Fwd: OAT and high hippuric acid again!

[Guest guest]

I thought members of this forum would be interested in our

experience of the OAT, hence I am forwarding the post I sent to the

HAand glycine forum.

Grandfather of Luke

I have only just learned about this forum from Owens and I

would like to tell you about our recent experience of the Organic

Acid Test (OAT). My daughter recently received the results of the

OAT on the urine sample taken from her son Luke (aged 4) on December

11th. We were shocked by the results which showed 23 high levels,

compared with only two high levels last July. The worst level was

hippuric acid at 10,738 (range 10-400) which compares with 2,169

last July. This was so worrying that I decided to investigate this

test more closely. The first thing I found was that, according to

Mark Newman of US Biotek, the adult ranges used by Great Plains lab

are INAPROPRIATE FOR CHILDREN! Child levels are often higher than

adult ones. As a retired chemist familiar with the techniques used

in such analyses, I identified the key feature of these analyses as

the reference compound, creatinine, used. If the level of creatinine

varies this would make the results unreliable. Creatinine levels

vary with a person's size and muscle mass and also are a function of

renal efficiency. So OAT results can be used to follow TRENDS for a

given person provided the renal efficiency does not vary.

Hippuric acid is a metabolite of benzoic acid which has three main

sources: gut bacteria, food (sodium benzoate is a common

preservative) and the solvent toluene. Luke has a very limited diet.

He is on a GF/CF diet and only eats spaghetti, spinach and potato,

prunes sweetened with pear puree, cereal, rice or corn crackers with

peanut butter or marg, pear bars, banana (occasionally), potato

crisps and home made pizza. He only drinks water and soya milk. I

don't think food is a major source of benzoic acid. Luke's

environment is very closely controlled because my daughter has been

running the Sun Rise programme since last February and Luke spends 7

days a week in the play room. Exposure to toluene is unlikely. The

only unusual thing that happened a few days before the urine sample

was taken was that Luke started tearing the wallpaper off the wall

and sucking it!! So a bacterial source is most likely. The last

stool test (August) showed beneficial flora: Bifidobacter 1+ (low),

E. Coli 4+, Lactobacillus 1+ (low); neutral flora: Gamma Strep 2+,

Klebsiella species 2+; yeast none; no ova or parasites; rare yeast.

However that was several months ago and the December OAT is positive

for yeast/fungal and bacterial presence.

Our DAN doctor has suggested the OAT be repeated. I conclude with a

question: does anyone know which bacteria are associated with

benzoic acid?

(in UK)

--- End forwarded message ---