Turning Lead into Gold: How Heavy Metal Poisoning Can Affect Your Child and How to Prevent and Treat It

Sandy Campbell is a reference librarian in the Science and Technology Library at the University of Alberta.

Hallaway and Strauts have written this book to alert parents and the
medical community to the fact that some children who are diagnosed as
hyperactive or autistic may, in fact, be suffering from heavy metal
poisoning. Further, they contend, standard blood tests do not adequately
reveal the extent of heavy metal poisoning, and the medical community is
not sufficiently informed about the problem. Their book is mainly an
account of Hallaway’s experience with twin sons who exhibited extremes
of all 14 indicators of autism. Following chelation therapy, 12 of the
indicators disappeared entirely; the remaining two became much less
exaggerated.

Chelation therapy is controversial and not widely accepted by the
medical community. This book will do little to convince the
anti-chelation forces of the procedure’s validity. While it contains
many facts, figures, and case histories, few are specifically
referenced. There is no easy way, therefore, to tell if there is any
bias or selectivity with respect to evidence.

The unfortunate title Lead into Gold, a reference to alchemy, does
nothing to increase the book’s credibility. For that we must rely on
the authors’ professional credentials as, respectively, a registered
nurse and a medical doctor; the passion and detail with which the story
is told; and the fact that both the Canada Council and the B.C.
government supplied funding for the publication. No matter what position
readers take on chelation therapy, no one can deny Hallaway her miracle.
Every person who works with or is parenting an autistic or hyperactive
child should read this book.