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Chelation
Therapy and Preventive Medicine
by Ray Evers, MD
Chelation therapy could hold the key to the basic treatment of some of our
greatest killer diseases, those of the cardiovascular system. The diseases,
all characterized by the same basic abnormality, that is, narrowing and closing
off of the blood vessels, can affect any organ of the body. Everyone is familiar
with the clinical picture of coronary heart attacks and strokes (hemorrhage
of the brain) however, many other diseases such as diabetes, thyroid, adrenal
disturbance, digestive problems, senility, emphysema, arthritis, multiple
sclerosis, etc., may also be caused, at least in part, by interference with
the proper delivery of blood to vital structures. Every cell of the body
is totally dependent on the blood circulation to bring the essential nutrients
to it and to take away the toxic products of metabolism. Any process that
interferes with this constant flow will upset the delicate balance in the
cell, change its ability to function properly, allow it to fall prey to toxic
or hostile elements in the environment of that cell or tissue, and eventually
may result in disease.
Fortunately, the circulatory system has a built-in safety mechanism to withstand
a certain amount of obstruction. The flow through the average blood vessel
is greater than the organ it supplies really needs. In fact, it is not until
the blood flow is reduced to about 50% of normal that significant changes
can be noted in the tissues supplied.
This great margin of tolerance is what permits young people to function without
symptoms of clinical disease even though the process of arteriosclerosis
has already produced measurable narrowing of arteries. Certain genetic factors,
as well as nutritional defects, environmental poisons, stress factors, air
pollutants, etc., may accelerate with patients in their forties until they
are struck down in the “prime of life” by coronary attack or
stroke. Military records show that in the Vietnam conflict about 95% of the
bodies autopsied—between the ages of 18 and 25, representing the best
physically fit men in America—had coronary artery disease. This shows
that this disease does occur early in life. The statistics were almost identical
to those from the Korean conflict.
All too often physicians have reassured many people, shortly before the catastrophe,
that they are in the best of health. Anyone who assumes that a person is
in excellent health in this day and age, on the basis of a few normal tests,
is being dreadfully naive.
No one develops a coronary attack or stroke or peripheral vascular thrombosis
or clot formation without a background of slow, insidious disease of the
vessels. Until this fact is universally recognized, medicine will not advance
beyond the cookbook style of “symptom” therapy. The greatest
advance in preventive medicine lies in the medical community’s accepting
this method of clearing the arteries of the deposits that close them BEFORE
the symptoms, or attacks which make the disorder obvious to everybody. This
is where chelation therapy has its greatest future.
An Example of Chelation
The word chelate comes from the Greek word “chele” meaning “to
claw” (as a chicken). It refers to the way certain chemicals and body
proteins can bind certain metallic ions that are positively charged to a
negatively charged chelating agent. Most metals have a positive valence (electrical
charge) of two. The chelating substance has negative charges of two that
can combine with the positive ones of the metal and hold it fast in a pincers-like
grip (as a claw). This combination or “chelate,” has entirely
different properties from the metal alone or the chelating material alone.
The binding of the metal is very sensitive to changes in temperature, acidity,
metals, and other chemicals in the body. This means that although the metal
is tightly held, a change in the above conditions can result in release of
the metal and an exchange for another one, or binding of more or less the
same metal. In this way, chelators naturally present in the body can pick
up metals from one location, transport them to another, and rapidly release
them when the local tissue factors change.
Iron and zinc are two important metals present in the body, and their transportation
and migration in and out of cells are handled by the chelating process. The
iron in hemoglobin, which is the pigment present in the red blood cells and
is the oxygen carrier is an example of a chelated metal. In the plant world,
chlorophyll, the green pigment that converts carbon dioxide and water into
starch, is a chelate of magnesium.
This is a natural process and occurs in nature in many ways. It was not until
1942 that such chemical reactions were first discovered or explained and
described by the biochemist. Now it is generally known and accepted that
all the plant foods present in the soils are there in the chelated forms,
and all the reactions such as we have just mentioned are chelated reactions.
This method is widely used and certainly there is more research being done
on it now than any other subject in biochemistry. A computer MEDLARS search
of literature reveals over 3,500 articles have been written on this chemical
process since 1966, as well as several books.
We believe very strongly in this method of therapy and feel it is a vital
part of medicine of the future. That is why we believe so strongly in the “wholistic” approach
to medicine. We must understand the whole person and also understand the
cellular concept so we can understand the chemical reactions in the individual
cells. I think this is very important, and medicine of the future lies with
the doctors who truly understand the biochemistry of the human body because,
after all, the human body is similar to a “biochemical” factory.
Medicine of today, by necessity, is “bio-medicine.” Unless we
know what is going on inside the cells, chemically speaking, we cannot do
a good job in treatment of patients. For these reasons, I believe I have
a right to my concept of medicine.
Chelation Therapy, A Natural
Process
Let’s go back to what we said about electrical charges. Any element
that has two or more positive electrical charges can be considered a metal
for the purposes we are discussing. Calcium, usually thought of as a mineral,
has two positive charges in its ionic form. Add the proper chelating agent,
and calcium binds tightly to it and is excreted from the body through the
kidneys.
As the inorganic calcium is removed from the blood by chelation, it will
be pulled out of other metastatic areas to keep the blood level constant.
The most readily available areas to supply this need are those where calcium
has been abnormally deposited and where it is loosely bound. These sites
are the inner walls of the blood vessels, heart, around tendons, joints,
ligaments, the skin, kidneys, pancreas, and others. Thus, abnormal calcium
deposits (inorganic) or calcification can be gradually reduced over a period
of time because of these unique properties of chelating substances.
Calcium is not the only material that is present in the linings of the blood
vessels in the disease of arteriosclerosis, but it does act as a cement-like
binder, and when it is chelated out, the remaining material containing fatty
substances, other minerals, and cholesterol are dissolved, metabolized by
the liver, and excreted via the intestinal tract. As a result of the chelation
of the plaque in the blood vessel, the lumen (space) of the blood vessel
is greatly increased so that more blood can flow to the organs and tissues
of the body. Even an extremely small increase in the diameter of this lumen
will increase the flow through it by a much greater proportion. Thus, an
increase of one millimeter in diameter of the lumen will permit a fourfold
increase in flow to the organs and cells. That is the vital factor (Pousse’s
Law).
It is unlikely that 100% removal of inorganic calcium is possible. However,
we need only to increase the diameter of an artery by 25% to notice an appreciable
improvement in blood flow. As the patient is being chelated, more and more
calcium is removed until finally the calcium output (by examination of the
urine) is returned to about the calcium baseline. As a result, clinical symptoms
disappear, and the patient is greatly improved clinically.
People often ask the question, “Are we lowering the blood calcium?” No,
the chelating process does not remove the blood calcium. The calcium that
is chelated from the body is not the organic protein-bound calcium present
in the bones and the teeth. So you have no reason to fear that chelation
therapy will damage your bones or your teeth in any way.
We can now see that by copying nature’s technique of handling metals,
an extremely valuable method has been devised to counteract directly the
harmful effects of inorganic calcium deposits in the circulatory system.
When combined with a proper nutritional program of live balanced foods and
use of vitamins and supplements in the proper amount that will provide necessary
stress-combating factors, we may begin to reverse the epidemic trend that
cardiovascular disease has followed. Cardiovascular patients who have arteriosclerosis
and have been diagnosed as being in need of bypass surgery should not be
subjected to surgery until they have been given medical treatment such as
chelation therapy. If this fails to improve the circulation, then we should
by all means go ahead and do surgery, but medical treatment should be tried
first.
Chelation treatment has been used successfully in such diverse diseases as
angina pectoris, coronary arteriosclerosis, atherosclerosis, myocardial and
coronary insufficiency, cerebral arteriosclerosis, hypertrophic arthritis,
calcific tendonitis, calcific bursitis, hypertension, scleroderma, digitalis
intoxication, calcinosis, arteriosclerosis obliterans, peripheral vascular
insufficiency, intermittent claudication, aortic calcinosis, cerebral ischemia,
diabetic retinopathy, emphysema, leg ulcers, gangrene, psoriasis, pityriasis,
thrombophlebitis, hypoglycemia, heavy metal poisoning (lead, mercury, aluminum,
cadmium, arsenic), cerebral degeneration and other degenerative diseases.
The clinical results in the majority of cases have been very gratifying.
I have treated many patients with diabetic gangrene and arteriosclerosis
obliterans with resulting gangrene and have been able to prevent amputation
of extremities. In my experience with over 18,000 patients and 400,000 chelation
treatments, the end results are almost miraculous. In almost all cases, it
has produced marked improvement in circulatory function.
Our idea of the future of medicine is medicine that incorporates the use
of chelation therapy, enzymes, physical medicine (including electronics),
magnetic medicine, proper body alignment, and proper nutrition, as well as
all other modalities. It is my hope that young physicians, the doctors of
the future, will understand the need for this and have open, inquisitive,
and unbiased minds.
We try to do all we can to get the body in chemical balance and the correct
ratios of the minerals one to another, as well as the monovalent and the
divalent elements into correct ratio. One of the methods we use in our work
is “The Hair Analysis” in which we determine the metal contents
stored in the human body. We often find that lead, for example, in the bloodstream
does not correspond with the lead that is present in the hair. Many patients
who suffer from arthritis actually have a high lead content in the hair.
Practically every enzyme in the body has some small amount of metal involved
in its chemical structure. The metal is bound in chelated form. Without the
trace metal, the enzyme is inactive. We see then that chelation is a process
vital to our proper function and survival. Remember that we said that the
binding is subject to changes in the cellular environment. If the conditions
are not exactly right, the metal will not bind correctly or at all, and the
enzymes may again be inactivated.
In a similar way, excess amounts of other metals, perhaps more active chemically
than the correct one, may replace the normal one in the protein structure
and block the proper action of the enzyme. This is how excess lead, mercury,
arsenic, aluminum, cadmium, and other environmental poisons may cause damage
to vital structures by blocking normal enzyme action. They work over a long
period of time and the damage they cause may be mistakenly attributed to
virus infection, senile degeneration, neurotic or psychotic illness, hardening
of the arteries, and others. These chemicals can lower tissue resistance
and actually increase susceptibility to infection with bacteria and viruses,
and accelerate the aging process. Recognition of the wide variety of symptoms
and disease states initiated by intoxication with heavy metals is essential
if the proper treatment is to be used in time, before the conditions become
irreversible.
Almost every patient has some abnormality in heavy metals, with lead, mercury,
and aluminum usually being the highest. An imbalance or high metal finding
will explain many symptoms that have plagued the patient for years. It is
not unusual to find patients who have seen many physicians, specialists,
psychiatrists, neurologists, etc., and end up being told that they are nervous.
Yet the simple cure is to remove the high level of one or more heavy metals.
The potential long-term effects of lead exposure are just beginning to be
realized, when it is appreciated that children are getting huge quantities
into their bodies by playing in dirt and dust that is constantly exposed
to the fallout from smog or winds carrying exhaust fumes from the nation’s
highways, freeways, and industrial complexes. It may eventually be necessary,
in order to survive, for our next generation to require periodic chelation
treatment to de-lead their bodies. The absorption of lead and the deposition
of calcium in abnormal locations are continuous throughout life so that true
preventive therapy should involve chelation therapy at regular intervals
to prevent too great a build-up in the arteries and other tissues.
Now that you can see what a valuable addition chelation can be to a comprehensive
program of preventive medicine, you probably wonder why so few people (especially
physicians) have even heard of it. One reason is that there is no multimillion
dollar campaign going on to advertise it to the medical profession. The chelating
agent is no longer patented. (Disodium-edetate was patented by Abbott, and
the patent expired in 1969. Since it is on the free market, no one company
has been willing to spend the money and time to further research the drug.)
As usual, a great idea often lies dormant if there is no promotional push
to let everyone know about it. Only the pharmaceutical companies and the
government can afford to spend the millions of dollars necessary to bring
it to the attention of the medical profession and support the tremendous
amount of research needed to market a drug for a specific purpose.
Another question often asked is does this therapy prolong life. Yes, it will
prolong life and give a much better quality of life. We have worked with
it long enough to state this enthusiastically. This has also been proven
by the work of many other physicians. It is with every assurance that we
try to re-establish a new ray of hope for our patients so that they may again
enjoy life to the fullest. No treatment is a panacea. This therapy is worth
trying in any case in which the patient is suffering from hardening of the
arteries. We are treating a problem that is common to almost every living
person and is responsible for about 60% of deaths in America, according to
the Department of Vital Statistics of the U.S. Public Health Service.
I feel that this therapy is only a step forward, although a big step. We
have started something that will require a generation of dedicated workers,
or this advance may go unnoticed for another generation. We must be prepared
to experience condemnations and problems, as we are experiencing now and
can expect in the future. The lesser-informed members of the medical community
will be stubborn and the opposition will be unrelenting. You will find that
it is the medical bureaucracy that will be hard to convince that we have
something valuable to offer. It is in third party medicine you find those
who want no part of preventive medicine, unless they can find a way for their
multibillion-dollar institutional complex to profit by it.
Chelation therapy seems to offer a new direction for hope since it influences
the basic pathology taking place. Let us hope it gets the serious attention
it merits—for our own sake—and for the sake of those who may
need it desperately—our children!
I feel that a dedicated group of doctors will accomplish an awakening of
a new method of treatment that is long overdue. Millions of crippled and
ill
patients will derive great comfort from this treatment. I am personally dedicated
to do all in my power to spread the word and help accomplish that purpose.
In accomplishing my goal, I use the following twenty letters (ten two-letter
words) as the motto for my life, and they are: “IF IT IS TO BE, IT IS
UP TO ME.”
Reprinted from the Port Townsend Health Letter—Summer 1991
Jonathan
Collin, MD specializes in preventative medicine, with emphasis on
nutrition and wellness. Certain patients with circulation disorders or
toxic metal poisoning are considered for EDTA Chelation Therapy.
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