Suvidha Pain Management : Specialities-Body Detoxification

Body Detoxification is an alternative medicine approach that proponents claim rids the body of "toxins", accumulated harmful substances that are alleged to exert undesirable effects on individual health. Detoxification usually includes one or more of: dieting, fasting, consuming exclusively or avoiding specific foods (such as fats, carbohydrates, fruits, vegetables, juices, herbs, or water), colon cleansing, chelation therapy, or the removal of dental fillings. Body cleansing is not supported by science, with no medical benefits demonstrated, and is based on questionable or disproved scientific claims.The toxins are usually undefined, with no evidence (or inappropriately used testing) for toxic accumulation in the patient.

Detoxification is the physiological or medicinal removal of toxic substances from a living organism, including, but not limited to, the human body and additionally can refer to the period of withdrawal during which an organism returns to homeostasis after long-term use of an addictive substance. In medicine, detoxification can be achieved by decontamination of poison ingestion and the use of antidotes as well as techniques such as dialysis and (in a limited number of cases) chelation therapy.

Chelation Therapy

Chelation therapy is the administration of chelating agents to remove heavy metals from the body. Chelation therapy has a long history of use in clinical toxicology. For the most common forms of heavy metal intoxication-those involving lead, arsenic or mercury-the standard of care a number of chelating agents are available. DMSA dimercaptosuccinic acid has been recommended for the treatment of lead poisoning in children by Poison Centers around the world. Other chelating agents, such as 2,3-dimercapto-1-propanesulfonic acid (DMPS) and alpha lipoic acid (ALA), are used in conventional and alternative medicine.

No approved medical research has found any benefits to chelation therapy for any use other than removal of heavy metals from the body, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) considers over-the-counter (OTC) chelation products to be "unapproved drugs and devices and that it is a violation of federal law to make unproven claims about these products. There are no FDA-approved OTC chelation products."

Chelation therapy is used as a treatment for acute mercury, iron (including in cases of thalassemia), arsenic, lead, uranium, plutonium and other forms of toxic metal poisoning. The chelating agent may be administered intravenously, intramuscularly, or orally, depending on the agent and the type of poisoning.

One example of successful chelation therapy is the case of Harold McCluskey, a nuclear worker who became badly contaminated with americium in 1976. He was treated with diethylene triamine pentaacetic acid (DTPA) over many years, removing 41 MBq (1.1 mCi) of americium from his body. His death, 11 years later, was from unrelated causes.