I’ve long subscribed to an investment newsletter written by an 81-year-old stock market guru, Richard Russell. He writes comments and analysis about the markets every day the market is open, which is typically five days a week–a rigorous workload for anyone half his age. Sometimes he goes adrift and writes about politics and personal health. In the latter area, one of his favorite topics is something called EDTA chelation, an intravenous treatment used to clear the arteries of toxins, including heavy metals (for further information, just google the term). He credits chelation with significantly extending his life following heart bypass surgeries and related conventional treatment when he was in his fifties, when the treatments failed to be anything more than short-term solutions. (The reason the subject comes up is that once a month, Russell goes in for his chelation treatment, and apologizes for a shortened stock market commentary.)
I thought his latest comment about the subject was especially insightful, and am quoting from him here:
"I’ve received a lot of mail regarding EDTA chelation. I guess I’ve told hundreds of people (most with heart problems) about chelation, but very few have looked into it.
"People tend to be very passive, even about their own health. It’s amazing, they ask their cardiologists about chelation, and the cardiologists tell them chelation is "voodoo medicine," and it’s dangerous — and people accept this. Ironically, EDTA chelation is the accepted treatment for metal poisoning, and the FDA approves of chelation for metal poisoning. But when chelation is used for removal of plaque in the vascular system, the medical establishment tells us that it’s ‘unproven’ and furthermore, that it’s "dangerous.’
"Talk about stupidity! Reminds me of the old days when doctors objected to women breast feeding. Mothers were told that breast feeding was insanitary and that bottle-feeding was far superior. Now, decades later, breast feeding is widely recommended by the medical profession. In fact, a month ago I read where doctors were saying that avoiding breast feeding could actually endanger the child. Full circle, I guess you could call it. Some day the American Heart Association will get honest about EDTA chelation. Of course, if they do, a lot of hospitals that survive on heart surgery are going to go file for bankruptcy."
I once asked a physician friend about chelation, and got the answer Russell alludes to: When he was in medical school, the physician told me, he was taught that chelation was quackery.
I guess it’s difficult for many people to challenge their physicians. They are, after all, authority figures, glamorized on television and in movies. But as Russell points out, if something as inexpensive as chelation was found to work, the financial effects would be disastrous…for the medical profession. It needs to keep those operating rooms full, after all! Actually, the federal government is in the midst of a multiyear study about the effects of chelation on heart disease, so one of these years we may get some data.
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