Metals in medicine

Abstract

The effects of toxicant metals on human health have been reported in peer-reviewed literature with increasing frequency. Toxicant metals are present in many diseases of aging, especially vascular diseases. Toxicant metals are a natural environmental phenomenon as well as a byproduct of industrialization. The historical experience of toxicologists who treated individuals poisoned by acutely toxicant metals is waning; very few of these cases have been reported during the past 30 years in the US. Researchers with a special interest in clinical metal toxicology have noticed a clinical correlation between metal detoxification by chelation therapy and clinical improvement of vascular diseases. Chelation therapy currently is being tested by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for post-myocardial infarction patients in the Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy (TACT). This article's author is on the NIH Data and Safety Management Board of that study. He was asked to write this review article and include an update on the clinical, environmental, historical, and scientific elements of this expanding field. This article reviews toxicant metals in the environment and their potential health consequences.