Today, I'm going to talk about the root causes of oxalate sensitivity, so stay tuned.
If you're new here, welcome, my name's Amanda Malachesky.
I'm a Certified Functional Nutrition Health Coach and a Digestive and Allergy Detective.
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your digestive complaints for good, please consider subscribing and be sure to hit the
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If you're finding that you're sensitive to oxalate foods, you may be wondering how did
I get here and the related question, how do I fix it?
So by the end of today's video, you'll know what the root causes of your oxalate sensitivity
may be and you'll also know how to start assessing which ones may be yours.
This is the same process that I used to help my other food sensitivity clients like Sarah
recover from their food sensitivities and get clear on what's triggering their symptoms
so that they can make better choices.
Sarah used the combination of steps that I'm going to talk about to get clear on what was
triggering her headaches, her diarrhea, and joint pain.
And I know that you can figure all this out for yourself too.
So let's get started.
So just a quick review about what oxalates are.
Oxalic acid is a naturally occurring plant compound that shows up in some plants more
than others, and it's also naturally produced inside your body.
It's naturally high in foods such as spinach, rhubarb, almonds, chocolate, and chia, among
many others.
I've made a few other videos for you about oxalates, so if you need a little bit more
background about oxalates and what they do in the body, you can go check out the earlier
video called Oxalates and Digestive Symptoms and you can get your hands on my handout about
oxalates and an oxalate food list over there, but I'll also leave a link for that below
this video.
Okay, so why does oxalate sensitivity happen?
A super fair question if you're struggling with this.
And like so many other conditions, it often doesn't come down to just one cause.
There are likely several root causes and we need to be thinking about your whole body
system and be doing what I call a functional timeline to understand the sequence of events
that have led to where you are right now.
So here are a few situations that stand out to me as possible contributors to an oxalate
sensitivity.
If I see in someone's timeline that either in their youth or recently that they've taken
multiple courses of antibiotics, I might suspect this to be a contributor.
And this is because our normal flora includes a bacteria that can break down oxalates, and
when we use antibiotics, it may either kill off completely or significantly reduce the
numbers of that bacteria.
So definitely antibiotic use, especially recent antibiotic use can be a contributing factor.
The next possible contributor are particular nutrient deficiencies.
So a vitamin B1 or vitamin B6 deficiency may cause your body to make more oxalates than
it was already making.
And then a calcium or magnesium deficiency can increase an oxalate problem because these
minerals help bind up excess oxalate in the gut, and if they're not being bound up, then
they're more available to end up circulating through your body.
Next is fat malabsorption.
So if someone tells me that they are seeing oily, fatty or floating stools on their food
symptom diary, then I know that their body isn't digesting fats very well, and that excess
fat that may not be digesting well in their digestive system is binding up excess calcium.
And remember just a moment ago, I said that calcium helps bind up oxalates.
So if there's excess fat that's taking away calcium that could be used to bind up oxalates,
you may end up with an oxalate problem.
The next possible contributor to oxalate problems is a leaky gut.
So if you have chronic digestive problems or other chronic health problems, it's pretty
likely that you already have a leaky gut or a permeable gut.
So when you have a leaky gut and you also have some of these other things going on that
I was just talking about, that lead to excess oxalate, then that excess oxalate can get
through your gut and into your bloodstream and then circulate anywhere in your body causing
the symptoms that are related to oxalate sensitivity.
Yeast and fungal overgrowth can also be a contributor to oxalate sensitivity because
yeasts and funguses produce excess oxalates, and this yeast and fungal problem can also
be made worse by bacterial or parasitic infections.
So addressing gut dysbiosis of all kinds can be an important part of dealing with oxalate
sensitivity.
Finally, over consumption of high oxalate foods can be a contributor.
I often find that this is more of a symptom than the underlying cause because if these
other factors that I've just talked about aren't a problem, then you probably won't
have an oxalate sensitivity.
But what's happening right now is a lot of people are consuming a lot of high oxalate
foods due to their use of therapeutic diets like paleo or the keto diet that are advocating
the use of things like spinach and chocolate and almond flour, and also an increase in
dietary fats.
So I see this a lot with people who are eating a paleo or keto diet and they're eating spinach
salads, and spinach smoothies, and chia pudding with lots of coconut milk and coconut fat,
and almond treats and chocolate treats and things like this.
So can you see how these can all contribute to the problem?
So just imagine you're somebody who has a chronic digestive problem and you've learned
that the paleo diet might be a good approach.
So you take this diet on and you're now eating a lot more coconut and chocolate and spinach
salads and stuff than you did before.
But the excess oxalates in these foods aren't bound up because there's extra fat in the
food, which is grabbing the calcium.
And then this leaves less for their body to bind up the dietary oxalate which then gets
through the leaky gut that was probably already present in the beginning with their chronic
digestive problem.
And then we have the symptoms, the pain in the joints, and headaches and body pain and
whatnot.
So in this scenario, with these multiple factors, now there's oxalate circulating through the
body and causing symptoms.
So now that we know some of the root causes of oxalate sensitivity, how do we best assess
whether this is a problem for you?
So the very simplest, cheapest way to assess this for yourself is to use a tool called
the food symptom diary to see if you can make some connections between the consumption of
high oxalate foods and the symptoms that you're experiencing.
So be sure to grab the oxalate handout.
I'll be sure and leave a link for that below this video.
And you can also grab a copy of the food symptom diary.
I will also leave a link for that below this video.
And if you need a little bit more help using the food symptom diary, you can go check out
my earlier video called how to use a food diary for IBS.
So when you track your food intake alongside of your symptoms using the oxalate food list
or any other food list, if you're trying to track other kinds of symptoms, you can often
get pretty good clarity about which foods are triggering your symptoms.
And a reminder here that if you find that you are sensitive to oxalate foods, do not,
I repeat, do not suddenly reduce your oxalate food intake because this can lead to something
called oxalate dumping, which is basically a drastic increase in oxalate symptoms.
So if you need a little bit more help about how to do this properly and safely, please
check out my other video called How to Reduce Oxalate Sensitivity for clear instructions
on how to do this safely.
Another option for checking for oxalate sensitivity is to use a test called the Organic Acids
Test from Great Plains Laboratory.
They have three oxalate markers on the test and these can both show if you have a current
oxalate problem, and also if you are having some kind of genetic inborn error of oxalate
metabolism, which can happen.
And one more helpful assessment is to run a GI MAP stool test.
And like I said above this is because oxalate sensitivity can be related to yeast and fungal
overgrowth and that yeast and fungal overgrowth can also be related to bacterial or parasitic
infections upstream.
So assessing what's going on in your gut can help you get clarity about how to best move
forward in this situation.
So for more information about gut testing, you can check out my video called Gut Microbiome
Testing for IBS.
So I'm curious, after watching this video, what do you think your root causes of oxalate
sensitivity are?
Tell me about it in the comments below.
So I hope this video has helped you think into some of the possible root causes of your
oxalate sensitivity and has gotten your wheels spinning to think about how you might work
into a solution for yourself.
Remember that we have to think about and work on your whole person, not just one isolated
piece of the puzzle.
And so I hope that I communicated well today how we want to think about all these different
layers in relation to one particular potential problem.
I've put together a Roadmap to Gut Recovery to share more about this approach and to share
the steps that I've seen work for people who want to find freedom from their digestive
challenges, and you can get a free copy of that by heading over to confluencenutrition.com/roadmap.
There's also a link for it in the profile bar of my YouTube channel and I will be sure
to leave a link for that below this video.
Or if you're ready for some help customizing what you're already doing or troubleshooting
or thinking into your situation, I'm an expert at helping people develop a doable plan that's
highly customized for their unique situation.
So if you'd like to talk with me more about that, please go ahead and schedule yourself
a free 30 minute assessment session with me by visiting me over at confluencenutrition.com/contact
and I'll look forward to seeing you on my schedule.
So get out there and start tracking your food and your symptoms together to see if oxalates
are what are triggering your symptoms.
Please consider liking and sharing this video if you liked it.
And I look forward to reading your comments and questions down below.
So have a great day and I'll see you next time.