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Definition
By Mayo Clinic staffChelation therapy — long a treatment for mercury and lead poisoning — isn't a proven treatment for heart disease, and it can be dangerous when used as a heart disease treatment. Even so, some doctors and alternative medicine practitioners have used chelation therapy to treat heart disease and stroke.
The theory behind using chelation therapy for heart disease is that the medicine used in the treatment binds to the calcium that's in fatty deposits (plaques) in your arteries. Once the medicine binds to the calcium, the plaques are swept away as the medicine moves through your bloodstream.
However, no studies have shown this happens, and people have been injured when using chelation therapy for heart disease.
The American Heart Association doesn't recommend chelation therapy as a treatment for heart disease, and the Food and Drug Administration hasn't approved chelation therapy for use as a heart disease treatment.
- Questions and answers about chelation therapy. American Heart Association. http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3000843. Accessed July 7, 2010.
- Trial to assess chelation therapy. National Institutes of Health. http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00044213. Accessed July 7, 2010.
- Questions and answers: The NIH trial of EDTA chelation therapy for coronary artery disease. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. http://nccam.nih.gov/health/chelation/. Accessed July 7, 2010.
- Seely DMR, et al. EDTA chelation therapy for cardiovascular disease: A systematic review. BMC Cardiovascular Diseases. 2005;5:32.
- Knudtson ML, et al. Chelation therapy for ischemic heart disease: A randomized, controlled trial. Journal of the American Medical Association. 2002;287:481.
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