Chelation

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I know that it has been claimed that mercury is responsible for autism, and that chelation therapy has been suggested as a treatment. I would be interested to know which chelation drug is normally used by those MDs. The different drugs do very different things.

For instance one site suggests that EDTA is a good drug for the removal of lead. http://www.autism.com/ari/editorials/ed ... erview.htm, but Ole Andersen in Chemical Reviews, 1999, 2683 commeted that EDTA causes lead in rats to move into the brain. While the overall amount of lead in the rat might go down the level in the brain could increase which is not good. This suggests that EDTA could do more harm than good.

I think that mercury is not to blame and chelation therapy is not able to "cure" autism. What do the other Wrong Planet citizens know about the drugs which are being used for autism related chelation "therapy".

actually it's the first I've heard of it. A quick Google should turn up any number of medical studies. Understanding them, however, is different.

Cion really a good idea. Besides, AT IT'S BEST, it is NOT A CURE! It can NOT remove damage that has been done. At it's best it simply removes the offending element that could conceivably cause more damage. Of course, at it's worst it can spread the offending element, and damage something else. And isn't EDTA used in food quite a bit? Is it also used for chelation of mercury?

I know a bit about this because my mother was treated using Chelation for her heart condition. It did help with that. It involves an IV and a drug that removes heavy metals and calcium, and takes a few hours every two weeks. I think her artery condition was caused by calcium deposits and a bad diet. Anyway, the chelation helped her condition and she won't be needing open heart surgery. The process involves needle sticks and long periods of stillness and waiting. In some cases, such as this particular heart condition, which involves a clog at an odd angle in an artery that cannot be unblocked using angioplasty, it really makes a difference. The chelation cleared it and a bypass was avoided.
It does have merits.
As far as therapy for autistic children, I have read on WP autistic children develop at different times and at different rates than NTs. My question would be what difference would the chelation make? If it doesn't make any difference my answer to anyone considering it for autistic children would be no. Don't have it. Be a protective advocate, I would say to parents. Be wary, even when you are stressed out and at your wits end.

Last edited by ooOoOoOAnaOoOoOoo on 01 Jan 2009, 4:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

There are 2 major points against it.

The first is the possibility of being lethal, which makes me wonder why parents risk their kids lives over something that's not even proven to work.

http://health.dailynewscentral.com/content/view/1561/0

The second point would be that NIMH has refused to even try human studies on it, considering it caused brain damage in the rats they tested it on.

Any parent who tries chelation on their kid after knowing both these points should have CPS called on them.

I called my mom, it is a drug that's used, I thought it was a machine. I haven't been with her to the therapy sessions, they take several hours, so I wasn't sure what's involved.

Hrmm, thats kind of disturbing. I took a look at the wikipedia entry for EDTA and it had a list of specialised uses:




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EDTA

A deficiency of calcium can, short term, cause osteoporosis, and arthritis. Long term it can cause osteogenisus imperfecta, loss of muscle control, breakdown of the nervous system and, OH YEAH, HEART DAMAGE AND HEART ATTACK!! !! !!

I think it is obvious that they simply used something to break down the plaque and clear the arteries. Are you sure it was TRULY chelation? Many things like plaque DO have calcium, but removal of calcium system wide is DISASTROUS! BTW Calcium is perhaps the most needed element by the human body! The RDA is about 1GRAM!! !! !! I think the only element that comes close is Magnesium, at 0.4Grams. If you take WAY too much, or there is a deficiency of things, like magnesium, calcium CAN cause kidney stones, etc... And, YEP, CAN contribute to plaque. If you don't take enough, don't expect to remain healthy for very long.

And let's not forget! 100% chelation of calcium would leave you WORTHLESS as a person. Unable to eat, move in any productive way, etc.... And that is not even considering the use by soft tissue. Your muscles would be convulsing against themselves with no bone to provide support, for example! I imagine you would be in a lot of pain, if alive and able to perceive it. OH, what am I talking about!? You would die of a heart attack LONG before that.

Calcium is burned by lots of things. As you walk, it is used not only to maintain strong bones, and help in other ways, but even for muscle movement itself. Luckily, you DO have a lot in bones. If you don't get enough calcium, your body will simply eat bone which leads to things like osteoporosis, and arthritis.

BTW as much I hate mercury, I bet THESE are the areas I got the most in:

1. "amalgam" fillings. I was LIED to and told they were silver! I asked what they were MADE of! GRANTED, even when young, I suspected the melting point was too high, and should have known, but I thought they were SUPPOSED to be HELPFUL.
2. Fish(I ate a lot of tuna, for example)
3. Various idiotic COMMON sources.
4. Vaccines(probably about as much as a couple of the worst tunafish sandwiches)

My 13 yold brother is on one form of chelation for a completly different thing, and he would die a brutally painful death otherwise. He gets transfusions every 3 weeks to keep his red blood cell count normal, as he does not produce any himself, and becuase of it, he has high iron levels that would rise to a lethal point if it were not for dysferral that he takes through a needle 5 nights a week. He puts the needle in, and has to leave it in while a pump gives him the dosage over time. Chelation does have its uses, autism is not one of them.

I don't know wat the specific drugs are, but I think you'll find that the Asperger's community by and large believes chelation for AS to be a fraud. There is no scientific evidence it works; when you ask the believers about it, you get a lot about conspiracy theories. The NIH was going to do a study, since there is so much belief in it out there, but dropped it because of all the dangers inherent to chelation.

I'm not sure if that's the kind of calcium this is, 2u. This is the stuff that can clog an artery and impact it. Not a good scene. It's a deposit. Bank deposits are welcome, calcium deposits are not. That crusty stuff that collects on the water faucets in the bathroom and hangs from the ceilings in caves.
I don't think it's 100% chelation of calcium. It's enough to keep the blood flowing.
Anyway, she's so much healthier in all ways because of this. Even psychologically. What a difference. It's kind of like she's a new person and I wish this would have happened years ago. Who knows, maybe she had lead poisoning and this chelation therapy is removing that too. I am not sure why, exactly, just that it's good in her case.

You don't really expect a dentist to know this do you. They don't even seem to know the correct answer when you ask "will this hurt".

BTW: There was someone on WP not long ago claiming to have been "cured" by Chelation but I'm not sure if they were for real or just trolling.

2 and Ana, it is the same chelation. The American Heart Association says that there is no proven link, but the theory is that it will trap and let the body excrete the calcium leaving the plaque diminished enough to finish breaking the plaque down.

As for chelation for treatment for Autism, I get into the debate a lot with parents I know (and some I don't). It's not proven to work. If you decide for whatever reason to get into an argument over it with curebies, remember citing the cardiac death will fall on deaf ears. They will say it's one case of malpractice and that chelation is "safe."

As Padium said, there are some really GOOD uses for chelation. They will save the lives of people who have true metal poisoning. But I cringe each time I hear someone talk about using it on their children. I wouldn't do it to myself, let alone my kids!

There is information on the use of chelation for the treatment of diseases other than heavy metal poisoning at this site:
www.chelationwatch.org.

The treatment regimen for autistics is generally more aggressive than what is used for real chelation. They also inject some vitamins and minerals.

We have had multiple people (some of them professionals) mention chelation for our Kanner autistic son.

There is no bleeping way I would consider it for my child. I do understand why some people do though.

Apparently there've been about 30 deaths so far...

re. mercury amalgam fillings... as far as we can tell the mercury's chemically bound and doesn't leach out in any form that can be absorbed by the human body... If you want to play it safe, just brush your teeth so you don't need any fillings. (And no guarantee that the plastic fillings are safe either.)

chelation is likely to cause further brain damage... at the very least it upsets the balance of the body and creates physical stress... Some of the most aggressively treated kids are probably turning out lower functioning than they could be, because so much time is spent on cure and not enough on education.