Fighting Heart Disease. Understanding the Cause.
The body has not learned how to dispose of heavy metals, even in very low concentrations, and tends to store them.
Metals are stored in lymphatic and circulatory systems, vital organs such as the brain and the liver, and also in fatty tissues.
- EDTA removes heavy metals from the body by binding to them. Because Ca-EDTA has an affinity to toxic heavy particles, it attracts and binds to heavy metals.
- The toxic ion and the amino acid connect, the body regards the EDTA as a foreign substance, sends kidney for elimination. Both the EDTA and the heavy metals get a free ride into the toilet.
EDTA Chelation Therapy brings amazing benefits to every blood vessel in the body, from the largest arteries to the tiniest capillaries, most of which are far too small or deep within the brain and other vital organs for surgical treatment. In many cases, the smallest blood vessels are the most severely diseased. The benefits of EDTA chelation occur from the top of the head to the bottom of the feet, not just in blocked segments of a few large arteries.
Successful Treatment for Atherosclerosis
Usage of EDTA chelation therapy has resulted in the development of techniques for the successful treatment of the catastrophic effects of atherosclerosis involving coronary artery disease, stroke, senility, early gangrene, essential hypertension, peripheral vascular occlusive disease, osteoarthritis, and related disorders. Clinical studies have consistently shown a definite improvement in the circulation of the patient as evidenced by improvement in skin color, improvement of arterial pulsation in the feet, return of normal temperature to the feet, regaining ability to walk long distances comfortably, elimination of anginal pain, improved brain function and improvement of muscle coordination.
Chelation therapy generally results in a significant improvement in coronary circulation, in most cases to the extent that the patient no longer requires the use of nitroglycerin are similar drugs.ln a large number of cases, chelation therapy has been found to improve kidney function, decrease the amount of insulin required by diabetics, and produce significant improvement in arthritis and same cases of Parkinson’s disease.
Calcium always shows up whenever there is tissue injury or chronic inflammation, including that from oxidative stress and free radical damage from heavy metals. This mineral helps with coagulation, responding as a healing emergency medical technician where there is injury. Once the cells and tissues are okay, then the calcium dissipates. So the presence of calcium in the body is a prime indicator of an area calling for attention. However, with ongoing trauma and stress in the body, calcium is constantly part of the damage repair team. Eventually, calcifications (a build-up of insoluble calcium salts) can initiate many disease processes and impair proper blood circulation.
So in todays toxic world, it is very important for people with high blood pressure, heart disease, prostate issues, cardiovascular disease, chronic fatigue, or cancer, to reduce toxic heavy metals in their body. Heavy metal toxins such as lead, mercury, aluminum, cadmium and arsenic, have been clinically proven to damage and cause dysfunction in the lining of the arteries. Numerous established studies have confirmed that an impaired endothelial function (within the lining of the arteries) is linked to all major coronary heart diseases. Heart Disease is the end result of injury that started at the extremely thin layer of endothelial cells that line the inside surface of the heart and blood vessel walls.
EDTA and Endothelium
Atherosclerosis is the main cause for heart attack and strokes. The endothelium is inner lining of blood vessels. This lining tissue generates the powerful arterial vessel dilator nitric oxide (N.O.). The endothelium also produces prostacyclin which slows the clotting of blood and also causes beneficial dilating of arteries. The third important endothelial product is heparin which prevents clots from forming without causing bleeding. Excessive deposition of heavy metals in the endothelium diminishes the endothelium’s ability to produce nitric oxide, prostacyclin, and heparin. *Iron and the sex differences in heart disease risk, Lancet, 1981 June 13; 1(8233):1293-1294.
Chelation Therapy appears to restore the body’s ability to create the important substances, Nitric Oxide (N.O.), prostacyclin and heparin, by removing these metals from the endothelial lining.
One of these problem metals, mercury, is known to cause damage to enzymes so mercury removal should be beneficial. Removal of these metals appears to result in improved delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the tissues of the body. The theory of EDTA removing the solid sticky plaque with a unique mechanism, and dangerous solids being converted to a liquid, then transported away to be eliminated as a natural, normal phenomenon of body chemistry is still held by some. It does appear however that the discovery of N.O. production increasing with EDTA chelation is exactly what is happening, and that the excess plaque is removed through normal metabolic functions due to the body achieving a new level of homeostasis.This affords a possible explanation for the beneficial effects of chelation. In addition, EDTA blocks the slow calcium currents in the arterial wall, resulting in arterial vasodilation.
In 1999, Dr. Valentin Fuster, M.D. published a Book called The Vulnerable Atherosclerotic Plaque. Dr. Fuster was at the time the President of The American Heart Association, and also was and still is the Chairman of the Department of Cardiology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. This book shows that heart attacks do not occur in areas of maximal plaque buildup where calcium has hardened large deposits of cholesterol, but in fact occur in fresh, “vulnerable” plaques that get INFECTED with germs, such as Epstein Barr Virus, Herpes Virus, Cytomegalovirus, and other low level germs that infect humans. Researchers are now in the process of studying and proving that these germs are more prevalent and “infectious” when N.O. is not present in sufficient amounts.
By removing the circulatory heavy metal toxins, EDTA enhances cardiovascular blood flow and function.Today it is imperative for anyone with high blood pressure, heart disease, prostate issues, cardiovascular disease, chronic fatigue, cancer or for preventative health measures to test for heavy metals.
Therefore, heavy metal toxicity leads to decreased amounts of Nitric Oxide, which leads to unrelaxed blood vessels and associated decreased blood flow, AS WELL as vulnerability to infection of fresh cholesterol by low grade virus, such as Herpes, that can form and break a vesicle within an artery and cause an immediate Hypercoagulable state, with a subsequent blood clot formation and sudden death.
Endothelial cells play a vital role in the health and integrity of every tissue of the body.
N.O. is a potent vasodilator and a strong anti-oxidant. When the endothelium is damaged, N.O. production is reduced. This leads to the reduction of vasodilatation, or conversely, an increase in vascular constriction. Reduced N.O. production, as a result of toxic metal insult, leads to a reduction in vascular lumen size, restriction of blood flow, and ultimately an increase in blood pressure. This means, in layman’s terms, an increased risk of stroke and heart attack.The proper amount of NO secretion is therefore of paramount importance, as imbalance of this contractility function will lead to hypertension, the silent killer. If the local vascular homeostasis is disturbed, it will result in platelet deposition, aggregation and a release of factors that promote smooth muscle proliferation. When this happens, you may get fibrosis, atherosclerosis and thrombus formation. As imbalances are first initiated at the endothelial level, where insults excite an inflammatory response, the endothelium is therefore the first link between inflammation and coagulation.
Meanwhile, a small amount of LDL (“Bad”) cholesterol that has built up in the artery wall becomes oxidized. Oxidized LDL is one of the triggers that set off a chain reaction. It causes the endothelium to express a special kind of molecule “glue” called ELAMS (endothelial-leukocyte adhesion molecules). These molecules, which happen to be floating by in the bloodstream causes certain kinds of white blood cells (monocytes and T lymphocytes) to stick to the endothelium. At this point in time, the inflammatory response is still well under control and normal, whether it is in the artery or in the tissue.
Beyond this point, the healing process goes off track. The white blood cells will start to move between and below the endothelium and cause damage in two major ways. Firstly, they will cause some of the muscles cells in the artery walls to grow and secondly, they incorporate particles into the artery wall, consuming the oxidized LDL particles. What results from here is a fatty streak that becomes a fibrous plaque.
Toxic heavy metals are ever ready to attack the endothelium. The endothelium, in an attempt to heal itself, launches an inflammatory response to get rid of the unwanted guests.
This intricate process begins in the tissue under the endothelium. Due to inflammatory reactions, the endothelium’s structure becomes permeable to lipoproteins, particularly low-density lipoproteins (LDL) and macrophages. These particles will enter into the site of injury, accumulate cholesterol as cholesterylester and develop into foam cells. A raised LDL-cholesterol and related cholesterol carrier called lipoprotein (a) concentration is recognized by many as a major risk factor for heart disease as it appears to be the donor of cholesterol deposited in the atherosclerotic plaque. Being adhesive, the cells will attract other substances, resulting in a continuous deposition of unwanted conglomerate which we call fatty streak. The latter consists of lipids (fats), complex carbohydrates, blood, blood products, fibrous tissue, oxidized ascorbates and calcium deposits. As the fatty streak becomes increasingly larger, this resulting fibrosis forms an “endothelial tumor” or a plaque. The process of plaque formation is called atherosclerosis.
Atherosclerosis blocks the blood’s pathway and narrows the arteries over time. This affords a possible explanation for the beneficial effects of chelation. In addition, EDTA blocks the slow calcium currents in the arterial wall, resulting in arterial vasodilation.
It has been known for decades that stockpiling of cadmium in the kidneys causes high blood pressure. Cadmium is unavoidably ubiquitous in our foods. Cadmium isn’t the only heavy metal in the environment that can tank up in the kidneys and create hypertension. Lead, mercury, arsenic and other heavy metals have the ability to damage kidneys. They can all damage the endothelial blood vessel lining, damage enzymes crucial in maintaining normal blood pressure, and damage the channels in cell membranes of blood vessel and heart cells so that calcium, magnesium, potassium and other minerals do not flow the way they should, another mechanism to cause high blood pressure. Just having a blood lead level that is “normal”, but at the end of normal, increases your chance of cancer 68%, increases your chance of early death from any cause by 46% and death from cardiovascular disease 33% It took decades before scientists began to realize that the cut-off for lead was too high for children to have normal brains and intelligence.
Not only are scientists discovering that “normal” blood ranges of heavy metals are much too high for healthful longevity, but that unsuspected heavy metals are the cause of much cardiovascular disease, especially high blood pressure. It is especially imperative to correctly assay for lead if a patient has hypertension because it can not only destroy the kidneys but also brain function.
Probably the major underlying condition leading to cardiovascular disease is atherosclerosis, also known as hardening of the arteries. In time, this degenerative disease can narrow or block arteries in the heart, brain, and other parts of the body. It may begin early in life. The linings of the arteries become thickened and roughened by deposits of fat, cholesterol, fibrin (a clotting material), cellular debris, and calcium. As this buildup on the inner walls becomes hard and thick, arteries lose their ability to expand and contract. The blood moves with difficultly through the narrowed channels. This makes it easier for a clot to form that will block the channel (lumen) and deprive the heart, brain, and other organs of the necessary blood supply. In such a situation, how can dilator drugs possibly be effective?
When a complete blockage occurs in a vessel to the brain, the result may be a cerebral thrombosis, a form of stroke. Based on what is known, scientists acknowledge the relationship between the amount of cholesterol and saturated fats in the bloodstream, and coronary artery disease-a blockage of the arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle itself.
Lead that silently stockpiles in our bodies goes on to contribute not only to high blood pressure, but diabetes and kidney disease necessitating renal dialysis. But like many heavy metals, this is not easy to find with just a blood level diagnostic due to the fact that the majority of toxins are hiding elsewhere. They hide out in the bones. Unfortunately as people age, they tend to get lower in minerals, leading to bone loss and osteoporosis. Along with this, the heavy metals start to leach out of the bone storage and land in important organs, like blood vessels, heart, kidney and more TRIGGERING high blood pressure, heart disease, with various names like angina, arrhythmias or congestive heart failure, or they get cancers from these heavy metals too.
