Chelation therapy
My husband’s family have a long history of cardiovascular disease so we would be very interested in your thoughts on chelation therapy, which we have read can help reduce the risk in families. Is this true?
Chelation therapy involves the use of a synthetic amino acid called EDTA (ethyl ene diamine tetra-acetic acid) which is administered intravenously to speed up the removal of heavy metals and minerals, including lead, copper, iron and calcium from the blood.
In America, it is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treating heavy metal poisoning but not for the treatment of cardiovascular disorders despite the fact that some doctors and alternative practitioners use this technique to treat coronary heart disease and in 1997, some 800,000 Americans were treated this way.
The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) has now joined forces with the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) to launch the first-ever widescale clinical trial to try and establish the effectiveness of chelation therapy in individuals with coronary artery disease which remains the leading killer of both men and women in that country and here.
The randomised, double-blind study will enrol some 2,372 patients, over the age of 50, who have already suffered a heart attack but since the trial is expected to last five years, we will have no concrete results until at least 2009.
In the meantime, since your husband has a family history of this condition, I would not try and self-treat but would seek advice from a qualified nutritionist who can devise a tailor-made programme of nutritional adjustments and supplements to help him reduce his risk of heart problems in later life. To find a good practitioner in your area, contact the Institute of Optimum Nutrition (020 8877 9993) for a list of graduates who specialise in this field.