Chelation Therapy was first used by the U.S. Navy in the 1940’s to remove toxic metals from the bodies of soldiers who were exposed to lead, but a modern use of the therapy is to remove heavy metals from the bodies of children on the spectrum, in hopes that some of the symptoms common to autism can be eliminated. The medications involved in the therapy make the toxic waste within the tissues of the patient water soluble, so that the toxic waste can be excreted from the patient’s body. Some of the common medications or chelating agents are acids such as DMSA, DMPS, and EDTA, which chemically bind with the heavy metals within the body, break these metals down, and allows for their excretion from the body.
DMSA is FDA-approved for children who are at risk of lead toxicity, and DMPS is approved in Europe for heavy metal detoxification. EDTA is widely used in acute and chronic toxicity. Only one study has been done on chelation and its effect on those affected by autism. In a separate study that involved testing the effects of chelation therapy on rats, the results showed that those rats who actually had high metal exposure benefited from the chelation therapy, and the rats that did not have any metals within their tissue were actually harmed by the therapy. This is why a number of researchers feel that if someone is going to go through chelation therapy, the individual should have a level of metal toxicity or else the therapy could be dangerous.
Now, is chelation effective? Well, the Autism Research Institute took a parent survey to see just how effective the treatment was. The survey questioned 803 parents of children who had received the chelation therapy to see how their children were affected by it. 3% of parents said their children got worse, 23% said there was no effect at all, and 74% said there was a positive change in their child. This means that there was a 24:1 better to worse ratio, which makes chelation the highest rated intervention based on the percentage of children who supposedly improved in their condition. These results are quite convincing after they are compared to the parent reports on drugs that were said to have made their children “worse”:
- Ritalin 45%
-Prozac 32%
-Risperidal 20%
-Klonopin 28%
There is no evidence that children with ASDs actually have more heavy metals in their bodies. There is the possibility that children who develop autism are somehow more vulnerable or affected by environmental sources of heavy metal than typical children. Meaning children with autism are exposed to the same amount of environmental toxins, but the toxins may have a larger detrimental effect on their systems. However, at the moment, this is only a theory, and there has not been enough research to back this up.
There is no scientific evidence proving that chelation therapy is an effective autism treatment, and it is not an FDA approved intervention for autism. Chelation frequently has serious side effects such as kidney damage and liver failure, but it appears to be safe and effective if done appropriately (must be a level of metal toxicity for chelation to be considered). It is recommended that there be close monitoring of a child’s kidney and liver functioning throughout the treatment period. Needless to say, these tests must be done under the supervision of a physician in a medical facility. Parents should give some thought before administering this treatment to their children. There are many other detoxification products on the market, but none of them have reviewed studies on children with autism. Parents should consult with their child’s physician before using any of these products.
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