Chelation

 

Description: Chelation is a treatment where drugs are used to remove heavy metals from the body.  There are legitimate uses for chelation, such as lead or true mercury poisoning. But, the fact is, autism is not heavy metal or mercury poisoning.

That's worth saying again: autism is not heavy metal or mercury poisoning.

So, why treat autism with the wrong therapy?  Well, some people speculated that autism was caused by mercury poisoning.  A standard treatment for real mercury poisoning really is chelation. which is the administration of a drug that binds to metals like mercury and pulls them from the body.

The reasoning behind the mercury-poisoning theory is long, but it boils down to (a) the number of people identified with autism went up at a time when the amount of mercury in vaccines went up and (b) a paper by some non-medical people proposed that autism symptoms and mercury poisoning symptoms were similar.

The fact is, as mercury levels from vaccines have dropped, the number of people identified with autism has continued to climb.  Also, if you talk to real experts in mercury toxicology, you find that there is no similarity in the symptoms.  There is one medical researcher/clinician who has studied both autism and the effects of mercury, and she states unequivicobly that there is no similarity in the symptoms.

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) which is a part of the National Academies of Science, convened a committee in 2004 to look at the evidence for vaccines causing autism.  They came to the very strong conclusion, stronger than just there is  a lack of evidence to support the idea that thimerosal (the mercury compound in vaccines) cause vaccines.  They made a very strong statement that the evidence is in favor of rejecting the idea:
The committee concludes that the evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism.

They also considered the topic of chelation therapy.  They stated that chelation has potential risks and should only be performed under carefully controlled situations:

Because chelation therapy has potentially serious risks, the committee recommends that it be used only in carefully-controlled research settings with appropriate oversight by Institutional Review Boards protecting the interests of the children who participate.

Basically they are stating, unless you are working in a research setting and protecting the interests of the children who participate, you shouldn't be doing chelation.  These are some of the most respected physicians in their fields and they looked at the data available.  The data available now is even more strong against the idea that mercury causes autism.

The government looked into funding a study of chelation. First, the put it on hold, citing safety reasons.  They recently cancelled it entirely.  The reason given: there is no evidence to suggest it might work, and there is evidence to suggest it could hurt people who don't have real heavy metal toxicity.  Here is a quote from a researcher who studies chelation:

“Our data suggest that parents of an autistic child who are considering administering chelating agents should consider not only the possibility that these drugs may not be effective, but that they may actually cause lasting adverse affects.”


Given that, why chelate?

Example of Failure of Chelation Therapy

 

In his book, Evidence of Harm, David Kirby describes a child for whom chelation "only seemed to make him sicker."  In addition, the child suffered a grand-mal seizure a few days after "a treatment", landing the child in the hospital.  

No mention is made of testing before or after the therapy to understand if or how chelation could have caused the seizure.  No understanding is offered of how to screen for such possible adverse reactions.

Evidence of Harm, Page 182.

Child Regresses from Chelation Therapy

 

The following is taken from testimony in the Autism Omnibus Proceedings. This is from the "vaccine court" that is deciding whether people can claim autism as a vaccine injury. The doctor is under oath to tell the truth. . 

In this segment, a child's doctor (a well known alternative-medicine practitioner) is being asked about how the child reacted to his chelation therapy.

Q: “[redacted] actually didn't respond very well to chelation, did he?

A" No, he hasn't"

Q: "In fact, I believe his mother and the records stated that you regress after chelation. Is that right?"

A: "He didn't do well after chelation"

So, not only did chelation not help, but the records indicated it could have possibly have caused regression. 

Child Dies from Chelation Therapy

 

One of the saddest stories in the world of alternative medical treatments for autism is that of Abubakar Tariq Nadama. He was a child with autism who was treated with IV chelation using a drug called Disodium EDTA.  There are a lot of discussions on the internet about this, with many calling cause of death a "drug error" or similar excuse.

A longer discussion of this, with many comments, can be found here (and many other places on the web).  The bottom line: this child would still be alive had he not been "treated" with chelation.  Chelation is not an autism therapy.  The death should not have happened. 

People comment that this was a "drug error".  The doctor in question only used that same drug, so it can't be considered a mixup.

While this story does not touch on this child's death directly, it does point out some of the potential problems with the alternative medicine groups.  The compounding pharmacy in the story, Apothecure, was the same pharmacy that provided the drug used on the autistic child, Abubakar Tariq Nadama.  The story linked above notes potential irregularities in the quality control of Apothecure's products:

ApothéCure is under investigation by Oregon, Texas and federal authorities following the discovery last week that a batch of a drug called colchicine supplied to the Portland Center for Integrative Medicine was 10 times the potency stated on the label.

The story goes on to note that people who received the colchicine treatement with the 10x potency died.

New Chelator, tested?

 

Recently one of the few researchers who have been backing the idea that mercury can cause autism created and started marketing a chelator, now called an "antioxidant". This has not undergone the sort of testing a drug would undergo, but, instead, is being marketed as a "supplement". Many discussions can be found on the internet.

Here is an exchange that was posted to a Yahoo group on chelation. The first part is a person asking a question about safety. The second part is the researcher (chemist) responding. The "all caps" is from the original:

Wanted to ask another important Q do you see a problem with mixing OSR with ALA/DMSA?

I WOULD RECOMMEND AGAINST DOING THIS. THERE IS A CHEMISTRY CALLED THIOL EXCHANGE REACTIONS WHERE SUCH A MIXTURE COULD LED TO THE FORMATION OF MIXED DISULFIDES WHICH WOULD CONTAIN OSR COUPLED TO ALA, OR DMPS. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND TAKING DMPS WITH ALA EITHER.

This was dated August 26th. People had been using for at least a month before such warnings came out. There is no information available on other drug interactions or possible adverse reactions.

Yes, there has been some testing on this substance.  It appears to have had some testing for approval as a supplement.  That is very different from a clinical trial where safety and efficacy are measured in humans.

Heavy Metal Poisoning?

 

Heavy metal poisoning is serious. Far too serious for seeking internet based information on treatments. (and, this site specifically does not give medical advice) If you suspect heavy metal poisoning in yourself or your child, seek out the servicies of a trained professional in the field of medical toxicology. The Amercian College of Medical Toxicology provides a list of professionals. These are people with training and experience in the diagnosis and treatment of poisoning.

Here is one paper, and here another, on mercury poisoning and chelation worth reading if you want more information. Further information can be obtained by reading the transcripts of the Autism Omnibus Proceedings. Jeffrry Brent, a very well respected medical toxicologist, testified there. Chelation is also commonly used in other areas of alternative medicine, as discussed here and here. A few things you will learn

  1. Chelation tests performed by alternative-medical practitioners are often meaningless. They often use "challenge" tests, where a chelator is given and then the mercury in the urine is measured. Chelators pull mercury from your body and help you excrete it in the urine. The mercury levels in the urine are supposed to be higher when "challenged". There is no good data to compare a "challenged" urine sample to.
  2. Common chelators don't remove mercury from the brain well, if at all. This begs the question, why "treat" autism with chelation if the purported goal is to remove mercury from the brain? It also, as one of the papers above states, makes it impossible to judge the mercury in the brain based on a challenge test.
  3. There are chelation methods for which inappropriate doses may actually increase the toxicity of mercury

Disclaimer

 

RescueAngel.org is not affiliated in any way with Generation Rescue, Jenny McCarthy or any other person or organization promoting biomedical treatments for autism.
 
Also, the information on RescueAngel.Org is not medical advice.  Rather this is intended to motivate people to seek out quality medical advice from practitioners who are well qualified to make accurate diagnoses and proper treatments

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