She was told surgery was her only hope, and the prospect terrified her. Two years later, her carotid artery was less than 50 percent blocked. By the summer of 1999, it was down to 30 percent. It may be, but I don't know that. Thousands of patients swear that intravenous chelation treatments have helped them with everything from hypertension to impotence, from memory loss to diabetes.
Case reports are legion, but thorough scientific studies are few.
In the Pilot to Assess Chelation Therapy, Lamas will be joined by doctors at several other medical centers to figure out how patients with a history of heart disease might respond to chelation. I don't know where the truth is. Even the practitioners who swear by it as a treatment for all kinds of ailments aren't sure exactly how chelation, an intravenous drip of ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid, works to help arteries. The idea is to improve body chemistry by removing toxic materials. The explanation may be that the infusion, which also includes several vitamins, is a major antioxidant.