Question: Will chelation therapy help a 21 yr old girl having psoriasis since she was 3 or4 years old.
Answer: Psoriasis is a chronic skin disease characterized by thick red, silvery scaled, itchy patches of the skin.
The cause of psoriasis is not known, it is an auto immune disease. Although the precipitating factors are physical strain and mental stress, infections, and use of certain medicine for other diseases. Hereditary also plays a part in this disease. It is seen to occur in families.
Chelation therapy is used by some to treat psoriasis although it’s use in this condition and in general remains controversial.
What Is Chelation Therapy?
Chelation therapy is mainly used to remove heavy metal poisoning like lead, mercury, and zinc. Chelation therapy consists of intravenous injections of a number of agents, but mostly of a synthetic amino acid called ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA).
It is mainly used to eliminate heavy metals, but there are people who advocate its use in wide array of other conditions. Now chelation therapy can also be given in oral form.
Use Of Chelation Therapy For Psoriasis
The rational behind the use of chelation therapy is the theory that it removes the traces of heavy metals and their toxins from the body and promotes the well being of the patient suffering from psoriasis.
Although there are many claims about chelation therapy in psoriasis, there is little substantive clinical data available to confirm its usefulness in treating psoriasis.
There are some claims that the use of one of the chelating agent (EDTA), can aid patients with atherosclerosis. However, as per the United States Food and Drug Administration, there are no known benefits of this therapy, and it has not been scientifically validated. On the other hand systemic review studies on smaller groups have indicated that the therapy has been beneficial. But there is complete ambiguity over the effectiveness of the concept in the management of cardiac troubles.
Conventional techniques – of losing weight, increasing the daily consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables, reducing the intake of saturated fats, trans fats, cheese, butter, regular exercise and reduced consumption of alcohol and tobacco, however, have been found more useful and effective.