The "Work Horse" of Alternative Medicine
review by Irene Alleger
Everything You Should Know About Chelation Therapy
by Morton Walker and Dr. Hitendra Shah
Published by Keats Publishing Inc.
27 Pine Street (Box 876) New Canaan
Connecticut 06840 USA
1997, softcover, $14.95, 428pp
It is difficult to understand why, after 40-some years
of safe, effective use, chelation therapy is still so little known.
Morton Walker's newly revised book on the subject is a needed reminder
that this therapy is probably responsible for more effective outcomes
than almost any other modality in the alternative armamentarium. It's
the quiet work-horse, unglamorous and reliable, and still mostly known
through word-of-mouth. Patients treated with chelation become fervent
crusaders; many of them have been through 2 or 3 bypass surgeries with
only temporary benefit.
Since Morton Walker first began to investigate chelation
therapy in 1976 and write about it, many thousands of heart patients
have avoided surgery with this treatment. Diabetic neuropathy, it was
discovered, could be reversed with the life-giving influx of oxygen
and nutrients to previously starving and dying cells. Many other benefits
have been documented for this therapy by the clinicians who use it,
but no pharmaceutical house will pay for the necessary FDA studies (to
legitimize the treatment) because there is no profit to be made there
from.
One only has to be aware of the enormous amounts of
money being made from angioplasty and bypass surgeries, high tech procedures,
and drugs, to begin to understand why a more effective, safer, and cheaper
therapy for circulatory problems is denied legitimacy in the medical
establishment. The whole "industry" that has built up around
the cardiovascular patient generates enormous profits for all involved.
So it remains for the medical journalist to bring the
truly good news about chelation therapy to the public, and this Dr.
Walker does very well. The author of numerous books and articles in
the health field, he manages to explain in clear language how intravenous
infusions of the synthetic amino acid ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid
or EDTA, works to clear the sludge from arteries, thus improving the
entire cardiopulmonary vascular system.
The known mechanism of action Ð that of having the ability
to bind with trace metals such as lead, other toxic metals, and loose
calcium - and then expell them from the body is explained in simple
language. Instead of starting out with unpronouncable medical terminology,
and overwhelming the average reader, the authors excel at working this
information into a very readable text of numerous anecdotal histories
of chelation therapy success stories.
In describing patient histories, the true failures of
standard cardiovascular care are shown in the light of day - by the
lucky survivors! In the current medical system, there is little chance
of funding the clinical trials necessary to overcome the biases, so
the next best thing is clinical anecdotal history, on which most of
medical knowledge is based. The patient stories are compelling, and
everyone spreads the word. The one big hurdle for many Medicare patients
is the government's refusal to reimburse for this proven, safer, cheaper,
and more effective treatment, simply because the power elite Ð the pharmaceutical/medical
complex Ð has set up an economic barrier for these "illegitimate"
therapies. (Kind of like your neighborhood commercial bank Ð only loans
money to people who don't need it).
Everything You Should Know About Chelation Therapy lives
up to its title, giving a comprehensive and detailed description of
this alternative to heart surgery. The factual data on the dismal success
rates of angioplasty and bypass surgery are not well-publicized; only
the relatives of the many neurologically-damaged patients can testify
to the unacceptable risk/benefit ratio. Patients are understandably
susceptible to radical invasive and risky procedures when they arrive
at the hospital with a heart attack. (The time to read this book is
BEFORE you have a heart attack!)
Because of its primary effect of opening the arteries
and improving blood flow, chelation has been documented to provide beneficial
effects in improving memory, stops Parkinsonism, reverses blindness,
lowers insulin requirements for diabetics and heals diabetic neuropathy,
dissolves thromboses, relieves claudication and angina pain. There was
even a small study from Switzerland showing protection against cancer.
Many degenerative diseases, especially, respond (in some cases, dramatically)
to chelation therapy, and those are precisely the illnesses which conventional
medicine has little success in treating.
There is a specific protocol for administering EDTA
chelation therapy and training for chelation diplomates, which provides
safety guidelines, although chelation is almost side-effect free, and
very safe. More than 500 chelating physicians now practice in the US.
Oral chelating agents are covered as well as rebounding
exercise for reducing toxic metal body stores. Specific supplements
are listed which help prevent blockages of the vascular system. The
health insurance situation is covered regarding reimbursement for this
therapy and gives potential consumers important information, especially
for those Medicare patients who are the primary users of chelation therapy.
This therapy continues to quietly and consistently save
lives; and the burning question in anyone's mind has to be: why isn't
its effectiveness acknowledged? The authors of Everything You Should
Know About Chelation Therapy include the historical and political facts
surrounding this proven, safe therapy citing documented evidence of
the FDA's ongoing campaign of harassment toward chelating physicians,
sometimes leading to delicensure.
Everything you need to know about chelation is in this
book, extensive clinical references are listed, physicians with Diplomate
status and training are listed, and there are good photographs and figures
added to the text for better understanding of the physiology involved.
Even Linus Pauling approved of chelation therapy:
"EDTA chelation therapy makes good sense to me
as a chemist and medical researcher. It has a rational scientific basis,
and the evidence for clinical benefit seems to be quite strong.... Published
research and extensive clincal experience show that EDTA helps to reduce
and prevent atherosclerotic plaques, thus improving blood flow to the
heart and other organs. The scientific evidence indicates that a course
of EDTA chelation therapy might eliminate the need for bypass surgery.
Chelation has an equally valid rationale for use as a preventive treatment."
As our population grows older and degenerative disease
increases, the current standard treatment of heart disease will bankrupt
the medical system, as well as continue to do more harm than good in
the long run. Health consumers of the 90's need to be well-informed
if they want to receive the most beneficial and effective therapy available.
I think I prefer the science of two-time Nobel winning
biochemist, Linus Pauling, to the hype and scare tactics of specialists
with vested interests, thanks to the information in Everything You Should
Know About Chelation Therapy.