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Chelation?


SurreyGirl

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SurreyGirl Rookie

Hi all

Just wanted to ask whether anyone considered/experienced chelation and what your opinions might be of this treatment and/or any side effects?

I am considering it for my 14 year old son, who has so far greatly improved on gluten-free diet, but I feel maybe he could do with an extra cleansing. With all the effects of malabsorption and deficiencies that he acquired over the 13 or so years affected by gluten and dairy, I feel that he may be perhaps further adversely affected by accumulation of toxins. All children get the vaccines when quite young, some of these vaccines have been developed with mercury. We also live near London, not exactly salubrious place - and the foods we eat, even organic, are no doubt far from pure.

Some chelation feedbacks I have seen appear vey encouraging, I think I would probably consider the oral option. Can anyone recommend where to get unbiased opinion? Has anyone tried it on themselves or in the family?

I am also slightly puzzled why the hair test proves the content of say, mercury? If the toxic substances are excreted via hair for example, is chelation recommended because it would speed the process up? I noticed that my son's hair since gluten-free is growing less coarse, softer, more pliable - what's the meaning of that? Maybe he is excreting it better? He actually hasn't had any tests to establish presence of toxins, becuase I am not entirely sure where to start and he hates needles and I wouldn't want to treat him like a guinea pig too much.

What specialist I should be looking for to manage this treatment? Apart from toxic metals, I think my target would be calcium deposits, I have read that these can occur in the brain area and this would be my main concern as some cases of xeroderma pigmentosum are known to develop ataxia, which we hope to avoid - or at least keep at bay.

I would be most grateful for any feedback.

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mommida Enthusiast

There is more information about chelation on the Autism sites, and possibly a better chance of a first hand account of the process.

L.

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corinne Apprentice

I have no personal experience with chelation therapy, but I'm an environmental chemist (study the effects of arsenic, mercury etc). Mercury etc. bind really well to sulfur compounds which is why they are excreted into the hair and the concentration in the hair is a good measure of the concentration ingested. Chelation therapy uses sulfur compounds to bind these type of metals and remove them faster from the body. The amount of mercury from vaccines is very small relative to the amount he would have taken in from drinking water, food etc. over the last 14 years. There is some evidence that chelation therapy is beneficial for autistic children, but there isn't any scientific evidence that it is beneficial for digestive disorders. Chelation therapy can also have adverse side effects (can remove essential metals from the body too) so you should probably have him tested first to see if he really is suffering from the adverse effects of mercury.

Chelation therapy only removes heavy metals such as mercury. It does not remove any other type of toxin. It also does not remove calcium deposits (you can't remove calcium without dissolving your bones or causing heart problems from low blood calcium).

His hair is probably growing better because he is absorbing nutrients better and is less malnourished.

PM me if you have more questions.

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SurreyGirl Rookie

Hi Corrinne, that's so cool you are a scientist, I could do with some of your knowledge!! I am really grateful for your reply. The more I think about it, the more I feel that there would be a benefit to my son from chelation. You see, he had very few (virtually none really) gut symptoms - just constipation, but his prognosis was/is ataxia.

He is holding on, really changed on gluten-free diet - it's noticeable that his balance/gait and speech/vocabulary just shot up. We are awg HLA test results - after that I will have a clearer idea what's going on. But the neurologist said that his symptoms could be coming from gluten sensitivity. And yes, he has really long eyelashes too, even though no one in the immediate family has them.

It just struck me that we cook food in steel pots - God alone knows what goes into the steel and what the school/eating out food gets cooked in!! Aluminium, chromium, you name it. Let alone what he had been eating before the diet. I just need to find someone I am comfortable with to get this started.

Ideally I would like to do the oral option and as gentle dose as possible. I think with improved nutrition on gluten-free diet he is probably healthier already - I would worry that some of these "detox" doses might be too hard on the liver.

I am also not really that keen to feed him tablets, so when I read that coriander helps to eliminate mercury I use it more frequently. We have also stepped up on drinking water.

Do you think the compounds to remove toxic metals need to be ions or some other active elemental form? Are you aware of any other foods that would help - egg yolks contain sulphur - do you think this would help. Strangely, he never used to like eggs before the diet, but now he likes them, maybe his body knows that he needs them?

I have looked at some autism sites, most people seem to say that it's helping. Again, my son has not been diagnosed as autistic, but he had some slight traits, like avoiding eye contact (which got better since diet).

If you (or anyone else, of course!) can add any other useful info, I would be most grateful. This site has changed my life, so I also want to say thanks to everyone.

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Fiddle-Faddle Community Regular
I am also not really that keen to feed him tablets, so when I read that coriander helps to eliminate mercury I use it more frequently. We have also stepped up on drinking water.

If coriander helps, does that mean the fresh herb (as in cilantro), or the dried seed, or doesn't it matter?

Also, here in Pennsylvania, there was a tragedy with a 7-year-old boy (from London, actually, of Indian parentage, I think?) undergoing chelation who died becasue the doctor adminstering it really screwed up. I remember my husband (who is a chemist) saying something about the doctor either doing oral when it should hae been IV, or the other way around. I'll ask him tonight and try to post what he says. You might be able to google something like "autistic chelation Pennsylvania) and see what comes up.

My husband has said for years that chelation is EXTREMELY tricky, and needs to be handled by someone who really knows what he's doing, otherwise, he could chelate out something necessary to stay alive, like calcium. While I believe the process could do an enormous amount of good (I agree with you about vaccines, for example), there are, unfortunately, an equally enormous amount of quacks out there. Naturally, the pharmaceutical/MD industry gets the news to report the quacks as representative of everything not sanctioned by the pharm/MD industry, and they manage to paint chelation, diet, avoiding mercury-containing vaccines, etc. as quackery

My oldest son had many of the social autistic-type issues, such as eye contact, inability to read facial and body language, and not being aware of other people's points of view. I'll be happy to let you know the non-invasive things that helped him.

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Mr J Rookie
There is more information about chelation on the Autism sites, and possibly a better chance of a first hand account of the process.

L.

Open Original Shared Link is a very good msg board, i have followed it for enzyme info, but there are a lot of chelation experts on board, although chelation is not always the topic of the moment

cheers,

Mr J

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corinne Apprentice

A few more things. If you decide to do chelation, be very careful to get an experienced physician. There is certainly evidence that it can be beneficial for autism, but chelation can remove essential elements such as iron and calcium and can lead to lack of blood coagulation and even in very rare instances death if done improperly. Oral chelation therapy is unlikely to be beneficial. Most of the compounds which chelate to mercury are very poorly absorbed from the gut into the bloodstream so intravenous methods are better.

The amount of mercury in a vaccination averages 25 micrograms; there are on average 34 micrograms of mercury in a can of tuna.

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mamaw Community Regular

Chelation is a great tool if you have a good doctor doing the procedure. So many doctors just aren't qualified in this type of treatment.My brother-in-law has taken chelation and it has helped him leaps & bounds with his health issues....

Fiddle-Faddle

About the little boy from Monroeville who died taking chelation. His parents are now back in the UK (both who are in the medical field) . They came here to find a doctor to do this procedure in hopes that it might give him a better chance at life. The doctor ( whom I know personally) did not seek this family out to experiment with this procedure.Also this same procedure has been used hundreds of times with great success in help with autism. It is not for everyone and with all medical procedures there are always risk involved. This was a chance the Indian family chose to take. They harbor no resentment to the medical staff that did the chelation in fact they have chose not to do anything but move on. The state is the one that is doing the investigating of the treatment. There is also another investigation happenening in I think Texas. But I know about ten parents who has sucessfully had this treatment for their autisic child , now there children are in main stream school and thriving.One of them is my cousins son age 6.The newspaper & TV only tell the horrible side of things but neglect to tell the brighter side also. It may come down to chelation not being allowed in the US. If this happens citzens will lose one more right of freedom of choice and that's sad. My daughter is on chelation as we speak at the same practice. She is doing well but only by the grace of God. In my world He is the only one who lets us live or prepares us for death.

Please don't take this as if I'm angry because I'm not I just want to set the record straight......It was a choice his parents made for him as they to believed in the procedure and came here to get it leaving their family and employment in the UK on hold....

mamaw

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Fiddle-Faddle Community Regular

Don't worry, Mamaw, you don't sound angry, you sound perfectly reasonable.

I don'tknow much about chelation; my husband does, as he is a research chemist. Perhaps the media reported inaccurately. If they did, your friend could and should sue them. But if their report was accurate, my husband believes that your friend did the chelation in an unnecessarily risky way. He is not at all against chelation; he just says that if it's done by someone who is not extremely well-trained and with a very strong chemistry background, they can do fatal harm instead of helping. It only takes one or two mistakes like that before,as you say, chelation will not be allowed in this country, especially considering how very powerful the pharmaceutical industry is.

I hope your daughter does well. What is she being chelated for?

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Green12 Enthusiast

I have personally had multiple sessions of chelation. I can't really speak from a medical, or professional, standpoint because I just don't have that information, but as someone who has experienced it- for me personally it was hard on my body. I was the youngest person in the room every time, at 29-30 years of age at the time. Most everyone there was 50, 60, 70, even 80+ and having treatment for various heart conditions- they all asked me what in the world I was doing there. It was difficult to go everytime and get hooked up to an IV, I have weak veins and it was quite painful being poked and prodded to get a good stick, and then to sit there in a room for about 2+ hours a session keeping my IV arm straight was uncomfortable. I always got really sick afterward, dizzy and weak, lots of nausea, like the stuffing had been knocked out of me. But I am a sensitive individual and someone else might have had a totally different experience. As for the results, I didn't really notice that it did anything for me, of course it could have benefited my body on the inside in ways that I could not detect?

I would just suggest you research the topic more thoroughly and talk to the medical professionals that do chelation and patients who have had experience with it, and then maybe you can make a decision based on what is best for your son.

Good luck!

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SurreyGirl Rookie

Thank you Julie and all who have responded. You have helped me to make up my mind.

I think I better stick to my corriander + chlorella. My son's symptoms are not that severe to justify this.

I would find it heartbreaking to put him through this treatment.

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mamaw Community Regular

Chelation is risky and so is everything else and I wouldn't ever consider it for someone unless it was a last ditch effort for a better life. I don't believe in it for cosmetic or anti-aging as I hear they do in Hollywood ...... and it is not pleasant getting poked and then sitting for hours for a drip to complete.....I do know some get really sick and very tired and weak. I know a few cancer patients doing this as we speak and they feel this is their only hope. A couple are now atarting to turn the cancer around in their favor so they say it is worth the pain but of course their oncologist is in disbelief and think the person had gone pure loco....

UPMC at Shadyside in Pgh. has an alternative health practice which I just recently found out about. We will be going there at the end of April for Prolotherapy so I will ask if they do chelation and get their response about the treatment... I was really surprise to find an large hospital offering alternative treatment plans.

I get terrible reactions from drugs that I always try holistic if I can.. With anything that can cause problems to as people think vits & min can't hurt you but like anything to much can be harmful....

We live in a world of risks and making choices is alway hard......

good luck

mamaw

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Green12 Enthusiast
Thank you Julie and all who have responded. You have helped me to make up my mind.

I think I better stick to my corriander + chlorella. My son's symptoms are not that severe to justify this.

I would find it heartbreaking to put him through this treatment.

I know my story was a little grim, I was hoping people with positive first-hand experiences would also reply to give you another side.

I personally believe the idea of getting toxicity out of the body is a good idea, but I am not so sure about chelation as the method, for me anyway. I like doing things that are a littler gentler on my body.

I hope you get results with the corriander and chlorella.

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kactuskandee Apprentice

I've been taking Chelation therapy for a good number of years now, but I'm older. I would not recommend it for a child with autism, or a child period. I have seen it do wonders for older people with heart problems, Alzheimer's and diabetes.

I'm sorry I know nothing about licensing in England but if you decide to do this in the USA here is a good place to start:

Open Original Shared Link

And I would recommend using ONLY an acam certified M.D. They may have a link to info in other countries on this web site.

As to the child that died---well, it was a case of using the WRONG chelating medicine. Read here, especially the 5th paragraph down.

Open Original Shared Link

For a child I think I'd stick with the more natural ways of chelating, and staying gluten free.

Hope this helps a little,

Kandee

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  • 2 months later...
Green12 Enthusiast

I dug up this thread because I wanted to mention I saw a story on Dateline a couple weeks ago about children with autism. The story featured an organization made up of parents with children living with autism and they talked about a topical chelation used for treatment, it was a lotion or cream of some kind that they rubbed on the child's forearms, and it's suppose to be gentler on the child's system rather than chelation by IV.

Here's a link to the story and more information for anyone interested:

Open Original Shared Link

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Fiddle-Faddle Community Regular

I saw that segment--thank youso much for posting the link!

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