Genova Krebs Cycle - no Lactic Acid (<dl)...should I be worried?

[MarkO]

Hi,

I've been reading various post on here for a while, it's a gold-mine of information! I'm trying to get to the bottom of my ongoing fatigue but can't seem to find an answer to this one...

My Genova O.N.E. test came back and most of it is broadly in the green zone. However there is one thing which jumps out:

• Krebs - Lactic Acid: zero (<dl).

No lactic acid in the urine test, anyone come across this before? And should I be worried about it? I'll attach the page from the report if its helpful

.

Thanks,
Mark

 

[Mary]

@MarkO - first, there are many people on this board who are much more knowledgable about the Krebs energy cycle than I am and who could answer this much more accurately than me. However, I'll take a stab at it. See: http://nutritionreview.org/2013/04/krebs-cycle-intermediates/

This article seems to say that lactic acid is primarily produced by glycolysis, which is an anaerobic and extremely inefficient means of energy production. I'm guessing that your lack of lactic acid actually may be a good sign. I think most people with CFS have a surfeit of lactic acid - we have a low anaerobic energy threshold, easily go into glycolysis (instead of making energy aerobically - with oxygen - via the Krebs energy cycle), and this glycolysis with its accompanying lactic acid buildup may be a primary cause of post-exertional malaise (crashing), which is a hallmark of CFS and causes extreme exhaustion which can take days to recover from.

I'm just guessing here and hopefully some of our very knowledgable chemists (for that's what they seem to be! ) will weigh in here with a more definitive answer.

 

[jpredsoxdude00]

Mark-

Did you every find out more about your <dl lactic acid? I am wondering because I have the same result.

-Jake

 

[CCC]

Mark-

Did you every find out more about your <dl lactic acid? I am wondering because I have the same result.

-Jake

We had low very lactic acid too.

Low calorie (energy) intake was the suggested culprits (and most likely low fat). We weren't giving the body enough calories as fats for it to spill over into metabolites in urine. Getting all your energy from protein is hard on the body. This wasn't by design. It was a very low appetite (and nausea quite a lot of the time).

Another question we were asked was about blood sugar, but ours was fine, so we went back to the low energy intake (mainly fats) being the probable cause.

 

[jpredsoxdude00]

Interesting. I most definitely get enough fat in my diet. I balance carbs, protein, and fat as best as I can. My fasting blood glucose has come up as slightly elevated (99-109) in the past few blood tests. Something tells me that perhaps my glycolysis is not working optimally. Thiamine (B1) deficiency, which my NutrEval showed as an issue, could explain the blood glucose issue, but as far as I know, B1 is not a cofactor in glycolysis. Magnesium is a cofactor, but I showed up as having almost excess magnesium.

My adrenals are slightly "fatigued". Cortisol production in the morning is slightly below optimal and my DHEA is almost elevated (still normal, but almost borderline high). I am thinking that cortisol or another adrenal hormone (epinephrine) must play some role in stimulating glycolysis and henceforth, may be causing the low lactic acid (byproduct of glycolysis). This would seem different than the average person on this site though, as many here have what is considered to be adrenal fatigue (which in my opinion is just a deficiency in its own right) and have elevated lactic acid due to a heavier reliance upon glycolysis as a means of producing ATP.

I do not have CFS. I have a mixture of odd symptoms that don't quite add up to anything I have seen yet on this board, but I am new here. Perhaps somebody with a lot of insight and knowledge on NutrEval would be able to help us figure out other possible causes for zero lactic acid.

We also cannot exclude the possibility that urine samples were not maintained perfectly and that the lactic acid broke down. <dl is not a very common thing to see.

-Jake

 

[CCC]

We also cannot exclude the possibility that urine samples were not maintained perfectly and that the lactic acid broke down. <dl is not a very common thing to see.
-Jake

Not impossible. Have you tried phoning the lab to see what they have to say? It might be worth asking how often they see such a low lactic acid level.