a bid to clear up the controversy by gathering reliable data, the Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy (TACT) was launched in 2002 by the National Center for Complementary Medicine and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, divisions of the National Institutes of Health. The first large-scale, placebo-controlled, double-blind study of chelation therapy involves 2,300 participants, all people 50 years old or over who have had heart attacks. Now underway in 100 research sites across the U.S. and Canada, the results will be analyzed in 2012.

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