Chelation Safety and Effectiveness Issues related to detoxification from toxic metals.
(Things to do before IV or push chelating treatment or IV or push challenge test) Disclaimer: Before embarking on any medical treatment or regiment consult with a physician. The below information is not medical advice and is not written by a physician. These are general guidelines for informational and educational purposes only.
Testing G6PD deficiency (Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase) —This test must be run before embarking on any chelation protocol especially IV. If you have G6PD deficiency and do chelation you could be risking your life or the life of your child. G6PD testing is important because if you chelate and have this inherited deficiency this could cause you or your child to have a Haemolytic crisis where the blood cells undergo hemolysis which can be life threatening or at least cause a short visit to the hospital intensive care unit.(1,2,3)
G6PD is a rare genetic trait that 1 to 3% of the general population has and can occur in any race or nationality however it is more common among southeast Asians, populations in the Middle East, some specific jewish heritages, Africans, African american males 12%, African american females 4%, southeast Asian american males 4%, and Mediterraneans.(4) Most of the big labs do this test including Lab Corp and Quest. Turn around time is usually one week. If your doctor doesn’t know about this test or thinks it is not important see a different doctor.
CBC — Complete blood count
checks for anemia and possible infections by measuring various blood counts. If you have an infection or a low blood count it may not be a good idea to chelate until after the infection or blood counts come back to a normal level.
Sickle cell anemia testing
almost all states require this testing at birth. Make sure to tell the physician if you have this disorder or if you don’t know have a test run to rule it out. People with sickle cell anemia may have a haemolytic crisis if they do IV chelation so it is not recommended for those that carry this trait.
Comprehensive Metabolic Testing—testing is important to do to make sure you have adequate levels of iron, calcium, and other nutrients because chelation removes both the good minerals and the toxic minerals. A patient would not want to chelate if they are anemic or have very low levels of iron or calcium or other nutrients.
Urine dipstick—checks for infections. Chelating while an infection is underway is not ideal.
Allergy testing—know what foods you are allergic to because some foods may be part of the ingredients of the chelators, vitamins, or herbs added to the IV’s your doctor is using or be required to take before or after chelation. Also some doctors can do skin testing before chelation to see if you have an allergy to Calcium EDTA or DMPS before chelation.
Zinc, Selenium, Ferritin, TIBC and Amino Acids Testing—without proper levels of these essential nutrients the body cannot detoxify toxic metals and chelation may not be effective.
Safe Removal of Dental Amalgams —Arrange to have dental amalgams that have toxic metals in them removed. Find the best dentist that you can that knows how to do this safely and uses all the proper precautions. Metals will be mobilized even if all the precautions are taken so arrange to chelate both right before and after you remove the amalgams. A good dentist will know this. If you are pregnant you may not want to remove amalgams due to the risk of mobilizing metals to the fetus. If you are pregnant, and have no dental amalgams CDC has a protocol on how you should do chelation or when they recommend that you do it.
Remove sources of exposure—test your water if you expect it may be high in toxic metals from lead piping. Even modern pluming is allowed to contain up to 8% lead, and if water treatment ingredients change or copper piping is connected to lead piping at street level this can cause higher amounts of lead to leech into the water at the faucet. This occured in the Distict of Columbia, and caused widespread toxicity among the affected children which was reported on by the Washington Post.
Check furniture, toys, clothes, mattresses etc. for lead, mercury, antimony, arsenic etc. Home kits are sold at Home depot and elsewhere. Flame retardants like antimony may protect your child from fire but can be a toxin, and in rare cases when around mold a toxic gas can be created which may be a danger to newborns that sleep on moldy mattresses with antimony.
Food and medicine exposure: figure out which foods or medicines may contain high levels of toxic metals. Common foods include high fructose corn syrup, tuna, large fish, food dyes, tv dinners, vitamins and supplements, calcium supplements (5), cheap supplements from MLM companies etc. There is no point in chelating if you don’t get rid of ongoing exposures.
Metal body parts—if you have had any surgeries where metal replacement parts have been used in your body let your doctor know what it is and if possible what metals may be part of it. You may not want to chelate since this would mobilize potentially toxic metals around your body. Depuy Hip Replacements have been recentley recalled because the metals they contain are causing toxicity in many of the patients that had these replacements. Lawsuits are currently underway.
Medical Conditions—If you have any medical conditions such as heart related issues , clotting disorders, seizures etc let your doctor know in advance so he can decide whether chelation is appropriate for you.
Take appropriate nutrients—Make sure to take whatever appropriate nutrients that the doctor recommends to help you with chelation. This may include zinc, selenium, amino acids, cilantro, chlorella etc.
Things to Look for at your doctors office.
Crash Cart—Make sure your doctor has a crash cart which includes oxegyn and emergency supplies though chelation is very safe if done correctly very rare reactions can and do occur. Make sure your doctor is well versed in how to use it.
EDTA—Make sure your doctor is using Calcium Disodium EDTA, and is not using just EDTA. Many doctors use just EDTA without calcium for treating heart disease. Unless you are seeing the physician to treat heart disease in which case many of the physicians use EDTA.
Osmolality—Make sure your physician is testing the osmolality of the fluid they are putting into you through the IV. The body needs the liquid to be a certain concentration or osmolality otherwise if can put too much pressure on the blood vessels. Good chelation centers will use the osmolality check when mixing bags for patients, and it is also a way the physician can check if the bag was made properly by the pharmacy tech.
Training—Find out what training course, experience, and knowledge your physician and his nurses have related to chelation.
Dosing—Make sure your physician is using the appropriate dosages for your age or your child’s age.
Physician is on site—make sure the physician or very experienced R.N. is onsite in case a reaction occurs.
IV Drip or Push—Ask the doctor whether they do an IV drip or a push. An IV drip is much safer because the chelating agent slowly goes into the body and its affect is spread out over time. A push can be inexpensive and over quickly but is more risky because the chelating agent goes in quickly so there is more risk of a side effect. If there is going to be a reaction then you will usually know with the IV drip which then can be removed so the whole dose is not given, but with a push there is no such luxury.
