Chelation (pronounced key-LAY-shun) is a term derived from the Greek chele, meaning, “claw.” A chelation agent is a chemical agent that, like a claw, grabs and chemically bonds with metals or other minerals and toxins. Simply put, chelation is the process in which chemicals bind with minerals. While chelation is a naturally occurring biological process (hemoglobin binds with iron to provide oxygen to tissues), synthesized chelation agents were first developed during World War II as a way to clear toxic metals from the body. Chemists discovered they could create a ring of molecules, which surround or “sequester” mineral molecules and carry them from the body through normal elimination.

Chelation is a well-known method of heavy metal and toxin removal in which a special chemical compound called a chelate - such as dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA), dimercaptopropane sulfonate (DMPS), or ethylene diaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) - is given, usually intravenously. The chelate finds and forms a single attachment to the toxin with one reversible bond. With that bond intact, the toxin is grabbed onto, pulled off the cell and carried from the body. However, the toxin is not neutralized during this process and is potentially able to attach to other cells on its way out.

EDTA (Ethylene Diamine Tetra-Acetic Acid) is an artificial amino acid that has been effective as a heavy metal chelating substance. EDTA first became known for its lead-chelating properties over 50 years ago, and today is an FDA-approved treatment for lead, mercury, aluminum and cadmium toxicity. EDTA also seems to help restore blood vessels blocked by calcium and other arterial plaque components. Because it may also remove certain minerals and other essential elements from the body, it is usually administered with supplemental vitamins and minerals. EDTA is considered essentially non-toxic with few major side effects.

Chelation is the sole treatment used today for lead poisoning. But since the process removes other metals, too, in addition to mineral deposits, calcium-based plaques and other poisons, it benefits other medical conditions. Atherosclerosis (narrowing of the arteries by plaque deposits) and arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) and diabetes can be treated with chelation, as it has a very positive effect on the bloodstream.

In the textbook of EDTA Chelation Therapy by Cranton, clinical studies and research has shown that EDTA chelation treatment is just as beneficial as bypass surgery and angioplasty, or even more effective. It’s hard to do double blind studies to prove or disprove the clinical results of bypass surgery or balloon angioplasty.

A complete program of chelation therapy involves dietary changes, away from highly refined and processed foods. The use of nonprescription nutritional supplements is emphasized, more than expensive and highly profitable drugs patented and marketed by the pharmaceutical industry. Chelation therapy is performed in doctors’ offices, without the need for hospitals, surgeons, cardiologists and the large team of health professionals who profit greatly in dollars and reputation from the $6 billion per year bypass surgery and balloon angioplasty. It is a well-proven therapy and has been performed on more people than have received bypass surgery.

The most frequent criticism leveled by critics of non-traditional and alternative medical therapies is that new treatments are “unproven” because randomized, double-blind, controlled studies have not yet been done to prove effectiveness. Those criticisms ignore the fact that most medical procedures routinely performed in the practice of medicine are also unproven using those same criteria.

With 800,000 people per year dying in the United States alone from arteriosclerosis and its complications, despite the best of high-technology hospital and surgical care that is available, it is imperative that the public be given the option to receive EDTA chelation therapy. It would be senseless to continue to deny a therapy, which has the potential to greatly reduce long-term medical expenditures by reducing the need for far more expensive hospitalization, surgery or angioplasty. Savings to medical insurance companies with resulting reduction in insurance premiums could be great.

How about the improvement in quality of life?

Chelation patients have a tremendous increase in their expected life, although the chelation doctors are reluctant to admit it. It turns out that intravenous chelation therapy greatly reduces the risk of cancer as well as further heart disease. The chelation treatment deals with basic sources of all illness — the tiny particles of metal, which accumulate over time and which greatly, increase the production of free radicals in the body. As the interior source of free radical production is reduced, by more than one million times, the acceleration of aging stops and people generally feel much younger.

Billions of free radicals that might have been produced in the body are thwarted by intravenous chelation therapy. Once heavy toxic metals, which create the free radicals, are removed by chelation, production stops.

So, immediately all that poison being produced in the body STOPS.

The major causes of death in this country at present are heart disease and cancer. These can be reversed and prevented.

What chelation handles is the damage caused by free radicals; the therapeutic benefit of the chelating substance in reducing free radical activity and even reversing damage that had been done by those free radicals is astounding.

The information contained here in is meant to be used to educate the reader and is in no way intended to provide individual medical advice. Medical advice must only be obtained from a qualified health practitioner.