Chelation may help some heart patients: study

[trotsky]

26. Yet more information:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2012/11/04/civil-war-a-study-says-chelation-might-help-heart-patients-but-doctors-dont-believe-it/

Of the patients who received chelation, 27% had one of the following: a death, a stroke, a heart attack, a stent procedure to open a heart artery, or a hospitalization for chest pain. By comparison, those same events occurred in 30% of patients given placebo. That difference – one in 33 patients not having an “event” – was statistically significant, although just barely so. But most of the difference was due to patients getting fewer stents, with almost no difference in the number of heart attacks, strokes, or deaths.

“Nobody should walk out of this meeting and say chelation therapy prevents deaths,” says Clyde Yancy, a past-president of the AHA and the chief of cardiology at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, who praised the study for trying to answer a tough question. He says that the results are puzzling. “Every time we ask one question, four or five more emerge,” Yancy says.

...

The first case report of chelation being used to treat chest pain due to heart problems was published in 1956. But mainstream doctors say there is no reason why the treatment should help heart patients, because heavy metal buildup isn’t a cause of heart disease. And chelation treatments can be harmful, especially when they are given too fast. In 2006, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on three cases in which a chelating agent killed patients. A two-year-old girl died when being treated for lead poisoning when she was given an adult dose of a chelating agent; a five-year-old boy being with autism went limp and died in a doctor’s office; and a 53-year-old woman who had undergone the treatment three times before died of a cardiac arrhythmia in the office of her naturopathic practitioner. In all three cases, the treatment may have been given too fast, resulting in low calcium levels that caused heart problems.

Despite the risks, chelation has become more popular. Between 2002 and 2007, the number of people using chelation therapy grew by 68% to 111,000 people, according to the NHLBI, despite there being, in the agency’s words, “no evidence as to its safety or efficacy.” Aside from heart disease, the treatment has gained popularity for autism, where the role of heavy metals dovetails with the discredited but popular theory that metal components in vaccines play a role in the disease, and in Lyme disease.

There's an extensive "Reasons for Doubt" section that interested parties should read.

As I mentioned earlier, it's quacks and charlatans who are promoting this dangerous treatment for everything under the sun. There is no magic bullet that cures everything - that kind of claim is standard fare though in alt-med quackery. From Hilda Clark's ZAPPER to this, it's the same thing. This study will now be embraced by those unscrupulous individuals, just as you are doing with it here, to continue to promote this risky procedure.