Two recent studies from mainstream medicine show the importance of removing excess levels of metals out of out body.

One study was reported in the October 24th issue of the peer-reviewed journal Neurology. Dr. Brian S. Schwartz and colleagues at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, in Baltimore, Maryland used a battery of 22 tests over a period of four years to measure cognitive function--that is, the ability to think. They compared the scores of 535 former lead manufacturing workers with 118 nonexposed control subjects from the same neighborhoods. The former lead workers exhibited greater annual declines in adjusted test scores than did controls for 17 of 19 cognitive tests.

The higher the lead content in the researchers found in the shin bone (tibia), the larger the annual decline. "An increase of 15.7 mcg/g of peak tibia lead was equivalent in its effects on annual test decline to 5 more years of age at the baseline visit," the investigators found. Commented Dr. Schwartz, "Some of what we have been calling 'normal aging' may in fact be due to past exposures to chemicals or other agents that can affect the central nervous system."

Most people know that lead is not a good thing to have in our body, but what about iron? There are iron supplements, and everyone knows that anemia is a deficiency in iron. However, excess iron could be as great or an even greater problem--especially in men.

At a paper delivered last week at a meeting of the American Heart Association's Council for High Blood Pressure Research, Japanese researchers showed how high iron levels adversely affect the function of the cells that line our blood vessels, heart and lymph system (endothelial cells). However, Dr. Hidehiro Matsuoka, of Kurume Medical School in Japan, reported that iron chelation immediately reversed the problem.

Chelation is the administration of organic compounds which bind with metals in the bloodstream. Once bound, the metals can be excreted from the body in the urine. Difference compounds have an affinity for different metals. Chelation is usually administered intravenously, but there are also oral chelation products.

Virtually everyone in the world has elevated metals in their system, many of them very toxic. These include mercury, cadmium, arsenic and aluminum. These have all been associated variously with depressed immune function, Alzheimer's disease, hormone imbalances, cancer, heart disease and many degenerative diseases.

Chelation therapy should be an important part of a physician's practice, yet it is condemned by conventional medicine and legally allowed to be performed in only eleven states. Many fine doctors have been forced to move their practices, or actually lost their licenses, attempting to improve the health of their patients using chelation.

(From alternativemedicine)