The growing concern about heavy metal poisoning leads many people to search for ways to rid their bodies of toxic metals like lead, cadmium, arsenic, and especially mercury. Chelation therapies are methods of mobilizing and eliminating toxic metals that attach to body tissues. DMPS (sodium salt of 2,3-dimercapto-1-propane sulfonic acid) was developed in 1958 in the former Soviet Union and became available in Western Europe in 1978 after it was synthesized and produced by the German pharmaceutical company, Heyl. DMPS is a sulfur-based, water-soluble chemical chelation agent. DMPS chelation therapy is an IV push chelation therapy that, in the US, must be performed under the supervision of a medical doctor who is specifically licensed to prescribe and use DMPS. A chelator is a compound that reversibly binds to another metal. In terms of heavy metal detoxification, a chelator pulls metals that have previously attached themselves to bodily tissues, mobilizing them so that the body can eliminate them naturally.

If you read the first paragraph above, you probably already have a good idea of what our opinion is. However, before you accept any opinion, it’s wise to learn the facts.

Perhaps one of the most significant facts about DMPS chelation is that, although scientific information about DMPS is profuse, lay information about the drug is sparse. This fact alone is quite disturbing since one of the protocols for use of DMPS is that the patient undergoes treatment only after giving informed consent. Without receiving understandable information, giving informed consent hardly seems plausible.

The easiest way to digest the facts about DMPS chelation is to consider them, one by one.

1. Top of our list is that DMPS was developed and not identified or discovered. DMPS is a synthetic drug. It is in no way a natural substance. Instead, DMPS is a chemical that is administered to mobilize and help the body eliminate toxic materials from the body. In other words, it is an unnatural substance which must be infused (slow IV push) into the body in order to help the body remove other unnatural substances (heavy metals).
   
   
2. Although both oral and perenteral forms of DMPS are available in Europe, neither form is FDA approved in the US. The FDA’s only involvement with DMPS so far is to sanction clinical trials to test DMPS to determine whether it is both safe and effective. DMPS is only available in the United States as a bulk chemical to be compounded by a pharmacist when (and only when) prescribed by a physician who is licensed to use the drug.
   
   
3. Because no definitive studies on DMPS are complete, physicians have no positive way of foretelling if their patients are susceptible to severe reactions from DMPS chelation therapy. Although supporters of the drug may dismiss reports of adverse reactions to DMPS by inferring that proper protocols weren’t followed on administration, protocols are both nebulous and in a constant state of change. This fact in itself serves as a warning about the safety of DMPS.
   
   
4. Heyl, the company that synthesizes and manufactures DMPS does not have a protocol for administering the drug. Protocols are left to the attending physician. In other words, there is no standard protocol established for administering DMPS.
   
   
5. In some cases, DMPS may work too well, depleting bodily stores of helpful minerals like copper and zinc as well as eliminating toxic metals.
   
   
6. In some cases, DMPS may actually induce metal poisoning. Although DMPS is effective in mobilizing mercury in the body, it may be unable to maintain a bond with the metal and direct its elimination from the body. Metals that aren’t eliminated find new places to attach themselves within the body, causing new damage to other tissues and organs.
   
   
7. Side effects from DMPS vary from minimal to severe. Even supporters admit, “In some people, mild reactions have been noted. The symptoms include nausea, itching, elevated body temperature and fever.” In isolated cases where DMPS has induced metal poisoning, reactive symptoms include a fall in blood pressure, dizziness, weakness, inflammation of the pancreas, headache, muscle pain, diarrhea, decreased urination, and cardiac arrhythmias. Other allergic reactions are attributed to the sulfonic acid (i.e., sulfa) components of the drug.

Finally, in deciding if DMPS is right for you, weigh the choices of synthetic chelation therapies versus natural chelators, like chlorella and cilantro. Other natural chelators such as Bio-Chelat™, and LL Magnetic Clays are invaluable weapons to add to your arsenal of heavy metal detoxifiers, and are much more effective at removing unwanted toxic metals—and do so without the potentially hazardous side effects of synthetic chemicals.

The bottom line here—if your goal is to acquire or maintain good health by ridding your body of unnatural elements, infusing it with a synthetic chemical, like DMPS, doesn’t appear to meet your needs anymore than following a tricky acronym to the Drunken Man’s Poetic Society.