Reversing the Effects of Aging with Chelation Therapy

by Maureen Kennedy Salaman

President, National Health Federation
September 2006

One of the more dramatic effects of chelation therapy is the diminishment of the fine lines at the outer corner of the smile lines of the eyes (known as crow's feet) and a return of softer, more supple-looking skin.

The late Dr. Charlie Farr, from Oklahoma, performed studies that support this happy finding.  Before he began treating a group of older patients with chelation therapy, he took samples of skin from their arms.  He discovered that the common stiffness and dryness they experienced with age was a result of cross-linkages of calcium.  Following chelation therapy he noted the cross-linkages were gone, and his patients were reporting softer, smoother skin.

Aging involves hard arteries and soft bones.  The process of aging is what researchers and doctors call calcinosis, meaning calcium is pulled from the bones and deposited into soft tissue, settling in your arteries, joints and skin, causing arthritis and the pale, hard, wrinkled look of aging.  Calcium deposits can also cause strokes and circulation problems.  What chelation therapy does is remove calcium from the soft tissues, where it doesn't belong, and put it back into the bones, where it does belong.

A fascinating study was related to me by one of the founders of ACAM - American College for Advancement in Medicine.  He said when he and other ACAM doctors were given annual bone-density tests, they were also asked how many chelation treatments they had undergone.  A direct correlation was found: the more chelation treatments they had undergone, the denser their bones.

For maximum benefit, EDTA therapy should be accompanied by a carefully-tailored program of vitamin and nutritional supplements.  This is because of the delicate balance of nutrients and the body's use of calcium.  For example, those with low intakes of Vitamin D have higher parathyroid levels in the Winter.  The parathyroid glands draw on calcium reserves in the bone to keep blood levels normal.  Parathormone is the hormone, excreted by the parathyroid glands, that controls calcium and phosphorus metabolism.  As parathormone increases, more calcium is taken out of bone.

Doctors and health care experts have been telling you for years to get enough calcium.  So, you dutifully drink your milk, eat your cheese, and take calcium supplements.  But something is still wrong because you are still getting osteoporosis, heart disease, hypertension, cancer, arteriosclerosis, and wrinkles.  What is missing, and what has been shown in studies to make a difference is the addition of magnesium.  Magnesium directs calcium, keeping it from entering the soft tissues.  The process of aging involves the loss of magnesium.  When you are born, your cells are 95-percent magnesium and five-percent calcium.  As you age, your cells degrade to 95-percent calcium and five-percent magnesium.

Chelation therapy for cardiovascular disease dates back to an observation in the 1950s, when it was noted that patients undergoing EDTA therapy for lead poisoning felt a relief of angina pectoris after therapy.  Chelation therapy around the world has been promoted for peripheral arterial occlusive disease.

Some physicians offer chelation therapy to treat blood-vessel diseases.  Older people complaining of painful walking, shortness of breath, and memory loss have been helped by chelation therapy.  A patient of the late Ross Gordon, M.D., who was successfully treated for intermittent claudication, confided to me, on my television show, that he experienced a restoration of sexual function.  I wasn't surprised.  Practitioners of alternative medicine tell me many of their patients have been returned to full sexuality after a series of chelation treatments, which dissolve blockages in the tiny capillaries of the male organ.

Chelation therapy helps decalcify the plaque on the arterial wall, opening blood vessels and allowing arteries to relax and dilate.  The Bible says "Life is in the blood."  Chelation helps deliver that healing blood supply.  The effect helps in restoring aged limbs, sexual potency, and eyesight.

Chelation (pronounced key‑lay‑shun) comes from the Greek word chele, meaning to claw or bind.  It is accomplished by giving the patient intravenous injections of the synthetic amino acid EDTA (ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid).  Chelation therapy is performed on an outpatient basis, is painless, and takes approximately two hours.  For optimal results, physicians who use chelation therapy recommend 20‑30 treatments given one to three times per week.

A new medical device is available to assist the professional health practitioner in determining how much, or if, chelation therapy is warranted.  Called CardioVision, it is a cardiovascular-dynamics monitor that works with a computer and printer.  It is designed to monitor specific data points of the patients' brachial artery elasticity, comparing the data with previously diagnosed cardiovascular disease and arrhythmia.  It can be used to screen and monitor for anemia, shock, severe stress, arteriosclerosis, arrhythmia, and heart failure.

For more on the fascinating, enlightening, and underrated preventive and healing effects of chelation therapy, read the book Bypassing Bypass by Elmer Cranton, M.D.  We're only as old as our arteries.  Drink from this Fountain of Youth and be young again!