Written by Michael Gerber, MD, HMD |
In the series on brain fog I have stressed the two basic health principles of putting good things into our bodies and taking out the bad. A major category of “bad things” is called heavy metals. Lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic, aluminum, uranium and other heavy metals are universally found in our bodies.
The last issue reviewed some of the horrors of mercury poisoning. In addition to mercury, we all have a thousand times more lead in our bones than pre-industrial man had due to burning fossil fuels. Lead causes vascular and neurological diseases. You may ask why your doctor doesn’t tell you about this toxicity problem. It’s a complicated question. Generally, regular doctors don’t know how to look for heavy metals because serum blood tests are usually negative unless the patient just ate a mercury thermometer and is deathly ill with a high fever from acute mercury poisoning. Medical training doesn’t teach doctors how to measure or treat common heavy metal toxicity. Heavy metals are bound to body tissue and have to be pulled off connective tissue with special molecules called chelating agents in order to measure them. Red blood cells and hair analysis are also good for diagnosing heavy metal toxicity.
Chelation (key-lay-shun) comes from the Greek root meaning “the claw, to grasp or to bind.” It is a very basic process in chemistry. Chelating agents such as EDTA*, DMPS*, DMSA*, penicillamine and other agents such as the sea vegetable chlorella and cilantro all pull heavy metals from the body. EDTA, a synthetic amino acid, is one of the original chelating agents and was developed in Germany before WWII by scientist at I.G. Farben, the famous chemical conglomerate. It was used to remove calcium from the water supply used in their textile industry so the dyes wouldn’t run. After the war the military experimented with EDTA to remove radioactive metals from the body and in that process found it was highly effective for removing lead. Battery plants using lead in Detroit started giving EDTA tablets to their workers and found that they could expose them to more lead and stay under toxic levels in their blood. Subsequently some of the workers found that their heart disease got better. Symptoms of chest pain, shortness of breath, high blood pressure and peripheral vascular disease improved. In 1953 Daniel Clark, MD in Detroit was the first doctor to use EDTA intravenously for the treatment of cardiovascular disease with good results. EDTA is still the FDA approved treatment of choice for removing lead, calcium and other heavy metal from the body.
In 1973 the first physician organization devoted to EDTA chelation therapy was born, the American Academy of Medical Preventics, now called ACAM, the American College of Advancement in Medicine. Next time we will look at the process of chelation therapy, different types and their effectiveness.
* EDTA – a chemical compound, Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid; DMPS – a chelating agent in heavy metals, 2,3-Dimercapto-1-propanesulfonic acid; DMSA – a chemical compound, Dimercaptosuccinic acid.
References:
1. Journal of Advancement in Medicine 1993: 6 (3)
2. Halstead, Bruce MD. The Scientific Basis of EDTA Chelation Therapy. Golden Quill Publisher, Colton 1979.
For more info, contact Michael Gerber, MD, HMD – member of ACAM since 1976, diplomat in chelation therapy since 1984 – of the Gerber Medical Clinic at (775) 826-1900.
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