Organic acid testing is a way to measure whether your body is getting and using nutrients to drive optimal health. Nutrients are protecting agents. Just as your car has additives and devices that protect it, nutrients serve to protect your heart, brain, and other critical organs. Like a car’s gauges warn of potential problems, your body has certain chemical indicators, known as organic acids, that can alert you to potential problems. Also measured are markers that assess intestinal health, neurotransmitter activity, and detoxification demands. Early warnings can help you make diet and lifestyle changes that may both extend and enhance your quality of life.
Organic acids are metabolic intermediates that are produced in pathways of central energy production, detoxification, neurotransmitter breakdown, or intestinal microbial activity. Marked accumulation of specific organic acids detected in urine often signals a metabolic inhibition or block. The metabolic block may be due to a nutrient deficiency, an inherited enzyme deficit, toxic build-up or drug effect. Several of the biomarkers are markers of intestinal bacterial or yeast overgrowth.
Many chronic health problems can be difficult to diagnose, especially whan they involve nonspecific symptoms such as fatigue, foggy thinking, gastrointestinal upset, joint aches, sleep cycle disturbances, and more. Standard medical testing is designed to identify disease states. Organic acid testing does not diagnose disease; it helps to give insight to the underlying causes of disease.
The Organic Acid Comprehensive Profile measures many vitamin compounds that provide evidence of your need for virtually all B-vitamins. Also included are organic acids produced by intestinal bacteria and yeasts, as well as products of detoxification. The Profile will also help assess specific metabolic dysfunctions that are used to customize a nutritional program to help you mange those areas in need of support. This allows an approach that treats the cause of disease, not just the symptoms. The goal is to identify dysfunctions related to nutritional deficiencies and correct them before disease is allowed to develop. More specifically, The OACP is valuable for determining the following:
Functional vitamin and mineral status
Amino acid insufficiencies such as carnitine nd NAC
Oxidative damage and antioxidant need
Phase I and phase II detoxification capacity
Functional B-complex vitamin need
Neurotransmitter metabolites
Mitochondrial energy production
Methylation sufficiency
Lipoic acid and CoQ10 status
Markers for bacterial and yeast overgrowth
From a single urine specimen, the Organic Acid Comprehensive Profile provide important information for treating the following conditions and more:
Anxiety, attention and memory disorders, autoimmune disorders, bloating and gas, blood sugar dysregulation, constipation, depression, dermatitis, ear, nose, and throat symptoms, fatigue, headaches, hypertension, liver disease, mood changes, multiple chemical sensitivity, muscle and joint pain, nausea, reflux, sleep abnormalities, and weight gain.
To schedule a consultation to see if Organic Acid testing can help you find the root cause of your problem(s), call 813-985-5190 for an appointment today.
01/19/2015. Kelly Miller DC NMD FASA FBAARM