Iron Chelation: Helps Prevent Serious Ailments

Iron poisoning commonly occurs when a person overdoses from pure iron supplements (usually taken to treat certain kinds of anemia) or standard multivitamins. This usually happens to children, especially toddlers, who are unaware of the consequences of ingesting too many supplements.

When a person has iron poisoning, their stomachs will become irritated. Within hours, that stomach irritation will worsen as iron poisons the body’s cells. If a person goes without treatment for days after the poisoning has begun, the liver could become damaged, as well as the stomach, digestive tract and liver.

Iron chelation is usually needed if a person develops serious iron poisoning. Other symptoms of a serious iron poisoning may include:

Vomiting
Diarrhea
Abdominal pain
Seizures
Rapid heart rate
Low blood pressure

If conditions worsen, the blood pressure will decrease even further, which could lead to liver failure, jaundice and more. Iron chelation therapy uses a chemical substance, EDTA, to bind the harmful, toxic metals in the system and remove them via urine. Iron chelation therapy has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of metal poisonings. Iron chelation therapy works by inserting a needle into the patient’s vein. This needle is connected to an IV drip of EDTA, ethylene diamine tetra-acetic acid, which is a man-made amino acid used to bind excess metals and expel them from the body.

It is estimated that 1 million people in the United States go through iron chelation therapy, or some other kind of chelation therapy, to rid their bodies of harmful metals. Others have also used chelation therapy to treat heart conditions like arteriosclerosis.