DTPA treatment is the only validated treatment for GDD in the medical literature.

Yesterday I finished a very lengthy, but detailed, and quite enjoyable You Tube interview conducted by Kate from Bonds without Bounds. Over a course of more than 2 hours she brought up the phrase "chelation doesn't work" that was written in a Frontiers article recently. I had thought in earlier blogs and video presentations I had politely put the falseness of that observation to rest. Somehow like Freddy Kruger it has come back to life.

A few points, (rehashed) in writing a peer-reviewed scientific article, knowledgeable authors know how to write an article. I have written over 350 and am considered the 10th most scholarship accomplished author in MR for my career according to scholarGPS. The substance of the article referred to deposition of Gd, there was no research conducted on chelation. Therefore to state that is not only inappropriate from a scientific perspective, but also in this case false. The authors also have no experience with doing chelation, so their viewpoint fits with what I have described for in GDD deniers : opinion unconfounded by knowledge. And it is almos t as damaging as the denying.

There is a humorous irony that in the same issue I described the actual scientific truth based on research that I actually conducted that 'near cure' is actually achievable with DTPA. Critically: it must be done correctly and for sufficient number of sessions.

To date, the authors of that other article have been working on animal models and publishing excellent work on that subject. So the lay observer may then think, well it is because their experience is in animal models and animals are different than humans, so one can understand their error. But, these authors apparently have not read the extremely important animal paper published on DTPA chelation in a mice model:

Impact of Treatment With Chelating Agents Depends on the Stability of Administered GBCAs: A Comparative Study in Rats.

Boyken J ,

Frenzel T 1,

Lohrke J 1,

Jost G 1,

Schütz G 1,

Pietsch H 1

Author information

Investigative Radiology, 01 Feb 2019, 54(2):76-82https://doi.org/10.1097/rli.0000000000000522 PMID: 30358694 PMCID: PMC6310454

The authors of this study showed that Gd from Omniscan was removed by DTPA in the brain, looking at actual histological specimens. This paper then shows that DTPA chelation works in animals to remove Gd from brain. They did not observe this with the macrocyclic agent Gadavist. I am not entirely sure how to explain it: in small print the authors work for Bayer that manufactures Gadavist, but probably more saliently: rats are different from humans and the conditions of an animal experiment are different from the real world conditions in humans receiving Gadavist. I have considerable experience showing the DTPA chelation actually removes Gadavist very well.

In humans, even in the most simplistic understanding of how anything may be of benefit to patients:

1. the person is sick from Gd

2. the best treatment is to remove the Gd

This is simple common sense and does not require what I describe as wisdom sense, which is what I espouse individuals should work to develop in themselves.

So both in animals and in humans, the only chelator reported in articles in major journals that works to remove Gd is DTPA. No other approach has been shown to do so in the peer-reviewed literature. The reader should understand the meaning of what that represents.

I hope Freddy Kruger can now be laid to rest and I do not have to write another blog like this. The two critical treatments: 1. if you have GDD, never get another GBCA again (avoidance), and 2. the principle treatment is removal with the most effective chelator available, which presently is DTPA (removal). Detoxification is also helpful, focusing on eating a balanced healthy diet as I have reported in many blogs. Specific supplements I have described. More intensive work is ongoing to look at drugs that can dampen the immune reaction sufficiently and safely.

Richard Semelka, MD