Last week I started writing about EDTA chelation and ozone therapy for the treatment of vascular disease. Cardiovascular disease involves injury to the vessels around the heart, while cerebrovascular disease involves vessels in the brain and peripheral vascular disease mostly affects vessels in the legs. In all cases, injury to the inner lining of the blood vessel wall causes the body to respond by laying down it’s version of a bandaid in an attempt to heal the injury.
The body’s bandaid is plaque which is made up mostly of a calcium structure filled with cholesterol. The Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy 1 was a 5 year study in the US and Canada that used 134 locations, treated 1700 patients and administered 55,222 EDTA infusions. The results showed a non-significant trend that EDTA lowers cardiovascular risk in people who don’t have diabetes. In diabetics, the results were statistically significant and found that EDTA infusions provided a 41% relative risk reduction of cardiovascular disease.
EDTA is a chelating agent that binds to a variety of minerals and heavy metals like lead, cadmium and arsenic among many others. Heavy metals have long been associated with vascular diseases, stroke and heart attacks. When heavy metals come in contact with advanced glycated end products (substances that are present in high levels in diabetics) dangerous reactive oxygen molecules are formed. These dangerous oxygen molecules are like sharp knives that injure the inner lining of the blood vessel.
The body responds to this injury by laying down its bandaid: plaque. Plaque formation causes the narrowing of the blood vessel which in turn restricts blood flow and can eventually lead to pain on walking (peripheral vascular disease), restricted blood flow to the heart (cardiovascular disease) and poor flow to the brain (cerebrovascular disease). EDTA chelation in diabetics removes heavy metals thus reducing ongoing blood vessel injury and improving blood flow which eases the symptoms of vascular disease and reduces the risk of developing vascular disease in the first place.