Do it yourself chelation therapy

rn/writer, RN · Aug 13, 2009

What's next? Do-it-yourself surgery?

Not ragging on you, OP, but there is an unscrupulous element out there that preys on people's ignorance, their distrust of conventional medicine, their sense of independence, and their desire to be well. These charlatans use a term like chelation because it sounds impressive and scientific, and indeed, it can be when conducted properly. When engaged in by someone who doesn't know what they're doing and doesn't have the ability to evaluate the results, there can be significant danger as there was with the gentleman you mentioned.

Chelation therapy needs to be done with close supervision and is reserved for things like heavy metal poisoning and other conditions that cause a build-up of substances that can actually be chelated from the blood (that does not include the byproducts of a greasy diet). This is serious business that requires serial testing and monitoring of the patient to be sure that it is effective and to make certain that it is stopped when proper levels are achieved.

I'm glad you didn't cause yourself serious harm.

classykaren · Aug 13, 2009

I also feel more people are doing this beause of lack of health insurance

rn/writer, RN · Aug 13, 2009

Some do-it-yourself medical efforts may indeed stem from lack of medical insurance and concern about the high cost of treatment.

But many unscrupulous folks target what are called the "worried well" with scams claiming to rid the body of toxins and do other things that seem health-oriented but are primarily designed to exploit health-related fears and line the pockets of the "practitioners." Some of the products and procedures are harmless and merely cheat people of their money (that's bad enough), but others are downright dangerous and can cause serious harm or even death.

ChristyRN2009 · Aug 13, 2009

What did the therapy or supplement ingredients include? This is a weird post for me. Lots of them around here lately....

Vito Andolini · Aug 13, 2009

I used to work for an MD who did IV chelation. I forget what for, can you believe that? He got decent results and was very careful, monitored with lab tests and physical exams throughout the course of treatments.

I think when done under the care of a good doctor with proper training, it can be helpful. Alternative care is not necessarily all bad.

I am very glad you are well. I think you should report your adverse event to perhaps the FDA so they can look into this particular product. Did the maker not even alert you to the possibility of K difficulties, chest pain, etc.? That is very risky. Take care.

elkpark · Aug 13, 2009

I used to work for an MD who did IV chelation. I forget what for, can you believe that? He got decent results and was very careful, monitored with lab tests and physical exams throughout the course of treatments.
I think when done under the care of a good doctor with proper training, it can be helpful. Alternative care is not necessarily all bad.
I am very glad you are well. I think you should report your adverse event to perhaps the FDA so they can look into this particular product. Did the maker not even alert you to the possibility of K difficulties, chest pain, etc.? That is very risky. Take care.

Chelation therapy is not necessarily "alternative" treatment -- it is the legitimate, mainstream treatment for some conditions (primarily heavy metal toxicity). It only becomes "alternative" therapy when people are doing it for other conditions, for which it has no proven benefit. (And there are a surprising number of conditions out there for which some yahoo will recommend "chelation therapy.")

ozoneranger · Aug 13, 2009

I remember reading an article about a boy who was diagnosed as autistic, it was later discovered he had been lead poisoned. What surprised me was that this happened in the last year or so, not in the 1970's when science finally caught up with lead paint.

I'm not sure if this is the same child, however, chelation has been around for 60+ years & has been used successfully in hundreds of cases.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8867271

Karen E. Wetterhahn, was not so fortunate....

Karen E. Wetterhahn was a professor of chemistry at Dartmouth College and the founding director of Dartmouth's Toxic Metals Research Program. An expert in the mechanisms of metal toxicity, Professor Wetterhahn was best known for her research on chromium. She became ill and died in 1997, at the age of 48, as a result of a tragic laboratory accident involving a highly toxic mercury compound.

In addition to her international reputation as a research chemist, Professor Wetterhahn was known to students and colleagues at Dartmouth College as a dedicated teacher and mentor. At the time of her death in 1997 she was Dartmouth's Albert Bradley Third Century Professor in the Sciences.

Trained as an inorganic chemist, Professor Wetterhahn also had expertise in biochemistry and molecular toxicology. Her research involved understanding how chromium and nickel cause cancer in humans. She was particularly interested in the way cells metabolize those metals.

More....

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~toxmetal/home/tribute/karen.html

Vito Andolini · Aug 18, 2009

Chelation therapy is not necessarily "alternative" treatment -- it is the legitimate, mainstream treatment for some conditions (primarily heavy metal toxicity). It only becomes "alternative" therapy when people are doing it for other conditions, for which it has no proven benefit. (And there are a surprising number of conditions out there for which some yahoo will recommend "chelation therapy.")

The doc I worked for was not a yahoo. Would you say you have an open mind on this topic? Funny how life is very simple when one's mind is closed. Sorry if I am assuming incorrectly about you but I really dislike it when people say there is no proven benefit to something without, apparently, researching it. And I resent you assuming my employer was a yahoo. He was an MD and was as ethical and knowledgeable as the day is long.

Also, I am well aware that chelation is used for heavy metal tox. My doc used it for this purpose, just expanded to more metals than your "standard" metals.

Also, there are a great many testimonies, even studies done double blind and fully properly, to the satisfaction of the most academic among us, that attest to the benefits of alternative care. If you know the history of chelation and of various pharmaceuticals, it makes sense.

elkpark · Aug 18, 2009

The doc I worked for was not a yahoo. Would you say you have an open mind on this topic? Funny how life is very simple when one's mind is closed. Sorry if I am assuming incorrectly about you but I really dislike it when people say there is no proven benefit to something without, apparently, researching it. And I resent you assuming my employer was a yahoo. He was an MD and was as ethical and knowledgeable as the day is long.
Also, I am well aware that chelation is used for heavy metal tox. My doc used it for this purpose, just expanded to more metals than your "standard" metals.
Also, there are a great many testimonies, even studies done double blind and fully properly, to the satisfaction of the most academic among us, that attest to the benefits of alternative care. If you know the history of chelation and of various pharmaceuticals, it makes sense.

My comment was not intended specifically as a reference to your employer. There are a lot of irresponsible yahoos and quacks out there who recommend chelation therapy to uninformed and gullible individuals for an incredible range of ailments, real or imagined. However, I have no idea whether or not your employer was one of them, and was not suggesting that he was.

You have no idea to what degree my mind is "open" or "closed," or how knowledgeable I am on this topic. Remember what they say about "assuming" ... :rolleyes:

rn/writer, RN · Aug 18, 2009

I think we can all pretty much agree that chelation is a valid therapy that is sometimes employed by less than scrupulous folks, some of whom don't even have medical training, to "treat" an unbelievable range of maladies, many of which have nothing to do with the toxicity it's designed to manage.

Further, I hope we can all agree that no matter how effective chelation might be, any do-it-yourself version is a venture into highly dangerous territory.