Chelation

The traditional use of Chelation is for the removal of heavy metals. Chelation has also been given to heart disease patients as an alternative to invasive heart surgery and has enabled patients with intermittent claudication to increase their walking distance. It has been used to alleviate angina, to reduce high blood pressure, and to spare diabetic patients from limb amputation. The DaSilva Institute utilizes chelation for both purposes.

What is Chelation Therapy?

Chelation therapy is a highly effective treatment for clearing heavy metals, excess calcium, and artery-damaging chemicals from the bloodstream. Although it was first used to treat heavy metal poisoning, chelation has since proven valuable for the treatment of heart disease and other circulatory disorders.

Chelation for the Removal of Heavy Metals

Heavy metal poisoning has become an increasingly major health problem, especially since the industrial revolution. Heavy metals are in the water we drink, the foods we eat, the air we breathe, our daily household cleaners, our cookware and our other daily tools. A heavy metal has a density at least 5 times that of water and cannot be metabolized by the body, therefore accumulating in the body. Heavy metal toxicity can cause our mental functions, energy, nervous system, kidneys, lungs and other organ functions to decline. Learning where these metals can be found and decreasing one’s exposure is vital to staying healthy. For the person who wonders if they have heavy metal poisoning, testing is essential. If a person has heavy metal toxicity then interventional natural medicine procedures need to be performed.

The best treatment for heavy metal poisoning is chelation. Chelation is a treatment where a synthetic amino acids are administered intravenously.

One type of chelator called Calcium-EDTA (calcium ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid) is administered intravenously. It was originally used in the 1940’s to treat solders with lead poisoning. When chelation proved to have good results the FDA approved it. When EDTA enters the bloodstream it binds to the metal atoms and flushes them out with the urine. This is usually within the first 24 hours of the chelation treatment.
Another type of chelator is called DMPS (dimercaptopropane sodium sulfonate).

Lead and Cadmium poisoning is best treated with EDTA chelation.
Mercury poisoning is treated with DMPS (dimercaptopropane sodium sulfonate).

Duration of Therapy

EDTA treatment lasts one-and-a-half to three hours. During this time you’ll relax in a recliner while EDTA is administered slowly through an IV. It is generally given weekly for a period of time based on the individual case. Kidney and liver functions are monitored from time to time. This is because the chelation must pass out the urine with all the metals that it has collected throughout the blood stream.
DMPS chelation therapy takes about 15 to 20 minutes and is administered as an IV push.

In general after ten chelations the urine is again collected to see if the chelation is still removing heavy metals. If not, the chelation is stopped. If heavy metals such as lead or mercury are still present then the chelation is given another ten treatments and the urine test repeated at that time.

A Surprising Discovery

EDTA chelation therapy was originally designed as a treatment for heavy metal poisoning, and its effectiveness for heart disease and circulatory disorders was discovered only by accident in the 1950s. As World War II veterans afflicted with lead poisoning from painting battleships underwent chelation to “get the lead out,” physicians noticed that those who had chest pain or leg pain due to atherosclerosis were experiencing almost unbelievable improvement in these symptoms.

During the past 50 years, over a million patients have undergone chelation therapy for a wide range of circulatory problems. Chelation has given heart disease patients an alternative to invasive heart surgery and has enabled patients with intermittent claudication to increase their walking distance. It has been used to alleviate angina, to reduce high blood pressure, and to spare diabetic patients from limb amputation.

Chelation has an impeccable record of safety. An FDA safety review spanning 30 years revealed no evidence of significant toxicity. And of over 500,000 patients nationwide treated with chelation therapy using the protocol established by the American College for the Advancement of Medicine (ACAM), not a single fatality has occurred. Compare this to coronary artery bypass surgery, which has a fatality rate of 4 percent. This means that for every 500,000 patients who undergo bypass surgery, an estimated 20,000 will die.

Safety is one thing, but effectiveness is another, and this therapy is effective. A review of 40 published and 30 unpublished studies involving over 25,000 patients who underwent EDTA chelation demonstrated that 87 percent benefited from this therapy.

Chelation Therapy Enhances Blood Flow

Atherosclerosis, the narrowing and stiffening of arteries due to the accumulation of plaques, is a primary cause of heart attack and stroke. What if there was a nonsurgical therapy that could slow the process of atherosclerosis and restore healthy circulation? Wouldn’t this be preferable to the risk and expense of angioplasty and bypass surgery? The good news is that EDTA chelation is such a therapy. It is a proven means of enhancing arterial health and boosting circulation.

How Does Chelation Therapy Work To Increase Blood Flow?

This type of chelation involves the intravenous administration of a powerful antioxidant called ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA). EDTA enters the bloodstream and latches onto heavy metals such as lead, iron, and cadmium that can cause free radical damage to the arteries. By binding to these heavy metals and carrying them out of the body through the urine, EDTA reduces the body’s toxic metal burden and helps slow the process of atherosclerosis.

EDTA also removes excess calcium from artery walls, making them more responsive and better able to dilate. Since calcification of the arteries is a major factor in atherosclerosis, this is yet another way in which chelation restores the integrity of arteries and enhances blood flow. As an added benefit, EDTA chelation has blood-thinning effects and discourages the formation of potentially dangerous blood clots that can cause a heart attack or stroke.

A complete course of EDTA chelation therapy for heart disease consists of about 30 treatments, usually done one to three times per week. A urine test should be performed for heavy metals after the first chelation.

*What Conditions Benefit From Chelation?*
Cardiovascular disease	Cerebrovascular disease	Diabetic complications
Heavy metal toxicity	Hypertension	Intermittent claudication
Memory disorders	Peripheral neuopathy	Peripheral vascular disease
Slow healing wounds