Rebalance Calcium to Restore Arteries to Younger, Healthier State

By Ward Dean, MD

The FDA has approved the synthetic amino acid, ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA), as a pharmaceutical agent for the treatment of lead and other heavy metal poisoning or exposure. In older literature, the FDA also approved intravenous EDTA treatment as “possibly effective in occlusive vascular disorders—arrhythmias and atrioventricular conduction defects—and in the treatment of pathologic conditions to which calcium tissue deposits or hypercalcemia may contribute other than those listed above.”

In addition to EDTA’s intravenous benefits are its less well-known clinical uses when administered orally. Early clinical studies with EDTA reported loss of fat in rats, reduction of cholesterol in rabbits, and reduced blood pressure in humans. Consequently, a study of the effects of oral EDTA on patients with atherosclerosis and/or hypertension was conducted on 10 patients.

Four of these patients had hypertension, four had angina pectoris, one had peripheral vascular disease (intermittent claudication), and one was recovering from a heart attack. All were treated with one gram of oral EDTA daily for three months. Seven of the ten patients experienced significant reductions in their cholesterol levels, and blood pressure was reduced in all ten.

The most marked change occurred in the patient with intermittent claudication, whose cholesterol dropped from 278 mg per 100 ml to 128! This patient also reported improved exercise tolerance, and the researchers found improved pulsations in the extremities. The four patients with angina pectoris also reported improvement.

In another series of 20 patients who suffered from hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, angina or peripheral vascular disease, one gram of EDTA was administered orally every day for three months. During that short time, elevated cholesterol levels in nine of the patients dropped to within the normal range. No adverse results were experienced by any of the patients. Angina attacks were reduced in frequency and severity in five individuals. One person who previously had suffered a heart attack and experienced several angina attacks daily thereafter, obtained complete relief.

In another study, two patients with extremely elevated cholesterol were treated with oral EDTA. One patient took EDTA in progressively increasing doses ranging from 500 mg to 4 gm daily for one year, and the other took 1,000 mg daily for three years. Although the first patient suffered a heart attack after three years of therapy, she recovered uneventfully, and had reduced angina pains and improved sense of well-being with continued use of EDTA.

The second patient—in addition to hypercholesterolemia—had a condition known as xanthomatosis (yellowish papules in the skin, related to elevated blood lipids). She not only experienced dramatic reductions in her cholesterol levels with oral EDTA treatment, but her skin lesions completely resolved. Other laboratory studies (including kidney and liver function) remained normal throughout the study for both patients. This is further confirmation of the safety of oral EDTA, considering that doses as high as four gm daily were consumed.

Absorption of Oral EDTA

In 1954, Dr. Harry Foreman and his colleagues performed a landmark study to determine how much orally administered EDTA the body absorbs. The scientists found that the body absorbs a maximum of five percent of orally consumed EDTA and that it can take up to three days for the EDTA to be totally excreted. If someone consumed nutritional supplements that contained 800 mg of EDTA, then we can assume from Dr. Foreman’s research that about 40 mg will be absorbed each day and that 1,200 mg will be absorbed each month. That equates to almost the same amount of EDTA administered in one intravenous chelation treatment using the low-dose optimum protocol of Drs. Born and Geurkink.

Consequently, those unable to obtain intravenous chelation therapy due to financial, occupational, geographical or other restraints, or who wish to undergo a less intensive preventive approach may be able to obtain many of the same benefits of intravenous chelation therapy by consuming food additive EDTA that is used as a stabilizer in food supplements.

References:

1. Calcium disodium edetate and disodium edetate. Federal Register, Vol 35, No. 8, 1970, 585-587.
2. Perry, H. Mitchell, Schroeder, Henry A. Depression of cholesterol levels in human plasma following ethylenediamine tetracetate and hydralazine. J Chronic Diseases, 1955, 2: 5, 520-532.
3. Schroeder, Henry A. A practical method for the reduction of plasma cholesterol in man. J Chronic Diseases, 1956, 4:461-468.
4. Perry, Jr., and Camel, G., Some effects of CaNa2EDTA on plasma cholesterol and urinary zinc in man, in: Metal Binding in Medicine, 1960, J.B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, 209-215.
5. Mariani, B., Bisetti, A., and Romeo, V. Blood cholesterol-lowering action of the sodium salt of calcium ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid. Gazz Intern Med e Chir, 1957. 62: 1812-1823..