EDTA is a synthetic amino acid that binds calcium and a variety of heavy metals including lead, arsenic and cadmium. When EDTA is mixed with magnesium, vitamin C and B-vitamins and then infused intravenously it can have health benefits. In 2013 the Mount Sinai Medical Center published the results of the Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy (TACT) study. In this study EDTA chelation was found to give excellent results in reducing cardiovascular risk in people with diabetes.
In diabetics, EDTA chelation therapy provided a 41% overall reduction in the risk of any cardiovascular event, a 40% reduction in the risk of dying from heart disease, a 52% reduction risk for heart attack and a 43% reduction in risk of dying from any cause. The study also found that taking chelation plus high dose vitamins and minerals provided the greatest cardiovascular risk reduction. While the study did not find any cardiovascular benefit of chelation therapy in people without diabetes it does remove lead and other heavy metals which has been shown to help improve energy and reduce risk for degenerative disease.
The word “chelation” means claw in latin and EDTA acts like a claw and binds onto heavy metals and pulls them out through the urine. It works so well as a metal binder that calcium EDTA is the gold standard therapy for acute lead poisoning. Each and every one of us is exposed to heavy metals through air, food and water and EDTA chelation is one way to safely and gradually reduce our heavy metal burden.