Five-Year Chelation Therapy NCCAM Study Almost Complete

You won't have to wait much longer to see the results of the challenging new NCCAM study on chelation therapy. You'll know in 2008.

The technique, which consists of EDTA plus a mixture of healthy additives administered intravenously, intramuscularly, or orally, was first used in the 1940s to treat lead poisoning.

Alternative medicine practitioners use chelation therapy as an alternative to coronary bypass surgery, and combine it with aerobic exercise and a special diet as a treatment for heart disease. But it has been under target by skeptics for years.

The study came in response to the overwhelming statistics of chelation therapy use in the U.S.

The American College for Advancement in Medicine, estimates more than 800,000 visits for chelation therapy in 1997, alone. The reasons given are that it is faster, safer and 10 times cheaper than a coronary bypass with equal or better results.

In fact, the American College for Advancement in Medicine launched an effort to develop a National Chelation Therapy Credentialing Program in 2006.

Those unfamiliar with chelation therapy can think of it as "unclogging our drains." We add an "agent" to a drain which adheres to the clogging particle. It then removes it from the drain through the existing plumbing system.

NCCAM launched their official study in 2002, accepting subjects for study (persons aged 50 plus with existing heart conditions, in 2003.