Chelation therapy
As chelation therapy is the therapeutic use of chelating agents called. Complexing agents such as EDTA , DMSA , DMPS (trade names including Dimaval) or Unithiol are administered orally or as an infusion . The poison information centers are available for the protocol-compliant use of the chelate substances in acute intoxications . Treating chronic exposures requires less aggressive measures. Specific protocols for the detoxification of chronic metal pollution are used today by environmental physicians and members of the German Medical Association for Clinical Metal Toxicology .
Heavy metal detox
Chelates have been used in evidence-based medicine for severe heavy metal poisoning since the 1940s . After eliminating the cause of poisoning (ending exposure ), the use of chelating agents is the next most important form of therapy.
Heavy metals, such as lead or mercury , are stored in the body and accumulate in the tissue, for example in the event of lead poisoning , e.g. B. in the bones. Even if the original source is removed, the body remains exposed to the stress caused by the gradual release of the stored heavy metal from the body. Chelating agents accelerate the natural excretion of heavy metals accumulated in the body by complexing divalent ions.
Furthermore, Wilson's disease , a metabolic disease that accumulates copper in the body, is treated with chelating agents .
Alternative medicine
As an alternative medicine , chelating agents (especially DMSA and DMPS ) are used for drainage, even with low heavy metal exposure, if certain symptoms are present.
In addition, chelation therapies have long been advertised with the slogan “No tubes for the arteries”. EDTA is administered intravenously as an infusion, with 20 to 30 such infusions being prescribed every few days. In alternative medicine, they are mainly used for circulatory disorders as a result of arteriosclerosis . Any bypass operations on the coronary arteries should become unnecessary. In addition, smoker's legs should heal, blood pressure and blood sugar levels should drop, and angina pectoris complaints should subside.
For a long time, it was claimed by users that chelation therapy would dissolve so-called plaques , the deposits on the vessel walls in arteriosclerosis. These deposits mainly consist of calcium salts and cholesterol . These deposits constrict the hardened vessels. The injected EDTA was supposed to wash out the calcium and so "clear" the arteries again. This concept could neither be confirmed in experimental studies nor in controlled clinical studies; corresponding studies showed no demonstrable effect. The deposits are not all calcium either.
Meanwhile, users themselves admit that the theory was wrong:
“Chelation therapy is not, as previously assumed, a kind of 'pipe-free'. Before one knew anything about the pathology of free radicals, the working hypothesis about the working principle of EDTA was that chelation therapy had its most important healing effect in the change in calcium metabolism. […] This thought model […] is actually not decisive […]. The fact that EDTA binds freely available calcium is now regarded as one of the least important aspects of its operating principle. "
The now widespread theory says that metals in the body promote the undesirable effects of free radicals and thus the aging process. This assumption has not yet been proven by independent scientific studies either.
The administration of a chelator is also used in alternative medicine to diagnose subclinical heavy metal poisoning. This application is not permitted, scientifically refuted and is rejected by specialist societies.
Risks and Side Effects
Proponents of alternative chelation therapy claim: "If a doctor is competent, this type of therapy is as safe as medication with aspirin tablets." Symptoms such as chilliness, mild heart pain, dizziness , body aches, fatigue, fever and headache are normal side effects specified. The risk of dangerous incidents is 1: 10,000.
In principle, EDTA treatment not only removes heavy metals from the body, but also minerals and trace elements . It can lead to a disruption of the calcium metabolism with the consequence of cardiac arrhythmias , seizures and in extreme cases respiratory arrest . Deaths have become known. In addition, a lack of calcium can lead to blood clotting disorders, kidney failure and damage to the bone marrow are possible. Side effects also occur in the form of dermatoses due to Zn 2+ ion losses.
rating
In the case of serious acute poisoning with heavy metals, the use of selective chelating agents is considered useful, e.g. B. EDTA for lead poisoning, dimercaprol for mercury poisoning.
The alternative medical heavy metal discharge is rejected by scientific medicine. American and German medical associations and the American health authority FDA warned against chelation therapy as early as 1984. In 1998, the FDA Consumer magazine named chelation therapy in the “Top Ten” of methods recognized as “health fraud”. No independent scientific study has so far proven the method to be successful.
“Between 1963 and 1985, independent physicians published at least fifteen separate reports documenting the case histories of more than seventy patients who had received chelation treatments. They found no evidence of change in the atherosclerotic disease process, no decrease in the size of atherosclerotic plaques, and no evidence that narrowed arteries opened wider. "
“Between 1963 and 1985, independent scientists published at least 15 reports documenting the cases of over 70 patients treated with chelation therapy. They found no evidence of a change in the course of arteriosclerosis, no reduction in plaques, and no evidence that narrowed arteries had become wider. "
An independent randomized placebo-controlled study with 84 patients published in 2002 also did not provide any evidence of effectiveness. In both the chelation group and the control group, which received saline injections as placebo , one participant each suffered a heart attack during the study.
Statutory health insurance does not cover the costs of chelation therapy against arteriosclerosis . The German Chelation Society gives the cost per infusion at 100 to 150 euros.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Harrisons: Internal Medicine. German translation of the 14th edition, McGraw-Hill, 1999, page 3017. See also the therapy instructions for various heavy metals on pages 3018–3022.
- ↑ See above (book by Dr. Mutter)
- ↑ a b c d e Stiftung Warentest (Ed.): The other medicine. Benefits and risks of gentle healing methods . 2nd Edition. Berlin 1992, ISBN 978-3-937880-08-2 , pp. 219 f .
- ↑ a b c d Chelation Therapy ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Frumkin H, Manning CC, Williams PL, et al. : Diagnostic chelation challenge with DMSA: a biomarker of long-term mercury exposure? . In: Environ. Health Perspect. . 109, No. 2, February 2001, pp. 167-71. PMID 11266328 . PMC 1240638 (free full text).
- ^ Nathan Charlton, MD and Kevin L. Wallace, MD FACMT: Post- Chelator Challenge Urinary Metal Testing , American College of Medical Toxicology, 2009
- ^ Wolfgang Kaim , B. Schwederski: Bioinorganische Chemie. Teubner Study Books, 1995, ISBN 3-519-13505-1 , p. 15.
- ^ Saul Green, Chelation Therapy: Unproven Claims and Unsound Theories
- ↑ Arznei-Telegram (2002) ( Memento of the original of September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
