Does science support EDTA?
Q. Are you familiar with EDTA (ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid)? My newspaper has a large ad today on this for artery cleaning.
It sounds too good to be true ... and I know the rest of that sentence. What is your opinion, please?
A. Chelation (removing heavy metals from the body) with EDTA is a standard treatment for lead poisoning. For decades, some proponents have claimed that chelation also would be beneficial in fighting atherosclerosis and reducing plaque, but cardiologists were quite skeptical.
Then the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine funded a controlled trial of EDTA chelation.
This treatment was found to reduce a person’s chance of suffering a second heart attack or stroke or undergoing a repeat cardiac procedure (JAMA, March 27, 2013).
This study was dubbed TACT – Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy.
Further analysis has shown that people with diabetes got the greatest benefit, particularly if they were also taking a high-dose vitamin and mineral supplement regimen (American Heart Journal, July 2014).
For these people, treatment reduced their subsequent risk by about half.
Q. My husband took vitamin D-3 for more than five years. He started having leg pain in his thigh and went to our family doctor. She prescribed prednisone for two weeks for a possible strained muscle. His pain improved, but returned after he had finished that round of medication.
She then referred him to an orthopedic doctor, who did an X-ray of his leg and said his pain was probably due to muscle strain. He also prescribed prednisone for two weeks, and again the pain returned after treatment.
Some time later, I read that muscle and bone pain could be a side effect of vitamin D-3. He discontinued the vitamin D-3 and has been pain-free ever since. What a relief!
A. Too much vitamin D can lead to excess calcium in the bloodstream. Symptoms include muscle pain or weakness, as well as loss of appetite, dehydration, digestive upset and fatigue.
Your husband is not the only reader who has had trouble with a vitamin D supplement. We heard from one person:
“I eat a very healthy and balanced diet. My yearly complete physical always makes me happy. Last year at my physical, right after winter, my doctor said my level of D was slightly off.
“He agreed that coming out of the winter months probably made it less than perfect, because of lack of sunshine. He suggested, however, that I take vitamin D, as he himself does.
“I followed his advice, though I take no other supplements. After about a month, I started experiencing pain in my bones that was getting worse and worse. I exercise regularly. As the vitamin D was the only new thing in my life, I stopped taking it. The bone pain went away after a few days and has not returned. I recently had my physical (coming out of summer), and my vitamin D level was perfect!”
2015 King Features Syndicate Inc.