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Virginia, I personally recommend you investigate all points of views and available info before dismissing any possible treatment out of hand. There has been some previous discussion in this forum here regarding chelation, both pros and cons. You may want to do a search of the listserv archives to find this info. As I recall, my input to the discussion had been regarding the husband of a woman, whom this other woman I spoke to knew of. He had supposedly managed to postone the period until he had to start taking the typical pd drugs for 15 years after diagnosis by using a combo of chelation, diet, and herbs. In my opinion, if this is true, it represents a major victory over pd in that even simply buying ourselves a few extra years drug-free (and side-effects free) allows us to possibly finish out our careers, start families, etc., in a better state of health. The other point is that anything that delays the progression of pd may also buy us time until a supposed "cure" is found. Many metals cause symptoms similar to some of pd's:, lead (tremor), aluminum (possible alzheimer's dementia), mercury (see recent posting on organomercuric pesticides), etc., so it is possible, that something like chelation could prove useful. As far as I know, it's fairly safe, more than I can say for some drugs (some of which can either cause pd (MTPP) or cause similar symptoms (anti-depressants/psychotics)). To address the negative arguments: in those previous discussions someone posted comments regarding a family member's negative experience with chelation (when used after a stroke I think). I think that this person suffered no further harm, but was not helped any and lost some $$$, which would not be refunded or something like that. Further suggestions: try researching chelation with some books on alternative therapies. Consult a naturopath (conventionally trained M.D., who uses "natural" treatments first and conventional only when necessary), a holistic medicine practicioner, or a complementary physician (integrates best of both treatment philosophies). Check the WWW for info on holistic medicine (I've also previously posted many of these URL's). Find NIH's, or FDA's, etc., homepages and search their databases (which will most likely contain anti-chelation themes - and this is also a good thing, to get all views before embarking on a course.). Ask your neurologist, who first suggested it, to give you references to go look up. Good luck - and keep us posted. I've been doing tons of research myself for about 2 years on alternative therapies, and have slowly been integrating them one-by-one into my repertoire of defenses vs pd. Chelation for me is not out the picture, unless I hear severe reasons to the contrary, I just haven't gotten to that one yet. Wendy Tebay