Action Alert: Tell FDA to Keep Its Hands Off Doctor-Supervised Prescription Chelation for Heart Health

We are not currently sending messages to Congress while members are campaigning. Messages to Congress during recesses—much less campaigns—are largely ignored. During these few weeks, we will still be sending messages to regulatory agencies. In light of the FDA’s recent action against non-prescription chelators and an earlier attack on prescription chelators for the heart, today’s Action Alert is an important one. Please take a moment to read it and respond.
As noted in our preceding story, calcium disodium EDTA (let’s call it EDTA Version 1) is used to remove heavy metals from our bodies. It is still approved by the FDA for use by doctors. A closely related but different salt, disodium EDTA (let’s call it EDTA Version 2), has never been FDA approved but has been used for many years by some integrative doctors to remove calcium from our blood vessels and heart and thus improve our heart health. Disodium EDTA (EDTA Version 2) appeared in one of the products that the FDA just banned.
EDTA Version 2, for heart disease, has been targeted by the FDA for possible removal from the market, as we reported in 2008. When the FDA announced that it was considering a total ban on its use even by doctors, the only reason given was that a doctor might confuse the two EDTA formulations and use the wrong one. Admittedly, this has occurred and resulted in death. But it was medical error, not a problem with disodium EDTA (EDTA Version 2) itself. And keep in mind how common deaths from drugs are—450 deaths a year are attributed to acetaminophen (e.g., Tylenol) and the FDA isn’t taking that off the market! (By the way, the accepted medical treatment for an overdose of Tylenol is the same NAC mentioned in the preceding story about heavy metal chelators.)
Why then did the FDA really want to ban doctors’ use of disodium EDTA (EDTA Version 2)? Rumor had it that the FDA was very aware that many integrative doctors were using it for heart-related chelation, and hoped that by blocking heart related chelation, these doctors might be put out of business.
So far the FDA has not carried out its threat to ban disodium EDTA. This may be because the government’s National Institutes of Health is currently running a trial on the use of disodium EDTA for the heart, the Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy (TACT), scheduled to be completed at the end of 2011. This trial has had a rocky history to say the least. Many voices in conventional medicine have tried to stop it and it was suspended for a time.
Let’s hope the TACT trial is run fairly and finally completed. If successful, it will make it harder for the FDA to shut down chelation for heart health to shut down chelation for heart health. Please take action now!