Complementary Alternative Cardiovascular Medicine

Chapter 12 / Chelation Therapy and CVD 189
12 Chelation Therapy
for Cardiovascular Disease
Steven C. Halbert, MD
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
EDTA PHARMACOLOGY
CLINICAL STUDIES
MECHANISMS OF ACTION
CLINICAL APPLICATIONS
CONCLUSIONS
REFERENCES
INTRODUCTION
The primary Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved indication
for chelation therapy with ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA)
is the treatment of lead intoxication. However, for more than three
decades, EDTA chelation therapy has been widely used by alternative
medicine practitioners as a controversial treatment for atherosclerotic
disease and other degenerative conditions. In 1993, it was estimated that
500,000 people per year in the United States are treated with off-label
use of chelation therapy (1). A recent Canadian study revealed that 8%
of patients who had undergone cardiac catheterization and responded to
a survey used chelation therapy (2). This conservative estimate translates
to approx 100,000 patients, at a cost of $400 million annually.
Clearly, the magnitude of the use of EDTA chelation therapy as an
alternative therapy has become a public health issue. Despite decades
of use, EDTA chelation therapy studies on athersclerosis have been
From: Contemporary Cardiology
Complementary and Alternative Cardiovascular Medicine
Edited by: R. A. Stein and M. C. Oz © Humana Press Inc., Totowa, NJ
189