NHS Blog Doctor: Dr Wendy Denning : the GP chelator

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Dr Wendy Denning : the GP chelator

posted by Dr John Crippen at 6:56 PM

Those nice people at Holford Watch recently introduced me to Dr Wendy Denning. She is an experienced family doctor now in private practice in Central London. She is widely travelled.

Prior to returning to the UK in 1998 she took specialised training with Nutritional Doctors in the USA and also attended the Institute of Optimum Nutrition in London to further her longstanding interest in Nutritional Medicine. (Dr Wendy Denning)

ION is based in Richmond, south west London, and was founded in 1984 by Patrick Holford. Patrick was awarded a Dip ION Honorary Diploma in Nutritional Therapy by his own institute. Don’t you love it?

But back to Wendy. As an experienced GP, her practice provides most of the routine services you would expect from a GP but, in addition, she also offers:

Nutritional Education
Body Composition Analysis
Food Intolerance Testing
Blood Tests for Vitamin and Mineral Deficiencies
Chelation
Heavy Metal Detoxification
Intravenous Vitamin Therapy

Dr Crippen’s practice does not offer any of those treatments. Particularly not chelation and heavy metal detoxification. I was wondering for what conditions Wendy might offer “chelation” treatment, and how much it might cost. Please God, she doesn’t offer this for children with autism. Her website says,

To make an appointment, feel free to contact Michele

Tel: +44 207 224 2423
Fax: +44 207 935 4763
e-mail: michele.ahlin@drwendydenning.com

The Health Doctors
4 Duke Street
London
W1U 3EL

So I did feel free, and duly sent the following email to Michelle:

From: Dr John Crippen
Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:22:27 +0100
To:
Conversation: Chelation treatment
Subject: Chelation treatment

Dear Michelle

You have been recommended to me. My 18 year old son is autistic, and has never been easy to care for. We have been advised that i.v. chelation treatment might help. Could you kindly advise if you can provide this service for an 18 year old, and also advise on the costs that would be involved?

Yours sincerely

John

And this is the reply I received:

Dear John,

Thank you for your email.

Dr Denning has said that she can provide this service for your son.

He would initially need a consultation with Dr Denning which is £195, he may also need some tests and possibly a challenge test, these may amount to approximately £400. Each chelation is then £130 and the amount and frequency your son requires will be decided by Dr Denning in the consultation. If you should like to make an appointment please call in to reception on the number below, or if more convenient I can organize via email.

Kind regards

Michele Ahlin
Administration and Research Assistant
The Health Doctors
4 Duke St
W1U 3EL
020 7224 2423

-----Original Message-----
From: Dr John Crippen [mailto:nhsblogdoc@googlemail.com]
Sent: 25 June 2008 22:22
To: michele.ahlin@drwendydenning.com
Subject: Chelation treatment

Oh dear! Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

18 Comments:

Jobbing Doctor said...: I did come across Dr Wendy Denning a couple of months ago when Mrs Jobbing Doctor asked me what I thought of a new book on diets and nutrition she was reading.

I actually thought it was bollocks, and wrote a post about it on my new weblog. I assumed that a GP would have some basis in what she was saying, but actually it was wibble and I said so.

Dr Wendy Denning was one of the authors. It is becoming clearer to the gullible Jobbing Doctor.

http://thejobbingdoctor.blogspot.com/2008/04/quacks-again.html; Saturday, June 28, 2008 10:46:00 PM
Unxman said...: My dear John ... just say that complex cyanide compounds are excellent chelating agents ..... That should encourage them!; Saturday, June 28, 2008 10:56:00 PM
Dr RJ said...: Dr Denning must be a remarkable physician.

Not only can she assess a patient and plan their management without even seeing them, but she can do via an administrative assistant, without even needing to read or respond to the the email. Talk about efficiency!

195 quid for a consultation with such an powerful, omniscient healer? You'd be mad not to wouldn't you John?; Sunday, June 29, 2008 1:26:00 AM
Anonymous said...: On a more worrying note... I googled "cost of EDTA" just to see how much it costs compared to the £130 sessions... turns out you can actually buy it for chelation therapy...; Sunday, June 29, 2008 2:13:00 AM
Anonymous said...: Dr Denning, can I borrow £50?; Sunday, June 29, 2008 5:31:00 AM
Kev said...: Some more UK based DAN! 'docs'; Sunday, June 29, 2008 7:59:00 AM
Nick said...: I love it how in every picture she is wearing a stethoscope; Sunday, June 29, 2008 8:42:00 AM
Anonymous said...: Sounds cheap when compared to private psychiatric treatment. Possibly a LITTLE less evidence based which is why we're not having to pay for it from our taxes but not a lot different when it comes to exploiting vulnerable people. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4156/is_20001001/ai_n13953857; Sunday, June 29, 2008 8:57:00 AM
HolfordWatch said...: About those challenge tests, it would be very interesting to know which lab does them and whether they are the sort of urine test discussed by toxicologist Dr Jeffrey Brent in the recent Autism Omnibus when he was being asked about chelation.
"Q: Dr Mumper discussed today some key aspects of chelation therapy….as a medical toxicologist do you see any reason for the chelation to remove mercury from either Jordan King or William Mead in these cases?

A: Absolutely not….there is no test in medicine that is more valid for for assessing mercury toxicity than an unprovoked urine mercury concentration.

[For Jordan King and William Mead]...their unprovoked urine concentration is exactly in the normal range.

On the other hand, they have been chelated. And the justification for that chelation with regard to mercury comes from what you see in the right hand column where in both cases, 4 out of 5 provoked examples have been…uh…increase urine mercury. Well, you’re supposed to have increased urine mercury with provoked examples!"

Sadly, too many labs perform an analysis on the urine after a challenge: they report the results *in comparison* to the reference range for the unprovoked samples - oddly enough, all those samples come out as positive.; Sunday, June 29, 2008 12:56:00 PM
Crippo said...: Let's have some of that British Anti Lewisite is what I say.; Sunday, June 29, 2008 1:10:00 PM
drchris said...: Hi John,

You refer to Dr Denning as "the GP chelator" in your header. Dr Denning is not on the GMC GP Register - as per the online register. Neither is she in the Specialist Register.

Does she misappropriate herself as a qualified GP or else in her spiel?

Chris; Sunday, June 29, 2008 6:08:00 PM
Anonymous said...: I'm surprised you didn't recognise that Dr Denning was one of the "Diet Doctors" in the recent TV series.; Sunday, June 29, 2008 6:36:00 PM
Dr Aust said...: Dr Chris:

According to Wendy Denning's website she trained as a GP in the late 80s, inc. MRCGP, and worked as a GP in Canada. It says she has "worked... as a private GP with a strong interest in nutritional medicine for the last 8 years"

I had assumed that not being in the GP Register simply means she can't say she is an NHS GP. She is certainly on the registered medical practitioners list. The GMC website says:

"Doctors working in general practice in the UK health service are required to be on the General Practitioner Register"

.. so presumably we should conclude that as a private "nutritional GP" all you have to be is a registered medical practitioner.

{BTW, Dr John Briffa, who Dr C has been writing about recently, is also on the medical register but not the GP one)

Incidentally, Dr Denning's web profile that Dr Crippen linked to also reveals that Dr Denning:

"recently served on the Department of Health’s Select Advisory Group for Cosmetic Surgery and currently sits on a new committee which is looking at promoting an Integrated Approach to Obstetrics and Gynaecology in this country."; Sunday, June 29, 2008 6:47:00 PM
Anonymous said...: chelation helps people with autism dumass

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5P2eSDo7d5E; Monday, June 30, 2008 4:18:00 PM
Man in a Shed said...: You'd think they would read the email address a bit more carefully wouldn't you ?; Monday, June 30, 2008 6:34:00 PM
Anonymous said...: dr crippen = NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM; Tuesday, July 01, 2008 4:43:00 PM
Anonymous said...: Good article.Especially the above.We end up with a justice system again, where many innocent people are locked up again on the basis of an anonymous witness who may have a grudge financial interest etc in cooperating with the Police or whoever wants the defendant put away.
flashlights rc helicopter video games Tactical Flashlights HID Flashlight Wolf-Eyes Flashlights rc helicopter helicopter r c airplane remote control video game PS2; Thursday, July 10, 2008 7:11:00 AM
Anonymous said...: I'm a former patient of Dr Denning and I've only good things to say about her. Everyone's gripe is the same it seems, its just the money. Health is expensive and the NHS is not the answer to everything. Its only when you are paying yourself (instead of getting a free NHS handout) that you realise health care is difficult and costly, its frustrating to 'waste' money when tests come back clear but when you finally get a diagnosis after years of being ill with no help from dismissive NHS GPs then its really something worth having (it turned out to be an autoimmune disease, there's not that much I can do but knowing I'm not mad is worth a lot). Its easy to pick on a private GP (they should be like NHS doctors, doing out of the goodness of their souls). Perhaps you could also think that if a private GP is useless they won't stay in business long but an incompetent NHS GP can stay a whole career, protected by the chronic shortage of doctors. Either way the NHS has a short future, its sad but there's no money for it, in the future if we want treatment, we'll have to get used to handing over our credit cards.; Monday, December 15, 2008 1:17:00 PM