Chelation therapy is a medical procedure that involves the administration of chelating agents to remove heavy metals from the body.
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10 Facts About Chelation therapy
2.
Chelation therapy has a long history of use in clinical toxicology and remains in use for some very specific medical treatments, although it is administered under very careful medical supervision due to various inherent risks, including the mobilization of mercury and other metals through the brain and other parts of the body by the use of weak chelating agents that unbind with metals before elimination, exacerbating existing damage.
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3.
Chelation therapy must be administered with care as it has a number of possible side effects, including death.
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4.
Chelation therapy is the preferred medical treatment for metal poisoning, including acute mercury, iron, arsenic, lead, uranium, plutonium and other forms of toxic metal poisoning.
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5.
When used properly in response to a diagnosis of harm from metal toxicity, side effects of chelation therapy include dehydration, low blood calcium, harm to kidneys, increased enzymes as would be detected in liver function tests, allergic reactions, and lowered levels of dietary elements.
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6.
Chelation therapy can be traced back to the early 1930s, when Ferdinand Munz, a German chemist working for I G Farben, first synthesized ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid .
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7.
Chelation therapy itself began during World War II when chemists at the University of Oxford searched for an antidote for lewisite, an arsenic-based chemical weapon.
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8.
Since the 1970s, iron chelation therapy has been used as an alternative to regular phlebotomy to treat excess iron stores in people with haemochromatosis.
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9.
In December 1998, the FTC announced that it had secured a consent agreement barring ACAM from making unsubstantiated advertising claims that chelation therapy is effective against atherosclerosis or any other disease of the circulatory system.
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10.
Chelation therapy can be toxic and has the potential to cause kidney damage, irregular heartbeat, and even death.
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