Chelation therapy as practiced today consists mainly of: 1) the ACAM Protocol: a slow-drip IV Infusion of Disodium EDTA (ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid) used as a treatment for Coronary Artery Disease and Chronic Heavy Metal Toxicity (Lead in particular) 2) a rapid-drip IV Infusion of Calcium Disodium EDTA used as a treatment for Coronary Artery Disease and Chronic Heavy Metal Toxicity (Lead in particular) 3) DMSA oral therapy for chronic Mercury Toxicity (Dental Amalgam).

Chelation treatment has been around since the 1940's, when it was developed to treat lead poisoning.. The word "chelate" is derived from the Greek word for claw and refers to the removal of Heavy Metals from the body. Advocates claim that there is ample evidence to support the claim that chelation can prevent and cure heart disease, stroke, senility, diabetic gangrene and many other vascular diseases. For example, the Cypher report collected data from several physicians who used chelation to treat patients with vascular diseases. Over 19,000 cases were studied and about 86% showed "a significant enhancement in the arterial perfusion of the upper and lower extremities, " according to James P. Carter, M.D., in Racketeering in Medicine; Hippocrates Forsaken for Profit. However, the treatments were carried out independently by different physicians and there were no control groups. Lack of adequate controls in studies demonstrating the effectiveness of chelation has been a consistent criticism of skeptics. The evidence in favor of chelation as a cure for heart disease seems to consist mainly of testimonials and subjective patient/physician reports. Recently the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), components of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), have launched the first large-scale clinical trial to determine the safety and efficacy of EDTA chelation therapy in individuals with coronary artery disease, the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States. The 5-year Trial To Assess Chelation Therapy (TACT) will involve over 2,300 patients at more than 100 research sites across the country.
Advocates claim that the medical establishment is more interested in making money than in curing diseases. They claim that EDTA is cheap and can't be patented, so there is no big money to be made by pharmaceutical firms. They also claim that surgery is preferred by the medical establishment because it is expensive. To accept the chelation advocates' argument is to accept the notion that the American medical establishment systematically suppresses evidence and persecutes anyone who challenges their monopoly. The conspiracy theory is argued at length by Dr. James P. Carter.

Single Heavy Metal Toxicity may occur in the Acute Poisoning scenario, but the Chronic Heavy Metal Toxicity is usually a Multi-Element phenomenon. Acute Heavy Metal Toxicity is usually found in Industry as an Occupational Accident. Employer protocols and Occupational Medical Clinic employ the proper protocols when the need arises. Chronic Heavy Metal Toxicity is a far more common finding. Most Chelation Clinics tend to concentrate on a single Heavy Metal such as Lead or Mercury, but this view is far too simplistic for our clinic to accept…especially in the Chronic Toxicity setting. Our clinic assesses the patient’s symptoms by referring to the Toxic Element - Disease Matrix (see below) and comparing it to the Heavy Metal body burden via a provocation challenge and a urine test.

Toxic Heavy Metals
With the enormous amounts of toxic metal in the environment and the widespread nutrient mineral insufficiencies of the modern western diet, assessing patients for element imbalances and excesses is an increasingly important tool in the diagnosis of chronic illness. A comprehensive elemental analysis may provide important insights into treatment strategies for conditions ranging from depression and behavior disorders to cardiovascular and neurological illnesses. Our clinic has found the assessment extremely useful in cases where no other etiology was readily apparent for an illness or disease, as well as in cases where multiple causes act in synergy.

The vast majority of chemical reactions that govern cellular processes are in turn regulated by enzymatic reactions. Enzyme catalyst most often requires mineral cofactors to operate. Magnesium and zinc, for instance, are cofactors in hundreds of enzymatic reactions. Toxic elements, on the other hand, can interfere with enzymatic reactions and disrupt cellular activities. Thus, element insufficiencies or excesses have a significant impact on health.

Unfortunately, nutrient element deficiencies are pandemic in our society. Numerous government surveys have reported multiple mineral deficiencies in a high percentage of participants. For example, studies show that more than one-third of Americans consume less than 100% of the RDA for calcium. With the enormous amounts of toxic compounds used in industry, noxious elements are also a widespread, if less recognized, threat to health.

Minerals can be stored in various tissues where they may cause damage or metabolic interference in the depot structures (kidney, bone, nerve tissue) without causing particularly elevated blood levels. Toxic elements are often cleared rapidly from the blood, leaving only a relatively brief time window in which blood levels reflect actual body burden. Cadmium, for example, has a biological half-life in humans of greater then 10 years. Therefore, the cumulative deposition of cadmium and other endurant elements can be of significant concern.

Our clinic provides provocative testing which can help determine such instances of toxic element deposition and provide us with clear therapeutic direction and accurate monitoring of treatment response. In this technique, a strong excretory inducer is administered to the patient after a pre-treatment urine sample is obtained. After a chelation agent is infused, a second urine sample is collected and the post-treatment excretion of elements calculated. This method allows a sampling of the stored deposits of toxic elements which have been sequestered from the blood.