Research Chelation Therapy

Intravenous Chelation was the most common practice until a few years back; however, with the introduction of oral chelation it became the preferred choice of most patients and doctors. There were a number of contributing factors to this shift of choice, the prime aspect being the cost factor. Though intravenous chelation would not cost you a fortune, still the cost will be way above the price of Oral Chelation. This initiated the use of oral chelation among the customers who were using intravenous chelation. Once they started using it on a regular basis the other benefits of oral chelation became more evident.

Mercury Chelation
One of the major advantages of Oral chelation is its capability to chelate Mercury from the body. EDTA (Ethylene Diamine Tetra Acetic acid) injected in intravenous chelation cannot bond with Mercury but the organic substances used in oral chelation agents bonds successfully with mercury and eliminate them from the body.

Oral Chelation – a painless process
Oral chelation involves nothing but taking 1-2 spoon full of doses of medicine. Most of these are based on some tasty ingredient like honey or jelly and are extremely delicious. Intravenous chelation involved painful process with risk of infection and vascular incision. In addition, intravenous chelation would often lead to other side effects like pain, fever, fall of blood pressure etc.

Availability
Most of the drugs used for oral chelation are not prescription drug and are easily available to most of the people.
Side Effects
Oral Chelation is mostly free from side effects and there is hardly any problem with using these chelating agents. However, if you encounter any minor problems like headache, fatigue or muscle pain it is advisable to increase your water intake. 8-10 glasses of water everyday would help the medicine to work more effectively without any of these occasional side effects.

Preventive Benefits

Oral chelation therapy is a safe and convenient method of preventing and curing
heavy metal toxicity. The chelating agents helps in lowering blood cholesterol, prevent blood clots and reduces heart attacks.

Oral chelation agents like PCA-rx (available at Oral Chelation Therapy) can also work as a preventive medicine for people with family history of heart disease, stressful lifestyle and or unhygienic dietary person.

The only situation in which intravenous chelation might score over oral chelation is when the patient is under severe conditions. Oral chelation generally takes a few months to work, so if the patient is in immediate need for medicines intravenous chelation may be a better option than oral chelation.

KAHULUI – When physicians told Marion Martinez earlier this year that there were no more medical options to treat the stomach cancer that was killing her, her twin sister found one more – in Tijuana, Mexico.

It was an alternative medical treatment that conventional medicine considers unproved and risky.But sisterly love would not allow Leo Asuncion, Martinez’s twin, to give up when conventional medicine said nothing more could be done.

Along with one of Martinez’s sons, Russell, the sisters traveled to the U.S. border in June so Martinez could undergo the treatment involving tonics, nasal sprays and a strict diet offered by the Bio-Medical Center/Hoxsey Clinic in Tijuana.

The arduous and costly effort appears to be a bright spot in the twins’ lives.

“I’m still here,” Martinez said.

To help with medical bills and to pay for future trips to Tijuana, Martinez’s family and friends will hold a “Celebration of Life!” benefit luncheon from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the Maui Tropical Plantation.

Asuncion said she “can’t even put a tag” on how much the alternative treatments and other medical bills will cost, but it is approaching $50,000. She also would like to repay those who already have helped her sister.

Martinez, 47, of Kahului, was diagnosed with stomach cancer in September 2004.

Since then she has undergone chemotherapy and taken several oral medications, but none succeeded in eliminating her cancer.

A former secretary at the Maui Family Guidance Center run by the state Department of Health, Martinez’s weight fell from over 120 to 94 pounds.

“I was strong; now I cannot do nothing,” Martinez said recently at a son’s home in Kahului.

Martinez is the mother of three grown children and has five grandchildren. She is also the oldest of five children.

Her sister Leo still works for the Maui Family Guidance Center as a mental health supervisor.

Before the cancer was discovered, Martinez said, she was active, doing yoga and surfing. She was able to play with her pet Rottweiler and care for the large dog.

“But I cannot do that (now). I can tell him ’hi’ and stuffs,” she said sadly.

Because of the illness, she has a hard time holding down food and gets her nutrition through a feeding tube. While Martinez is spending most of her time resting at her son’s home, Asuncion said, her condition is improved when compared to that during her stay at the hospital in the spring.

“After Marion got very sick in May, she was told there were no more options,” Asuncion said.

As Martinez lay in a bed at Maui Memorial Medical Center, Asuncion told her if she could make it out of the hospital they would go to Mexico for treatment.

Asuncion said a longtime friend, Bob Schmidt, a former Maui resident, had gone to the Bio-Medical Center/Hoxsey Cli-nic in Tijuana himself and helped finance the trip for Martinez to go to the clinic.

According to a Web page provided by The Cancer Cure Foundation, the Bio-Medical Center has provided alternative cancer treatment since 1963. The Harry Hoxsey treatment includes a liquid elixir containing a mixture of herbs and several topical salves, and also may include supplements, diet, nutrition and chelation therapy, according to the Web site.

Asuncion said the Tijuana clinic treats a variety of ailments including diabetes and cancer. When they arrived at the Hoxsey Clinic, a weak and tired Martinez went through a battery of tests and had a doctor explain all of the results.

“We are so blessed that we were able to take this journey. It leaves me speechless,” Martinez said in a statement.

She completed the treatment with what were described as all-natural medications including a tonic, spray vitamins, a special tea, a liver cleanser and a nasal spray vaccine.

“All of those things help her build her immune system and strengthen it,” Asuncion said.

Martinez also was placed on a strict diet and has a follow-up appointment in October.

At the clinic, Martinez and Asuncion said, they met cancer survivors, including a girl from Kauai who had lupus and a man from California who beat stomach cancer.

“The doctors in the clinic looked Marion in the eye and said, ’You are not going to die … you are going to enjoy your life,’” Asuncion said.

Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.

Thalassaemia trials

Looking at new frontiers in the prevention and treatment of thalassaemia.

LIKE most children her age, Amina binti Shamsul, nine, is afraid of needles and syringes. However she is forced to spend eight hours, five days a week (for the rest of her life) with a needle inserted through her skin, attached to a syringe and an infusion pump.

Amina suffers from thalassaemia major, the severe form of a genetic blood-related disorder which affects the body’s production of haemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying component of the red blood cells.
Without treatment, most thalassaemia major patients do not live past their teens and suffer serious health problems such as anaemia, which impairs performance at school and affects overall quality of life, leads to an enlarged liver and spleen, bone deformities and fatigue.

As a result of the deficiency of haemoglobin in her body, Amina has to undergo regular transfusions of up to four units of blood every month. This causes an overload of iron which, if left untreated, causes damage to the vital organs such as the heart, pancreas and liver, and can be fatal.

It is to remove this excess iron accumulated in her body that Amina has to undergo therapy called iron chelation, which involves burdensome subcutaneous infusions of the drug desferrioxamine, lasting eight to 12 hours daily, to forcibly eject the excess iron out of her system.

“In most patients, the need for transfusion and chelation therapy may be life-long. While desferrioxamine infusion is effective, it drastically reduces the patient’s quality of life and limits their social activities,” said paediatric oncologist and haematologist Prof Dr A. Rahman A. Jamal.

It is estimated that thalassaemia affects as many as 600,000 Malaysians, many of them being carriers of the genetic disorder – a state called thalassaemia minor.

While the carriers of the disease themselves do not experience any complications, their offspring have a 25% chance of having thalassaemia major.

Prof Chan Lee Lee … ‘Oral therapy offers a much welcome relief and is looked forward to by the Malaysian thalassaemic community and their professional care givers.’

A deficiency in the production of the alpha protein in haemoglobin results in alpha-thalassaemia while a beta protein deficiency results in beta-thalassaemia, the latter being the more common affliction in our country.

However, Malaysian thalassaemia patients undergoing blood transfusion and desferrioxamine iron chelation therapy are currently looking forward to the introduction of a new breakthrough treatment for iron overload which is non-invasive – an oral drug.

Currently four hospitals – Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (HUKM), Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL), Universiti Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) and Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM) – are involved in a large scale global trial to determine the safety and tolerability of the world’s first and only oral once-daily iron chelator, deferasirox.

Besides Malaysia, trials are also being carried out globally in 20 countries across five continents including the United States, Australia, Britain, Germany, Greece, Italy, China, Hong Kong, Thailand and Taiwan.

“This new development is critical as Malaysia finds itself located along the thalassaemia belt, which covers the Mediterranean region, parts of Africa, South Asia and South-East Asia. In Malaysia, the genetic disorder is more common among the Malays and Chinese.

“While the growth of the number of thalassaemia patients is preventable, lack of awareness among carriers is one of the greatest stumbling blocks in containing the disease,” said Prof Rahman, who was the chairman of the 2nd National Thalassaemia Seminar held in May.

The seminar was jointly organised by the Ministry of Heath (MOH), Malaysian Society of Paediatric Hematology and Oncology (MASPHO) and the Federation of Malaysian Thalassaemia Societies (FMTS).

In its effort to curb the spread of thalassaemia, the Malaysian government has allocated a sum of RM49.4mil for the screening, prevention and treatment of the disease.

The comprehensive four-pronged programme provides free iron chelation treatment for all children with thalassaemia; a population-screening programme to detect and counsel thalassaemia carriers; a public education programme to increase awareness about the disease; and the creation of a National Thalassaemia Registry.

Prof John Porter … ‘In developing the new oral drug, proof of safety and efficacy were top on our list and extensive studies have shown that deferasirox is well tolerated with minimal side effects experienced by patients.’

Prof Suthat Fucharoen from the Thalassaemia Research Centre in Mahidol University, Bangkok, and a speaker at the seminar, applauded the pro-active measures taken by the government and said Malaysia is one of the first countries in the world to allocate large funds to specifically target the problem of thalassaemia.

“The key to containing thalassaemia is through prevention of new cases combined with proper treatment for patients, and this depends on strong non-governmental organisation (NGO) support. Malaysia is fortunate to have very active NGO groups such as the Federation of Malaysian Thalassaemia Societies (FMTS), and with the collaboration between the various parties of the Malaysian Thalassaemia community, the future looks promising,” Prof Fucharoen said.

In Malaysia, the emphasis so far has been on secondary treatment involving blood transfusion and iron chelation therapy for thalassaemia patients, which has not contributed towards the reduction in new cases.

However, programmes such as mandatory pre-marital screening in countries like Cyprus and Greece, which account for the world’s largest number of patients, have reduced the number of new patients by over 90%.

Following this example, the population-screening programme to detect and counsel thalassaemia carriers and the creation of the National Thalassaemia Registry is set to become an important part of the thalassaemia prevention programme in Malaysia.

FMTS president Ramli Yunus said pre-marital screening and counselling are crucial towards containing the disease despite several social and cultural impediments. “Without prevention, the financial and emotional burden of care and treatment for patients suffering from thalassaemia major can often be very painful for the parents,” he said.

According to medical estimates, the cost of treating a thalassaemia patient is between RM10,000 and RM26,000 per year.

Prof Rahman said there have been cases in which three or four children in a single family were suffering from thalassaemia major, requiring blood transfusion and iron chelation therapy.

In this context, close co-operation between policymakers, patients, caregivers, health professionals and non-governmental organisations to generate awareness about methods of prevention is critical in minimising the growth in the number of new patients.

One of the primary problems associated with currently available treatment for thalassaemia patients is that of compliance in iron chelation therapy.

“Subcutaneous desferrioxamine infusion therapy for eight to 12 hours a day is difficult for children, who dislike needles and fear the pain. Even older teens and young adults affected by the psychological aspects of therapy find infusions extremely burdensome. They often will not comply with therapy, although this can lead to the risks of iron overload including deformities, organ failure and premature death,” said Prof Chan Lee Lee, a paediatric haematologist/oncologist.

Prof Chan will be spearheading one of the four local clinical trial sites for deferasirox, which many health professionals see as the definitive answer to the problem of compliance.

Deferasirox was developed to extend the benefits of iron chelation to a greater number of patients receiving blood transfusions and to address the needs of thousands of adult and paediatric patients who have been using desferrioxamine infusions to treat iron overload.

“Oral therapy offers a much welcome relief and is looked forward to by the Malaysian thalassaemic community and their professional care givers. The availability of the drug would redefine the clinical management of thalassaemia patients,” said Prof Chan.

Another speaker at the seminar, Prof John Porter from University College London, who played a crucial role in the research and development of deferasirox, emphasised that the new drug would not only increase compliance by patients but would also drastically improve their quality of life and outcomes.

According to Prof Porter, in large, systematic, randomised clinical studies encompassing over 1,000 patients conducted in Britain, more than 90% found compliance a non-issue.

“In developing the new oral drug, proof of safety and efficacy were top on our list and extensive studies have shown that deferasirox was well tolerated with minimal side effects experienced by patients,” he said.

While deferasirox promises to dramatically improve the quality of life of patients requiring iron chelation in the immediate future, the push to find a permanent cure for thalassaemia also continues among the medical fraternity.

Bone marrow transplantation is an existing option but the primary problem lies in the difficulty of finding a matched donor. Even with a sibling as a donor, the procedure carries a 5% mortality rate, and this increases in the case of an unrelated donor.

According to Prof Porter, studies are also currently being conducted on other permanent treatment options such as gene therapy aimed at modifying genetic traits to produce healthy haemoglobin in thalassaemia patients. “We hope to see positive results in this field within a period of five or six years,” Prof Porter said.

The Star Online

Paicines - While Condor 307 recuperates from high blood-lead levels under the watchful eye of Pinnacles National Monument staff, a coalition of environmental advocates is suing the California Fish and Game Commission in an attempt to ensure that more condors won’t have to suffer similar treatments.

“Lead poisoning from bullets is a major threat to the condors that just isn’t being addressed right now,” said Jeff Miller, spokesman for the Center for Biological Diversity, one of several plaintiffs in the suit. “We’re doing something about the danger of them running into power lines or eating trash, but this threat is unaddressed.”

Less than a week ago, five of the 11 free-flying condors in and around Pinnacles were discovered to have elevated levels of lead in their blood streams, and Condor 307 was so sick staff had to administer emergency treatments.

“She’s doing great, much better now, and her weight’s coming back up,” said Carl Brenner, Pinnacles supervisor of interpretation and education. “It’s like watching a kid who’s not sick any more and is slowly becoming more active.”

Pinnacles staff plan to keep 307 under observation for at least another week, to ensure that her blood-lead level continues to drop.

“After that we can let her out to play with her friends,” Brenner said.

In order to cure 307, she was put through a treatment called “chelation” - injections of calcium that help the condor’s body flush out the poison.

“Whenever you have to give condors treatments for lead poisoning, it’s very stressful and painful for them,” Miller said.

Miller’s organization, as well as the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Physicians for Social Responsibility, the Wishtoyo Foundation and several hunters, contend that the Fish and Game Commission is not doing its part to protect condors from the dangers of lead poisoning. In January, Miller said, they petitioned the Commission to ban the use of lead bullets, which was refused.

“The Fish and Game commission regulates hunting seasons, methods, and is in charge of protecting endangered species,” Miller said. “We want the judge to find them in violation of the endangered species, which they clearly are.”

Nine condors have died of lead poisoning and some form of lead poisoning treatment has been administered to condors 80 times since the early ’90s, Miller said.

The plaintiffs in the case hope the fish and game commission will ban lead bullets that could potentially poison condors, offering rebates for hunters who turn in their lead bullets for copper ammunition. Copper ammunition does not fragment like lead and is much less likely to be ingested by a condor. Though it is currently unavailable for certain guns, such as the .22-caliber rifle, Miller says ammunition producers will pick up the slack if a ban is enacted.

“If they’re banned, there are plenty of companies out there who will start manufacturing copper bullets to meet the demand,” he said.

According to Miller, 75 percent of hunters surveyed said they would be willing to try alternative ammunition.

A ban on lead bullets is not without precedent. Federal law already requires the use of non-lead shot when hunting waterfowl, due to the fact that the birds are easily poisoned and can poison eagles and even humans, in turn.

Pinnacles staff are trying to reduce the threat of lead poisoning on the home front through town meetings that will be held in communities surrounding the Pinnacles over the course of the next few weeks.

“We want people to embrace alternative ammunition,” said Brenner. “The public might have ideas that we haven’t thought of to help protect the condors, and we want to share our successes and hurdles with them, as well. Together we can be successful.”

By Danielle Smith
Danielle Smith covers education for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or dsmith@freelancenews.com.