X-Message-Number: 11156 From: Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1999 21:02:03 -0600 (CST) Subject: Opinion re chelation therapy? I view cryonic suspension as true life insurance. I intend to avoid having to "collect" on it by hopefully surviving until it may not be AS necessary. Pursuing this intention I have been reviewing popular summaries of the controversial therapy known as chelation. The iv version uses EDTL and costs somewhere around $5,000 to $8,000 out of pocket, as the health insurance groups in the United States do not pay for it. Oral chelation seems a remarkably cheaper alternative relying upon a daily minimum intake of 1000 mg of L- cysteine (in combination with 4,000 to 5,000 mg of vitamin C to avoid kidney stone formation). Or so I have recently read. Without simply relying upon current authoritative pronouncements from the medical establishment (who have substantial financial reasons to oppose oral chelation), is there any cryonet reader familiar with unprejudiced summaries of studies to support or undercut the oral chelation claims? The best internet site I have found which clearly supports oral chelation therapy is: http://www.oralchelation.com Karl Loren hosts this site and quite frankly I do not feel myself capable of determining if the numerous medical references he sites supporting oral chelation's effectiveness are valid or not. I am not a biologist. Unless I find some meaningful health risk factor involved I intend to pursue at least oral chelation therapy myself as I have some very simple to evaluate physiological symptoms involving peripheral circulation which, if the literature is correct, should show measurable positive change in one to two months time. Low risk, high potential reward. If this therapy is legitimate, this would make it very important to cryonics members. In short, the claims begin with the reduction of high blood pressure and continue to include the avoidance of many forms of heart bypass surgery. As I know of no double-blind studies conducted on bypass surgery to date to validate THAT approach, I am NOT demanding the same of either version of chelation therapy. Any input you might have would be appreciated with the exception, again, of simply relying upon the questionable "opinion" of the medical establishment. They already reject it. I know that. I am instead only interested in what the facts of the matter are, if these are possible to tease out of the human hubris surrounding one of America's major financial industries: heart disease treatment. -George Smith A signed-up cryonics member Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=11156