Psoriasis Chelation Therapy

Psoriasis is a chronic skin condition in which the life cycle of skin cells is sharply accelerated, causing scaling and dry, itchy, red patches, according to MayoClinic.com. Although some psoriasis patients view the disease as little more than a nuisance, others find its symptoms physically and socially disabling. Chelation therapy is used by some to treat psoriasis, although its use for this condition and in general remains controversial.

Cause and Conventional Treatment

• The cause of psoriasis is unknown, but there is evidence that an immune system disorder may be responsible, according to the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD). For reasons not completely understood, an individual's immune system activates T lymphocytes, also known as T cells, which cause inflammation and an abnormally rapid turnover of skin cells. Ordinarily, your skin cells replace themselves every 30 days or so. In psoriasis, that cycle shrinks to three or four days, causing the buildup of silvery skin cells that characterizes psoriasis. There is no cure, according to the AAD, but rather a variety of conventional therapies that control your symptoms fairly well. These include oral and topical medications; light therapy; and biologic agents, such as alefacept and infliximab, that are administered either intravenously or by infusion.

What Is Chelation Therapy?

• Originally developed for the removal of heavy metals from the body, chelation therapy involves the use of a man-made amino acid called ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA). Injected into the body, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS), EDTA grabs on to or chelates such heavy metals as cadmium, iron, lead, mercury and zinc so that they can be eliminated from your body before causing further damage. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves chelation therapy for the removal of heavy metals, but chelation advocates claim the therapy can be used successfully against a wide array of other conditions, ranging from heart disease to cancer.

  Mainstream medicine, represented by such organizations as the American Medical Association, American Heart Association, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the ACS, argues that there is no scientific evidence that it works on anything other than heavy metals poisoning. Two branches of the National Institutes of Health are conducting a study to determine if chelation has any application in the treatment of heart disease.

Use of Chelation to Treat Psoriasis

• The rationale behind the use of chelation therapy to treat psoriasis and scores of other ailments is the theory that removal of trace amounts of heavy metals and other toxins from your body promotes improved circulation and better overall health. Although chelation therapy originally was administered intravenously, it is now available in a variety of oral applications, and it is this form of chelation that is most often suggested for treating psoriasis.

  Although a search of the Internet turns up the occasional pro-chelation testimonial from psoriasis patients, little evidence of a substantive nature can be found to confirm its usefulness in treating this skin condition. Interestingly, a search of the website of the National Psoriasis Foundation, which is working to find a cure for the disease, produced not a single reference to chelation.