The claws of chelation
Chelation is a treatment for autistic children based on the theory that they have an excessive amount of heavy metals (such as lead) in their systems. It is a controversial treatment for autism, especially after the death of a child last year while undergoing chelation therapy in a doctor’s office outside of Pittsburgh.
The Wall Street Journal’s Amy Dockser Marcus recently reported about chelation, noting that treating autism is “one of the most frustrating struggles in children’s medicine.” “Chelation” involves using powerful drugs (like EDTA) to remove heavy metals and detoxify the body.
Dockser Marcus highlights the contention between the medical profession and families:
The practice of chelation as a treatment for autism has been greeted with anger by many in the mainstream medical establishment, who decry the potential side effects and note that there are no published clinical trials demonstrating that it works. Some contend that children who seem to improve after therapy were likely misdiagnosed as autistic to begin with, or simply have a milder form of autism.
Many autistic children who have been treated with chelation were undergoing numerous other treatments as well…
But how “mild” can it be to have a neurobiological disorder like autism?
And kinds of clues about autism treatment do the premises of chelation point us towards?
The word “chelation” is from the ancient Greek word chela, “claw” (as in a crab’s or a scorpion’s). “Chelate” is an adjective referring to a clawed animal, while the chemical meaning of “chelation” refers to the combining of a “(a metal ion) with a chemical compound to form a ring.”
The debate about chelation in treating children with autism is heated, to say the least, as seen in many of the exchanges on Left Brain/Right Brain. So it’s no surprise that parents, autistic adults, and professional never hesitate to bare their claws about chelation and about how much autism ought to be “treated.”
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