Correcting Misconceptions about chelation with focus on DTPA. Jan 2025. Revised.
A number of my blogs repeat information from earlier blogs, but I attempt to write things in different ways that hopefully clarify issues. This is a general clarification about chelation. It is also interesting that misconceptions arise from different sources. Physicians/scientists who dispute GDD and separately/related chelation. This is the Upton Sinclair observation effect. Practitioners who accept GDD but dispute chelation. This is some form of the sibling rivalry effect. Various layperson groups from GDD sufferers to random lay people. This is an effect of not understanding well medicine and science. Then ofcourse there would be numerous sects in these 3 categories.
This blog intends to cover all 3 groups.
The first point. Chelation is not like the majority of other forms of disease treatment. It is not a disease management therapy, which are approaches that manage conditions without a cure as an endpoint. This is the majority of diseases, including: hypertension, blood lipids, diabetes, fibromyalgia, auto-immune diseases. With GDD, chelation removes the substance that is a poison to the individual. The endeavor is to cure them of the disease by removing the toxin. This is fundamentally different.
The second point. If a person can eat a single peanut, a natural unprocessed item, and die, based on an immune reaction, how is it hard to believe that injecting a foreign molecule that contains a toxic heavy metal, and that a certain percentage stays permanently in your body, that some people will not develop an immune reaction to it. It is the height of what I now term Greed-Based-Stupid-Yet-Smart (GBSYS) physician, radiologist, toxicologist to not grasp this concept. In fact if anything it is remarkable that it does not occur more commonly than 1 in 10,000 of all comers.
Some people are at greater risk of developing GDD based on complicating factors. The most common individual is a white female with severe Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Syndrome. Additional complicating factors, anything that impacts the immune system tipping it into dysfunction: major trauma, recent high potency antibiotic use are prime examples.
DTPA is a pure cation exchange chelator. It is administered and eliminated in its active form. There is no other effect: no affecting serotonin, dopamine, proton pump, PDL-1, etc.
GDD arises as a combination of immunologic and toxic attacks on the body. The immunologic component opens the door for the toxic.
Unlike a number of the management forms of therapy, removal therapy may take multiple sessions to appreciate improvement, because of the nature of removal Flare and re-equilibration Flare. One colleague describes chelation as removing a thorn from your body, it hurts during the removal but the end effect is the thorn is gone. But GDD is like the situation of rolling down a hill of cacti, there are millions of these tiny thorns in you.
Chelation with the most effective available chelator is the best and only effective means to treat GDD at the present time. There is such an enormous web of complexity: various cell and tissue toxicities; various genetic variations, especially relating to dysfunction of the immune system, that all other additional treatments contain a level of uncertainty if they will benefit an individual. Modifying cytokines can have unintended consequences in some individuals for example. In the end, the only clear thing that makes rational sense is to remove the toxin as best and as safely as you can from your body.
If you actually have a Deposition Disease state, you actually have to experience the above mentioned Flares when an effective chelator is being used. In other words, if the 'treatment' is not making you sick, then you don't have the disease.
No symptoms from chelation, either you do not have a Deposition Disease state, but a Storage Condition, or an ineffective chelator is being used.
Ineffective chelators will either result in no Flaring or have the strong potential to make you worse.
There are two critical factors for a chelator to be effective: i) high stability constant, and ii) demonstration it works in vivo. A near uniquely accurate way in all of medicine to show this in vivo benefit Is 24 hour urine obtained pre- and post-chelation.
If you feel that DTPA chelation has been a mistake then these following have happened, including a misconception: i) DTPA has removed a fair amount of the molecule that is a poison to you, this is never a mistake. Long term it is difficult to predict how negative an impact that stable pool of poison will be to your body. ii) chelator has been given without attention to detail, iii) insufficient immune dampening has been used to control Flare, iv) too much of events under your control have happened: too intense physical activity too soon; sauna when sauna is dangerous; other ancillary treatments that are harmful; drinking alcohol and partying (these are the largest categories); v) events outside your control: other immune mediated inflammatory diseases (COVID, COVID vaccine; high dose antibiotics for an infection; cancer treatment; major physical injury (essentially any medical intervention that affects your immune system). This last includes the 1% where GDD and chelation have unleashed the Pandora's box immune defect intrinsic in your body make-up.
Correct experienced chelation is nuanced, and when feasible, a chelation program should start at an experienced center. This is a serious disease, and it is easy for things to go wrong.
Correct chelation is very nuanced: it is a balanced approach dealing with 3 critical variables: i) amount of chelator (Ca- vs Zn- also important but not one of the critical ones for most people); ii) amount and type of immune dampening; iii) interval between chelation sessions.
The most common 'failure of chelation' when chelation performed solely by an experienced center is insufficient number of chelations. Often this reflects extreme sensitivity to Gd, so whereas many sufferers achieve near cure when a certain amount of Gd still remains in their body, perhaps 10-20% of the amount retained, extreme sensitivity may not tolerate more than 1%. So rather than 5 chelations per GBCA injection, it is 10, 20 or more per GBCA injection.
Chelation does benefit many underlying conditions, but do not expect chelation to cure whatever you had that brought you to get the MRI with GBCA.
Do not confuse symptoms from other circumstances, such as menopause, with symptoms of GDD.
Chelation should be thought of as a mirror reflection of the approach for GBCA use for imaging: type and rate of administration should mirror it, and stability of chelator is of paramount importance. The ligands for MRI have evolved to have the highest stability constant with Gd, the same is true with the chelator. It would be unethical and the practice would be sued if they used Gd-EDTA as an MR contrast agent, as it is far too unstable, I won't put into words, if you use EDTA to chelate Gd. The Flare reaction is like a 100% predictable acute hypersensitivity reaction (AHR) to Gd, so we use exactly the medications and approach for chelation what is used for an AHR.
DTPA chelation does not worsen kidney condition, since it removes Gd deposited from kidneys. Correctly performed chelation improves kidney function.
Ca-DTPA does remove native metals. Zn-DTPA does not. Zn-DTPA does though increase Zn content in the body. This removal of native metals by Ca-DTPA, and retention of Zn from Zn-DTPA is managed by spacing chelation by atleast 1 week intervals. For the great majority of individuals homeostasis is re-established for the great majority of metals within 1 week time. I would never do two day Ca-DTPA weekly, if I used 2 day Ca-DTPA I would space by atleast two weeks and preferably our standard of every 3-4 weeks. Nor would I ever do daily Zn-DTPA for more than 2 days per 1 week, and preferably prer 2 weeks. I do not know what the effect is on the body of the compounded build-up of Zn... and I do not want to find out.
Successful treatment for GDD is near-cure, not cure. But the aspects of near-cure can be beneficial: a Flare reaction arising in your life can inform you to calm down about whatever is the source of stress to you. Gd becomes like how our bodies manage the Herpes virus or Varicella virus.
Not everything is GDD. Pay attention to the described symptoms.
Read this blog three times, and maybe most people should read every week. Print this out and give to your family members. doctors, toxicologists etc. Essentially everyone who has an Opinion about chelation unconfounded by knowledge. I cannot state enough, experience, knowledge and thoughtfulness are critical to successful chelation.
Richard Semelka, MD