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hello my name is sydney santos and i am
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a research intern at crab
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and today i will be talking about edta
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chelation therapy
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edta stands for ethylene diamine tetra
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acetic acid
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and it was first used after world war ii
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when sailors from the navy developed
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lead poisoning from ship paint
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edta was so effective in alleviating
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their symptoms that in the 50s the fda
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approved it to treat heavy metal
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poisoning and that includes not just
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lead but several other toxic heavy
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metals like
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mercury and cadmium it is the most
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frequently as treatment for heavy metal
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toxicity today
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as it has been of the past few decades
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more recently though scientists have
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been studying
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edta's effectiveness in treating
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cardiovascular and neurodegenerative
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diseases mainly but also some other
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serious ailments like cancer and kidney
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disease and that is because these have
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been associated with high levels of
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toxic metals
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i want to emphasize though that such
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treatment is seen as
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very alternative because it's not fda
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approved
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so physicians are less likely to use it
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although it is obviously
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seen in many places but again there's
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not enough evidence to make it more
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mainstream
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the majority of research that has taken
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place on using edta outside of heavy
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metal poisoning treatment
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has mostly been for cardiovascular
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disease because edta is very promising
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in addressing plaque buildup and
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improving arterial wall plasticity
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both of which are triggers for several
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detrimental heart diseases
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so i wanted to talk briefly about how
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we get exposed to heavy metals it occurs
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on a daily basis
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because many things that we expose
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ourselves to
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are full of these metals which can
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include zinc arsenic
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lead mercury cambium iron on the right
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is some images of what these look like
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but obviously when we ingest them they
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don't look
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exactly like this they're in very small
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particulate form mainly in our water
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food and soil
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uh heavy metals are also often found in
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today's world at least
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in a lot of the industrial made products
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like
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you know clothing unit electronics you
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name it
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but mostly our water food and soil can
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be pretty
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bad uh sources of these
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heavy metals and those can get
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contaminated through pollution from
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industrial activities abandoned mines
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mine tailings paint
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electronic petrochemical waste and then
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these heavy metals accumulate in our
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tissues after a period of time
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and at a certain point it can get very
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toxic it is important to know
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that a small amount of such metals is
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really important for maintaining
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homeostasis that's why you see
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heavy metals like zinc copper iron in
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supplement form and people take them a
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lot
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but at a certain point it is
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toxic
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sorry
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so there are two infographics that i
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wanted to share in this presentation
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because i thought they were interesting
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the first on the left is some drinking
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water glide lines
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um for some from several uh important
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health organizations
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and the parameters are only include a
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few heavy metals but
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i wanted to point out how small these
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acceptable levels are it's just shocking
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how
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little can cause judgment to our body
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and these are just the drinking water
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guidelines there are several
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separate measures for like soil and uh
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crops but again it
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is crazy how small these amounts are and
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then on the right you can see
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this i thought was very interesting how
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much lead has been considered toxic over
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the past decades
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and between the 70s and the early 2010s
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that number
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has decreased you know by tenfold
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or you know it went from 60 to like
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six milligrams which is just absolutely
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crazy
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that that number could change so
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drastically
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and that's just because of how much
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research has occurred over time and i
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can only imagine
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how that how much smaller that number
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will get as more research occurs
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um and yeah this trend
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is not just for lead it goes for all
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heavy metals since
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more research has been gone has gone on
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for like tons of metals out there
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so i briefly wanted to talk about how
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metals actually interfere with our body
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and causes function
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they work specifically with the metals
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or sorry proteins
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and they do this by replacing the
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hydrogens within the proteins
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if you see in the diagram on the left
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the metal embeds itself in the protein
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and displaces the hydrogens
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and that totally alters the protein's
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character which prevents its
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corresponding enzyme from carrying out
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metabolic processes and breaking it down
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the metal is also also in a more stable
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state
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within the protein complex so it's
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unlikely to leave
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spontaneously so due to these factors
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the new compound cannot be broken down
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and then they just build up in our
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tissue
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and that causes dysfunction and symptoms
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of such buildup
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is a very diverse range it could include
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gi disorders ataxia lungs disease cancer
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and neurodegenerative diseases
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cardiovascular diseases and
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much much more it's really astonishing
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the variety
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and breadth of the symptoms
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so edta is actually very effective at
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getting rid of these heavy metals in our
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tissues that have built up
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because it is a very small strong
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chelating agent
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chelation is the bonding of a ligand to
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metal ions and there are other chelating
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agents
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that are utilized for metal
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detoxification and that can include dmsa
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and dnps
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uh there are these different collating
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agents because
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um they address certain heavy metals
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more effectively
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so it kind of depends on what kind of
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toxicity a patient has that a physician
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who
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using this therapy might use a different
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agent basically but edta comes in two
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forms
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most commonly it is seen as calcium
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disodium editate
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and what it does if you check out the
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molecules on the right it basically
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uh the metal metal ion displaces the
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calcium within the molecule
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and then that final protein
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metal complex or the new edta
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complex can get flushed out of the body
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just from
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urine and as a side note
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the other form of edta is sodium
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meditate
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but it's less commonly used
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so as i mentioned before uh
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edta is mainly used as a heavy metal
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detoxifier
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then of course in terms of brain health
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it's used to treat neurotoxicity
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it indirectly also acts as an
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antioxidant
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because heavy metals promote the
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creation of free radical species which
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are very
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detrimental in the body because it
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destroys dna
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and damages and or destroys cells
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edta is also very helpful because it
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might even be able to cross the
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broadband barrier
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and that is there are several studies
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but the main one in 2014 showed that
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when edta therapy was given to patients
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with high level
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high levels of iron in their brain that
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those levels decrease drastically
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so that is really promising for any kind
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of brain ailment
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so patients with neurodegenerative
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diseases are often found to have high
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levels of very toxic
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toxic metals as research has shown in
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the past few
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decades so edta therapy is actually
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really
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good at reducing such symptoms because
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it
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removes such metals from the body in
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such examples
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include ms which is associated with
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geldonium parkinson's and lead
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als with mercury and alzheimer's also
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with mercury and
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aluminum and some other heavy metals
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but yeah when uh chelation therapy
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wasn't given to such patients their
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symptoms were
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relieved and i also wanted to point out
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that
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everyone has as i mentioned before is
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exposed to such heavy metals on a daily
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basis
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so pretty much anyone can benefit from
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chelation therapy
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with edta because you know
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even if we might seem healthy such heavy
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metals can have an effect on our body
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and be causing dysfunction in ways we
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don't even realize
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so the edta therapy
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is uh diluted with a saline solution
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and administered intravenously over a
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long period usually around two hours
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and that occurs for multiple days in a
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row
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uh edta is diluted
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because higher concentrations of it can
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result in
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adverse side effects as most medications
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or treatments go
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that includes pain at the time of
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injection nausea vomiting
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kind of more sickness related side
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effects
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and also but supplementation isn't
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really an option because it isn't
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absorbable in the gi
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tract so it very often has to be
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administered intravenously
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and then urine samples are taken before
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and after treatment to observe the
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levels of detox and metals which is
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really cool because you can see
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the progress and the work your body is
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doing to get rid of that metal
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with the help of edta right as it's
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happening
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and lastly edta therapy
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is often administered with a combination
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of minerals and vitamins
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including b vitamins ascorbic acid zinc
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copper iron and that is because edta
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isn't a super specific collating agent
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so
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it can actually remove some of the
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beneficial minerals of your body
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so we want to make sure that that is
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replenished if you're receiving that
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therapy
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the at least the minerals that are
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helpful for you
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so yes that's my presentation and these
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are my references
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thank you for watching
