abcmt

The American Board of Clinical Metal Toxicology (ABCMT) was established in 1982. It originally was the American Board of Chelation Therapy.

The purpose of this Board is to:

To define and establish the qualifications to be required of licensed physicians and equivalents for American Certification as Board Certified persons in the field of Clinical Metal Toxicology and any other field that may be assumed by this Board.
To require all applicants to submit evidence that they meet all established requirements for licensed physicians, or their equivalents, particularly with regard to ordering and supervising the administering of intravenous treatments.
To authorize and approve training seminars in accordance with the bylaws, necessary for Board Certification in Clinical Metal Toxicology.
To conduct examinations in conformity with the bylaws of the Board.
To issue documents of Board Certification in American Clinical Metal Toxicology to each of those candidates who are qualified.
To recommend revocation of Board Certification for cause.

Historical and present day perspective:

Alfred Werner, a Swiss chemist discovered metal ligand binding in the late 1800s. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for this discovery in 1913. Two American physicians, Drs. Drew and Morgan, used the Greek word chelae, describing a claw such as in a lobster or crab, and renamed the metal ligand binding process as chelation therapy. It was only developed and used in medicine when it was found that metals could be associated with toxic health problems and became popular in the 1950s to detoxify lead.

Clinical observations were made in heart patients with angina who improved clinically as the lead was detoxified. Chelation therapy then became popular from the mid 1950s to the mid 1960s as one form of treatment for heart disease. Technology and science replaced this simplistic method for treating heart problems with the advent of heart surgery. Now after almost 40 years of perfecting heart surgery a re-evaluation of that procedure is currently going on.

The New York Times, ( March 21, 2004 , Gina Kolata) recently stated that there is no long term benefit from coronary artery bypass surgery. The Wall Street Journal ( December 17, 2004 , page 1, Pottinger, Stecklow, Fialka) comments on the mercury global pollution caused by China ’s industrial growth, particularly the use of coal for electricity generation. During the past three years multiple articles have appeared in many peered reviewed medical journals showing the association of toxic metals with all vascular diseases and their sequellae as well as macular degeneration and even cancers. During the years that heart surgery gained its place as the preferred treatment of atherosclerotic heart disease, a small group of physicians continued to use the process of metal detoxification with seemingly positive clinical improvement in their patients.

This cadre of physicians taught and tested the competence of their fellow physicians to safely administer this treatment. Now with the explosive science in metals toxicology and the world wide concern of toxic metals in our environment and food chain, renewed scientific attention is discovering the true role of toxic metals in health and disease.

The ABCMT is the only professional organization in the United States that has continuously tested and certified physicians in clinical metal toxicology. With the new scientific knowledge the testing and certifying programs will be updated and expanded to remain current.

Liaison is maintained with the International Board of Clinical Metal Toxicology (IBCMT) to bring as much uniformity as possible to the world wide scientific and medical implications of toxic metals, health and their role in diseases. ABCMT will continue to safeguard the public by testing physician knowledge and competency to safely and professionally detoxify toxic metals.

Medicare is paying for in office intravenous toxic metals detoxification in the District of Columbia, Delaware, Maryland, Texas, Virginia and the Indian Health Service. As new data is collected, collated and analyzed, it is hoped that toxic metals will be recognized as THE CORRECTIBLE RISK FACTOR in many of the diseases of aging.