Anyone concerned about Oxalates ?

[juniemarie]

I have joined the Low Oxalate Diet (LOD) forum run by Susan Owens a researcher and wondering it it might play some role in CFS. Have not started the diet, still reading and mulling the information on the site.
I cant seem to find a list of symptoms that would cause me to suspect oxalates as a major piece of my illness puzzle.
One surprising thing I learned is that Vit C should not be taken in high doses, not talking mega doses just what would be considered normal high dose......it seems its best not to take it at all but to get it through food so levels dont get too high. I think it increases your oxalate level.

 

[leaves]

Yeah ive tried this ; didnt help me
I try to avoid the highest oxalate foods tho
I take 2 gms vitamin c. Can't do without it
See http://www.greatplainslaboratory.com/home/eng/oxalates.asp
Up to 4 gm vitamin c should be safe, preferably time release

 

[juniemarie]

How long did you try the diet? What made you decide to give it a try? Symptoms you were having? Did you go off the C while you were trying the diet?

 

[leaves]

10 months or so? Yes no vitamin c.My mum has oxalate problems so I gave it a shot

 

[juniemarie]

Thanks for the link . There's a lot of good info on their site and I have been interested in some of their other tests. Its hard to know which test to get since most of them are not very conclusive. Meaning lots of false positives or negatives. I dont have enough extra cash to spend on inconclusive tests.
Did you take their OAT?

 

[determined]

yes, oxalates!

I went through a few years when I had to be scrupulously careful about oxalates. I had horrible pain (mostly pelvic in the form of interstitial cystitis, rectal spasms...omg, ouch...and vulvodynia). I believe that ultimately, problems with oxalates are really about your gut microbiome. With the "wrong" microbiome, oxalates are a big problem. If you can improve the gut microbiome, I believe you can then be less careful about oxalates.

At least, this is my interpretation of things. There could be another factor at work that I'm not seeing.

So yes, the diet did help tremendously. To this day, six years later, I still can't totally binge on high-oxalate foods like blueberries and chocolate. But I can eat them without pain in small to moderate amounts.

Good luck, I think it's worth a try, depending on your symptoms.

 

[*GG*]

Thanks for the link . There's a lot of good info on their site and I have been interested in some of their other tests. Its hard to know which test to get since most of them are not very conclusive. Meaning lots of false positives or negatives. I dont have enough extra cash to spend on inconclusive tests.
Did you take their OAT?

I did the OATs test. My Dr said he had never seen results like mine, they were consistently pointing to low energy. I said what do you expect, I work!

GG

PS I don't have a copy of the results, hope to get them at my next appt, in a month or so.

 

[globalpilot]

I follow a low oxalate diet. I had vulvodynia which is about 98% better. I also started taking femdophilus and doing pelvic exercises so I'm not sure how much the diet helped. I also feel that the oxalate problem is related to the microflora and am also working on that. I continue the diet unt8il my gut is totally healed.

 

[sela]

did anyone have the dumping of sand like matter that is described on the yahoo forum? i can't decide how i will know if i have the problem unless i get that. the oxalate crystals have to come out.

 

[sela]

they also say that getting this under control make other protocols start working. did anyone have that experience? doesn't sound too promising from the feedback here.

 

[sela]

after 4 days , i got massive detox. if you have it , you can know just by cutting some major oxalate foods. vitamin c was my main source. it's clear this on the docket now.