Chelation for diabetes?

Question

Can chelation be used to treat or reverse diabetes? when the diabetes causes were toxins?

Paxiled · Accepted Answer

I don't know any link between heavy metals and diabetes, so let's start there.  EDTA is a sort of all-purpose chelation agent that's used for cholesterol and other things.  To chelate out a specific substance, you find another substance that tends to be in balance with that metal or has an affinity for it.  For example, if you were too high in calcium deposits, magnesium is the chelation agent for calcium, and so on.  As to testing for heavy metals, some show up in blood tests, some don't, and there's controversy, naturally, over how much is too much, since we're all repositories of a multitude of toxins.  Mercury is omnipresent, as well as lead, and of course petrochemicals contain all kinds of toxins.  Tobacco has all kinds of toxins.  There are pesticides, formaldehyde, arsenic in the water, mercury is from coal and dental fillings, lead from paint and insulation, asbestos from insulation, fungicides, herbicides, air pollutants -- it just goes on and on almost to infinity.  The problem is attaching causation to any one thing for any one person, given the prevailing sentiment in the industrialized world, and above all the US, is to argue for as much allowed pollution as possible so people who already have money can make more of it.  So, yeah, you of course have heavy metals in your system, and many can be tested for, but does it prove anything you can work with regarding diabetes?  Who knows?  As for chlorella, this isn't so much a chelating agent as a cleansing agent, as is true with all algae.  Algae tends to soak up toxins in the oceans and in fresh water, and in our bodies, so these are often used to help cleanse the body of toxins.  There are also cleansers specific to the liver, the kidneys, etc., in natural medicine.  I would say if you want to take this further, you'd probably have to see a holistic nutritionist, a doctor who has been trained in integrated medicine, or a naturopath to see how far it goes.  As for urine, yes, but long-lived toxins will find a home in the liver and other fatty tissues or blood or the intestinal tract.  In your case, I'm assuming you think the pancreas is another place to look.  All organs can be repositories of stored toxins, as the body tries to put them someplace out of the way.  That's the liver's job, but all organs do it to a certain extent.  If it's flushed out in the urine, it probably isn't in the body long enough to cause the kind of harm you're looking for, and it would more be an influence of the kidneys than the pancreas, but you're above my job description now.  Good luck, but since dietary and exercise changes have been very successful with keeping Type II in check, I'd still start there.

cookieN · Answer

Thank you Paxiled, for such detailed information

cookieN · Answer

Yes, I would have to know exactly what caused it, for it to be leached out of the system. However I have a doubt. Does any chelation process targets a specific heavy metal, or they target many at the same time? so the body releases the one it contains? For example I´ve read that coriander, chlorella may work on different toxins. 

Is there a test I can do to determine exactly what kind of heavy metal is in my system?....or it is discovered by doing chelation and then analysing urine afterwards?

cookieN · Answer

Yes, I also read that arsenic could be linked to diabetes.

gymdandee · Answer

Two environmental toxins, arsenic and dioxin (dibenzo-p-dioxins), may have some relationship to an increased risk for diabetes. It should be noted that results only indicate a possible relationship between diabetes and environmental toxins. The authors strongly suggest that further studies be conducted to determine the true nature and extent of the relationships reported in the literature.

Paxiled · Answer

I doubt it.  For one thing, you'd have to know what exactly caused it to know what had to be leached out of the system.  For another, chelation is mostly used for cholesterol or heavy metals, not just anything -- you have to have something that attaches to and leaches out the culprit.  Many toxins are leached out in another way, by cleansing the liver, where the toxins are stored, and by cleansing the colon and the blood, for the same reason.  This isn't chelation, but cleansing.  I say all this not knowing a thing about diabetes being caused by toxins, so this isn't specific to your problem.  My own knowledge of Type II diabetes is it's basically a disease of poor eating habits compiled over a lifetime, and you don't have to be overweight to have eaten too many foods that overtaxed your pancreas, though it is most common to be so.  People who exercise a lot, for example, avoid being overweight, but can still suffer from from what they eat.  Everyone's body and its various functions has its breaking point.

cookieN · Answer

I read that diabetes 2 is not always caused by an unhealthy lifestyle or by being overweight. That it could be caused by exposure to toxins (pesticides, plastic) that could cause damage in genes. And this is why there are people who are thin an still have diabetes 2. 
I also read that chelation is used to release toxins from the body. So I was wondering if it could be of any help for insulin resistance or diabetes 2?

Paxiled · Answer

How did toxins cause diabetes?  And is it Type I or Type II?

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