Organic Acid Test helps detect imbalances, toxicity, and inflammation in one’s health and indicate the need for specific nutrients, food modification, antioxidants, and detoxification. Human health is a constant stream of chemical reactions on a cellular level.
What is the difference between an organic and inorganic acid?
The main difference between organic acids and inorganic acids is that organic acids are organic compounds having acidic properties and are typically weak acids whereas inorganic acids are inorganic compounds having acidic properties and most of them are strong acids.
What does urine organic acids test for?
Urine organic acid analysis detects a wide range of compounds. It is an excellent diagnostic test for the organic acidemias involving propionic, methylmalonic, and isovaleric acids. It also detects glutaric acid, which is a progressive neurotoxic defect in biomolecule conversion. Read, more elaboration about it is given here.
What is the simplest organic acid?
Organic acid is a type of organic compound that typically has acidic properties. A common example of organic acids are called carboxyl acids, which are generally known as weak acids and do not totally dissociate in a medium such as water, unlike with strong minerals. The simplest form of organic acids, such as acetic and formic, are typically ...
Does the organic acids test help?
The OAT test highlights these, allowing you to then make adjustments. The Organic Acid Test will help to optimize your mitochondria function and fatty acid metabolism and nutrient deficiencies. This ensures your metabolism is running as efficiently as possible, allowing you to perform at your best whenever you need.
Is organic acid test useful?
In summary, the Organic Acids Test is an essential profile for anyone seeking additional information related to underlying gut derived bacterial and fungal toxins, as well as evaluating for less known metabolic imbalances such as mitochondrial function.
What are organic acid disorders?
Organic acid disorders are a group of rare conditions that affect a body's metabolism. Metabolism is the way your body changes food into energy. Babies with organic acid disorders cannot break down protein properly. This causes harmful substances to build up in their blood and urine.
Is an organic acid test a blood test?
The OAT Test is a urine test that makes it exceptionally easy for patients to do at home and is very helpful in populations such as pediatrics, where blood draws can be a challenge. The kidney does not significantly reabsorb organic Acids, so they are concentrated and readily detected in urine.
What are organic acids in body?
Organic acids (OAs) are intermediary products of several amino acid catabolism or degradation via multiple biochemical pathways for energy production. Vitamins or co-factors are often quintessential elements in such degradation pathways and OA metabolism.
How rare is organic acid disorder?
Most of these disorders are rare and incidence for individual organic acid disorders may vary from one in 20,000 births to less than one in 200,000 births. Inheritance Pattern All of these disorders are inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern.
What are organic acids examples?
A few common examples include:lactic acid.acetic acid.formic acid.citric acid.oxalic acid.uric acid.malic acid.tartaric acid.
How much is an organic acid test?
Sample Report. The out-of-pocket cost for this test is $299. However, some insurance companies may cover it. We recommend calling your insurance company first to ask about potential coverage using the ICD-10 codes above and the CPT codes for this test.
What is OAT test for autism?
The Organic Acid Test is a simple urine test. The test assesses – you guessed it – organic acids in your child's urine. What Affects Organic Acids? The results of the OAT are affected by diet, nutritional status, oxidative stress, environmental toxins, and the gut microbiome.
What is organic blood test?
The organic acid test is a nutritional test providing insights into the body's cellular metabolic processes. Organic acids are metabolic intermediates that are produced in pathways of central energy production, detoxification, neurotransmitter breakdown, or intestinal microbial activity.
How is organic acid disorder treated?
Babies with organic acid disorder are usually treated with a special diet. Some must be fed a special formula. When they begin to eat solids, the protein in their diet will need to be controlled. They will still need to drink their special formula to make sure they get everything they need to grow properly.
Why are organic acids important?
Organic acids are involved in the regulation of a broad range of basic cellular processes, e.g. the modification of cellular pH or the redox state. Therefore, it makes sense that these compounds also play a role in the control of various biochemical and physiological processes in vivo.
What are amino acid disorders?
Brief Description. These metabolic disorders are caused by the body's inability to breakdown certain amino acids in proteins, or by the inability to detoxify the by-product of amino acids (ammonia) through the urea cycle.
What are amino acid disorders?
Brief Description. These metabolic disorders are caused by the body's inability to breakdown certain amino acids in proteins, or by the inability to detoxify the by-product of amino acids (ammonia) through the urea cycle.
How is organic acidemia diagnosed?
Diagnosis of Organic Acidurias The major clinical features are developmental delay/mental retardation, seizures, lethargy, coma, hypotonia, vomiting, failure to thrive, hepatomegaly, respiratory distress, and cardiac dysfunction. The symptoms worsen in the absence of supporting care and can proceed to coma/death.
How many types of organic acids are there?
Two Types of Organic Acids Organic acids are of two types. One has the COOH group (the carboxyl group). An example is acetic acid (CH3COOH), the acid in vinegar.
How is organic acidemia treated?
Metabolic acidosis from the OAs can be controlled by using calories in the form of 10% dextrose containing fluids, precursor-free amino acid mixtures, as well as hemodialysis, hemofiltration, or ECMO.
What is an organic acid test?
The Organic Acids Test (OAT) is a comprehensive test that gives metabolic insight into a person’s overall health. There are over 70 markers on the organic acids test including vitamins and antioxidants, oxidative stress, energy production, detoxification, neurotransmitter levels, oxalates, and intestinal yeast and bacteria. The test is a simple, non-invasive, at home urine test that gives a great deal of information.
Why are organic acids found in urine?
They are most commonly analyzed in urine because they are more readily detected in urine. In fact, organic acids are often present at 100 times their concentration in urine rather than blood. There are over 1,000 organic acids that have been detected in urine. YouTube.
What is the OAT in the body?
The OAT includes indicators of your body’s ability to detoxify, including important markers for glutathione levels. Glutathione is your body’s master antioxidant. It is often deficient in chronic health conditions.
Why is OAT important?
If you have a chronic health condition or want to evaluate your health for the prevention of disease or illness, the OAT is one of the most valuable tests you can perform. It can help identify the underlying causes of various health conditions and give a detailed analysis of your overall health.
What is the purpose of OAT?
The OAT looks at complex biomarkers from various metabolic pathways. It is designed to measure metabolic dysfunction. Abnormal concentrations of organic acids provide functional markers for the metabolic effects of micronutrient inadequacies, toxin exposure, neuroendocrine activity, enzyme deficiencies, and intestinal bacterial overgrowth.
Why do people have high acid levels in their urine?
People with chronic illnesses, neurological issues, and other health conditions often excrete several abnormal acids in their urine. The causes of the high levels could be high sugar diets, immune deficiencies, infections, oral antibiotics, and genetic factors. The OAT will reveal problems with metabolism, nutrient deficiencies, detoxification pathways, yeast and bacterial overgrowths, neurotransmitters, and much more.
Why is HCL important for digestion?
They are likely a sugar burner with very poor ability to metabolize fat for fuel. It is important to support digestive health when these markers are elevated. Supplemental HCL could be very helpful for someone with protein digestion issues.
What is the Organic Acids Test (OAT)?
An organic acids test—in a nutshell—evaluates the organic acids that are excreted in your urine, to get a metabolic picture of your overall health.
Who invented the organic acids test?
Genova acquired Metametrix, the original developer of the organic acids test, (who based their markers on the research of their scientists J. Alexander Bralley and Richard S. Lord). The lab offers multiple organic acids tests, with varying cross-sections of markers.
Why are organic acids found in urine?
Organic acids aren’t readily reabsorbed by your body, so they’re found in the urine in high amounts. If you have a metabolic imbalance—say , an inflammation-related condition in your gut—this may show up as abnormal organic acids on your test.
What is the pathogenic marker for Candida?
But if your system is out of balance, Candida may grow out of control. An organic acids marker that can suggest pathogenic Candida is called D-arabinitol. ( 1. Trusted Source PubMed Go to source.
What is OAT test?
Great Plains Laboratory’s Organic Acids Test (OAT) is the other most popular offering. Their test measures 75 different markers. Although not the original developers of the test, they also seem to be pushing the research forward.
What can you do with organic acids markers?
If they’ve gotten baseline knowledge about your health already, putting that together with organic acids markers can help your clinician figure out what you might be missing.
Is organic acid a good test for gut health?
Is this test right for you? In short, I don’t recommend this as your first go-to test for gut health—or any health—diagnosis. The organic acids that the test measures can suggest certain conditions, especially with a skilled interpreter when looking at multiple markers together. Overall, it’s best used as a “big picture” test. Treating for any single marker, as I’ll discuss, is problematic. It can’t replace other gut health tests like a stool test or a SIBO breath test. Let’s cover what you should know about organic acids testing, so you can decide whether it’s worth your valuable resources.
What does organic acid test show?
A number of organic acids directly or indirectly indicate deficiencies of critical vitamins such as vitamin B12, pantothenic acid, biotin, and others. One of the most important uses of the organic acids test is as an indicator of dysbiosis, an abnormal overgrowth of yeast and bacteria in the intestinal tract. Some of these bacterial byproducts from the intestine enter the bloodstream and may alter the metabolism of neurotransmitters such as dopamine.
What are the symptoms of organic acidemia?
Clinical presentations of organic acidemias vary widely and may include failure to thrive, intellectual development disorders, hypo- or hyperglycemia, encephalopathy, lethargy, hyperactivity, seizures, dermatitis, dysmorphic facial features, microcephaly, macrocephaly, anemia and/or immune deficiency with frequent infections, ketosis and/or lactic acidosis, hearing, speech, or visual impairment, peripheral neuropathy, sudden cardiorespiratory arrest, nausea and coma. Many organic acidemias are associated with slight to marked increases in plasma ammonia. Some organic acidemias may be chronic and present in the first few days of life. In others, such as medium-chain acyl dehydrogenase deficiency, a child might appear completely normal until a potentially fatal episode of cardiorespiratory arrest.
What is a MOAT test?
The Microbial Organic Acids Test (MOAT) is ideal for a follow-up to the OAT and is often recommended by practitioners looking for a specific abnormality, to monitor certain microbial imbalances, or to assess treatment efficacy.
What Does the Organic Acid Test Measure?
As touched on in the introduction, the organic acid test measures levels of over 70 biomarkers that provide information about the state of a multitude of metabolic pathways throughout the body. Abnormal organic acid levels indicate the presence of metabolic dysfunction arising from underlying causes such as:
Why do we use organic acid test?
However, as new markers have been introduced, its applications have expanded. The test can now reveal health issues stemming from non-genetic factors, meaning more individuals can benefit from the information it provides.
How many metabolites are in an organic acid test?
By measuring levels of over 70 metabolites, the organic acid test allows individuals to better understand their overall health. The test looks at metabolites related to:
What is an OAT test?
The Organic Acid Test (OAT) measures a range of metabolic markers—over 70 in total—to provide insight into a person's health. By providing an accurate evaluation of intestinal yeast and bacteria, fungus, mold, oxalates, metabolites, neurotransmitters, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, the test offers insight into your body's energy production and detoxification capacity.
How to measure organic acid levels?
Scientists use either gas or liquid chromatography in combination with mass spectrometry to measure organic acid levels. In most cases, they look at levels in a urine sample, as organic acids tend to be far more concentrated in urine than in other bodily fluids—they can be found at 100 times the concentrations seen in blood, for instance. More than 1,000 organic acids can be detected in a single urine sample.
Why is methylmalonic acid elevated?
For instance, elevated levels of methylmalonic acid correlate to a vitamin B12 deficiency, which might be caused by pernicious anemia, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), or simply malabsorption.
What does high orotic acid mean?
High levels of orotic acid, another significant marker of detoxification, indicate the presence of excess ammonia in the body. Ammonia toxicity has a pronounced effect on brain tissue, producing symptoms like:
What is the purpose of organic acid test?
The Organic Acids Test for yeast and bacteria measures the amount of certain organic acids from the first urine produced in the morning. These acids can be produced by the microorganisms in our gut. The exact number and nature of the organic acids measured will depend on the laboratory performing the test.
Why are yeast markers important in the organic acid test?
Mainly because we are just beginning to understand our microbiome and the effect it has on our bodies and metabolism. However, this also means that these markers are experimental — no clinical studies have verified or validated their use and their ranges.
What changes the organic acid level in the gut?
Yeast and Bacteria Change Organic Acid Levels. The gut microbiota is a combination of billions of bacteria, fungi, and viruses that naturally live in the gut. It develops with us throughout our lives and is influenced by our genetics, diet, and environment [ 1, 2 ].
Can bacteria overgrowth be a marker?
Bacterial Markers. There are studies that connect these markers to bacterial overgrowth in humans. However, when interpreting these markers, it’s important to keep in mind that factors and conditions other than bacterial overgrowth/dysbiosis can increase them.
Can yeast markers be used to test for yeast overgrowth?
However, in general, much larger and well-designed studies are needed to confirm that these markers are indeed suited to test for yeast and fungal overgrowth in the general population.
Do reference values need to be taken with a grain of salt?
Keep in mind that the reference values given in these tests are often not backed by scientific studies and need to be taken with a grain of salt.
Is OAT a direct to consumer test?
However, OAT has been increasingly available as a pricy, direct-to-consumer test recommended by many alternative practitioners. In this article, we will look into the tests that purportedly signal yeast and bacterial overgrowth. We’ll also go over the causes of yeast and bacterial overgrowth and ways to address them.
What is an organic acid test?
Organic Acid Test, popularly known as OAT, measures the levels of organic compounds in urine that are produced in the body as a part of many vital biochemical pathways. It’s used to check for RARE inborn genetic defects of metabolism, most often in newborns.
How to treat 3 hydroxy-3-methylglutaric aciduria?
3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaric aciduria can be treated by a low-fat low-leucine diet [ 52 ]. Studies also suggest L-carnitine may help [ 47 ].
What is the B12 marker?
1) Methylmalonic acid (Vitamin B12 Marker) Methylmalonic acid (MMA) is a legitimate functional indicator of vitamin B12 deficiency. That’s because vitamin B12 is required for MMA to be converted to succinyl-CoA. When B12 is low, MMA levels in the blood and urine increase [ 1 ].
Why is pyridoxic acid not used as a vitamin B6 marker?
Impaired kidney function [ 11, 18, 14] Urine pyridoxic acid should not be used as a marker of vitamin B6 status, because of potential confounders, such as dietary fluctuation or kidney dysfunction [ 11 ].
What are the nutritional markers in OAT?
Some of the nutritional markers tested as a part of OAT may point to valid nutrient deficiencies, mainly: methylmalonic acid, pantothenic acid, methylcitric acid, and uracil/thymine. However, in all of these cases, blood tests are more reliable and your doctor is likely to order them for confirmation.
Is OAT a direct consumer test?
However, OAT has been increasingly available as a pricey, direct-to-consumer test recommended by many alternative practitioners.
Does glutaric acid increase autism?
Glutaric acid is also increased in a subset of children with autism (around 10%). Conversely, subjects with glutaric acidemia can have autistic features, e.g. lack of language and social skills, poor eye contact and stereotypical behavior [ 29 ].
What Is an Organic Acids Test (OAT)?
An Organic Acids test is not one that you will routinely see in traditional or allopathic medicine, and I think it is a shame, as it has so much to offer. First, the test is done from urine, so there no need to draw blood. The patient then submits the sample through FedEx to the lab directly; therefore, there is no need for the patient to wait for an appointment to go ahead and get the ball rolling. What is amazing is just how much insight into the inner works of the body this “simple” urine test can give.
What is the function of organic acids in the body?
Organic acids are the byproducts of metabolism of every cell in the body. Metabolism is the biochemical process that reflects cell growth and reproduction. Thus, healthy cellular metabolism provides energy to the whole body. As each cell does its metabolic job, certain substances called organic acids are released and then excreted by ...
How is an OAT Used to Inform Treatment?
Application of OAT results is usually done in a stepwise fashion; this is where the art of medicine comes in. Most practitioners will agree that dealing with issues in the small intestine, the gut, must come first. However, if there is evidence of environmental mold/mycotoxins triggering the symptoms, the patient must make finding a safe, mold-free space, even if it is only temporary the first intervention. Like I stated earlier in this article, the findings in the OAT, when paired with a urine mycotoxin test and reviewed by a skilled practitioner can really elucidate a mold/yeast problem in the digestive system vs. a more systemic mold toxicity issue that also has a gut dysbiosis piece. The two conditions, while often related, can be dissimilar and require different interventions. In the case of mold toxicity triggered by environmental mycotoxin exposure, the patient will need to address their air first, and the mold toxins they are breathing into their body. Once clean air and mold-free living conditions are established, then all treatment and interventions will work much better and have better results. Additionally, if there is evidence of oxidative damage to the cells, such that they are not functioning efficiently and no obvious source of the damage is present, then other testing may be recommended such as genetics, a heavy metal assessment, and/or testing for other toxic or environmental pollutants.
How many excreted acids are in an OAT?
A full organic acids profile reports over 70 different excreted acids; each with its own significance. The sheer amount of information provided makes an OAT not an easy test to understand. In fact, it has taken me well over 15 years of experience with clinical study to be able to interpret and fully utilize the guidance that it provides. Additionally, research on organic acids continues, and more subtle changes are continually recognized to be helpful in predicting certain illnesses before they occur or in understanding why some conditions have failed to improve despite the patient undergoing “the right” treatment.
How are organic acids released?
As each cell does its metabolic job, certain substances called organic acids are released and then excreted by the individual through the urine. By looking at the levels of these excreted acids and the ratios between them, many physical conditions and health symptoms can be explained and corrected.
What does phosphoric acid in urine mean?
Finally, the level of phosphoric acid in the urine quite accurately reflects vitamin D, magnesium, calcium, and vitamin K status. This section of the OAT can be a signal of a poor diet or of nutrient absorption issues. So, while I can only provide a brief overview of the test, I think you can already see that it can provide tremendous value for both patient and practitioner. As I mentioned, it takes a lot of time and experience to learn the nuances of the results but digging in can really help to figure out the “why” behind many symptoms.
What is the most helpful test for functional medicine?
Of all functional medicine tests that are available, hands down, the most helpful to me as a clinician is the Organic Acids test done through first morning urine. When results are paired with a patient’s specific history and the whole picture is interpreted, no other diagnostic gives as much “bang for the buck” as the Organic Acids test, in my opinion.
