Dear Dr. Laule,

What is your opinion of chelation therapy, in particular, Cardio Clear

in reducing blood pressure?

Thank you and I hope to hear from you.

Sincerely,

L.W.

Dear L.W,

Blood pressure is certainly one of the more complex and difficult things I try to treat naturally. There are many, many supplements out there that are touted to work. In the case of blood pressure, there is no "one size fits all."

I have found taurine and salt restriction to help some patients. With one ex-military patient of mine who came in looking unusually tense, chest out and belly sucked in, having his first episode of hypertension at age 70 something, just 5 minutes of having him practice abdominal breathing lowered his blood pressure to normal. Magnesium and calcium and exercise work at times. For one patient in particular with life threatening elevations in blood pressure, I struggled to find even a combination of strongmedications that would lower it. Finally, when she resolved a horrible situation with a relative which had left her essentially homeless and scared, her blood pressure returned to normal in just a few days. Hyper or hypothyroidism sometimes have to be treated first.

I say all this to make it clear that chelation is just one more tool, not the end-all be-all of blood pressure cures. It is not always easy to discover the underlying cause of the problem with high blood pressure. When that problem is from stiff arteries that won't expand well with each heart beat, the result is generally what is called "systolic hypertension." In other words, only the top number in the blood pressure reading will be high, such as 180/70. If the stiffness of the arteries is from calcium deposited in atherosclerotic plaque, then chelation may very well work. You are specifically asking me about an oral chelation product. While there are numerous good studies indicating that chelation works for angina and heart disease, all of them have been done with intravenous chelation. There are no large studies to date on oral chelation. However, I can tell you this -- I have a dozen or more patients who swear by it, who will tell me that their blood pressure and angina went away. One of my patients is absolutely and utterly convinced that it saved his life. Of all the oral chelation products I have personally seen out there, CardioClear is the only one that has a meaningful dose of EDTA.

I personally do not recommend oral chelation to my patients, so have little direct experience with it. My primary concerns are two: 1). EDTA removes beneficial and essential minerals from the body. Be sure you are getting enough minerals. If I'm not mistaken, you can buy a mineral replacement supplement from the same company that sells CardioClear to complement the EDTA. Do so! 2). The stomach is lined with copper ions, a positive ion that has some affinity for EDTA. I'm concerned that the EDTA could remove those copper ions from the stomach, and leave it open to formation of gastritis and bleeding problems.This is part of the reason, at least, why the arthritis drugs like ibuprofen cause stomach bleeding, is that they pick up copper and recruit it to carry to the site of inflammation. If you opt for CardioClear, be sure to pay serious and close attention to any heartburn or stomach problems.

I hope this is helpful to you. High blood pressure is a difficult subject to which to apply generalizations, since it is so complex.

Sincerely,

Alice R. Laule, M.D.