Effectiveness of EDTA Chelation Therapy

Used for years in the treatment of mercury and lead poisoning, alternative medicine practitioners and some doctors have recently embraced EDTA chelation therapy to treat stroke and heart disease. However, the American Heart Association does not recommended chelation therapy for the treatment of heart disease.

How it Works

• According to the Mayo Clinic, chelation therapy requires a dose of a man-made amino acid called ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA). It is delivered intravenously. The medicine will seek out and bind to the minerals in the bloodstream. Having done that, it will then create a compound that leaves the body through your urine.

Effectiveness

• The Mayo Clinic reports that chelation therapy is a proven treatment in cases of mercury and lead poisoning. Although not yet proven, alternative medicine practitioners and some doctors believe that chelation therapy can also be effective in reversing heart disease by binding to the calcium in the plaque that clogs the arteries and then sweeping it away.

The Procedure

• Chelation therapy is done intravenously and consists of five to 30 treatments. Each treatment is made up of an EDTA solution and takes several hours. At the injection site you may feel a stinging or burning sensation. There may be some swelling in the ankles, and the need to urinate more often because of the solution. You'll need to take vitamin pills throughout the treatment as the therapy binds vitamins in your bloodstream

Position of the American Heart Association

• According to the American Heart Association (AHA), there is no scientific evidence to support any benefit of the use of EDTA chelation in the treatment of atherosclerosis, or heart or blood vessel disease. Further, the AHA believes that using this type of unproven treatment may deprive patients of the benefits of treatments that are well-established. Because EDTA is not a medically accepted procedure it is not covered by Medicare or insurance.

For Heart Disease

• According to the Mayo Clinic, it is not yet clear if chelation therapy is effective in treating heart disease. Small chelation studies have proven that chelation was not beneficial as a heart disease treatment. However, a large clinical trial is sponsored by the National Institute of Health to help determine if EDTA chelation therapy is effective as a heart disease treatment.

Warning

• The AHA reports that EDTA is not totally safe. Dangers include kidney failure, shock, low blood pressure, convulsions, bone marrow depressions, disruption of regular heart rhythm, respiratory arrest and allergic reactions. A number of deaths have also been linked to the therapy.