Chelation therapy is concerned with removing heavy metals from the body using chelating agents. Intoxication can come from many different sources, but the most common ones that chelation therapy deals with are lead, arsenic and mercury.

British Anti-Lewisite (BAL) was used to combat lead poisoning after world war one but due to the bad side effects of BAL, EDTA was introduced, after many sailors were poisoned with lead after painting ships. EDTA became the leading chelating agent along with DMPS in the Soviet Union. Chelating agents are administered to patients who have had a lot of exposure to heavy metal poisoning in the blood. The justification is that there is such a high concentration of heavy metal that this alternative treatment would be used.

The choice of chelating agent would depend on the type of condition the patient has. Some common agents are Dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA), Alpha lipoic acid (ALA), Calcium disodium versante (CaNa2-EDTA) and Dimercaprol (BAL).

Practitioners nowadays use one of the above agents to treat patients. The first use of BAL was after the First World War. It would be used for patients who had been exposed to high levels of metal in the body due to poison gas being used. This was used for a while until bad side effects were seen and so was replaced. Many practitioners today in the United States use DMSA as a first choice as it is the one that has proven to have the least number of side effects for some patients.

Some agents though are not capable of chelating effectively and research must be done into finding out the correct, most effective treatment should one want to undertake chelation therapy. Conventional medicine is not known for diagnosing heavy metals within the body and therefore many practitioners use chelating to diagnose the type of metal involved and use chelating techniques to treat it.

Some practitioners also use chelation for other purposes such as if one is suffering from hardening of the arteries. Chelation has proven effective in combating this disease. Some practitioners also claim that some agent’s help slow down the progression of atherosclerosis and other ageing and degenerative illnesses.

Although these treatments and agents have proven effective in some, it isn’t to say it will work for others and proper medical guidance must be seek before any kind of therapy is undertaken. You should consult your doctor or physician for the best advise.