There is evidence in the scientific research papers that malabsorption in the GI tract helps to produce high oxalates. It is interesting to find the number of ways that malabsorption of foods can lead to oxalate formation. Reading the research articles leads to the conclusion that an effective treatment for many children with high oxalate levels is to solve the malabsorption problem by doing SCD. Most of the high oxalate levels in children with autism is due to the damaged gut. However,it is important to consider that a small number of children might have high oxalates due to other reasons such as genetic hyperoxaluria. Those children might need to go on a low oxalate diet despite having done SCD. For those children,it is optimal to combine both diets.

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High oxalates are a secondary symptom of carbohydrate malabsorption . The inability to digest certain carbohydrate produces a disturbed intestinal flora that not only damages the lining of the stomach but results in the increase of oxalates.

When a child has carbohydrate malabsorption, monosaccarides are the only carb that he can digest. The other carbs are not digested,they feed harmful pathogenic microorganisms in the GI tract. The undigested carbs are a great source of food for both the microorganisms who destroy the lining of the gut and to the fungi who produce oxalates in the colon.

The damage made by carbohydrate malabsorption is like a chain reaction. A number of problems are triggered by the same initial symptom; a series of disasters occur in which each disaster induces the next. Fat, mineral, and protein malabsorption are the consequence of carbohydrate malabsorption because the gut pathogens that are eating the undigested carbs damage the lining of the intestinal wall. Not only does the carbohydrate malabsorption increase the production of oxalates inside the body but the damage to the GI tract makes the body unable to prevent the crystallization of oxalates into CaOx.

How carbohydrate malabsorption affects the gut is explained in detail and proved in Breaking the Vicious Cycle, the book about SCD; this website will try to explain how carbohydrate malabsorption induces a high oxalate level. Abstracts from research articles will be featured,with the important facts in bold letters so that this information can be quickly read.

Here are some of the important findings from research articles:

Research that shows that the consumption of SCD illegal sugars dramatically increases the risks of kidney stones.

http://gutresearch.com/9disaccarides.html

There is plenty of evidence that the oxalate issue might be related to the same issues being addressed by SCD: the good flora in the colon being replaced by pathological ones. The oxalate producing fungi overgrow and the good bacteria that degrade oxalates decrease

http://gutresearch.com/9micro.html

Disaccarides helps the pathological microorganisms to produce more oxalates: there is evidence that disaccarides feed the oxalic producing fungi .

http://gutresearch.com/9micro2.html

Most obese people who undergo jeujonal bypass surgery develop carbohydrate malabsorption because the surgery renders their GI tract too small to digest certain carbs. Research shows that after the operation they will be vulnerable for getting high oxalates and kidney stones. There are studies that show that these people lack the beneficial bacteria that degrades oxalates. This shows the connection betweem carbohydrate malabsorption and high oxalates: operations that damage the ability to digest certain carbohydrates make the patients vulnerable to developing high oxalates levels.

http://gutresearch.com/9carbohydrate.html

Research articles that report that Lactic acid bacteria such as acidophilus reduce oxalates.

http://gutresearch.com/9acido.html

The GI tract needs to be able to absorb magnesium and citrate to stop the formation of CaOx crystals but the damage due to carbohydrate malabsorption impairs the gut's ablity to absorb these important elements.

http://gutresearch.com/9absorb.html

The carbohydrate malabsorption also causes watery stools. The loss of water caused by watery stools and the inability to digest fats also negatively impact the regulation of oxalates.

http://gutresearch.com/9asymtom.html

How fatmalabsorption affects high oxalates: unabsorbed fat and bile acids may react with calcium in the intestinal lumen, limiting the amount of free calcium binding with oxalate and thereby raising intestinal oxalate absorption leading to hyperoxaluria.

http://gutresearch.com/9fatmalabsorption.htm

Why the SCD dairy foods are so important for children with elevated oxalates

http://gutresearch.com/9SCDdairy.html

This research was inspired after reading about a child whose oxalate levels dropped dramatically after doing SCD for 3 months. The amazing thing was that the child's family was not even trying to lower the oxalate levels. Susan Owens asked parents on her list for the level of oxalates in ASD children. The father of that child was the only one to respond to Susan's query. The post(#6395 ) appeared on Susan Owens' sulfurstories Yahoo list.

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/sulfurstories/message/6395

The information that oxalate stone formation is rare in primitive societies is found in the following book:

1. Blacklock N. Renal stone. In: Western Diseases: Their Emergence and Prevention, ed. DP Burkitt and HC Trowell. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Press, 1981, 60�70.