Research Chelation Therapy

Anti-toxin treatment isn’t vital for most

October 22, 2006

Question: What is the best way to get toxins out of my body? I have read about things such as chelation, colonics, seaweed wraps, saunas, deep massage, hydrotherapy, electric currents, and more. Is there one that works best?

Answer: Detoxification — removing toxins from the body — is popular these days. Toxin is just another term for a poisonous substance. Magazine and newspaper ads promote a seemingly endless variety of treatments, devices, dietary supplements and herbal remedies to rid our bodies of toxins. Whether they actually work is uncertain.

Toxins get inside our bodies in two ways: We produce them ourselves or acquire them from our environment. The ones we produce are byproducts of our normal metabolism. These include ammonia, lactic acid, carbon dioxide and ketones. Bacteria in our body can produce toxins while we suffer from infections.

Environmental toxins, such as carbon monoxide and asbestos, can be inhaled. Others, such as pesticides and heavy metals such as lead and iron, can be ingested. Some enter through our skin by direct contact — like carbon tetrachloride, a chemical that can be found in water near waste sites. Many drugs can be toxic in some circumstances or when taken in excess.

In the absence of a specific disease, such as liver, lung or kidney disease, our bodies deal with our own waste products efficiently. We can’t — and don’t really need — to do much to help this process.

The mechanisms for maintaining the equilibrium inside our bodies are so precise that blood levels for carbon dioxide and ammonia normally vary within a tiny range of values.

But some external toxins, including certain pesticides, get stored in fat and cannot be removed by any means. Others, such as heavy metals, can be removed by treatments, such as chelation, which uses chemicals administered by mouth or directly into a vein. These bind the heavy metals, making it easier for the body to eliminate them.

Although effective for heavy-metal poisoning, chelation is not good at reversing plaque in blood vessels caused by atherosclerosis. Controlled studies are lacking, and the American Heart Association does not recommend it as an alternative to proven treatments.

The treatments mentioned above specify neither the toxins they remove nor their effectiveness. Descriptions of how these methods work are usually vague. The explanations for the rationale behind them usually do not make sense physiologically.

Unless you take a blood test or another objective measure of a specific toxin level in your body — before and after a treatment — you have no way of knowing if anything has been accomplished.

A treatment may make you feel better. And that is certainly a good thing, but beware of making too much of this. Feeling good and experiencing a legitimate therapeutic benefit do not necessarily go hand in hand. Even a placebo works about 30 percent of the time and may even cure a real illness.

We have no way to fairly compare one “detoxifying” method with another. If you are healthy and take reasonable care of yourself, your body should detoxify itself for the most part.

Richard T. Bosshardt is a plastic surgeon in Tavares. If you have a medical question, send it to him at 1879 Nightingale Lane, Suite A-2, Tavares, FL 32778 or e-mail rtbosshardt@aol.com.

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This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Ryan Taylor was diagnosed with autism in 2004; he is shown with his father, Craig, at their home in Connecticut
A young child with autism
Scientists are trying to better understand autism. The National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland, recently announced the start of three major studies of autism.

Autistic children experience delays in the development of social and communication skills. They may also show limited interests and repeat the same actions over and over.

Autism generally appears by the age of three. It is part of a larger group of disorders, often called autism spectrum disorders. Others include Asperger’s syndrome and pervasive developmental disorder.

One of the three new studies will define differences in autistic children with different developmental histories. Another will measure the effectiveness of an antibiotic medicine as a treatment for one kind of autism. And the third study will examine if chelation treatment is effective against autism.

Chelation removes heavy metals from the blood; for example, in cases of lead poisoning. But many parents seek this treatment for autistic children. They believe that many cases of autism were caused by vaccines that contained thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative. That theory is debated.

Institute officials note that chelation does not target mercury alone. It can also remove minerals that the body needs, such as calcium, iron and zinc.

Researchers will do a controlled study to test the effectiveness and safety of chelation for children with autism spectrum disorders.

Institute officials say these disorders are currently reported to affect as many as six out of every one thousand children.

In an unrelated study, scientists have reported that a man’s age could affect the chances that his children will develop autism. The study found that men age forty and older had autistic children almost six times as often as fathers under the age of thirty.

Men in their thirties were about one and one-half times more likely to father an autistic child as dads in their twenties and teen years.

The study, in children born in Israel in the nineteen eighties, found no link between autism and older mothers. The findings appeared in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. Internet users can learn more about health issues and download archives of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember.

By DAVID OVALLE
dovalle@MiamiHerald.com
A University of Miami employee exacted revenge on his boss by secretly exposing him to liquid mercury fumes, turning the man’s skin red and causing a mysterious rash over his entire body, police say.
Robert Nathan Friedlander, a specialist with the school’s collections department, was jailed late Wednesday on a charge of felony battery.
Police say he sprinkled liquid mercury in the office cubicle of Albert O. Williams, the department’s associate director.
Williams told Coral Gables detectives Friedlander had been feuding with him because of a written reprimand, issued for cursing.
Friedlander had also been overheard saying, ‘’That’s what happens when you put a black in a position of power,'’ according to a police report.
Williams is black. Friedlander, who is white, confessed, police say.
Neither man could be reached for comment.
Williams also told police that Friedlander had prostate cancer last year and fought it using an experimental treatment ‘’consisting of mercury.'’ Investigators are still trying to determine exactly from where Friedlander, 58, obtained the mercury.
Mercury poisoning can be lethal in large enough doses. It can damage the liver, brain and kidney.
During a five-month investigation, detectives tried without success to catch Friedlander in the act with hidden video cameras. They arrested him Wednesday night at his house in Pinecrest.
The lead detective is David Carranza. The investigation is ongoing.
Friedlander was booked into Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. He posted $5,000 bond Thursday and was released.
The bizarre case began in April, when Williams was hospitalized with a mysterious rash over his body.
He suffered ‘’a pink peeling rash, dizziness, weakness, fever, chills, swelling of the joints and a headache,'’ according to a Coral Gables police report.
Doctors were baffled. Williams spent three days in the hospital.
On April 26, the day after his release, he returned to his office at 1320 S. Dixie Highway. He noticed a ‘’substance'’ on his chair and wiped it off with his bare hands.
Williams later ‘’noticed that the skin on the inside of his hand was red in color,'’ the report said. Later that day, his gold wedding band had turned silver.
The next day, when Williams came back from lunch he found the same substance on the chair, along with a pile of strange ashes.
This time cleaning it up with a paper towel, Williams ended the day by locking his door so janitors wouldn’t clean the room. He called the school’s department of environmental health and safety.
A safety inspector determined there was a ‘’high concentration'’ of mercury in the office.

Williams called police. He told detectives of strange goings-on:
Friedlander had recently asked him for his middle name and date of birth, saying he was ‘’speaking on the phone with someone who needed that information.'’ And Friedlander had been seen going in and out of his boss’s office.
Safety inspectors also found high levels of mercury in the cubicle of another co-worker, Sandra Louis-Paul-Noel.
Her connection to the case, if any, is unclear.
The University of Miami, citing school policy, declined to comment.

Thursday , August 31, 2006 By Ker Than BIG SUR, Calif. — Bullet fragments left in carcasses of deer and other animals killed by hunters are poisoning endangered California condors with lead. The blood of wild condors that feed on animals wounded by hunters or killed and left behind contain nearly ten times the lead concentration of captive birds, a new study suggests. The type of lead found in elevated concentrations in the wild birds were either close to or matched that found in bullets and shotgun shells used by hunters. The findings are detailed online in the journal Environmental Science and Technology. Dangerously high levels The researchers measured lead concentrations in the blood of 18 wild condors living in central California and compared it to samples taken from eight captive birds. Blood lead levels in the captive condors were low, about 28 parts per billion (ppb), and were what would be expected based on natural background lead levels in California. The wild birds, in contrast, had blood lead levels nearly ten times higher — about 246 ppb. “If these birds were children, they would be entered into a clinical setting to be chelated or managed by public health,” study leader Donald Smith of the University of California, Santa Cruz said in a telephone interview. Chelation is a procedure for removing heavy metals from the bloodstream. To determine the source of the extra lead, the researchers compared lead found in the condors’ blood with lead contained in bullets and shotgun shells purchases from stores close to the condor range. They found that the form of lead from the two sources either matched or were close. Tissue and feather samples taken from a lead-poisoned condor in Arizona also revealed that the bird was exposed to a version of lead not commonly found in the bird’s natural setting. The birds are likely being poisoned after eating carrion laced with the toxic metal, and not from eating the bullets themselves, scientists say. In another recent study, detailed in Wildlife Society Bulletin, Lindsay Oaks at Washington State University and colleagues X-rayed carcasses of deer killed by hunters. They found that bullets explode into dozen of tiny pieces after piercing the animals, leaving trails of lead fragments along their paths. Of the 38 carcasses examined, half carried at least 100 bullet fragments. Lead fragments were also found in the gut piles hunters leave behind after cleaning out a deer. The effects of lead poisoning Kelly Sorenson, a co-author of the current study and executive director of the Ventana Wildlife Society in California, said lead-poisoned condors often die after their crops — a “pre-stomach” that the birds use to store food before digestion — freeze up, effectively shutting down their digestive system. “They starve to death,” Sorenson told LiveScience. In some cases, Sorenson said, the birds can go blind, lose feathers and become so affected that they can no longer fly and walk. Condors are not the only birds to feed on the tainted carcasses, scientists say. Evidence suggests bald eagles, golden eagles and other avian scavengers likewise feed on the remains and are also affected. Since 1995, at least four condors have died from lead poisoning. An additional 26 have received emergency chelation therapy to reduce blood-lead levels, but such therapy can costs up to $10,000 per bird, Sorenson said, adding that it costs $5,000 to $10,000 to bring a condor from an egg all the way to release on an annual basis. “If we didn’t have that lead out there, we could just spend all the money on the new birds going out,” he said. California condors are the largest flying land birds in the Western Hemisphere. By the end of 1982, there were only 22 of the birds left in the wild. Now, after years of intense recovery efforts, about 135 captive-bred descendents of those birds now fly free throughout the southwestern United States. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that up to 40 million dollars has been spent on condor recovery efforts over the past 20 years; the federal government continues to spend $900,000 annually on the program.

Thursday, August 31, 2006
By Ker Than

FRIMLEY, England, September 21 /PRNewswire/ –
- Exjade(R), a Breakthrough Once-Daily Oral Irorn Chelator, now Available in the UK
Novartis today announced the UK approval of Exjade(R) (deferasirox), the first and only once-daily oral iron chelator for the treatment of iron overload in patients needing frequent blood transfusions for genetic blood disorders such as thalassaemia, sickle cell disease and other rare anaemias. [1]
Iron chelation is often necessary for patients receiving frequent blood transfusions to prevent the potentially life-threatening complications of excess iron in the body.[2] If left untreated, iron overload can cause damage to the heart, liver and endocrine glands[3], so iron chelation can be needed from a very young age to combat this[4].
The most common way of performing iron chelation until now has been a painful nightly infusion by needle and pump that can last from eight to 12 hours every night for five to seven nights a week. As a result of the pain and inconvenience, many patients stop or avoid iron chelation therapy, thus risking the toxic effects of iron overload[5].
Exjade, administered as a tablet in a drink is the only once daily oral drug, decreasing iron overload continuously over a 24-hour period[1]. Exjade will not only improve the quality of life for patients, but also remove the need for needles.
“The approval of Exjade is fantastic news for people like me who need regular blood transfusions,” said Anand Ghattaura, a thalassaemia patient from Datchet, Slough. “I’ve always found chelation with pump and needle difficult to keep up with and I used to worry all day about doing my infusion in the evening. Now I take Exjade in the morning with a glass of juice and can forget about it until the next day.”
Exjade is approved in the EU for the treatment of chronic iron overload due to frequent blood transfusions in patients age six and older with beta thalassaemia major[4].
It is also indicated in the EU for the treatment of chronic iron overload when desferrioxamine is contraindicated or considered inadequate in patients with other anaemias, children aged two to five years and patients with beta thalassaemia major with iron overload due to infrequent blood transfusions[6].
The Exjade filings were based on the results of a clinical trials programme, including a Phase III head-to-head trial vs. desferrioxamine (Desferal(R)), which showed that after one year of treatment with comparable doses, Exjade produced similar reductions in liver iron concentration (LIC) compared to desferrioxamine[1].
“Exjade will offer a welcome alternative to patients who find traditional iron chelation therapy unacceptable. Its ease of administration can only improve compliance, thus helping to reduce the health complications of iron overload,” commented Dr Farrukh Shah, Consultant Haematologist, The Whittington Hospital NHS Trust. “The approval of Exjade marks the beginning of an exciting new era for iron chelation therapy.”
Notes to Editors
Iron Overload
Iron overload is a cumulative, potentially life threatening and unavoidable consequence of frequent blood transfusions used to treat certain chronic blood disorders such as thalassaemia, sickle cell disease and myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS).
As excess iron is highly toxic, the human body has a sophisticated mechanism to maintain the proper concentration of iron in the blood and meet the body’s requirements[7]. The body absorbs iron when we eat food. Transport proteins - called transferrin and ferritin - then move the absorbed iron through the body before incorporating it into haemoglobin[7].
However, while the human body has a complex mechanism to absorb iron, it has no means to excrete excess iron[7]. The only way to decrease iron overload is to remove it physically or by a process called chelation[8].
Chelating agents bind iron, and the chelated iron is excreted from the body, preventing the toxic build-up of excess iron associated with transfusion therapy[6].
The standard chelating agent is typically administered as a nightly infusion by needle and pump, often lasting eight to 12 hours per night for five to seven nights per week. As a result, many patients stop or avoid iron chelation, exposing themselves to the dangers of iron overload[5].
Thalassaemia
Thalassaemia refers to a group of genetic blood disorders that affect the body’s production of haemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying component of the red blood cells.
Sickle Cell Disease
Sickle cell disease is an inherited blood disorder whereby the red blood cells become deformed (’sickle’ shaped) and tend to get stuck in small blood vessels. This blockage can cause pain, damage tissue and organs and lead to stroke if it occurs in the brain.
Filing data
The clinical trials, which included more than 1,000 adults and children, were part of the largest prospective global clinical trials programme ever implemented for an investigational iron chelator. Liver Iron Concentration (LIC) is an indicator for body iron content in patients receiving blood transfusions. It is a measure of iron accumulation in the liver. The studies demonstrated that Exjade at 20-30 mg/kg/day led to the maintenance or reduction of iron burden in transfused patients with myelodysplastic syndromes, thalassaemia, sickle cell disease and other rare anaemias. In the clinical studies, Exjade was generally well tolerated, with the most frequently reported adverse events being nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, skin rash and increases in serum creatinine. As with desferrioxamine, cases of ocular and auditory disturbances have been reported[1].
The filing in the EU included data demonstrating the ability of Exjade to reduce total body iron. In addition to proven efficacy in reducing absolute iron burden as measured by LIC and serum ferritin, data from a clinical trial sub study also demonstrate efficacy in removing iron in the heart as measured by T2[9](i)
Mild, non-progressive increases in serum creatinine, mostly within the normal range, occur in about one-third of Exjade-treated patients. These are dose-dependent, often resolve spontaneously and can sometimes be alleviated by reducing the dose. Serum creatinine should be assessed before initiating therapy and should be monitored monthly thereafter to determine if dose modification or discontinuation is necessary. Liver function should be monitored monthly, and if there is an unexplained, persistent, or progressive increase in serum transaminase levels, Exjade should be interrupted or discontinued[1].