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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Chelation not the best solution for diabetes

Peter H. Gott, M.D.

Dear Dr. Gott: A family member is a type-2 diabetic with high blood pressure. What do you know about oral chelation? Does it work?

Dear Reader: Oral chelation therapy, simply put, means one substance is ingested to rid the body of another. Its primary function is to rid the body of toxic metals by expelling them in the urine.

Chelation (ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, EDTA) therapy can be given orally or intravenously and is a recognized treatment for mercury, arsenic, lead and other types of heavy-metal poisoning. However, the practice is somewhat deceptive. Its purpose is to allow toxins to be removed from the body through urination. The process is used by some physicians and alternative-medicine practitioners for the treatment of coronary artery disease, but there have not been adequate published scientific studies using the current methodology to support its use, according to the Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association. I am unaware of this treatment or of any approved studies for its use in the treatment of either diabetes or hypertension.

In 2003, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (components of the NIH) began a nationwide study to determine whether chelation is even mildly effective for people with coronary heart disease. When completed, the study will be larger than any other conducted for this purpose to date. Final results are anticipated in 2010.

According to some reports unrelated to the 2003 study, there is reason to believe that prolonged use of oral EDTA is harmful. Only about 5 percent is absorbed by mouth, and, while that small amount increases the excretion of lead, it also removes and blocks greater amounts of zinc, manganese and other essential nutritional dietary elements, causing deficiencies. The remaining 95 percent is unabsorbed and remains within the digestive tract, where it mixes with essential nutrients and undigested food and causes them to be excreted in the stool.

According to some reports, oral EDTA chelation has been marketed deceptively for a number of years. Nutritional supplements containing vitamins, amino acids, antioxidants and chelated minerals are often advertised and marketed as oral chelation, but this is misleading advertising. A person taking the supplements may feel better, but the process is not true chelation.

I strongly urge your family member to try to control the diabetes through diet, exercise and the judicial use of medication under a primary-care physician’s guidance. Hypertension, if not controlled with diet and exercise, can be controlled with prescription medication. Call me old fashioned, but I prefer to bypass questionable therapy for methods that have been proven to work successfully. I cannot endorse chelation.

To give you related information, I am sending you copies of my Health Reports “Diabetes Mellitus” and “Hypertension.” Other readers who would like copies should send a self-addressed, stamped, No. 10 envelope and $2 for each report to Newsletter, P.O. Box 167, Wickliffe, OH 44092. Be sure to mention the title(s).

Dr. Peter Gott writes for United Media.