Dear Subscriber,
I have bad news for you today. Most of you are familiar with a therapy called chelation therapy. It is generally intravenous administration of compounds, particularly EDTA, which binds and remove heavy metals. It came out in the 1960’s and has been controversial after one publication by Kitchell reported that the circulation benefits waned after two years. Of course, his group did not stop his subjects from smoking and eating rancid oils.
Well, we thought we had a major breakthrough about 10 years ago when respected cardiologist Gervasio Lamas published an amazing report in a major journal showing chelation to be effective, and especially for diabetes. His was called the TACT trial, Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy.
I listened to him present at a meeting of an organization founded on chelation therapy. We were elated that our patients were chelated, and that we were shown to be on the right track. As you can imagine, Lamas got a lot of heat from the establishment. So, a TACT 2 trial was funded. This week its report came out saying that chelation, while significantly lowering lead levels, does not protect against further cardiac events in those with a prior cardiac event and with diabetes. I must say this is bewildering and disappointing. Actually, I believe this second report raises more questions than answers.
I put this matter out to my ozone chat group. Some comments returned:
1) “It will take some time to analyze in detail but one thing I note is that the authors are different from TACT to TACT2. Drisko* has been removed for example.
Second, the therapy is not identical as stated in the paper itself. We need to look more closely at what was changed. If the changes are significant, then TACT and TACT2 are not comparable.
Third, we need to look at the statistical analysis and see what is different. This is where manipulation often occurs in my experience.
Finally, I recall the massive opposition to the previous trial. There was a paper published in which several doctors demanded the funding for the trial be withdrawn! I am curious if any of those authors are now the authors of TACT2! Maybe some ACAM members will do a comparison for us soon.”
*[Rowen note: Jeannie Drisko, MD, an author of the first TACT report, did not appear as an author in this follow up report. She was very well respected in the integrative medicine community.]
Perhaps even more concerning:
2) “I think this result may have been interfered with by COVID19 vaccine-induced thromboembolic side effects.”
I looked at dates of the study and indeed it included the early phase of the COVID pandemic with the more virulent alpha variant, and of course the near universal ly forced genetic jab which we know induces thrombosis and circulation problems.
So, I know you are wondering about my thoughts on chelation. Having been in the chelation trenches for about 40 years, I must say that I have well liked the clinical results. But in our patients have not had a “double blind” evaluation either. That said, our results could also be due to the advanced supplement regimen we recommend and intense diet and lifestyle changes we demand.
Over the years we have done much less IV chelation. People only have so much disposable money and we have a very middle-class practice. So, considering that funds are finite, we chose, after lots of experience, to concentrate office IV therapy on oxidation, such as ozone. We generally recommend chelation by rectal suppository with EDTA. I currently do this myself once a week as I do like dark chocolate, which, as I have reported here, may contain lead contamination, even if organic. I take a 1500 mg suppository of EDTA weekly, and will continue to do so indefinitely. And, of course I take ozone therapy generally every 2-3 weeks IV or I will otherwise take it rectally as well. I purchase EDTA suppositories pre-made, but, in preparing this post, I have noticed that Amazon sells suppository mold kits as well as bulk food grade EDTA for oral use. I may yet experiment with this concept to weigh out a sample of EDTA and mix with cocoa butter to make my own. You can find information online for making home-made suppositories. Not having experience, I cannot direct you.
At this point I am not sold on this latest information that IV chelation is a bust for preventing further heart attacks in a population of diabetics with a previous incident, again, based simply on clinical experience in seeing overall improvement in hundreds of patients over several decades.
I’d very much like to see a study done on all-cause morbidity and mortality in people who have had chelation vs no chelation. I am also hoping to hear from a dear friend and long-term chelation mentor, John Trowbridge, MD about his thoughts on the report.
To Your Excellent Health!
Robert Jay Rowen, MD
PS For those subscribers well studied in chelation therapy and the medical professionals here, please check out the report and make comments here or to me privately. We all need to learn together.
I saw the video of the alleged nanobots. I am not convinced. I could easily make a case that what I am seeing are mere crystalline structures that came out of solution, like salt can precipitate. I am not convinced that these are "self assembling". I am not saying they are not. Just that they will have to go much further to convince me. It a matter of interpreting what you are seeing.
I am heading in to get my first set of Function Health labs today and highly interested to see what the results are. Although I don’t have a baseline, we used Organic Broken Cell Wall Chlorella and Organic Cilantro combo for months for a slower, natural chelation process.
Furthermore, we continue having cilantro daily in our Organic Blueberry Protein smoothies so we shall see what the numbers show for heavy metals in my system and will update once results are received.