What Are Symptoms of High Oxalates

I have been down the road of every diet; from a high sugar/ low fat diet, to a low-carb /high vegetable and protein diet, to a paleo diet, to a vegan diet, to a carnivore diet, and now to a specific high protein diet incorporating foods that cooperate with my given DNA.  Through each phase, I saw pros and cons and just couldn’t find exactly the right mix.  Currently, as I stick to the foods that don’t trigger disruptive detoxification pathways, I feel great; it’s when I get too cocky and splurge that my body retaliates.

I know cutting more foods out of your diet makes you feel “limited” or can be frustrating, but you have to weigh the options of feeling your best without pain and full of energy, versus enjoying the momentary tasty experience of eating the food.  Saying that, I am not perfect and struggle with the same conundrum!

Currently, I am suffering from something called “oxalate overload”.  In me, I notice extreme edema and water retention as my kidneys aren’t able to clear urine properly.  I also notice more aches and pains when I wake up in the morning and a skin rash that comes and goes.

What are Oxalates?

Oxalic acid is a naturally occurring molecule that is a toxic and corrosive acid.  When it attaches itself to a mineral like calcium, magnesium, potassium or salt, it becomes an oxalate, i.e. sodium oxalate, potassium oxalate, magnesium oxalate, and calcium oxalate.

Where Do Oxalates Come From?

Plants make the oxalic acid for their mineral management, seed germination and self-defense.  You eat the plants and the oxalic acid combines with minerals, such as calcium, in your body and gets deposited in your tissues, organs and bones.

The most obvious foods high in oxalic acid include beans, grains, bran, seeds, peanuts, almonds, swiss chard, spinach, beets, potatoes, chocolate, rhubarb, figs, kiwi, blackberries, black pepper, cumin, and tumeric.

Your body makes the oxalate; oxalate is a metabolic waste product with no known function in the body.

What is Oxalate Poisoning?

Oxalates steal minerals including iron, calcium, magnesium, zinc that your body needs.

Any digestive issue, like Leaky Gut, Crohn’s disease, and auto-immune issues, can increase the amount of oxalates that deposit in the body, and any urinary problem may reduce the amount of oxalates that excrete from the body.  When you have more coming in than going out, you will experience oxalate poisoning.

What Are the Symptoms of Oxalate Poisoning?

Pain and Connective Tissue Problems
If you are feeling unstable, weak, easily injured and slow to heal, then oxalates may be the culprit.  They interfere with normal connective tissue maintenance and repair, leading to weakened joints, thin and easily damaged skin or membranes, and persistent scarring.  When oxalates accumulate, they tend to increase scarring and inhibit recovery from injury.  They also perpetuate inflammatory conditions.  As a result, you may experience joint problems like gout, rheumatoid arthritis, stiffness, soreness, swelling, instability or tendonitis.

You may also experience osteoporosis, weak or broken bones, or cracked teeth.  Calcium is an oxalate magnet.  The calcium that you need for strong bones and teeth combines readily with oxalic acid to form calcium oxalate.  Oxalates then can accumulate in bones and teeth, displacing normal tissues and causing weakness, demineralization and cysts.

Nerve Irritation and Dysfunction
Oxalates can affect your brain and lead to unrestful sleep, neuropathic pain, poor concentration, mental and emotional fatigue, mood problems, and other brain issues.  Furthermore, it  can lead to twitching, loss of coordination, unsteadiness, and muscle weakness.  You may also experience light, noise, tooth or skin sensitivity from Oxalate poisoning in addition to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.  As it relates to cognitive health, oxalate poisoning can lead to memory problems, verbal fluency issues, difficulty concentrating, focusing, and learning; brain fog; irritability, depression, restlessness, anxiety, and nervousness; sleep issues; addiction; fatigue; loss of appetite; autism, dementia and Parkinson’s Disease.

Immune System Reactions.  Oxalates can trigger autoimmune issues that lead to inflammatory diseases.  By aggravating the immune system, you could experience conditions affecting the skin, joints and other organs like rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and even celiac.

Thyroid Disease
Many cases of hypothyroidism or hashimotos are caused by oxalate poisoning.  Oxalates accumulate in the thyroid gland, especially when you are low in the necessary iodine to produce T4 (4 stands for 4 atoms of iodine).  If you are over 50 years old, there is an 85% chance you have oxalates in your thyroid gland.  The thyroid is the second most common place oxalates accumulate behind the bones.

Digestive Problems
Digestive problems are very common from oxalate poisoning.  Oxalates can cause digestive issues and digestive issues can inhibit the processing of oxalates; it becomes a vicious cycle.  Some oxalate micro-crystals in foods have sharp and pointy edges;  the needle-shaped ones can perforate mucous membrane cells. And the crystals can corrode your digestive system’s linings.  As a result, you can develop gastroenteritis, leaky gut, rectal pain, constipation, diarrhea, and frequent bowel movements.

Urogenital Problems
Oxalate excess can cause issues of the urinary tract including urinary urgency, high urinary frequency, bladder or urethral pain, incontinence, kidney pain, kidney stones, pelvic floor pain, and prostatitis.  When the oxalate load is high enough to overwhelm the kidneys, the urinary tract may become irritated by the high levels of sharp, corrosive oxalate crystals that pass through.  This may cause frequent urination, incontinence and pain.  It also may lead to pain and sensitivity in the internal and external genitalia.

Nutritional Problems
In addition to calcium, oxalic acid may combine with iron, magnesium, and other nutrients, locking them away into insoluble oxalate crystals.  Furthermore, oxalates use up your body’s vitamin B-6; lowered B-6 increases oxalate production inside your body and this becomes a vicious cycle.  The number of oxalates produced by your metabolism will go up if you take high doses of vitamin C as well.

Which Foods are High and Low in Oxalates?

High Oxalate Foods

• Berries
• Potatoes
• Almond milk
• Nuts
• Soy
• Beans
• Grains
• Bran
• Seeds
• Peanuts
• Sweet Potatoes
• Figs
• Kiwi
• Turmeric
• Guava
• Spinach
• Swiss Chard
• Yam
• Beet Tops
• Beet Root
• Okra
• Chocolate/cocoa
• Parsley
• Oregano
• Peanut
• Almonds
• Coconut
• Goat dairy
• Black beans
• Quinoa
• Oats
• Carrot juice
• Oranges
• Dried Pineapple
• Grapefruit
• Raspberries
• Dates

Low Oxalate Foods

• Meats
• Dairy
• Eggs
• Fats and Oils
• Arugula
• Bok choy
• Cabbage
• Cauliflower
• Cucumber
• Garlic
• Romaine Lettuce
• Onions
• Radish
• Zucchini
• Iceberg Lettuce
• Bell Pepper
• Winter Squash
• Melon
• Mango
• Nectarine
• Papaya
• Watermelon
• Apple
• Peach
• Cherries

For a more complete list of the amount of oxalates in foods, click here.

You will notice that some foods low in oxalates are either high in lectins or sulfur.  Everyone has a different profile of what foods are easily processed in their bodies. Saying that, there are certain foods that typically agree with everyone.  Foods that seem to heal many chronic diseases, provide dense nutrition and lower inflammation include:

• Wild Meats including lamb, duck, bison, deer, and elk
• Wild Fish
• Lettuces like romaine, iceberg, and bib
• Asparagus
• Artichoke
• Celery
• Cucumber

This is the reason that the Carnivore Diet has become a protocol that those who have exhausted every other protocol without success see true healing through this modality. Personally, I love vegetables and incorporate the ones on the list above; I can’t eat sulfur-containing foods or oxalates, but I am able to process lectins and nightshades while others can get ill from those.  The key is to find out how your body can process each of the possible “poisonous” health foods through a proper elimination diet.

How to Properly Detox From Oxalates and Reduce Pain

Detoxing from oxalates doesn’t happen overnight; it may take years but you can see a significant difference much sooner by incorporating the below tools:

Ascent Diet Cleanse

This comprehensive cleanse incorporates the Accelerated Keto®™, Acceleradine®, Accelerated Silver®, Accelerated Cellular Detox Powder®, Wild Lytes, Liver Flush Kit, and Laxa Comfort.  The synergistic combination not only opens up the oxalate detoxification pathways, but also increases ATP production and efficacy, increases mitophagy, autophagy, thyroid health, metabolism, mental clarity, physical energy, endurance, and anti-inflammatory mechanisms.  As a result, clients lose body fat, especially the dangerous visceral fat, increase the cells’ phase angle or the cells’ ability to absorb nutrients and release toxins that affect ATP production, while improving mental and physical energy.

Wild Lytes.  Wild-Lytes goes beyond the scope of a simple electrolyte formula to target the effects of daily stress, inflammation, adrenal fatigue and immune disruption at a cellular level, providing a foundation for whole-body health.  Unlike many electrolyte supplements, nothing in this formulation regulates phase one liver detoxification or blocks sulfation pathways for oxalate metabolism.

Accelerated Keto®™.   Accelerated Keto®™ suppresses your appetite for the carbs and sugar containing foods that contain oxalates and helps you intermittently fast and focus on the meat and fat based foods low in oxalates and other inflammatory nutrients.  As your body fasts, the gut is able to heal and detox from oxalates and additional toxins.  Furthermore, the ingredients de-fat the liver, allowing the liver to improve the detoxification pathways, as it is your main detoxifying organ.

Acceleradine®.  Acceleradine® is the only iodine that has 100 percent absorption and can help reverse hashimotos and hypothyroidism caused by oxalate poisoning to the thyroid.  The thyroid is the second most likely organ for oxalates to be stored behind the kidneys where kidney stones are formed.  It is essential for reversing oxalate poisoning and improving metabolism to supplement with iodine; without sufficient iodine, the thyroid will continue to attract and store oxalate deposits.

Accelerated Cellular Detox Powder®.  These six organic ingredients not only help with regularity, but it soaks up poisons, including oxalate detoxification deposits that the body is clearing out.  Additionally it helps clear alcohol and toxic chemicals, supports digestive health, reduces bloat, improves kidney and liver function, helps lower cholesterol and reduces inflammation throughout the digestive tract.  It now has Scalar frequencies embedded in the formula to further enhance the detoxification of insecticides and heavy metals.

Liver Flush.  This combination will soften the liver and gallstones in the body, opening up the liver pathways and improve the oxalate and sulfur detoxification pathways safely and effectively.

Laxa Comfort. This will increase bowel movements, removing the toxins quickly and safely, preventing reabsorption.

X39 Patches

These patches increase your own stem cell production and resets 4000 Genes to Younger State. As a result, it  helps repair collage in all tissues, activates stem cell production, encourages apoptosis of cancer cells, and discourages metastatic cancer cells.  The stem cell production improves the detoxification pathways including the oxalate detoxification process.

Aeon Patches

The Aeon Lifewave patch is known as the “Happy Patch”.  It increases SOD antioxidants in the body, and is turning on our innate immune system.  It puts you into the parasympathetic state so you are not constantly in the sympathetic state of “fight or flight”.  The benefits include:  stress reduction, a healthy inflammatory response, a reduction of cortisol & C reactive proteins, an elevation of DHEA, a calm sense of well-being, and increased energy.  It is like eating 30 cups of royal jelly a day which is connected to increasing longevity.  With the reduction of inflammation in joints and in the kidneys, the detoxification of oxalates is enhanced and symptoms of oxalate poisoning are decrease

Ola Loa

The proper balance of potassium to sodium in the cells increases the Phase Angle, or integrity of cellular health and the ability of cells to detox properly.  Thirty percent of all energy is allocated to the sodium potassium pump in the cell. This pump is the mechanism for the movement of electrolytes through the cell membrane.  It is the battery that maintains the electrical charge to move sodium out and potassium into the cell.  Without potassium you will lose energy, brain function, experience cramping and constipation, have swelling, edema and more.  This will reduce the oxalate poisoning symptoms of edema, swelling, water retention, pain and inflammation.

Liquid BioCell Collagen

This award-winning product is the most easily absorbed and is clinically shown to promote healthy aging, active joints, and younger-looking skin. It provides a naturally occurring matrix of hydrolyzed collagen, hyaluronic acid, and chondroitin sulfate in highly bioavailable forms.  Most collagen supplements come from sources that cannot be absorbed by the body.  This will help with the damage done by oxalate deposits in the bones and joints and relieve arthritic pain.

Eliminate the High Oxalate Foods

Focus on the wild meats, health fats, and low oxalate vegetables to lessen the oxalic acid burden on the liver, kidneys, thyroid and all of the organs.  As you eliminate the oxalates out of the body, symptoms may get worse before they get better, as your body is pulling the oxalates out of the tissues and into the bloodstream.  If this happens, you can add some oxalates back in to slow down the oxalate dumping.

Exercise and Sauna Therapy

Both of these tools will increase detoxification, speeding up the oxalate dumping process.

If you would like to discuss your personal symptoms and determine if they are from high oxalates contact Sara at Accelerated Health Products for more information.