by the United States Navy to remove calcium from pipes and boilers. In the 1950s,
EDTA was tried with success in curing people with lead poisoning who were working
in battery plants, and the U.S. Navy used it on people who had acquired lead poi-
soning from repainting old ships. Not only did EDTA eliminate the poisoning, but
physicians noted that patients also showed considerable improvement in cardiovas-
cular symptoms. The FDA has approved EDTA for the treatment of lead poisoning,
hypercalcemia, and heart attacks caused by digitalis poisoning. EDTA is legally
available for a physician’s use and it is quite legal for a licensed physician to utilize
a drug for any purpose, which, in that physician’s judgment, is best for the patient.
Thus, since the 1960s, EDTA has been used to treat cardiovascular disease coupled
with dietary changes and nutritional supplements.
Only licensed physicians are able to provide chelation therapy in the United States.
In some facilities the physicians oversee the procedure, which is actually imple-
mented by registered nurses. The American Heart Association does not approve of
chelation therapy. The conventional approach to treating severe atherosclerosis is
angioplasty, a mechanical method of scrubbing the inside of clogged arteries with
an inflated balloon catheter to flatten the deposits of plaque, or bypass surgery.
In early experiments, EDTA was often used in doses up to 10 times the amount now
recommended. This resulted in serious adverse effects, including renal failure. With
the lower doses and with the use of kidney function tests, and by following recom-
mended protocols, the present-day procedure is considered to be safe.
Chelation therapy is performed in an outpatient or physician’s office setting. EDTA is
given as an intravenous infusion over a period of 3–4 hours. Usually 20– treatments,
at an average cost of $80 to $100 each, are administered at the rate of 1–3 sessions
per week. The average cost of a course of treatment is $3,000 to $5,000, compared to
the average cost of balloon angioplasty at $12,000 and bypass surgery in excess of
$30,000.
In late 1996, an oral chelation substance was introduced to the market. It is a three-
month program designed to detoxify and balance the cardiovascular system. The
oral route is advisable for people with potential heart problems but whose condition
does not yet require rapid action. The advantages of oral chelation are that it does
not require a physician’s supervision or expensive blood tests to monitor and is
much lower in cost. The primary disadvantage is the longer time to get the same
benefits as intravenous chelation.
CHAPTER 24 DETOXIFYING THERAPIES 299