Detox the Body, Detox the Heart: Dr. Garry Gordon discusses the huge impact toxins can have on our bodies

Toxins are the single most common underlying factor contributing to all chronic illnesses. Almost every cause of death can be tied to the levels of heavy metals like lead and mercury in the body. We have around 1,000 times more lead in our bodies than our pre-industrial ancestors did, and children today are already heavy metal toxic at birth. Laboratory tests commissioned by The Environmental Working Group (ewg.org) have shown that umbilical cord blood contains more than 200 toxins, and twice the level of mercury than found in the mother. Men with high levels of lead in their bones are six times more likely to die from cardiovascular disease. Stenting and bypass surgery are of limited value as blockages exist throughout the body, not just in the vicinity of the heart. A 2004 study associating lead exposure with age-related cataracts in men provides proof that bone lead levels are adversely affecting the health of the brain, because the eye is an extension of the brain.

Although the correlation between heavy metals and disease has been proven time and again, there is still little interest in mainstream medicine to support the critical need for daily detoxification and the removal of lead and other heavy metals from the body. Pharmaceuticals and invasive surgical therapies remain the most accepted treatments offered, as well as covering up symptoms with medication like statins for lowering cholesterol levels, which some experts believe are doing more harm than good. Elevated cholesterol is not the problem; the real problem with arteriosclerosis and cardiovascular disease is inflammation and toxicity.

The Journal of the American Medical Association has published the positive results from TACT, a 10-year, $31 million, National Institutes of Health study to assess the impact of chelation therapy on heart disease and diabetes, and chelation can no longer be written off as an unproven or unsound therapy. However, although TACT was designed to be the definitive study, 10 years was not long enough to show the real benefit of chelation therapy in removing lead from the body—more specifically, from the bones and teeth, where most of it is stored.

Bones take, on average, 15 years to remodel. Because lead and calcium are chemically very similar, the body often mistakes lead for calcium, picking it up and transporting it through the blood into the membranes of our soft tissues and organs, eventually storing it in our bones and teeth. Lead leaching occurs during remodeling, but mobilization from bone-to-blood is amplified during times of physiologic stress, pregnancy and lactation, menopause, aging and broken bones, all of which are exacerbated by calcium deficiency.

Therefore, as great as IV chelation therapy is, it cannot pull the lead out of bones. We must take further protective steps every day to prevent the lead, mercury and other heavy metals and toxins from being stored in our bones and leaching into our most vital tissues and organs. This is why a lifelong, daily oral detoxification regimen, like the FIGHT (Food and Focus, Infections, Genetics, Heavy Metals and Hormones, Toxins) For Your Health program (Tinyurl.com/FIGHTprotocol), is needed by everyone, especially those desiring to achieve a high degree of health and longevity.

Garry F. Gordon, MD, DO, MD(H) is known as the father of the modern chelation movement, and wrote the original protocol for the safe and effective use of EDTA. For more information, visit GordonResearch.com.