We, at American Chelation, feel that chelation therapy should not be used to replace other medicines. Nor should it be used in place of some very good surgical procedures. Chelation therapy should be used with other medicines, and where a decrease or removal of said medicine is indicated, then the drug should be eliminated or decreased.

With surgery, chelation therapy should be used prior to and after surgery, where indicated, and maybe even during the surgical hospitalization.

The American Medical Association does not consider chelation therapy useful because "the effects are not lasting." They also consider the use of EDTA as "investigational." This decision was made by the AMA Council on Drugs in 1966. Since that date, no new appraisal of EDTA has been officially made by the Council.

Under Federal Law, the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act 201.100(d)(1) etc., it is legal to use and treat with EDTA. The law does not limit the manner in which a drug is used once it is approved for marketing.

EDTA is approved for marketing and medical use. Once approved, a physician may legally use a drug for treatments, conditions or populations not in the "approved" labeling. Manufacturers may list that EDTA is not approved for use to treat Vascular problems associated with cardiovascular disease but, this is not really the law.

One of the reasons that the effects may not be lasting is because the patient usually continues to follow poor health habits, their environment is not cleaned up, their lifestyle does not change and the original disease processes continue. In my practice, I know that the chelation program works for many patients.

It should be noted that, though the AMA implies that chelation therapy is investigational, it is certainly not a new or experimental treatment. In fact, it is probably one of the most clinically tested therapies in medicine.

Hundreds of clinical reports are available on the success of chelation therapy by many different doctors on many different patient ailments. ACAM is a medical specialty group directly concerned with the continuing evaluation of chelation therapy. They have been and are still accumulating clinical data on the treatment connected with the use of EDTA.

The documented clinical results are compelling testimony to the fact that EDTA is producing health benefits for circulatory problems, with safety, that cannot be matched with other forms of therapy.

EDTA has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in chelating heavy metals, arrhythmias, thallasemia, hypercalcemia and digitalis intoxication. It is approved for use in thousands of foods by the FDA.

EDTA has been approved for use in Canada for people with cardiovascular disease. Alaska and Washington state have passed laws stating that any insurance companies doing business in their state must pay for alternative therapies.

New Zealand has passed legislation making it illegal to perform surgery without first discussing alternative therapies, as chelation, first.

Hormone research and therapy is showing that degenerative diseases advance rapidly when levels of hormones are diminished and reverse when the hormone levels are kept elevated.

Many physicians are hesitant to offer chelation and hormone and nutritional therapies purely because of pressure from peers, hospitals, drug companies, Political lobbies, insurance companies, HMO's and ignorance.