Does chelation therapy == snakeoil?
For about nine years now, I’ve been seeing a doctor who does quite a bit of chelation for atherosclerosis and other conditions. While I have no experience with the treatment in question (my arteries are fine; my cholesterol too.), I have an extremely high opinion of this woman and consider her a good source of information on all things medically alternative. She’s usually extremely busy, but she might be able to answer some questions for you. Her practice is only local, of course, and nowhere near you, but if you’d like her contact info, I’d be happy to email it to you.
IANAD, but I would suspect anyone trying to use chelation for atherosclerosis to be a quack. The reason heavy metals are dangerous is that our bodies have no way to excrete them. For anything like that (lead, mercury, cadmium, or things like chloroform) the only solution is to store it in the liver and similar tissues, and that’s why they’re cumulative poisons, permitting only a certain dose per lifetime. Chelation therapy uses certain chemicals which will bond to specific heavy metals and put a chemical “tag” on them which our bodies can seize and excrete. Thus they represent a way to treat heavy metal poisoning. But atherosclerosis has nothing to do with heavy metal poisoning, and chelation therapy is not a general purpose “Get rid of everything negative” tool. Unless there’s some entirely different pharmacological effect of the chemicals involved which also clears out plaque in arteries, which seems highly unlikely, then at best it should accomplish nothing. At worst it could cause
