Much of his research was devoted to the study of the distribution of water and electrolytes in the body in healthy and diseased persons.
[4] Edelman first attended Brooklyn College before transferring to Indiana University Bloomington, where he received a bachelor's degree in chemistry.
In 1951,[6] he began working at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital at Harvard Medical School as a fellow of the United States Atomic Energy Commission; working with Francis Daniels Moore, he used deuterium and radioactive isotopes to examine how various diseases changed the distribution of water and electrolytes within the body.
[5] After his funding was withdrawn by the Atomic Energy Commission, the American Heart Association made him one of their first established investigators.
In his laboratory at the San Francisco General Hospital, he continued his research on fluid and sodium distribution in the body, including edema.
[2] He succeeded Ernst Knobil as editor of the Annual Review of Physiology in 1979, holding the position until 1982.
Edelman remained grateful to the American Heart Association for making the politically risky move of offering him funding after he was accused of un-American activities; he requested that charitable donations after his death be made to the AHA.