10 Reason Why Chelation Does Not Work
Chelation therapy is the use of specific substances, either synthesized chemicals or natural ones, to remove some toxic metals from a person’s body. It is widely used by some holistic doctors and naturopaths.
The word, to chelate, means to grab onto something. Thus, chelating agents are substances that have a strong ability to grab onto toxic metals and dislodge them from the tissues so they can be removed.
Chelation therapy is completely different from the concept of chelated minerals. The latter are minerals that are tightly bound to specific mineral transporters so that they are absorbed faster and better into the body inside the intestinal tract. In fact, our bodies naturally chelate or bind minerals in the stomach and intestines in order to absorb them properly.
Chelation therapy, however, has nothing to do with absorbing minerals. It has to do with removing minerals by the use of a specific type of chemical that binds to them tightly and removes them from the body.
The word, to chelate, means to grab onto something. Thus, chelating agents are substances that have a strong ability to grab onto toxic metals and dislodge them from the tissues so they can be removed.
Chelation therapy is completely different from the concept of chelated minerals. The latter are minerals that are tightly bound to specific mineral transporters so that they are absorbed faster and better into the body inside the intestinal tract. In fact, our bodies naturally chelate or bind minerals in the stomach and intestines in order to absorb them properly.
Chelation therapy, however, has nothing to do with absorbing minerals. It has to do with removing minerals by the use of a specific type of chemical that binds to them tightly and removes them from the body.
1. RANDOM AND ERRATIC REMOVAL OF VITAL MINERALS
All chelating agents, both natural and synthetic, remove some essential mineral compounds from the body. This is a serious problem today for two main reasons. First, many people are already extremely deficient in many essential minerals such as zinc, chromium, molybdenum, vandium and others. If one removes even a little of the essential minerals, the person can become much more ill, even though the deficiency state can be subtle.
The other problem with removing some essential minerals is that it further unbalances or upsets the body chemistry, often in ways that are difficult to repair. For this reason, removing vital minerals from the body in a random way is usually the worst problem with all chelation – synthetic or natural - that we observe.
Physicians that offer chelation say they replenish the vital minerals with either oral supplements or minerals added to an intravenous chelation bottle. However, in our experience, replenishing minerals in the human body is a delicate, exacting process and it cannot be done by just ‘dumping’ them into the bloodstream or with random mineral supplements. Foods are best, in all cases, and this takes time and patience to achieve. The mineral compounds that are lost cannot be duplicated by simple oral or IV supplementation.
2. UNBALANCING THE BODY
Chelation rips toxic metals out of the body without regard for the overall balance of the body chemistry. Replacing minerals with IV pushes and piles of vitamin pills does the same thing, or worse.
If one unbalances the body, the vitality always suffers, even if symptomatic improvement occurs. This is a major problem with chelation, using either natural and synthetic chelating agents.
3. THE TOXICITY OF MANY CHELATING AGENTS
All chelating agents are toxic or potentially toxic. The synthetic chelators such as EDTA, DMPS, DMSA, penicillamine, deferoxamine and other drugs are known to be toxic for the kidneys. They may also damage the adrenal glands and perhaps other structures.
Dr. Paul Eck found that IV chelation therapy tends to lower the sodium/potassium ratio on a hair mineral analysis. This is always a bad sign.
The toxicity may not be apparent, although some chelation protocols demand that the doctor check the patient’s liver and kidney functioning periodically, for this reason. Unfortunately, normal liver and kidney blood tests are not sensitive enough to detect subtle damage due to chelating agents.
Natural chelators such as high-dose vitamin C, zeolite, chlorella, cilantro extract, distilled water, reverse osmosis water, charcoal tablets and others are less toxic, but still damaging in various ways, and should be avoided. The safest agents are sulfur amino acids, garlic, modified citrus pectin, and the alginates. While safer, these are quite yin in Chinese medical terms and must be used sparingly, if at all.
4. REMOVAL IS NOT THOROUGH ENOUGH
Most, if not all of the chelating agents only work in the blood and in the tissues and organs located near larger blood vessels. Repeated use of the chelating agents can go somewhat deeper, but then the hazards of chelation such as removing more essential minerals also increase.
In contrast, nutritional balancing science begins at the cellular level and works at this level. The metals can slowly be removed at much deeper levels, as a result, and much more thoroughly.
Several patients of mine had previously undergone 40 or more chelation treatments. This is usually considered enough to rid the body of lead, mercury or other metals. However, when these patients went on a nutritional balancing program, they began to eliminate significant amounts of these toxic metals that supposedly had already been removed. The only explanation I can think of is that deeper deposits were now being removed that were not reached by the chelating agents.
5. CHELATION DOES NOT REMOVE A DOZEN TOXIC METALS VERY WELL
Chelating agents are somewhat helpful to remove mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic, copper, iron, aluminum and perhaps a few other toxic metals. However, they will not remove well about a dozen other toxic metals for various reasons that are not well understood. By contrast, nutritional balancing science will remove all of the toxic metals, along with hundreds of toxic chemicals as well.
6. CHELATION DOES NOT ADDRESS SOME ADDRESS SOME DEEPER CAUSES OF ILLNESS, AND INDEED OFTEN MAKES BODY CHEMISTRY MORE UNBALANCED
While toxic metal removal is helpful in some cases, many times the metal accumulation is due to many other bodily imbalances. These include Yin Disease, Sympathetic Dominance, mineral deficiencies, chronic infections, imbalanced mineral ratios and more.
Nutritional balancing approaches the problem of toxic metals from a different perspective. First one balances the body and renourishes the body. One also removes the need for adaptations to stress. Toxic metals often function as adaptations to the stress of mineral deficiencies and other things.
When one balances and renourishes the body in a particular manner, the body automatically begins to remove the metals by itself. Our bodies have millions of years of experience removing toxic metals, and the body can do this easily when it is balanced and nourished properly.
When metal removal is done this way, the toxic metals also will not tend to reaccumulate nearly as much, so less therapy is actually required.
Also, the process is much safer. The toxic metals can actually perform a useful function to balance certain mineral ratios. Just pulling them out can be like pulling one’s finger out of a hole in a dike that was holding back the water. This is why patients sometimes have very bad reactions to chelation therapy. Such reactions do not occur as much with nutritional balancing science because the emphasis is on balance and nourishment first.
7. STOPPING MENTAL DEVELOPMENT
One of the problems with bypass surgery is that the anesthesia drugs from a long and complex surgery often cause permanent mental impairment. However, the effects of chelation therapy are even worse, in my experience. The reason is that by removing tiny amounts of certain forms of minerals such as zinc and selenium, chelation therapy easily stops the development of some of the finer brain centers. Unfortunately, these effects are difficult or even impossible to reverse, in my experience to date.
When this type of mental development is stopped or damaged, people report, for example, that they feel less connected to God or the holy spirit. This can be devastating for them. Please consider this when tempted to opt for chelation therapy instead of a nutritional balancing program.
8. CHELATION REMOVES TOXIC METALS IN AN UNNATURAL ORDER
In nutritional balancing, all of the toxic metals are removed in the body’s own order. This is a complex and delicate process. The practitioner simply keeps balancing and supporting the overall stress response by balancing the key mineral ratios and oxidation rate, and the body does the rest.
Chelation therapy is more of a ‘sledgehammer’ approach that literally rips the toxic metals out of the enzyme binding sites in a totally unnatural order. This can cause problems, and, in fact, it slows deeper healing of the body or may cause it to stop altogether.
In addition, because the order is unnatural, some reaccumulation of the toxic metals often occurs, necessitating more chelation therapy in the future. It is also possible that toxic metals that the body either cannot remove well enough or that reaccumulate for other reason will end up in more vital organs. This does not occur with a properly designed nutritional balancing program.
9. COST AND NECESSITY
Intravenous chelation can be somewhat costly, although it is far cheaper than bypass surgery, for example. Neither one, however, are needed, in our experience, except perhaps in a few cases discussed below.
10. NO MATTER WHAT ANYONE CLAIMS, CHELATION THERAPY IS AN ALLOPATHIC, OR DRUG APPROACH TO HEALING
By this I mean that it does not address underlying imbalances, it is somewhat toxic, it never balances the body, and it usually reduces the overall vitality of the body.
This is important because naturopaths and holistic doctors claim to avoid allopathic approaches, but often offer chelation. While it is a better alternative to bypass surgery, for example, it is still very allopathic in its philosophy and methodology.
Granted, it may extend life because it can remove calcium deposits from the arteries of the heart, brain, liver and elsewhere. However, this is not the same as improving overall vitality and health. As stated above, Dr. Paul Eck, my mentor, found that chelation tends to lower the sodium/potassium ratio, which always indicates impairment of overall vitality and a decrease in the electrical charge on the cells. This is never helpful.
All chelating agents, both natural and synthetic, remove some essential mineral compounds from the body. This is a serious problem today for two main reasons. First, many people are already extremely deficient in many essential minerals such as zinc, chromium, molybdenum, vandium and others. If one removes even a little of the essential minerals, the person can become much more ill, even though the deficiency state can be subtle.
The other problem with removing some essential minerals is that it further unbalances or upsets the body chemistry, often in ways that are difficult to repair. For this reason, removing vital minerals from the body in a random way is usually the worst problem with all chelation – synthetic or natural - that we observe.
Physicians that offer chelation say they replenish the vital minerals with either oral supplements or minerals added to an intravenous chelation bottle. However, in our experience, replenishing minerals in the human body is a delicate, exacting process and it cannot be done by just ‘dumping’ them into the bloodstream or with random mineral supplements. Foods are best, in all cases, and this takes time and patience to achieve. The mineral compounds that are lost cannot be duplicated by simple oral or IV supplementation.
2. UNBALANCING THE BODY
Chelation rips toxic metals out of the body without regard for the overall balance of the body chemistry. Replacing minerals with IV pushes and piles of vitamin pills does the same thing, or worse.
If one unbalances the body, the vitality always suffers, even if symptomatic improvement occurs. This is a major problem with chelation, using either natural and synthetic chelating agents.
3. THE TOXICITY OF MANY CHELATING AGENTS
All chelating agents are toxic or potentially toxic. The synthetic chelators such as EDTA, DMPS, DMSA, penicillamine, deferoxamine and other drugs are known to be toxic for the kidneys. They may also damage the adrenal glands and perhaps other structures.
Dr. Paul Eck found that IV chelation therapy tends to lower the sodium/potassium ratio on a hair mineral analysis. This is always a bad sign.
The toxicity may not be apparent, although some chelation protocols demand that the doctor check the patient’s liver and kidney functioning periodically, for this reason. Unfortunately, normal liver and kidney blood tests are not sensitive enough to detect subtle damage due to chelating agents.
Natural chelators such as high-dose vitamin C, zeolite, chlorella, cilantro extract, distilled water, reverse osmosis water, charcoal tablets and others are less toxic, but still damaging in various ways, and should be avoided. The safest agents are sulfur amino acids, garlic, modified citrus pectin, and the alginates. While safer, these are quite yin in Chinese medical terms and must be used sparingly, if at all.
4. REMOVAL IS NOT THOROUGH ENOUGH
Most, if not all of the chelating agents only work in the blood and in the tissues and organs located near larger blood vessels. Repeated use of the chelating agents can go somewhat deeper, but then the hazards of chelation such as removing more essential minerals also increase.
In contrast, nutritional balancing science begins at the cellular level and works at this level. The metals can slowly be removed at much deeper levels, as a result, and much more thoroughly.
Several patients of mine had previously undergone 40 or more chelation treatments. This is usually considered enough to rid the body of lead, mercury or other metals. However, when these patients went on a nutritional balancing program, they began to eliminate significant amounts of these toxic metals that supposedly had already been removed. The only explanation I can think of is that deeper deposits were now being removed that were not reached by the chelating agents.
5. CHELATION DOES NOT REMOVE A DOZEN TOXIC METALS VERY WELL
Chelating agents are somewhat helpful to remove mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic, copper, iron, aluminum and perhaps a few other toxic metals. However, they will not remove well about a dozen other toxic metals for various reasons that are not well understood. By contrast, nutritional balancing science will remove all of the toxic metals, along with hundreds of toxic chemicals as well.
6. CHELATION DOES NOT ADDRESS SOME ADDRESS SOME DEEPER CAUSES OF ILLNESS, AND INDEED OFTEN MAKES BODY CHEMISTRY MORE UNBALANCED
While toxic metal removal is helpful in some cases, many times the metal accumulation is due to many other bodily imbalances. These include Yin Disease, Sympathetic Dominance, mineral deficiencies, chronic infections, imbalanced mineral ratios and more.
Nutritional balancing approaches the problem of toxic metals from a different perspective. First one balances the body and renourishes the body. One also removes the need for adaptations to stress. Toxic metals often function as adaptations to the stress of mineral deficiencies and other things.
When one balances and renourishes the body in a particular manner, the body automatically begins to remove the metals by itself. Our bodies have millions of years of experience removing toxic metals, and the body can do this easily when it is balanced and nourished properly.
When metal removal is done this way, the toxic metals also will not tend to reaccumulate nearly as much, so less therapy is actually required.
Also, the process is much safer. The toxic metals can actually perform a useful function to balance certain mineral ratios. Just pulling them out can be like pulling one’s finger out of a hole in a dike that was holding back the water. This is why patients sometimes have very bad reactions to chelation therapy. Such reactions do not occur as much with nutritional balancing science because the emphasis is on balance and nourishment first.
7. STOPPING MENTAL DEVELOPMENT
One of the problems with bypass surgery is that the anesthesia drugs from a long and complex surgery often cause permanent mental impairment. However, the effects of chelation therapy are even worse, in my experience. The reason is that by removing tiny amounts of certain forms of minerals such as zinc and selenium, chelation therapy easily stops the development of some of the finer brain centers. Unfortunately, these effects are difficult or even impossible to reverse, in my experience to date.
When this type of mental development is stopped or damaged, people report, for example, that they feel less connected to God or the holy spirit. This can be devastating for them. Please consider this when tempted to opt for chelation therapy instead of a nutritional balancing program.
8. CHELATION REMOVES TOXIC METALS IN AN UNNATURAL ORDER
In nutritional balancing, all of the toxic metals are removed in the body’s own order. This is a complex and delicate process. The practitioner simply keeps balancing and supporting the overall stress response by balancing the key mineral ratios and oxidation rate, and the body does the rest.
Chelation therapy is more of a ‘sledgehammer’ approach that literally rips the toxic metals out of the enzyme binding sites in a totally unnatural order. This can cause problems, and, in fact, it slows deeper healing of the body or may cause it to stop altogether.
In addition, because the order is unnatural, some reaccumulation of the toxic metals often occurs, necessitating more chelation therapy in the future. It is also possible that toxic metals that the body either cannot remove well enough or that reaccumulate for other reason will end up in more vital organs. This does not occur with a properly designed nutritional balancing program.
9. COST AND NECESSITY
Intravenous chelation can be somewhat costly, although it is far cheaper than bypass surgery, for example. Neither one, however, are needed, in our experience, except perhaps in a few cases discussed below.
10. NO MATTER WHAT ANYONE CLAIMS, CHELATION THERAPY IS AN ALLOPATHIC, OR DRUG APPROACH TO HEALING
By this I mean that it does not address underlying imbalances, it is somewhat toxic, it never balances the body, and it usually reduces the overall vitality of the body.
This is important because naturopaths and holistic doctors claim to avoid allopathic approaches, but often offer chelation. While it is a better alternative to bypass surgery, for example, it is still very allopathic in its philosophy and methodology.
Granted, it may extend life because it can remove calcium deposits from the arteries of the heart, brain, liver and elsewhere. However, this is not the same as improving overall vitality and health. As stated above, Dr. Paul Eck, my mentor, found that chelation tends to lower the sodium/potassium ratio, which always indicates impairment of overall vitality and a decrease in the electrical charge on the cells. This is never helpful.
How we Recommend Removing Toxic Metals
Toxic metal exposure is universal today. Everyone has toxic metals.
All children are born with some toxic metals that pass through the placenta from their mothers. This is why removing toxic metals with a nutritional balancing program BEFORE one becomes pregnant is very critical if one wishes to have healthy children. It does not matter how beautiful a young woman looks, or even if her blood or hair tests indicate that she does not have toxic metals. They are just hidden in these cases.
After birth, vaccine exposure is an important source of mercury and aluminum, along with food, drinking water, pharmaceutical drugs of many kinds, over-the-counter drugs, cosmetics, and other environmental sources. These include, but are not limited to air pollution, dental amalgams and other dental materials, and contact with toxic metals at home and at work.
In nutritional balancing work, we assume that everyone has toxic metals. We have yet to work with anyone who is not quite toxic. Toxic metals are not the most important assessment. It is far more important to figure out a person’s energy level, exact oxidation rate, ability to eliminate toxic metals, ability to digest and assimilate nutrients and a few other parameters of health.
Once this is done, Dr. Eck’s system involves designing a healing program that includes at least 20 methods to gently and safely remove ALL the toxic metals and ALL toxic chemicals in the body at the same time. They include improving the vitality level, balancing the autonomic nervous system, improving the eliminative organs, the use of antagonists and synergists and much more.
Start with the Free Nutritional Balancing Program and purchase Nine Servings of Vegetables. This will give you a jump start and get you going. Here is the link to the nutritional cookbook.
Source: Lawrence Wilson MD
All children are born with some toxic metals that pass through the placenta from their mothers. This is why removing toxic metals with a nutritional balancing program BEFORE one becomes pregnant is very critical if one wishes to have healthy children. It does not matter how beautiful a young woman looks, or even if her blood or hair tests indicate that she does not have toxic metals. They are just hidden in these cases.
After birth, vaccine exposure is an important source of mercury and aluminum, along with food, drinking water, pharmaceutical drugs of many kinds, over-the-counter drugs, cosmetics, and other environmental sources. These include, but are not limited to air pollution, dental amalgams and other dental materials, and contact with toxic metals at home and at work.
In nutritional balancing work, we assume that everyone has toxic metals. We have yet to work with anyone who is not quite toxic. Toxic metals are not the most important assessment. It is far more important to figure out a person’s energy level, exact oxidation rate, ability to eliminate toxic metals, ability to digest and assimilate nutrients and a few other parameters of health.
Once this is done, Dr. Eck’s system involves designing a healing program that includes at least 20 methods to gently and safely remove ALL the toxic metals and ALL toxic chemicals in the body at the same time. They include improving the vitality level, balancing the autonomic nervous system, improving the eliminative organs, the use of antagonists and synergists and much more.
Start with the Free Nutritional Balancing Program and purchase Nine Servings of Vegetables. This will give you a jump start and get you going. Here is the link to the nutritional cookbook.
Source: Lawrence Wilson MD