Even though there are more fad diets than you can shake a calorie at, the notion that chelation therapy could help you lose weight is particularly preposterous. Chelation therapy is used to remove heavy metals such as lead and mercury from the body. Proponents of chelation therapy make all sorts of other claims for the procedure, including the use of chelation therapy for clearing arteries of calcium deposits of plaque, but that claim has no scientific evidence to support it, either.
Theory
The theory linking weight loss and chelation theory posits that the procedure increases your energy, which indicates your metabolism has improved and you are more efficiently converting food to energy instead of fat. As the Diet Spotlight website goes on to explain, this claim lacks any scintilla of scientific backing. Claims that chelation therapy improves your overall health or effectively treats such conditions as Alzheimer's disease or psoriasis are equally bogus.
Ingredients
The word chelation is taken from the Latin word chele, meaning claw. The key ingredient in intravenous chelation therapy is the drug EDTA. This drug has a claw-like propensity to attach itself to heavy metals, move them through the bloodstream and excrete them through feces or urine. In addition to EDTA, the oral form of chelation adds N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine to the mix, which helps block production of cell-damaging free radicals.
History
As the Quackwatch website explains, after EDTA was found to be effective in removing toxic metals from the blood, scientists reasonably wondered if arteries could be softened by the removal of calcium deposits of plaque from artery walls. Tests on patients with heart problems began in the 1950s. Unfortunately, there is no evidence that chelation therapy has the ability to flush plaque from the body, open up clogged arteries or help patients overcome heart disease.
Fad Diets
Fad diets, such as taking chelation pills to lose weight, can be quite dangerous to your health. Nutritionist Linda Bacon, a professor of nutrition at the City College of San Francisco, told CNN Health that repeatedly trying fad diets can damage your heart, causing micro tears "that create a setup for atherosclerosis and other types of heart disease." Ironically, chelation therapy, touted as a cure for heart disease, can actually harm your heart if used as a fad diet or quick weight-loss diet.
Considerations
Chelation therapy can be a risky procedure. Cases of kidney failure, including some deaths, have been reported, and a host of medical associations, including the Mayo Clinic and American Heart Association, warn against using chelation therapy for clogged arteries. Some fad diets are relatively harmless. A three day fruit diet, for example, won't do much damage if you don't try it over and over again. But chelation therapy, either in oral or IV form, won't help you lose weight and might endanger your health. That's a bad combination.
Member Comments