Chelation therapy linked to deaths
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I ran across this today on MSN. I thought it would be of some interest here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11640868/
Yes, I believe it is dangerous if the practioner doesn't know what he or she is doing. DAN docs follow a strict protocol that includes healing the gut and making the child healthy before administering chelation. Notice the girl who died from lead poisoning in Feb 2005 had low calcium levels which caused her death. THis is why the DAN docs regularly do bloodwork on their patients and the parents of the patients must be diligent in giving their children the supplements. It is so important to research your practioner when you are considering having your child or yourself chelated. I believe the boys death was from a Doctors error--but don't quote me on it. I think there are different chelating agents and the type he used was the wrong one. The one he used was one that drew alot of calcium from the childs body. I believe I ran across this story on the GFCF website. This is why- number one-be aware of what your doctor is doing and how much knowledge he has. Number two-read between the lines when you read an article from the press. The story is true, but it doesn't tell the whole story. I'll definatly bring this article when meeting our DAN doc. Thanks! I read the article, and basically they were talking about two cases. They also did not mention the underlying factors. How many people have used this treatment vs. how many had problems. I don't like when they do not use facts and write an attention drawing headline. I will still bring this to our DAN doc, but I want more info...http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/524667 These unfortunate deaths were the result of using the wrong emdication - either the physicians are not very familiar with chelation and prescribed the wrong medication or the pharmacy made an error. The majority of children being chelated for elevated metals are NOT using EDTA, which is well known to have relatively high adverse event rates. Most chelation is done using sulfur based medicines like DMSA and DMPS, beither of which have cardiac arrest as a possible adverse event. It is tragic that these children died because of what will boil down to malpractice. It is also tragic that people in positions of power and media attention will use these deaths to "prove" chelation in general is too dangerous to undergo, in their efforts to bolster their opinion that toxic metal cannot be involved in autism or other neurological conditions. My son has undergone 9 rounds of chelation with DMSA following the FDA's established protocol for lead exposure and each round has brought improvements without any sign at all of negative reaction. I am not saying ALL autistic children MUST be chelated - that is a decision that needs made after a competant medical profesional determines a bona-fide need (i.e. the child has elevated levels of toxic metals in his body.) I do think that children with neurological conditions should be screened for metals to determine if they are a factor or not.
Well said Dad! Today we're in round 3 of DMSA and going strong. Many good things happening with us too. Tell me, what type of monitoring/testing did you do during the applications. I'm going to do another toxic metal challenge in 11 days but am wondering what others do. Did you do any blood tests for the liver? How old are the kids when the docs prescribe this medication? My son is 2 years old. Thanks!Sadly anything can kill cause it all just depends on how you react to something. I am not doing it cause I don't want to have a death. Daniel has had blood work done. We were asked for yeast and pathways testing also.Drinking too much water can cause death - would you withhold water from your child to avoid that risk? If your child has elevated metals above what is understood to be safe not chelating him is also doing harm as metals continue to kill nerve cells as long as they remain in the body. Work by Dr. James in AR, Dr. Holmes in LA and Dr. Haley in KY has suggested that a very significant portion of autistic children do not have the natural metabolic function to excrete metals on their own. Even exposures in very trace amounts which should be well below threshhold of concern can cause problems if the body cannot detox on its own. I am NOT saying that your child or any particular child must be chelated. That depends upon testing to see if the metals are present. (I would not give insulin to someone whio was not diabetic, nor would I withhold it from one who was.) Mom2luc: My boy was 4 1/2 when we started and I wished I had gotten on board sooner with him. We used the standard lead protocol, which was 200 mg of DMSA 3 X's a day for 5 days and then 200 mg 2 X's a day for 16 days. Our Peds waited about 5 months after a round ended before they allowed another round. DAN! drs use a different protocol; some parents report improvements greater than we saw, some lessor (much will depend on the nature of te child's exposure and his/her personal metabolism). Talk to your dr. and get him/her to refer you to someone more experienced if they are unsure. Michelle: We initially did pre and post bloodwork and urinalysis. I did not learn to ask for a full battery of metals to be tested, sothe first rounds showed only the lead. (Most metals go into storage after a period of time and cannot be tested by bloodwork unless the exposure is recent; lead stores in part in the blood at a point of "balance" with what is in the marrow; be aware there is always a rebound with lead after chelation as the metal from the marrow leaches back into the blood to re-establish balance). When I insisted on testing for other metals we got a few hits which changed from round to round as we chelated. It wasn't until round 9 that we got a hit for mercury. With that round I had the lab check for organic mercury. Previously they only checked for metallic mercury and got nothing. When they checked for organic, suddenly we got a hit which changed the doctor's opinion on the whole matter. I often wonder what the readings on mercury would have been back at the beginning had we known to get organic mercury tested all along... I am told that the primary avenue for excretion in typicl people is through bile, which goes out teh end of teh digestive track. I do not know if DMSA, DMPS or EDTA increase the effectiveness of this path or if excretion is via the kidneys. We did not have his stool tested, although it certainly smelled particularly nasty while we were doing a round (could have been from the sulfur in the DMSA). Perhaps testing the stool in mid round would be advisable, just to get an idea of what is coming out that way; talk to your dr. about it. And please let us know what you find out. |
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