Chelation may help some heart patients: study

[trotsky]

10. Binds to heavy metals in particular.

It's a very risky, potentially toxic treatment in itself, but in cases of true heavy metal poisoning (which is pretty much guaranteed to be fatal or very harmful), the risks are worth it.

The problem has come recently when certain non-evidence-based medicine practioners are just convinced that despite the total lack of evidence, certain maladies are caused by heavy metal poisoning (generally mercury in particular). So they promote chelation therapy to "cure" those conditions. Autism has been a big one in recent years, subjecting innocent kids to a dangerous procedure in order to "cure" them. It's never worked, of course. But as I noted above, it's big bucks for quacks, so they continue to promote it.