Understanding OATS results??

[guyshahar]

Hi

Wondering if anyone can help me try to understand the significance and best course of action from my son's OATs results. Our ASD Biomedical Specialist (Daniel Goyal) has proposed strong antibiotics for a suspected stomach virus (based on these results) and a very restricted diet which we would like to avoid if possible, especially as our son is only just turning 3. It is the GAPS diet, which is very high in protein, which both of his parents find very difficult to digest, and so would not like to put him on this.

A dietician who works closely with him thinks that if we don't do the diet, strong probiotics (like VSL#3) might do the job very slowly over a long period.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this, or is anyone able to throw any light on what we can do to help our son, by looking at the test results below?

These were the high markers in the test:

Yeast/Fungal:
Arabinose (5 times upper end of normal range)

Malabsorption/Bacterial:
Oxalic (almost tripple upper end of normal range)
Succini (more than double upper end of normal range)
4-Hydroxybenzoic and 4-Hydroxyhippuric (10% and 50% above upper end of normal range)
HPHPA (Clostridia Marker) (25% above upper end of normal range)
Hippuric (15% above upper end of normal range)
Succini (more than double upper end of normal range)

Glycolytic Cycle Metabolites:
Lactic (nearly double upper end of normal range)

Krebs Cycle Metabolites:
Succinic (more than double upper end of normal range)

Nurotransmitter Metabolites
VMA (slightly above upper end of normal range)
Quinolinic (slightly above upper end of normal range - and very high Quinolinic/5-HIAA ratio)

Ketone & Fatty Acid Oxidation
Methylsuccinic (double upper end of normal range)
Suberic (nearly double upper end of normal range)
Sebacic (nearly double upper end of normal range)
Adipic (about 20% above upper end of normal range)

Indicators of Detoxification
2-Hydroxyhippuric (more than 5 times upper end of normal range)
Pyroglutamic (about 35% above upper end of normal range)

Amino Acid Metabolites
2-Hydroxyhippuric (1.3 times upper end of normal range)
3-Methylglutaric (more than 1.5 times upper end of normal range)

I'm very PRO dietry interventions, having researched them on and off for a couple of decades prior to having my own ASD child (sibling with a neuro disability gave me an early interest in this area).

We've done a sort of "GAPS lite" for years, and I'm personally convinced that my DS would be further along the ASD severity scale had we not. Obviously that's hard to prove with a sample of one though.

DS is totally dairy free, (diagnosed as a baby as intolerant). I only introduced probiotics a couple of years ago and was impressed at how they seemed to help DS over a period of months. I only wish I'd found them sooner! He has a maintenance rather than a theraputic dose iyswim. DS doesn't need to be gluten free, so I haven't bothered with it, and one of the reasons his diet an only be onsidered "GAPS lite". (he was under a clinical dietician from 0-4).

The brain of a young child is about 90% fat and what is good about the Gaps diet is that it focuses attention on the child's intake of GOOD brain-building fats - never a bad thing. It also contains lots of great micronutrients for good neurodevelopment in a very easily digestible format for a delicate tum to absorb.

I don't actually think of it as especially protein heavy when you break it down, into it's constituent nutritional parts(not in the sense that the atkins diet is anyway!). It's well worth you getting the book for a tenner to better understand the theory behind it all (gut/brain) as the author explains this area of research far better than many other people I've come across who are also looking at the same area of autism theory.

I've found that actually many ukrainian/romanian/hungarian recipes fit easily with the GAPS approach - worth having a look at these cuisines in the early stages of trying to adjust your cooking/shopping/whole life to suit GAPS> I know it can seem very, very daunting at first!

There is a great thread entitled "Tinsley House" where several people have posted on their successes with a less extreme dietry intervention. Well worth a read to help you decide. I think you should get the GAPS book and read up on it properly before coming to a really informed choice as to whether or not to proceed.

GAPS, is I think too extreme to risk trying without proper clinical supervision in the early, adjustment stages but well worth a shot iyswim.