- Hi, welcome to Sage Health TV.
I'm Dr. Angila Jaeggli,
here with my colleague and
friend Dr. Anastasia Jones.
- Hello again.
- Today we're talking
about chelation therapy
which is what that is
specifically is a removal
of heavy metals from your body.
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Heavy metals are omnipresent
in our environment.
We all, unfortunately, have
exposure due to the nature
of the industrial society that we live in.
So that might be, for instance,
if you lived near manufacturing
or if your eating a lot of seafood
or, unfortunately, rice which has mercury.
- There's a lot of
exposures to heavy metals
in our environment.
Some of them are more obvious.
Dental amalgams are often high in mercury.
And even small amounts over the years,
can actually contribute to toxicity.
Lead in pipes, copper in pipes,
lead in other industrial uses.
So many, many exposures.
- Right, and even sometimes we don't think
about contrast agents that
we might have like anilinium.
We look at all of these,
so a lot of people when
they think of heavy metals,
they think of maybe just
lead, mercury and arsenic.
But it actually goes way beyond that.
Why is it important?
What is it about a heavy metal,
that is something that we
don't wanna have in our bodies?
- Yeah, I think that's
a really important thing
to look at with people.
Clearly, it doesn't really belong there.
And some people, it's interesting,
we're all exposed to things.
But, for some reason,
often those are genetic or
other factors, some people.
- Maybe amount of exposure?
- Yeah, some people have typical exposures
and may not be able to detoxify properly.
We may have two people with metal fillings
and one person, when we test, may be okay,
and the other person may
have very, very high levels.
- Right, absolutely.
- And so it's really an
important thing to look at
with everyone, in my
opinion, with many conditions
because you never really
know if that's a factor
that's playing into it.
- That's a great point.
When we're seeing people,
typically the people that
we would be screening
are someone that usually
we're looking at people
with chronic illnesses, right?
We would be looking at someone
with an autoimmune condition,
maybe like MS or ALS.
- Yeah, the neurological
ones are really big factors.
- It's huge, right.
Because they're so damaging to the nerves.
Or even cardiovascular
disease would be another area
because it gets into the
lining of the arteries.
Or, looking at somebody has a
really strong family history
of cancer risk or cardiovascular disease
or, in general, chronic illness.
And we want to screen.
We want to prevent, right?
We want to find these and treat them.
- And so the way it plays in,
in terms of testing people
for heavy metals is,
if somebody comes in and
we're looking at them
for numerous conditions we can identify
and diagnose a condition
but then, we aren't necessarily,
we can start to treat the condition
but if we haven't
identified what is at play,
it might not be the only cause
but what is a potential trigger
in this condition or
what is making them worse
or preventing them from getting better?
If were able to identify those factors
and one of them often is heavy
metals, environmental toxins
including heavy metals,
then were able to treat that
and potentially it's called,
removing the obstacle to cure.
Essentially you are finding
something that may be
either causing or preventing
them from getting well.
Then were able to say,
okay, we can treat this
while we treat the symptoms
or treat the condition
and hopefully see more progress.
- Right ,exactly.
I think about the last
three people that I screened
in the last week
all came back with high arsenic.
We look at where would
that be coming from?
They all have different backgrounds.
They have different histories.
They do live in this
area, that's one thing
and there is a little
bit of a higher risk,
we're in the north end of
Seattle, there was an old smelter.
So, that's one thing,
if you're living next
to something that used
to be an industrial site,
these people have, there's high lead
in arsenic in that area.
It just so happens it's coming out.
They have not been able to
clear it so it's shelling out.
- That's another really
important point to bring up.
When we do test people
and somebody is high
in a certain metal,
we want to do our best to identify
where that source is coming from?
Is it a past exposure or
is it an ongoing exposure?
Because if were gonna start
chelating and treating that
we wanna make sure that
as were pulling it out,
there's not more coming in.
That can definitely take
some detective work..
- Water screening
- Yeah.
I just had somebody come
back, she's a patient
who has significant
cardiovascular disease markers
as well as Hashimoto's thyroiditis
and autoimmune disease and she came back
and I was expecting to see mercury,
because I often see that and she came back
with off the chart gadolinium
from an MRI that was more than likely
from a contrast MRI that was done in 2006.
So walking around with this metal
that hasn't cleared up for some reason.
Many people can get those
and their body will clear it
but she's been dealing
with this which is just
very possibly a big trigger in her system.
- Yeah, it's a toxin.
When we come back to,
we think about most people understand
they've heard lead, they've heard mercury
and what's important to
understand about these
is that you can consider them,
what we would call a giant free radical
or an element that goes
around and creates damage
wherever it's living in your body.
These things can be stored,
they can be stored in your
brain, in your muscles
in your organs, in your
tissues, in your arteries,
so they have a direct effect
in that specific area.
- Essentially they act
very pro inflammatory.
That's what free radicals
do, they wreak havoc,
they create inflammation in the body.
Metals aren't the only
one but they're a big one.
They're neurotoxic.
They are often stored because our body
is trying to protect itself.
They're not just circulating in the blood,
typically they're stored away.
Our body's trying to sequester them.
And so, often they are
stored in many tissues
but often fat tissues.
Our brain is a big ball of fat basically.
So, often it gets stored in
the brain or neurological.
Sometimes, if people tend
to have more Adipose Tissue
it's stored in those.
- There's a lot of weight
loss all of a sudden
that can be released
or what's interesting, lead
is actually mostly stored
it will be in the lining of
the arteries, so will mercury
but lead is actually stored in the bone
so you know what's really
interesting about that
somebody has a break,
and you see this more in elderly people.
Somebody will say oh,
my grandma broke her hip
and now is feeling, was
totally fine but they found
in the studies when
they've tested those people
their lead is off the charts,
right after the break.
You have this huge release,
which affects the brain
which effects cognitive function,
the ability to have memory.
Yeah, yeah, it's fascinating.
And you know we can treat that!
- The good thing about this
is very good testing for it,
there's many ways to test it.
We have our favorites
that I believe are a little
bit more accurate than some.
- Like in urine.
You can do blood but
that's only gonna catch
what you've been exposed too
really in the last hours.
And so, urine is going to
be, probably, the best way.
- And be stimulated to help
the body release what's stored
or, what's called a random.
But, there are several ways to test
and then there's more importantly
many, many ways to treat it.
Or, a couple of key ways to support that.
- Although before we get into
that, I was gonna mention
a trial that was actually
done on chelation therapy
for cardiovascular
disease and specifically
we're looking at lead
and based on the premise
that lead can be stored
in the walls of the artery
which would lead to someone experiencing,
so types of cardiovascular
disease would be a risk
or experience a stroke or a heart attack
or elevated blood pressure
or, what we call,
general heart disease, the
hardening of the arteries.
In this trial, it was a 12-year study
called the TCT Trial, T-C-T.
They found that at the end of that
that the people who did the
chelation had especially
when there's a blood sugar issue,
a 40% reduction in All-Cause mortality
which means not only did
taking the heavy metals out
actually reduce risk
of cardiovascular disease,
which they were looking for,
it also decreased risk
of cancer development.
Also autoimmune development and
developing type II diabetes.
- And this was a large study done,
over a long period of time so it was very,
it came out of John Hopkins?
- So it was actually the
National Institute of Health,
and they had incorporated
many well-known clinics
like John Hopkins and the Mayo Clinic,
so there were some very heavy
hitters in the medical world
and the results were outstanding.
It just confirmed what a lot
of the smaller clinical trials
had shown, as far as benefit.
- That's really fascinating
and, the fact that it's showing
that it's probably more
than one mechanism.
Definitely binding the
metal and getting it out,
is really, really important.
And, as I said before,
there several ways we can
refute and treat it.
Sp, what are some of
the myriad approaches?
- In the clinical trials
that have been done
with study for heavy metal
removal and its effect
generally it's IV therapy
but we know that not everybody
can for different reasons
come in and get IV treatment of metals.
We will use other approaches
and their oral chelators
while they're not as
effective as an IV chelator
they still have some effect,
in addition to other natural
ones like, organic chlorella,
organic cilantro, organic spirulina.
- There's definitely some other nutrients
that are really, really helpful.
One of my favorites that
I recommend for people
is something called alpha lipoic acid.
Alpha lipoic acid is a
phenomenal antioxidant
and it actually has been
shown to bind metals
and help escrete them.
It's also shown to help
improve, in certain people,
kidney function and blood sugar regulation
which it's hard to know
if that's because it's treating the metals
or whatever but it can be
beneficial in certain ways.
it needs to be used cautiously once again.
I recommend it under a doctor's care
because of the way it needs to be dosed
and stuff but that's a
great way to approach it.
- And we did a little talk
on glutathione before,
glutathione does the same thing
so a lot of neurological benefits.
Also, binds to metals and
pulls it from your body.
As well as it's precursor, NAC.
- These things can be used in
conjunction with IV Chelation,
in between IVs,
so it doesn't need to be one or the other.
In fact, we work closely
with people to develop
a very customized treatment protocol
that is not a one size fits all.
We will use different amounts of things,
different substances and
different programs with people
depending on what illness
we're working with,
as well as what metals we're treating
to find the best, most effective thing.
- We're working in, so when
people tolerate these therapies
because your body has to work
and we're pushing your body
to work to remove these metals
as were giving you the agents to pull.
So, we wanna optimize diet, we
wanna optimize your digestion
to escreet these things.
- And then one other factor
that's really important
that I like to point out to people
is a lot of times when
people have heavy metals,
they have very low mineral status.
They're gonna have low
magnesium, low zinc,
a lot of these really
important critical nutrients
because the heavy metals,
minerals are metals, as
well, and they're safer.
They're chemically similar.
And when we have a lot of heavy metals,
it actually displaces the
beneficial minerals in the body,
so people can have symptoms
just from lack of other nutrients.
And as we begin to chelate,
we wanna be careful
as we are binding the metals,
we don't wanna pull out their minerals
or, we do to some extent,
so we need to make sure
people are on a protocol
to put back in those important nutrients.
And we're very aware of that
to make sure that people,
everything is done very safely.
- Right and we monitor those too
to make sure that these
don't decrease unsafely.
Some of you may have heard Dr. Mark Hyman,
whose an integrative medicine MD
who's well known and written many books
and talks about functional
and integrative medicine.
He has an amazing story
that really captivated me.
Really known for optimal
health and wellness, however,
he started experiencing extreme fatigue
along with significant
brain fog and it turns out,
actually that he had
high levels of mercury
and that was from, we found out later,
eating large amounts of fish.
- Many of us have actually been exposed
to heavy metals, it may not be mercury,
it may not be from fish.
It could be from water,
occupational exposure, soil,
medical procedures, all kinds of things
that many of us have been exposed to it
and carry high levels of metals.
If you wanna find out how
to get tested for that,
and possibly have it treated, stick around
and watch our next show!
- Thank you so much for joining us today.
- Thank you.
- And we look forward
to seeing you next time.
We'd love to hear from you and.
- If you are interested
in scheduling a consult
or have more questions,
you can reach us at sagemedclinic.com
- Thank you.
- We'll see you soon.
Bye-bye.
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