While chelation is sometimes used to describe anything from fad dietary procedures to questionable alternative medicine protocols, conventional medicine has used chelation therapy for removing heavy metals from the blood for many years. In 2012, the American Heart Association reported on a study showing a decrease in adverse cardiac events as a result of a specific chelation therapy.

Chelation is a chemical process in which a substance is used to bind molecules, such as metals or minerals, and hold them tightly so that they can be removed by the kidneys and excreted. One of the actions of the therapy in question, intravenous disodium EDTA (ethylene diamine tetra-acetic acid) chelation therapy, is to reduce the amount of calcium in the bloodstream.

Calcium is found within the plaque that can line diseased blood vessels. Using chelation therapy to reopen arteries clogged with plaque is an effective and less expensive alternative to coronary artery bypass surgery, angioplasty and other conventional medical treatments.

The TACT (trial to assess chelation therapy) study was a 10-year, $30 million dollar study funded by the National Institutes of Health National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and their National Center of Complementary and Alternative Medicine. TACT was conducted at 134 research sites in the U.S. and Canada, representing a mix of clinical settings that included university or teaching hospitals, clinical practices or cardiology research centers and chelation practices. A total of 1,708 patients (55,222 infusions) were involved.

The randomized, placebo-controlled study demonstrated that when compared to the control group, intravenous disodium EDTA chelation therapy showed diabetic patients and patients with a previous heart attack had a 37 percent reduction in deaths from any cause, heart attacks, strokes and need for coronary revascularization.

One of the authorities in IV disodium EDTA chelation therapy and a participant in TACT is Fort Walton Beach-based Dr. Eddie Zant, a diplomate of the American Board of Anesthesiology and the American Board of Preventive Medicine. He specializes in hyperbaric medicine and treating concussions. His experience with the TACT study has led him to add chelation therapy to his practice specialties.

Zant states, “In addition to the positive health results, the study showed intravenous  chelation therapy can be administered safely in a physician's office without any serious side effects if the proper protocol is followed. The protocol for administering treatment during the study consisted of 30 once-a-week, three-hour IV sessions, followed by 10 once-a-month treatments.” Zant cautions that the careful administration of the therapy is not only a key to the safety of the procedure, but to the success of the treatment. 

Disodium-EDTA was the chelation drug used in the TACT trial. However, some patients are being told that using calcium-EDTA is just as good, but it has never been shown to provide the same benefits. As a result, some clinics are using the calcium-EDTA even though it has no proven benefits in the treatment of age-related diseases, coronary heart disease or atherosclerosis because it can be given intravenously faster than the disodium-EDTA.

Dr. Elmer Cranton, a chelation authority with 40 years of experience, says, “It is frightening to think that a full three-hour dose of EDTA is being injected in just a few minutes. Nothing has changed in the approved chelation protocol to allow infusions in less than three hours, the time backed by years of experience and many scientific studies.”

It’s interesting to note that the therapy works well in the treatment of small vessel cardiovascular disease and other diseases, like diabetes, that damage the small blood vessels. Large blood vessel disease often improves significantly over a long term with chelation therapy, but it is primarily the rapid treatment and improvement of small vessel disease that makes chelation so successful. 

Zant says there is going to be another TACT study, this one with peripheral vascular disease patients as the group being studied. “We already know chelation therapy greatly benefits these patients, and the study will provide scientific validation.”

Dr. Zant’s office is located at 913 MarWalt Dr., in FWB, and he can be reached for consultation regarding chelation therapy at 850-243-8229.