Evidence of Harm Chelation?

[KristyKay]

I am looking for info on chelation and if anyone has tried it and their results.

Has anyone read the book Evidence of Harm yet?

[Lisa S]

Hi KristyKay,
You can find a lot of information about chelation at the Autism-Mercury Yahoo group. You do not have to join the group to read the posts. Here is a link to them:

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Autism-Mercury/

We have not tried chelation therapy for our daughter. She is taking a probiotic, a calcium, magnesium and zinc supplement and a vitamin supplement in addition to her medicines. She has other health issues.

Sorry to not be much help.
Lisa

[incredimom]

My son went through chelation twice but for lead poisoning last year. The first time he was admitted into the hospital and it was done by iv for a week. It was supposto lower his lead level 30 points or so, but it only lowered it 8 points and they wanted to do it again. He was tramatized by that first hospital stay I refused unless it was done at home and they agreed but that time lasted 15 days or so and only lowered it 10 points. Side affects I noticed, Increased irritability, Loss of appitite and loss of sleep and upset stomach. I did not find it useful but others have.

[Yvetteinfo95]

Just some general thoughts about chelation v. homeopathic
detoxification.

Chelation is a process whereby a chemical is used (called a
chelator, pronounced "kee'-lay-tor") to bond with specific metals
(i.e., mercury, lead, etc.), surrounding them to make them look less
toxic as they go through the system, and wash them out. A great
idea, except for certain problems.

First, Boyd Haley, perhaps the world's foremost research expert on
neurotoxins, is starting to become concerned that the chemicals used
to chelate, especially DMPS and DMSA are actually neurotoxins,
themselves.

Jacquelyn McCandless, M.D., author of Children With Starving Brains,
has made the clinical observation that these chelators also feed the
yeast which children afflicted with autistic spectrum disorders are
constantly fighting. We have found this to be true in our practice,
as well. When the yeast (or, as DAN! docs affectionately call
it, "gut bugs") goes rampant in the gut, the autistic behaviors
worsen.

Additionally, these kids have difficulty excreting any sort of
chemicals, and cannot efficiently absorb nutrients. When they are
given yet more chemicals, and those chemicals also leech the
nutrients right back out, faster than moms can megadose them back
in, the kids are just plain lethargic, exhausted, sometimes even
sick. This doesn't make sense.

And finally, the chelators "cloak" the toxic metals, and remove some
of them (40% is the usual approximation) and remove the remainder to
other cells in the body, most notably the liver and kidneys.
Eventually the cloaking wears off, and we now see children
developing kidney and liver problems.

Chemical chelators cannot cross the blood-brain barrier to remove
toxic metals that went into the brain shortly after birth, when the
barrier was wide open. Homeopathy can. It works on a bioenergetic
basis, therefore there is no barrier, and it is effectively spurring
the body to eliminate the metals from all cells, including those in
the brain.

Homeopathy helps the body eliminate toxins of all sorts, especially
metals, using its own, natural methods. We have had children who
never underwent chelation drop their toxic metal loads to literally
zero. Not all our kids are tested, but those who are given "before
and after" testing are showing lower levels of metals than children
who undergo chelation do. And we do not find that it increases the
toxic load, nor the yeast load, and they don't feel awful along the
way. It's a much safer approach, though it may take a few months to
complete the process, even a year, but the results are better,
safer, and with less upset along the way.

One woman used EDTA to chelate lead, and saw a normally healthy,
active child become totally exhausted for weeks. She said she would
never do that again.

I hope this helps, I got this info from one of the homeopaths I see for my daughter. I couldn't begin to explain it as well as this.

[StrictNon-Confo]

Homeopathy uses such a small amount of any substance that unless the substance is truly dangerous, it might as well not even be there, for practical intents and purposes. With all the dilution done, how much is there really left to accomplish anything?

Thus, I can see how it would be no better or worse than placebo, and likely less harmful than chelation, as anything with the capacity to remove various heavy metals is likely to have side-effects in and of itself.

I guess it's obvious I don't believe in the scientific/medical validity of homeopathy beyond the power of positive belief.

[Yvetteinfo95]

I understand your skepticism. Yes, everything is diluted but all the more safer and easier on our systems. Especially those of our young children. I have seen it first hand with my daughter, she has been cleared of metals including mercury in her body. I can honestly say that I have not witnessed my daughter go through the severe side effects that others go through with allopathic chelation. Anything that I can do to help her body work the way it's supposed to I will do.
Yvette
:)

[quantumerik]

Oops, double post!

[quantumerik]

My daughter, Miranda, has been tested with high levels of mercury, aluminum, tin, beryllium...and a list of others...including uranium, of all things!

But it's her mercury that is really high. At first, her levels were "above average," when we tested her hair and her stool. When we started chelating with Dr. Rashid Buttar's TD-DMPS (trans dermal DMPS) lotion, her subsequent hair & stool tests showed she was dumping copious amounts of mercury. In fact, the level in the tests jumped up three levels (sorry, I'm not versed in how it's measured...but the tests showed a clear jump). Her doctor said that Miranda had enough mercury to injure an adult.

So we know the chelator is working. Side effects? Yes, there are. Chelating adds sulfhydrol (sp?) groups to the body, which then bind to the mercury and pull it out of its hiding places in the fatty tissues. Then the mercury is free to circulate awhile until it is excreted through the hair or stool. During this exit phase, the child will appear to regress cognitively, have mood swings and irritability. With Miranda, we had to lower her dose a bit to even out her mood. She won't dump mercury as quickly, but that's okay. We'll do this as long as it takes. Dr. Rashid Buttar, who developed the chelator called this the "storm before the calm." It is a common side effect. But once the mercury is out...the child improves dramatically. You can watch Buttar's video on our website... http://www.autismmedia.org/media4.html

Also look at the "parents stories" page and view Julie Duffield's story with her two children. Powerful stuff.

By the way, many parents are using volcanic clay to quicken the chelation process...once prepared (with water), the clay is applied to the skin and it absorbs mercury trans-dermally DURING chelation. Parents use this in conjunction with TD-DMPS. This allows the body to use its largest organ (the skin) as a medium to detoxify...which is quicker and easier than waiting for it to go out the hair and stool, apparently. If you go visit the Yahoo! Groups, look for a group called "ChelatingKids2" and you'll be able to talk to the parents who use the clay. We don't use it yet, but I am interested.

I hope this helps. E-mail me if you like: erik@autismmedia.org

God Bless,
Erik @ FAIR Autism Media
http://www.autismmedia.org/