CHELATION THERAPY: DRUG AND NON-DRUG.
Many patients carry around a “drug-fix” mentality; many physicians contribute to this mentality. This is a mentality, partly due to all the medical advertising that we are constantly exposed to, that there is a single drug out there, somewhere, which will take care of our detoxification problem. What is better than the drug-fix mentality? It is a mentality that views healing as a journey; there is a tentative, individualized plan. Then we get started and, as we go along, we continue to test, to re-evaluate, and to make adjustments. We find out what works well and what products or approaches need to be abandoned. The testing and the trials are needed to find out what products and approaches are needed as we go along. Use of a detoxification product is just one step along the way,somewhere in the middle of a longer journey, that may include improving diet and body chemistry, improving kidney and liver function, improving bowel function, getting rid of unfriendly bacteria, yeast and other parasites; good healing is always individualized and it usually involves many products and therapies.

CHELATION THERAPY
Perhaps driven by our drug-fix frame of mind, patients who have had their toxic dental work replaced are hunting for a chelation drug that will pull the heavy metals out of their tissues, put them into the urine, the feces and, in a month or two’s time, rid them of their toxic heavy metal problems forever. To chelate means to grab, as with a claw, and the word “chelate” comes from the Greek word for claw. The chelation chemicals generally grab the mercury, lead or other toxic atom and hang onto it until the whole molecule is passed out of the body. In the real world, however, there can be problems with the process. One, the chelating chemical can drop the toxin before it has traveled all the way out of the body, causing “retoxification,” i.e. more toxic symptoms in various parts of the body. Two, the< chelating chemical can remove beneficial trace minerals, such as zinc, causing a deficiency in that mineral unless it is replaced successfully. Third, the patient may be allergic to the drug itself and the drug may have adverse side effects, sometimes severe, that vary considerably from patient to patient. Sometimes adverse effects have been felt just from using the drug for a “chelation challenge” test - an oral dose of EDTA, DMPS or DMSA is taken and the patient’s urine is captured over a 24 hour period and then tested to see what level of toxins the drug has been able to pull out from the patient’s tissues. Because of all of the concerns, there has been an intense search for safer protocols for the use of chelating agents, and a search for safer agents, including a search for new products that are not drugs at all. “Heavy Metal Detox Without a Healing Crisis.” That is an attention-grabbing headline from NDF (Nanocolloidal Detoxification Factors) a chelating product that could pose a major challenge to the longtime pre-eminent position of DMPS and DSMA as the main chelators of mercury and other heavy metals. Other new products competing with DMPS and DMSA are Metal Free and PCA. The three nondrug alternatives promise a safer but effective detoxification process. They are all based on natural substances and so are sold as dietary supplement instead of as drugs. All are normally sold through health care practitioners