Testing oxalate

[Guest guest]

Kay,

Oxalate is more often measured in urine, but that level may not agree with the

level that is in the blood because the kidneys have their own regulation of

secretion of oxalate.

It is probably easier to get urine tested. The blood plasma test right now (I

think Mayo is the lab which does this test no matter where you order it), is

generally reserved for people who are in kidney failure so that their urine

output is not normal.

Another issue is that red blood cells carry oxalate, and there are medical

conditions where they carry a larger percentage of blood oxalate than normally.

Nobody I know of tests whole blood oxalate or RBC oxalate.

Even so, in autism, since oxalate issues may develop because of differences in

kidney management of oxalate and sulfate that could be genetic, it would be good

to have a plasma test done so you have a better feel for what could be absorbed

by your body's cells.

The big issue there is likely insurance coverage. The main lab the research

scientists use for their patients in measuring urine oxalate is Litholink, but

they have a requirement that the patient has a kidney related diagnosis. Your

doctor might have more success at Quest or Labcorp, and I doubt it would be easy

to get a plasma test covered by insurance.

Great Plains includes oxalic acid on their organic acid test, but the problem

with that is that the way the sample is prepared is designed for the benefit of

measuring all the organic acids on their test, and it is not the optimal way to

measure oxalate in urine. If you split a sample and sent one for the organic

acid test and another to a lab that measures oxalate by itself, the results

might not match. Also, Great Plains has recently changed their reference ranges

and they are way different from what studies of healthy controls has determined.

Some one told me that they heard these new ranges were based on testing siblings

of children with autism. If so, the familial (genetic) issues in areas that

affect oxalate may have been what skewed their reference ranges. I have put a

slide that reports pediatric ranges in normal healthy controls on our site at

Trying_Low_Oxalates.

Our project has found that the better and cheaper way to approach the problem is

first to evaluate how much oxalate is in the diet by looking at the food charts,

and have your doctor do an assessment of the leaky gut: either the

lactulose/mannitol test, or an IgG food test.

The other thing we learned by experience, is that for most people, when they

reduce oxalate in the diet significantly, the body will shift gears very quickly

(within days) from absorbing oxalate to secreting oxalate that was stored in

cells. Even a fast might bring this on unintentionally.

We called this process " dumping " because often in autistic children, this

involved diarrhea or sandy stools. This process generally starts within a few

days of when most people start the diet. That is often preceded by a day or two

of new skills and other improvements that were so welcomed that we began to

label those days " the honeymoon " . We've seen the same phenomenon outside

autism, too, in people with other issues related to oxalate.

But, you will have to get your doctor to order the lab tests, and the oxalate

levels should be higher when you are " dumping " than before you start the diet.

I don't think this period of active oxalate secretion we call " dumping " is

restricted to those on LOD. This process may occur from time to time anyway as

the body gets a chance to shift the direction from absorption of oxalate to

secretion. There may be a certain extent to which it would happen daily or

often. We just don't know.

For instance, we heard of children with autism having sandy stools for years

before I started the Autism Oxalate Project, but it was not until our project

started that we found a situation where the sandy stools were happening

frequently and in some, kind of regularly. Sometimes these stools included

black specks, too.

Hatch and Freel have done some study of the process of intestinal secretion of

oxalate in rats or mice and how it seems to be regulated by some of the same

hormones that regulate the renin-angiotensin system that controls your appetite

for salt and water.

There is no " normal " data on stool oxalate in humans to amount to anything, so

no one in research is interested in testing the oxalate in those sandy stools

for comparison. It is maybe possible that when oxalate is being secreted to the

intestines that the urine oxalate wouldn't be high. This will have to be ironed

out in studies.

Some people may not dump because a higher percentage of their oxalate is made in

their own bodies compared to being absorbed from food. This can happen in

vitamin B6, thiamine, or magnesium deficiency, and it can also happen because of

polymorphisms or mutations in the oxalate-related genes. I'm working at finding

a way to do some pilot studies to make it easier to get testing to find out when

these other issues are relevant.

Bottom line is this: trying the diet for even just a week or two is a LOT

easier than getting testing, but if you've been extremely high oxalate, you HAVE

to ease into the diet, or you might end up having a miserable first detox!

I hope that is helpful.

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> Thanks . This is helpful & could be a potential reason.

> Do you know if there are tests that doctors to do affirm this? Is levels of

> Oxalate in serum an indicator?

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