OAT Test Results

Well, I finally got the results e-mailed to me today.  In short, there are abnormalities but not the ones that I expected.  I am going to order a consult with one of the doctors at Great Plains Labs but I want to give a special shout out to the woman who actually e-mailed me.  She spent at least 20 minutes with me on the phone and made several promising suggestions and did it free of charge.  Very few people that I have dealt with have been kind enough to do that.  Anyway, 75 markers were tested and I will only list the ones of note.

Part 1- Intestinal Microbial Overgrowth-

I had 2 markers flagged as high in this section:

Arbinose – 24 (0-20)-  Indicates candida overgrowth.

4-Hydroxybenzoic- 0.74 (0.01-0.73) – Harmful bacteria and fungal overgrowth.

Reaction:

I’m taking probiotics already but it’s not enough.  I need something stronger.  As I’ve said many times on this blog, you’ve got to be really out of whack to be flagged.  Being borderline high is still not healthy.  Suppose, my values were 20 and 0.73 respectively.  That’s still pretty bad and a patient who is 1 point under the line won’t feel much different than one who is 1 point higher.  The woman that I talked with is pretty convinced this is the root of my problems and that may be so but I wanted to see a “smoking gun” that was WAY outside the range.  I’m talking about an arabinose over 100, which has been seen.  I’m not shocked about either of these abnormalities.

Part 2 Oxalates-

This was the biggest surprise.  I fully expected my oxalates to be WAY over the top.  Not so fast.

Glycolic was actually borderline LOW and barely within the reference range while oxalic was only mildly high and well within the normal range.  Why have I become dependent on calcium citrate?  Does that stuff have anything at all to do with the trans-sulfation pathway?

Part 3 Neurotransmitters-

Good news is the dopamine and adrenaline are fine.  Bad news is the serotonin is low.  Not a huge surprise.  What’s causing the low serotonin?  It could very well be related to gut/bacterial issues but I’m going to give 5-HTP a shot in hopes that it will give me a quick boost.

Part 4 Vitamins-

B6 and B12 were mildly low but not severe.  No real concern because both are trending up with supplementation.  Ascorbic acid was VERY low (3.9) versus a range of 10-200.  Morley Robbins is convinced that my Iron Overload is the culprit and I need to focus on raising my ceruloplasmin.  

Morley is a good man but I may have to disagree on this.  I’ve tried Liver Beef and Whole Food C and both are disasters at the present time.  While I’ve raised my ceruloplasmin from 17.9 to 25.9 as of my last test, I FELT BETTER WHEN IT WAS LOW!  I’m not saying that there is a connection but I was doing pretty well in the Fall of 2014 when it was around 20 and my downturn began once it got around 22-23.  Sure, Iron overload is a very serious problem but my numbers looked so much better on the re-test and it’s possible that my ferritin is now moving in the right direction.  I’ll get that re-tested tomorrow but I’m going to try ascorbic acid at least in low doses.  Maybe now if my sulfation pathways are open, I can tolerate Whole Food C.  We shall see.  If the ferritin remains high, I will either try to eliminate a supplement that contains low dose lactoferrin or go through with blood donation as a last resort.

Part 5- Others of note-

NAC (glutathione precursor) was undetectable but glutathione itself was right where it should be.

Phosphoric was a bit low but within the range.

So what is the smoking gun?

I’m still convinced that it is a block in the trans-sulfation pathway.  I can’t take any sulfur containing pills or the CBS treatments to reduce them though it’s possible that calcium citrate has improved that.  I have nothing in writing but the urinary sulfate strips are always off the scale even if the sample is diluted with water.  How to unblock that?  I got a couple other suggestions.

I think it's possible that high ferritin is the cause of the sulfur block and I've read some evidence that calcium citrate can lower ferritin.  I'll find out tomorrow when it's tested.