Chelation Therapy – Is It Good For You?

Chelation therapy consists of the supervision of chelating agents by an expert

doctor to take care of harmful metal poisoning. Chelating agents which are also

called as chelants are applied to get rid of heavy metals from the human body in

situations of poisoning, overdose or accumulation. These agents bind to metals

inside the blood and tissues.

These develop complexes known as chelates which are inert chemically and it is

quite easy to excrete them without interacting any more inside the human body.

By doing so, detoxification of toxic metals is done by chelation therapy for

example lead, arsenic or mercury. Chelating agents are given by doctors either

orally or injected into the body directly through a vein or muscle, but this depends

on the type of metals intoxication and the agent used.

Chelation Therapy & Its Uses

Here are some cases of clinical situations in which doctors use chelation therapy

to cure patients effectively:

Poisoning caused due to heavy materials such as lead, mercury and arsenic

Drugs containing metal ions are overdosed in a human body

Build-up of huge amounts of iron in your body on account of recurring

blood transfusions, which include the case of thalassemia patients who

need blood transfusions on a frequent basis

Amassment of enormous amounts of copper in the human body because of

Wilson's disease, a health condition in which the human body struggles to

excrete copper easily

A number of scientific tests have already been done to check the consequences of

chelation therapy in other illnesses for example cancer, heart problems and

autism. Nevertheless, no good evidence to support the application of this therapy

for these disorders has still been found.

Here are a few example of chelating agents:

Organic dithiol compound dimercaprolt was the one of the very first

chelators, and it was developed as an antidote for an arsenic-based

chemical agent. The agent is also called as BAL.

DMSA (Dimercaptosuccinic acid) is the most widespread chelants to treat

the poisoning caused by lead, arsenic or mercury. It was created in 1970s

and in reality it is a modified edition of BAL, and it is also known to have as

significantly less negative impacts compared to BAL.

DMPS (Dimercapto-propane-sulfonate) functions as a mercury and arsenic

chelator.

ALA (Alpha lipoic acid) is often considered as an effective nutritional health

intake which transforms into dithiol dihydrolipoic acid, which is a well-

known chelator for equally both arsenic and mercury.

EDTA (Ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid) is well known chelating agent for

cases of lead and mercury poisoning. CaNaEDTA (Calcium ethylenediamine

tetraacetic acid) is given through an injection to the body to treat extreme

cases of lead poisoning.