--- Maximus-CBCS v1.00
 * Origin: The Homestead * TORONTO, ONT * (416) 272-4067 * (1:250/626)

        As if I need to add anything, chelation doesn't work, a simple
understanding of biology and chemistry give no cause as to why it could
work, but I'll tell you, the whole idea is just so damn appealing...
but too good to be true.
--
                Craig Werner   (future MD/PhD, 4.5 years down, 2.5 to go)

              (1935-14E Eastchester Rd., Bronx NY 10461, 212-931-2517)
                  "Doonesbury is more important than self-respect."

Some unorthodox practitioners have made bundles of money by peddling
chelation (with EDTA, usually) as a cure-all for just about whatever
ails you.  There is no scientific evidence that it does anything but
empty your wallet when it comes to coronary artery disease, multiple
sclerosis, ALS or most of the other conditions to which it is applied.
Of course, insurance doesn't cover it when used for quackish indications.

All the 'flamers' and doubting Thomases notwithstanding,  I am aware
of two medical practices in So. Cal. that have literally hundreds of
satisfied chelation patients.  It is used to allieviate symptoms of
blocked {*filter*} vessles, such as angina and claudication (pain in legs
when walking), that would otherwise be treated by bypass operations.
These practices would not have a thriving word-of-mouth business if
chelation were as worthless as some of the recent articles claim.
They have had several hundred satisfied patients over the past six
years (and more (?) before I became aware of them).

In my family there is a diabetic woman who had a bypass in her leg
for a severly blocked artery.  A few months later the blockage was
reappearing and the surgeon was sharpening his knives.  When he told
her "Don't worry, you won't lose your leg.  I once to perform 13
operations on a patient but he still has his leg."  she went looking
for alternatives and found chelation.  She underwent 30 treatments
and had about 30 more a year later and had no more leg problems for
the next 5 years (which is about the usual lifetime of a bypass).  At
the time insurance paid for all this because they were willing to
take a chance on avoiding a $15-20K hospitalization for another
bypass.

Nowadays it's harder to get insurance coverage.  Chelation costs
around $60-$100 per treatment.  But even if one pays $1800-$3000 for
a course of 30 treatments, it's much cheaper than surgery and MUCH
more pleasant.

---Steve Colburn
   UUCP: {spsd,zardoz,oliveb}!felix!colburn

Numerous laboratory tests have been performed to show that CT (EDTA)
resulted in slower synthesis and more rapid destruction of
phospholipids, as well as an increased turnover of phosphate.  BTW,
phosphates and phospholipids are important factors in the clogging of
human arteries.

EDTA was shown to remove calcium from the arterial in a study by F.
Walker, Ph. D. and outlined in his doctorial thesis.  Rabbits given EDTA
exhibited significantly less (P=.05) aortic calcium.

Many other studies have been performed supporting this practice, so a
library search is recommended before saying "no objective data...".

--

******************************************************************************
..............With a rose, in and out of the garden he goes...................

--
                Craig Werner   (future MD/PhD, 4.5 years down, 2.5 to go)

              (1935-14E Eastchester Rd., Bronx NY 10461, 212-931-2517)
                      "If I don't see you soon, I'll see you later."

        Now both binding resins such as cholestyramine and for that
matter oat bran bind bile acids which now have to be recycled from
cholesterol, so the effect is the same: oat bran bind cholesterol
equivalent and removes it from body.  It is just like EDTA and Calcium by
analogy, but chemically it's not chelation.  It's analogous to chelation.
        Similarly pre-HDL activate cholesterol transferase enzymes that
transfer cholesterol from peripheral cells to form HDL and takes
cholesterol from the periphery back to the liver (where some of it is
turned into bile salts: see above)  It is also analogous to chelation,
but is not properly called that.

        That is why 'chelation therapy' has such appeal. Even though the
entire therapy probably is ineffective and is directed at a problem
totally irrelevant to the situation, it sounds from description exactly
what you would want to do if you could, so people who really want to
beleive, really do beleive, and are helped by that belief.  Most never
had chemistry anyway so they don't realize they're being taken, and most
wouldn't care anyway, because as long as they believe, they feel better.

--
                Craig Werner   (future MD/PhD, 4.5 years down, 2.5 to go)

              (1935-14E Eastchester Rd., Bronx NY 10461, 212-931-2517)
           "My philosophy, like color TV, is all there in black and white."