Chelation Therapy
by
Elmer M. Cranton,
M.D.
Intravenous Chelation Therapy, a simple office procedure using
ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA) reverses and slows the
progression of atherosclerosis and other age-related and
degenerative diseases. Symptoms affecting many different parts of
the body often improve, for reasons that are not yet fully
understood. Blood flow increases in blocked coronary arteries to the
heart, to the brain, to the legs, and all throughout the body. Heart
attacks, strokes, leg pain and gangrene can be avoided using this
therapy. Need for bypass surgery and balloon angioplasty often
disappears after chelation. Published research also shows that
Chelation Therapy acts as a preventive against cancer.
The free
radical theory of disease (caused by free oxygen radicals) provides
one scientific explanation for the many observed benefits following
Chelation Therapy. Many scientific studies
published in peer reviewed medical journals provide solid
clinical evidence for benefit. This non-invasive therapy is very
much safer and far less expensive than surgery or angioplasty.
Chelation Therapy is a safe and effective alternative to bypass
surgery or angioplasty and stents. Hardening of the arteries need
not lead to coronary bypass surgery, heart attack, amputation,
stroke, or senility. There is new hope for victims of these and
other related diseases. Despite what you may have heard from other
sources, EDTA Chelation Therapy, administered by a properly trained
physician in conjunction with a healthy lifestyle, diet, and
nutritional supplements, is an option to be seriously considered by
persons suffering from coronary artery disease, cerebral vascular
disease, brain disorders resulting from circulatory disturbances,
generalized atherosclerosis and related ailments which can lead to
senility, gangrene, and accelerated physical decline.
Clinical
benefits from Chelation Therapy vary with the total number of
treatments received and with severity of the condition being
treated. On average, 85 percent of chelation patients have improved
very significantly. More than 90 percent of patients receiving 35 or
more chelation infusions have benefited enough to be grateful for
this therapy—even more so when they also followed a healthy
lifestyle, avoiding the use of tobacco. Symptoms improve, blood flow
to diseased organs increases, need for medication decreases and,
most importantly, the quality of life becomes more productive and
enjoyable.
When
patients first hear about or consider EDTA Chelation Therapy, they
normally have lots of questions. Undoubtedly you do, too. Here are
the answers to those most commonly asked questions, explained in
non-technical language.
Chelation (pronounced KEY-LAY-SHUN) is the process by which a metal
or mineral (such as calcium, lead, cadmium, iron, arsenic, aluminum,
etc.) is bonded to another substance―in this case EDTA, an amino
acid. It is a natural process, basic to life itself. Chelation is
one mechanism by which such common substances as aspirin,
antibiotics, vitamins, minerals and trace elements work in the body.
Hemoglobin, the red pigment in blood which carries oxygen, is a
chelate of iron.
WHAT IS CHELATION AS A MEDICAL THERAPY?
Chelation
is a treatment by which a small amino acid called ethylene diamine
tetraacetic acid (commonly abbreviated EDTA) is slowly administered
to a patient intravenously over several hours, prescribed by and
under the supervision of a licensed physician. The fluid containing
EDTA is infused through a small needle placed in the vein of a
patient’s arm. The EDTA infusion bonds with unwanted metals in the
body and quickly carries them away in the urine. Abnormally situated
nutritional metals, such as iron, along with toxic elements such as
lead, mercury and aluminum are easily removed by EDTA Chelation
Therapy. Normally present minerals and trace elements which are
essential for health are more tightly bound within the body and can
be maintained with a properly balanced nutritional supplement.
Not at
all. Chelation's earliest application with humans was during World
War II when the British used another chelating agent, British Anti-Lewesite
(BAL), as a poison gas antidote. BAL is still used today in
medicine.
EDTA was
first introduced into medicine in the United States in 1948 as a
treatment for industrial workers suffering from lead poisoning in a
battery factory. Shortly thereafter, the U.S. Navy advocated
Chelation Therapy for sailors who had absorbed lead while painting
government ships and dock facilities. In the years since, Chelation
Therapy has remained the undisputed treatment-of-choice for lead
poisoning, even in children with toxic accumulations of lead in
their bodies as a result of eating leaded paint from toys, cribs or
walls.
In the
early 1950’s it was speculated that EDTA Chelation Therapy might
help the accumulations of calcium associated with hardening of the
arteries. Experiments were performed and victims of atherosclerosis
experienced health improvements following chelation—diminished
angina, better memory, sight, hearing and increased vigor. A number
of physicians then began to routinely treat individuals suffering
from occlusive vascular conditions with Chelation Therapy.
Consistent improvements were reported for most patients.
Published articles describing successful treatment of
atherosclerosis with EDTA Chelation Therapy first appeared in
medical journals in 1955. Dozens of favorable articles have been
published since then. No unsuccessful results have ever been
reported (with the exception of several recent studies with very
flawed data presented by bypass surgeons in an attempt to discredit
this competing therapy). There have also been a number of editorial
comments of a critical nature made by physicians with vested
interests in vascular surgery and related procedures.
From
1964 on, despite continued documentation of its benefits and the
development of safer treatment methods, the use of chelation for the
treatment of arterial disease has been the subject of controversy.
Physicians with extensive experience in the use of Chelation Therapy
observe dramatic improvement in the vast majority of their patients.
They see angina routinely relieved; patients who suffered searing
chest and leg pain when walking only a short distance are frequently
able to return to normal, productive living after undergoing
Chelation Therapy. Far more dramatic, but equally common, is seeing
diabetic ulcers and gangrenous feet clear up in a matter of weeks.
Many individuals who have been told that their limbs would need to
be amputated because of gangrene are thrilled to watch their feet
heal with Chelation Therapy, although some areas of dead tissue may
still have to be trimmed away surgically.
The
approximately 1,500 American physicians practicing Chelation
Therapy, plus hundreds of others in foreign countries, have
countless files to prove they are able to reverse serious cases of
arterial disease. Men and women often arrive at doctors’ offices
near death with diseases caused by blocked arteries. Weeks or months
later, they’re remarkably improved. There is a wealth of evidence
from clinical experience that symptoms of reduced blood flow improve
in up to 85 percent of patients treated. More than a million
patients have thus far received Chelation Therapy, almost as many as
have undergone bypass surgery.
In
addition, several research studies have been published with results
of before-and-after diagnostic tests using radio-isotopes and ultra
sound which prove statistically that blood flow increases following
Chelation Therapy. Even without blood-flow studies, if leg pain on
walking is relieved, if angina becomes less bothersome, and if
physical endurance and mental acuity improve, such benefits would be
quite enough to justify EDTA Chelation Therapy. Improved quality of
life and relief of symptoms are the most important benefits of
Chelation Therapy.
Absolutely. There is no legal prohibition against a licensed medical
doctor using Chelation Therapy for whatever conditions he or she
deems it to be in the best interests of their patients, even though
the drug involved, EDTA, does not yet have atherosclerosis listed as
an indication on the FDA-approved package insert. The FDA does not
regulate the practice of medicine, but merely approves marketing,
labeling and advertising claims for drugs and devices in interstate
commerce.
It costs
many millions of dollars to perform the required research and to
provide the FDA with documentation for a new drug claim, or even to
add a new use to marketing brochures of a long established medicine
like EDTA. Physicians routinely prescribe medicines for conditions
not yet included on FDA approved advertising and marketing
literature.
The
American College for Advancement in Medicine conducts educational
courses in the proper and safe use of intravenous EDTA chelation
twice yearly. They also publish a physicians’ Protocol which
contains professionally recognized standards of medical practice for
Chelation Therapy.
On the
question of legality, courts have expressed the opinion that a
physician who withholds information about the availability of other
treatment choices, such as Chelation Therapy, prior to performing
vascular surgery (along with all other treatment modalities) is in
violation of the doctrine of informed consent. Withholding
information about a form of treatment may be tantamount to medical
malpractice, if as a result, a patient is deprived of possible
benefit. Thus, it is the doctors who refuse to recognize and inform
their patients about chelation who are risking legal liability—not
those chelating physicians informed enough to resist peer pressure
and provide an innovative treatment which they feel to be the
safest, the most effective and the least expensive for many of their
patients.
Prior
to commencing a course of Chelation Therapy a complete medical
history is obtained. Diet is analyzed for nutritional adequacy and
balance. Copies of pertinent medical records and summaries of
hospital admissions may be sent for. A thorough head-to-toe,
hands-on physical examination will be performed. A complete list of
current medications will be recorded, including the time and
strength of each dose. Special note will be made of any allergies.
Blood
and urine specimens will be obtained in a battery of tests to insure
that no conditions exist which may be worsened by Chelation Therapy.
Kidney function will be carefully assessed. An electrocardiogram is
usually obtained. Noninvasive tests will be performed, as medically
indicated, to determine the status of arterial blood flow prior to
therapy. A consultation with other medical specialists may be
requested.
On the
contrary, Chelation Therapy usually consists of anywhere from 20 to
50 separate infusions, depending on each patient’s individual health
status. Thirty treatments is the average number required for optimum
benefit in patients with symptoms of arterial blockage. Some
patients eventually receive more than 100 Chelation Therapy
infusions over several years. Other patients receive only 20
infusions as part of a preventive program. Each chelation treatment
takes from three to four hours and patients normally receive one to
five treatments each week. It is the total number of treatments that
determine results, not the schedule or frequency. Over a period of
time, these injections halt the progress of the free radical
disease. Free radicals underlie the development of atherosclerosis
and many other degenerative diseases of aging. Reduction of damaging
free radicals allows diseased arteries to heal, restoring blood
flow. With time Chelation Therapy brings profound improvement to
many essential metabolic and physiologic functions in the body. The
body’s regulation of calcium and cholesterol is restored by
normalizing the internal chemistry of cells. Chelation has many
favorable actions on the body.
Chelation Therapy benefits the flow of blood through every vessel in
the body, from the largest to the tiniest capillaries and
arterioles, most of which are far too small for surgical treatment
or are deep within the brain where they cannot be safely reached by
surgery. In many patients, the smaller blood vessels are the most
severely diseased, especially in the presence of diabetes. The
benefits of chelation occur simultaneously from the top of the head
to the bottom of the feet, not just in short segments of a few large
arteries which can be bypassed by surgical treatment.
DO I HAVE TO GO TO A HOSPITAL TO BE CHELATED?
No,
in most cases Chelation Therapy is an out-patient treatment
available in a physician’s office or clinic.
DOES IT HURT? WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE TO BE CHELATED?
Being "chelated"
is quite a different experience from other medical treatments. There
is no pain, and in most cases, very little discomfort. Patients are
seated in reclining chairs and can read, nap, watch TV, do
needlework, or chat with other patients while the fluid containing
the EDTA flows into their veins. If necessary, patients can walk
around. They can visit the restroom, eat and drink as they desire,
or make telephone calls, being careful not to dislodge the needle
attached to the intravenous infusion they carry with them. Some
patients even run their businesses by telephone or computer while
receiving Chelation Therapy.
EDTA
Chelation Therapy is relatively non-toxic and risk-free, especially
when compared with other treatments. Patients routinely drive
themselves home after chelation treatment with no difficulty. The
risk of significant side effects, when properly administered, is
less than 1 in 10,000 patients treated. By comparison, the overall
death rate as a direct result of bypass surgery is approximately 3
out of every 100 patients, varying with the hospital and the
operating team. The incidence of other serious complications
following surgery is much higher, approaching 35%, including heart
attacks, strokes, blood clots, mental impairment, infection, and
prolonged pain. Chelation Therapy is at least 300 times safer than
bypass surgery.
Occasionally, patients may suffer minor discomfort at the site where
the needle enters the vein. Some temporarily experience mild nausea,
dizziness, or headache as an immediate aftermath of treatment, but
in the vast majority of cases, these minor symptoms are easily
relieved. When properly administered by a physician expert in this
type of therapy, chelation is safer than many other prescription
medicines. Statistically speaking, the treatment itself is safer
than the drive in an automobile to the doctors office.
If EDTA
Chelation Therapy is given too rapidly or in too large a dose it may
cause harmful side effects, just as an overdose of any other
medicine can be dangerous. Reports of serious and even rare fatal
complications many years ago stemmed from excessive doses of EDTA,
administered too rapidly and without proper laboratory monitoring.
If you choose a physician with proper training and experience, who
is an expert in the use of EDTA, the risk of Chelation Therapy will
be kept to a very low level.
While it
has been stated that EDTA Chelation Therapy is damaging to the
kidneys, the newest research (consisting of kidney function tests
done on 383 consecutive chelation patients, before and after
treatment with EDTA for chronic degenerative diseases) indicates the
reverse is true. There is, on the average, significant improvement
in kidney function following Chelation Therapy. An occasional
patient may be unduly sensitive, however, and physicians expert in
chelation monitor kidney function very closely to avoid overloading
the kidneys. Chelation treatments must be given more slowly and less
frequently if kidney function is not normal. Patients with some
types of severe kidney problems should not receive EDTA Chelation
Therapy.
Coronary
artery bypass surgery, the popularly-prescribed procedure in which
blocked portions of major coronary arteries of the heart are
bypassed with grafts from a patient’s leg veins, has never been
proven by properly controlled studies to offer much or an advantage
over non-surgical treatments, other that relief of pain in a
minority of patients who cannot be controlled with medicine. It has
even been suggested that the relief of pain following surgery might
result from the cutting of nerve fibers which carry pain impulses
from the heart and which also stimulate spasm of coronary arteries.
It is not possible to perform bypass surgery without interrupting
those nerves.
Arteriograms which are done to x-ray and visualize the arteries
prior to surgery utilize a chemical dye which can cause arterial
spasm. It is difficult to determine on the x-rays how much arterial
blockage is permanent and how much is reversible spasm.
Indeed,
the most recent research suggests that many of the more than 200,000
bypasses performed each year for the relief of pain and other
symptoms brought on by clogged or blocked arteries are not
necessary. A good case against rushing into bypass surgery is made
by the findings of a ten-year, $24-million study conducted by the
National Institutes of Health (NIH) which compared post-operative
survival rates of "bypassed" patients with a matched group of
equally diseased patients treated non-surgically.
The
study uncovered no advantage for the majority of patients who had
been operated upon, compared with those receiving non-surgical
therapy. It is important to note that the non-surgical therapy
reported in that study did not include either Chelation Therapy or
the newer calcium blocker drugs, and that only half of the patients
received beta blocker drugs. Although studies have been reported to
show that patients with left main coronary artery blockage live
slightly longer after surgery, the studies were done before calcium
blockers and newer beta blockers were available. Those medicines
have been scientifically proven to protect against heart attack.
Surgery might have come out a clear second best if all presently
available non-surgical treatments, including chelation, had been
compared to bypass.
Having
surgery didn’t improve the chances for most patients to live longer,
live healthier, live better, or enjoy life more , when the results
were statistically analyzed. The incidence of heart attacks
(myocardial infarction) and both employment and recreational status
were the same when comparing a large group of patients treated
surgically with those treated non-surgically, even without using
Chelation Therapy for the non-surgical treatment group.
Most
importantly, cardiovascular surgery does nothing to arrest or
reverse the underlying disease, which exists in varying degrees
throughout the body. It is at best a piecemeal "cure" for a
system-wide problem. Bypassing a tiny portion of the body’s blood
vessels can have little lasting benefit when the same degenerating
condition which caused the most extreme blockage at one or two sites
must of necessity be taking place everywhere, throughout the
circulatory network.
One
thing the general public is not fully aware of is that many people
who have one bypass operation later need a second bypass. Sometimes
the blood vessels that weren’t bypassed become clogged and also need
bypassing; sometimes the transplanted vessels used in the first
graft become filled with new plaque; sometimes the transplants
malfunction or turn out to be too small for the job. As a matter of
fact, studies have shown that by ten years after surgery, grafted
vessels had closed in 40 percent of patients, and in the remaining
60 percent, half developed further coronary narrowing. Once you’ve
had a bypass, your chances of needing another go up about five
percent a year. After five years, some specialists estimate, your
chances of needing a second operation could be as high as 30 to 40
percent. And some patients go on to even a third operation or more.
And approximately 2 to 3 out of every 100 patients undergoing bypass
surgery die as a result of the procedure—even more if they are
severely ill at the time of surgery. A much larger percentage suffer
serious complications, even after they survive the surgery. Those
percentages are even worse for balloon angioplasty—with or without
stents.
Chelation patients are frequently able to return to work and to
resume their sports and other activities, without the need to
undergo surgery. If they stay on a proper diet, exercise within
limits of tolerance, continue to take the prescribed program of
nutritional supplements, and receive periodic maintenance chelation
treatments (every one or two months, depending on the severity of
the underlying medical diagnosis) they can usually go many years
without suffering further heart attacks, strokes, senility or
gangrenous extremities.
If you
have been told, like most people eager for additional information
about Chelation Therapy, that you have advanced arterial disease,
you may have been advised to have vascular surgery or balloon
angioplasty. If so, it is essential for you to understand the nature
of your disease and all possible treatment choices, before you can
make an intelligent decision concerning the various options. Even if
Chelation Therapy and other non-surgical therapies should fail,
bypass still remains a choice.
Chelation Therapy is gaining recognition so rapidly that there is
growing interest in developing an oral chelator that will produce
benefits similar to intravenous EDTA Chelation Therapy. Many
nutritional substances administered by mouth are known to have
chelating properties but none have the spectrum of activity of
intravenous EDTA. Many nutrients such as vitamin C and the amino
acids cysteine and aspartic acid have the ability to weakly chelate
metals. They also protect against free radical damage in other ways,
as anti-oxidants.
Claims
are being increasingly made for the use of nutritional supplements
containing weak chelators in patients with atherosclerosis. There is
nothing new about these products which are mostly vitamins and
minerals being aggressively marketed with glowing testimonials and
deceptive marketing techniques. Benefit from products taken by mouth
has never even come close to the much more dramatic results seen
with intravenous EDTA.
Recently
some nutritional supplements which contain EDTA have been alleged to
be effective as oral Chelation Therapy. The problem is that only 5
percent or less of EDTA is absorbed by mouth. The same tiny
percentage applies to rectal suppositories. The remainder passes out
in the stool. And, it must be taken every day by mouth to absorb an
effective amount of EDTA. When taken on a daily basis, oral EDTA
binds essential nutrients in the digestive tract and blocks their
absorption, causing deficiencies. When given intravenously, EDTA is
100 percent absorbed and can be given on only 20 to 30 days in any
one year. Nutritional supplementation on a daily basis more than
compensates for any loses caused by the intravenous EDTA Chelation
Therapy.
No!
Before recent medical breakthroughs in the area of free radical
pathology, it was hypothesized that EDTA Chelation Therapy had its
major beneficial effect on calcium metabolism—that it stripped away
the excess calcium from the plaque, restoring arteries to their
pliable precalcified state. This frequently offered explanation—the
so-called "roto-rooter" concept—is not the real reason, as
previously postulated, that Chelation Therapy produces its major
health benefits. The fact that EDTA does remove some circulating
calcium is now felt to be one of the less prominent aspects of its
benefits. Calcium deposits are a late-stage phenomenon and have
little to do with the formation of arterial plaque.
Most
importantly, EDTA has an affinity for the so-called transition
metal, iron, and for the related toxic metals, lead, mercury,
cadmium, nickel, aluminum and others, which are potent catalysts of
excessive free radical reactions or other toxicity. Free radical
pathology, it is now believed, is an important underlying process
triggering the development of many age-related ailments, including
cancer, senility and arthritis, as well as atherosclerosis. Thus,
EDTA’s primary benefit is that it greatly reduces the ongoing
production of free radicals within the body by removing
accumulations of metallic catalysts and toxins which accumulate at
abnormal sites in the body as a person grows older and which speed
the aging process.
This is
a greatly oversimplified explanation of what actually occurs. For
those of you with a decided interest in the scientific
technicalities you can refer to the article entitled Scientific
Rational for EDTA Chelation Therapy: Mechanism of Action by Elmer
M. Cranton, M.D. and James P. Frackelton, M.D.
For a
fuller explanation of the many issues involved, you will enjoy
reading
BYPASSING BYPASS SURGERY, a full-length book by Elmer M. Cranton,
M.D., which is written in popular form for the general public. The
article on the scientific rationale and mechanism of action,
mentioned in the last paragraph, is contained as a chapter in that
book under the heading, "Take This to Your Doctor."
Because
the very aging process itself correlates with ongoing free radical
damage, it is no surprise that a large variety of symptoms have been
reported to improve following Chelation Therapy, even symptoms not
directly caused by circulatory disease. While there is no scientific
evidence that chelation is a cure for these diseases, symptoms of
arthritis, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s , psoriasis, high blood
pressure, and scleroderma have all been reported to improve with
Chelation Therapy. In fact, there is no better treatment for
scleroderma. Vision has been restored in macular degeneration.
Patients generally feel younger and more energetic following
therapy, even when taken for purely preventive reasons. In fact,
Chelation Therapy is more desirable for prevention that it is for
established disease. Preventive medicine is always preferable to
late stage crisis intervention.
A
recently published article from the University of Zurich in
Switzerland reported an 18-year follow-up of a group of 56 Chelation
Therapy patients. When comparing the death rate from cancer with
that of a control group of patients who did not receive Chelation
Therapy, the authors found that patients who received EDTA Chelation
Therapy had a 90% reduction of cancer deaths. Epidemiologists from
the University of Zurich reviewed the data and found no fault with
the reported facts or the conclusions.
There is
no evidence that Chelation Therapy is of benefit in the treatment of
advanced cancer, once the diagnosis is made, but there is a large
body of scientific research indicating that free radical damage to
DNA is an important factor at the onset of most cancer. Chelation
Therapy blocks damaging free radicals.
If EDTA
Chelation Therapy is safe and effective as indicated by many
published studies, and by the experience of hundreds of doctors, why
haven’t you heard more about it? That is a good question!
Until
quite recently, relatively few patients have been informed that this
therapy is available. Many heart specialists may not have even heard
of the treatment and would be reluctant to prescribe it if they had.
The American Medical Association has not yet approved Chelation
Therapy for atherosclerosis, although it does endorse its use in the
treatment of lead and other heavy metal poisoning. Many insurance
companies will not compensate policy holders for Chelation Therapy
unless it is given for proven lead poisoning of a serious degree. If
Chelation Therapy is given for atherosclerosis, it is often labeled
"experimental" or "not necessary " or "not customary" by medical
insurance companies and payment is denied. They deny payment to
patients for Chelation Therapy even though they do pay for bypass
surgery, and even though chelation might have saved them tens of
thousands of dollars. Like many other aspects of our lives, a
considerable amount of politics seems to be involved—in this case,
medical politics.
Politically powerful traditional medical groups and manufacturers of
cardiovascular drugs have consistently suppressed knowledge of
Chelation Therapy, perhaps because of a large vested interest in
competing coronary related health care. The cost of all medical care
for victims of heart disease in the United States, including
coronary bypass surgery and prescription drugs, exceeds $40 billion
per year. Obviously, many hospitals, physicians, and pharmaceutical
companies would experience a decline in need for their services if
Chelation Therapy were to become universally popular.
Physicians who remain skeptical about Chelation Therapy are those
who have never used it. They are either completely uninformed about
the research that has been done to document the safety and
effectiveness of Chelation Therapy, or they are committed by
training or source of income to other therapeutic procedures, such
as vascular surgery and related procedures. Many physicians have
merely accepted criticisms of an editorial nature stemming from such
source, without digging into the true facts for themselves. Recent
reports of clinical trails alleging to disprove Chelation Therapy
are all so flawed in design that they offer no evidence at all.
Doctors, however, are usually too busy to read every word, and often
accept the misleading summaries and abstracts, without analyzing
the data for themselves. The bypass and cardiovascular drug
industries have been extremely well marketed—to the medical
profession as well as to the public.
Your
lifestyle counts. Chelation Therapy is only part of the curative
process. Improved nutrition and improved lifestyle are absolutely
imperative for lasting benefit from chelation treatments. Chelation
is not in and of itself a "cure-all"—it merely reduces abnormal free
radical activity and removes unwanted and toxic metals, allowing
normal healing and control mechanisms to come in to play. Healing is
thus facilitated, allowing health to be restored with the help of
applied clinical nutrition, antioxidant supplementation and improved
lifestyle. A full program of Chelation Therapy involves all of these
factors. Chelation Therapy is also compatible with other forms of
therapy, including bypass surgery. If cardiovascular drugs are
needed, they can be taken with chelation with no conflict.
In
addition to receiving the recommended number of chelation treatments,
patients eager for long-term benefits should follow a healthy
lifestyle, take a spectrum of nutritional supplements, be physically
active and eliminate destructive lifestyle habits such as tobacco
and excessive alcohol.
Hyperbaric oxygen treatment (HBO) involves treatment of the entire
body in a small chamber totally immersed in 100 percent oxygen, at
pressures greater than the normal atmosphere. HBO stimulates new
blood flow, keeps organs alive and functioning, even when they are
deprived of adequate blood flow. HBO also helps fight infection. HBO
is especially helpful in cases of gangrenous or pre-gangrenous feet,
to speed healing while the slower process of chelation has time to
work, and to restore brain function following a stroke. Many
patients receive hyperbaric oxygen treatments on the same day that
they receive chelation for the added benefits of the two types of
therapy.
A
scientifically balanced regimen of nutritional supplements
reinforces the body’s antioxidant defenses and should include
vitamins E, C, B1, B2 B3, B6,
B12, PABA, beta carotene, and coenzyme Q10,
and others. A balanced program of mineral and trace
element supplementation should also include calcium, magnesium,
zinc, copper, selenium, manganese, vanadium, and chromium. The exact
prescription for nutritional supplements is determined individually
for each patient, based on nutritional assessment and laboratory
testing. Dr. Cranton's Prime NutrientsTM, the best
high-potency multiple vitamin, mineral, trace element formula,
provides a balanced foundation supplement, all in one bottle and at
reasonable cost. Dr. Cranton's AntioxPackets provide a much more
complete regimen at additional cost , and are especially indicated
for symptomatic and elderly patients. Chelation patients are placed
on the AntioxPacketsTM, one twice daily with meals. That
is what Dr. Cranton and his family take.
DESTRUCTIVE
HABITS
It is
important to eliminate the use of tobacco. This applies to
cigarettes, pipe tobacco, cigars, snuff or chewing tobacco. It has
been a consistent observation that patients who continued to use
tobacco following chelation will experience less improvement and for
a shorter time in comparison to non-smokers.
Relatively healthy adults are often able to tolerate the moderate
use of alcoholic beverages without generating more free radicals
than they can detoxify. Anyone who drinks alcoholic beverages
excessively risks harmful free radical damage. Victims of chronic
degenerative diseases should minimize the consumption of alcohol.
EXERCISE
Finally,
sustained physical exercise is very helpful. Even a brisk 45-minute
walk several times per week will help to maintain the health
benefits and improved circulation resulting from Chelation Therapy.
Lactate normally builds up in tissues during sustained exercise, and
lactate is a natural chelator produced within the body. Which brings
us to the final question!
Only you can make that decision!
Chances are, your doctor won’t help you decide. Patients who choose
Chelation Therapy often do so against the advice of their personal
physicians or cardiologists. Many have already been advised to
undergo vascular surgery. Occasionally, a patient never hears about
Chelation Therapy until he or she is hospitalized and a friend or
relative begs him or her to look into this non-invasive therapy
before proceeding to surgery. In an impressively large number of
instances, a new patient comes for chelation on the recommendation
of someone who has been successfully chelated. Many patients have
benefited even after one or more failed bypasses.
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