The NIH-funded Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy (TACT) study evaluated the safety and effectiveness of both EDTA chelation therapy and high-dose vitamin/mineral supplements in individuals whose wellbeing had been damaged by prior heart attacks. 1708 patients were randomly assigned to an active or placebo chelation group and an active or placebo vitamin group, which allowed the investigators to clarify the independent contributions of each treatment.
Gervasio A. (Tony) Lamas, MD, lead author of the study and chief of the Columbia University Division of Cardiology at Mount Sinai Medical Centre in Miami Beach, commented, ‘We did not see a significant benefit of vitamins alone for patients who had a heart attack. Interestingly, patients who received both high dose vitamins and active chelation compared to placebo of both appeared to have additional benefit, but more research is needed to understand the results.’
The patients were treated for 18 months, and followed up on an average of four years. Roughly half of the patients enrolled in the trial stopped taking the vitamins during the study follow-up, which the researchers explained was mainly due to patient preference, as they were required to take three pills, twice a day. When it came to recurrent cardiac events, including heart attack, stroke, coronary revascularization, hospitalization for angina and death, these occurred in 27% of those who only received vitamins, but in 30% of those receiving the placebo.
When comparing the four groups, those who had had both the vitamins and minerals and chelation therapy, which involves multiple intravenous infusions of a synthetic amino acid called EDTA that binds to certain minerals and metals such as calcium, lead and cadmium, had 108 (26%) events and the placebo/placebo arm had 139 (32%) events, the difference of which is more significant statistically.