My interest in lead started in 1982 when my stepfather Erich presented me with a situation that I didn’t understand. He had a stroke and after rehabilitation I had him checked out by a cardiologist I knew (I was working in a research lab at a hospital). The news from the specialist wasn’t good, Erich’s neck arteries were so badly clogged that he was probably going to die in another 6-9 months.

Erich was a vitamin freak and his friends had suggested chelation therapy as a possible solution. So he asked me what I thought. I didn’t know anything about chelation therapy, so I started to read up on what chelation was all about. It was interesting stuff, and had been in use since the 1940’s to get rid of toxic metals in the body. I had problems with some of the claims made in support of chelation therapy for atherosclerosis so I had some doubts about what it would do for him, but it was fairly clear it wouldn’t hurt him and it MIGHT do something positive.

So Erich had the chelation therapy and was obviously a lot healthier. I took him back to the same specialist and he said this to Erich: “I’m astounded, you have the arteries of a 21-year old.” Erich ran us ragged for the next few years and finally died 10 years later.

I was working in medical research, but I had no idea of how this could have happened. The claims were right after all, but how…

It turns out that thanks to workers exposed to lead during the manufacture of tetraethyl lead for leaded petrol, lead exposure had been positively linked to atherosclerosis. So, if you remove lead using chelation therapy you can reverse atherosclerosis, right?

That conclusion was wrong, life isn’t that simple. It turns out lead irritates the lining of the arteries and in response some of the epithelial lining cells start producing a calcium deposit which turns into atherosclerotic plaques. Erich’s chelation therapy actually dissolved the calcium deposits. It probably also removed some lead, but removing the lead doesn’t necessarily undo the damage the lead has already caused.

As a side note, I was diagnosed with severe aortic valve stenosis (calcification of the valve) a while ago and was dreading the prospect of valve replacement by open heart surgery. TAVI (trans-arterial valve insertion) seemed like a much safer and easier option. Or at least that’s what I thought until I came across a clinical study that indicated brain damage was inevitable after TAVI. When I found out that I had a bicuspid aortic valve that meant TAVI might not be successful, and I might have to have open heart surgery as well to fix things if TAVI didn’t work, my reaction was SHIT!

There had to be an alternative and it turns out there is one, a French technology called Cardiawave that uses pulsed ultrasound to knock the calcification off the valve. Totally noninvasive and safe but still in pilot stage and most certainly not available in Australia.

Now what?

I figured that if chelation therapy can get rid of calcium deposits in arteries, what about calcium on my aortic valve? I couldn’t find anything about chelation and heart valves except for a study where they treated heart valves removed from patients with a chelation agent, and it dissolved the deposits. It hadn’t been tried in people though.

I took a leap of faith and am now having chelation therapy. It’s not something I’ve told my cardiologist about, but my heart sounds have changed and I feel so much better that it’s certainly had some beneficial effects. I’m pragmatic about the situation. It feels like I’ve turned the clock back a year or so and if I can hang in there, reasonably healthy until Cardiawave is available in Australia, I’ve won the lottery.

I wouldn’t suggest you try this on the basis of any information I’ve presented here, but I can state with personal experience, that chelation therapy is safe when done in the hands of a doctor that knows what he’s doing.

Update: I haven’t in fact won the lottery, because while chelation made me feel a lot better, my calcium score is zero, and I’m back to a reasonably normal active life the calcification is still pretty much there on a gated CT.