When Medicare standards are met, chelation therapy for the treatment of lead poisoning is covered.
Does insurance pay for chelation?
Only in the above-mentioned specified circumstances is chelation therapy medically necessary. While no preauthorization is required, all other uses of chelation therapy are deemed unnecessary due to a lack of medical evidence supporting their safety and efficacy.
What is the cost of chelation therapy?
“Is Heavy Metal Holding You Back?” asks an online ad for a wellness clinic that offers chelation therapy, an alternative treatment that purports to cure heart disease and other ailments. Chelation therapy purports to rejuvenate the heart and blood vessels, improve liver and kidney function, increase blood flow to the brain, and more.
Chelation therapy is an FDA-approved treatment for mercury, lead, and other heavy metal toxicity, as well as iron excess (hemochromatosis) and some types of anemia. A chelating agent is injected into the bloodstream and binds to the poisons, which are subsequently filtered out by the kidneys and excreted.
The theory behind chelation therapy for heart disease is that the chelating agent (usually ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid) binds to calcium in fatty plaques lining arteries, and when it pulls out the calcium, plaque is swept away as well, clearing arteries in the same way that a drain cleaner clears clogged pipes.
Questioning TACT
The National Institutes of Health funded the 10-year, $31 million Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy (TACT) to see if chelation therapy works for cardiac disease. The TACT findings will be published in JAMA tomorrow. Only those who had heart attacks were included in the study, which found that chelation therapy lowered the likelihood of cardiac problems, particularly the need for bypass surgery. Is chelation therapy a home run? According to JAMA’s top three editors, this isn’t the case. The editors of the TACT paper write in an unusual editorial that the findings are “amazing.” “should serve to discourage responsible practitioners from providing or recommending chelation therapy to patients with coronary disease, as well as patients who have had a previous MI from seeking this treatment in the hopes of preventing future cardiovascular events.”
In reality, the TACT has been a source of contention since its inception. It has been contested on a variety of reasons, including alleged ethical violations and the safety of the substances employed in the study. Even specialists who don’t disagree with the study’s methodology question the significance of the findings.
“The fact that this chelation cocktail included so many components is why we’re so unsure about what to conclude. “It wasn’t only chelating chemicals,” says Dr. Elliott Antman, a Harvard Medical School professor of medicine and Associate Dean for Clinical/Translational Research. Vitamins, magnesium chloride, potassium chloride, and a cocktail of other substances were included in the infused solution, in addition to the main chelating agent, EDTA. “We don’t know which of these factors is influencing the outcomes,” he explains.
It’s also unclear why the advantage of chelation therapy was nearly entirely limited to diabetics. The trial’s combined uncertainties make it too risky to utilize for making therapy recommendations for heart disease. “We do not believe that chelation therapy is ready for clinical usage based on the results of this experiment,” Dr. Antman adds.
Costsand risks
Chelation therapy is used by more than 100,000 Americans with heart disease each year, according to the health claims made by its practitioners. However, this treatment isn’t cheap, and it comes with hazards.
Each therapy costs $75 to $125, and patients typically have dozens of these three-hour infusions over the course of many months. A treatment course might cost upwards of $5,000, and it is rarely reimbursed by health insurance. If it genuinely saved heart attacks and strokes, that money would be wisely spent. However, neither TACT nor previous research suggests this is the case.
Then there are the side effects, which might include everything from headaches to calcium and blood pressure drops. Chelation therapy has resulted in irreversible renal injury in a small number of persons.
“We don’t know what the ramifications of chelation are in a person with a normal heavy metal balance in the body,” Dr. Antman adds, “and whether we’re potentially altering anything in a way that would be dangerous.”
No substitute for healthy living
When it comes to heart disease, no treatment, whether it’s a pill, a surgery, or an infusion, can replace a healthy lifestyle. “One of the most alarming aspects here is that people rely on chelation therapy rather than following evidence-based advice,” Dr. Antman emphasizes.
Those suggestions are embodied in the “The American Heart Association’s “Life’s Simple 7” are seven lifestyle modifications that have been shown to improve heart health:
“It doesn’t have to be difficult,” adds Dr. Antman. “It’s a long-term commitment to live a heart-healthy lifestyle.”
What is a natural chelating agent?
No matter what we do, we are constantly exposed to possible poisons such as heavy metals. So why not cook with foods that help the body naturally eliminate heavy metals, a process known as chelation? This article briefly examines heavy metal toxicity in seafood, as well as three foods that can help with natural heavy metal chelation, before combining everything into a dish!
Seafood, particularly fish, is high in vital minerals, vitamins, and unsaturated/essential fatty acids, in addition to being a good source of protein (EFAs). However, it is precisely this nutrient-dense fat content that might do the most harm.
Fish with the highest fat content are thought to be the healthiest (e.g., salmon, mackerel, herring, trout, sardines, and albacore tuna contain the highest amounts of EFAs). (1) However, because heavy metals have a preference for being sequestered in fat, many of these same fish can have the greatest heavy metal concentrations. King mackerel, marlin, orange roughy, shark, swordfish, tilefish, ahi tuna, and bigeye tuna are currently among of the highest in methylmercury. (2) In fact, these types of fish are advised to be avoided by women who are pregnant or attempting to conceive. (3) While the American Heart Association suggests eating fish at least twice a week to meet daily omega-3 fatty acid requirements, if we aren’t vigilant about where we get our seafood and which varieties we eat, this can backfire. (4)
Mercury is the most well-known heavy metal, and it is methylated in its most dangerous form. Methylation is a crucial metabolic process in which a small amount of carbon and hydrogen is bonded to the mercury atom, making it more accessible to living creatures like sea fish. As a result of absorption of methylmercury-rich sediment, seawater, and oceanic food-chain creatures, harmful methylmercury can accumulate in the fatty tissues of seafood over time. (5,6) According to one study, fish muscles had the lowest levels of heavy metals, whereas liver had the highest levels of copper, zinc, and iron, and gills had the highest levels of lead and manganese. (7)
As a result, it’s critical to eat sustainably harvested seafood, such as wild-caught Alaskan salmon and northwest Pacific seafood provided by Vital Source Seafood, an inspiring company that only supplies sustainability certified fish and seafood (Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), State of Alaska, or Monterey Bay Aquarium SeafoodWatch program certified), such as wild-caught Alaskan salmon and northwest Pacific seafood, for a fair price and delivered flash-frozen to your doorstep.
Cilantro, for starters
Cilantro/coriander, also known as Coriandrum sativum, is the most well-known herb for chelating heavy metals from the body. It has been demonstrated to help eliminate mercury, lead, and aluminum from the tissues. (8) Not only that, but it’s also an immune-stimulant.
2. Garlic and onions: Sulfur-rich foods like garlic, onion, and shallot aid in the removal of lead from the body. (9)
3. Brazil nuts: Brazil nuts have a high fat content.
What are the side effects of chelation?
Chelation treatment can be safe when administered correctly and for the right reasons. The most common side effect is burning where the IV is inserted. Fever, headache, nausea, and vomiting are all possible side effects.
Chelating medications can bind to and remove essential metals like calcium, copper, and zinc from your body. This can result in a shortage in these vital nutrients. Low calcium levels in the blood and renal damage are common side effects of chelation therapy.
What kind of doctor treats heavy metal poisoning?
Place the patient in a tightly supervised unit if purposeful ingestion or overdose is suspected, screen for acetaminophen coingestion, and consult a medical toxicologist and psychiatrist.
What is oral chelation?
In contrast to the more difficult and unpredictable intravenous (IV) approach, chelation is administered through the mouth. Chelation in the oral form safely and effectively eliminates heavy metals from the body’s cells and tissues while being non-toxic to the elimination organs. In addition, compared to IV/drug-based chelation treatments, the treatment is significantly safer, more comprehensive, and less expensive.