Toxic metal chelation and cardiovascular disease: A black swan for modern times

The Columbia NIEHS P30 Center Hybrid Seminar Series Presents:

Gervasio 'Tony' Lamas, MD FACC FAHA FESC – Chairman of Medicine Mount Sinai Medical Center

Eugene J Sayfie Endowed Chief, Columbia University Division of Cardiology
Mount Sinai Medical Center Miami Beach FL

Professor of Medicine
Columbia University Irving Medical Center
NY NY

https://www.msmc.com/doctor/gervasio-...

Full title: Toxic metal chelation and cardiovascular disease: A black swan for modern times.

Abstract: Medical knowledge exists in silos. The vascular toxicity of lead, for example was described as early as 1886. Epidemiologists and toxicologists have expanded this knowledge base immeasurably in the modern age. Cardiology practitioners to date, however, do not recognize toxic metals as potentially modifiable risk factors. Toxic metal chelation with EDTA (edetate) has been in practice since 1956, when Clarke first used it to treat angina in patients with coronary disease. This treatment for vascular disease never fully penetrated conventional cardiology or general medicine, and in the 1970s, it became the province of alternative medicine practitioners. These chelation practitioners published successful case reports and case series, but in their own journals. Over the next decades, despite accumulating evidence that lead and cadmium, both divalent cations chelated and removed from the circulation by the edetates, conventional practitioners did not consider these therapies important. We conducted the only RCT of edetate disodium chelation, enrolling 1708 post MI patients and randomizing them to edetate disodium-based infusions or placebo. This talk will focus on the results of TACT, effects of active therapy in amputation-prevention, and the ongoing TACT2, in which CU (Ana Navas-Acien et al) plays a critical role. We have hope that TACT and TACT2 will bridge these silos and reach clinical practice with the knowledge that lead and cadmium are modifiable cardiovascular risk factors.

November 3, 2022