Clinical Metal Toxicology
What
is Clinical Metal Toxicology?
History of Clinical Metal Toxicology
Clinical Acceptance of Clinical Metal Toxicology
Sources of Heavy Metals
Treatment of Heavy Metal Toxicity
Finding out your metal status
What is Clinical Metal Toxicology?
Clinical Metal Toxicology (CMT) is a relatively new branch of medicine which involves the diagnosis and treatment of heavy metal poisoning.
Unfortunately, the dangers of heavy metal toxicity and its link to disease and the benefits of CMT in the adjunctive treatment of atherosclerotic vascular disease and other degenerative diseases are only recognized by a minority of the medical community and it is considered “experimental” by most physicians.
History of Clinical Metal Toxicology
Previously called chelation therapy, CMT has come a long way over the last hundred years. The concept of Chelation was first proposed in 1893 by the Swiss Alfred Werner. But the first chelating agent, EDTA, was only synthesized in Germany in the early 1930’s.
Many chelating agents were developed after the First World War, as a treatment for chemical warfare. These agents did have a few unpleasant side-effects but since then many new agents have been manufactured which very few side-effects and are much safer to use.
Clinical Acceptance of Clinical Metal Toxicology
Many articles have been written over the years on the benefits of CMT in the treatment of numerous diseases. In spite of this, there have been many arguments against the use of this therapy, though the studies have so far all been flawed and manipulated.
This is why the International Board of Chelation Therapy has been established, in order to regulate this new field and to ensure the competency of its practitioners.
Sources of Toxic Metals
Many people in our modern world are suffering from some degree of heavy metal intoxication, which has been linked to a wide variety of symptoms and degenerative conditions. Most of the metals are obtained through the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we consume every day.
Some of the most common metals found in our environment include mercury (from dental amalgams, contaminated fish, childhood vaccines), aluminium (from cooking utensils, antacids, cosmetics, deodorants), arsenic (from cigarettes, environmental pollution), cadmium (from cigarettes, exhaust fumes) and lead (from old lead pipes, lead-based paints, ceramics).
Each metal can produce certain generalized symptoms after prolonged exposure, and this may explain why we have noticed an increase in degenerative conditions within the population over the last few decades.
Treatment of Heavy Metal Toxicity
The treatment of heavy metals involves the administration of a chelating or complexing agent, in either a synthetic or a natural form.
The synthetic forms are usually given intravenously as a faster and more efficient form of delivery into the body, but are also available in oral (capsular) or suppository forms.
Finding out your metal status
Determining the amount of heavy metals found within your body is quite a straight forward procedure and involves a challenge test, which means that you are given a chelating or complexing agent by either oral or intravenous route, and then a urine sample is taken after a few hours. This urine sample is then sent to the laboratory, where it is tested for a variety of heavy metals, and then approximately 20 days later a complete analysis of your heavy metal profile is obtained.
It is necessary to give a chelating or complexing agent in a challenge test because heavy metals hide in tissues such as the brain, bone, spleen, liver, etc. and are only detectable in the blood serum with severe and acute intoxications. These hidden heavy metals need to be challenged to allow them to be excreted in the urine, so that they can be measured.