OK, this is mostly a thread about our recent tests for metals and nutrient deficiencies. However, the driving force behind all this testing is to help address his food intolerances - so hopefully it can stay in this forum 
.
A little background. DS is likely on the autism spectrum, although we don't have a formal diagnosis. He has less social/relational skills than most kids his age, and less language (understood and spoken). He has very strong abilities with patterns and space.
He has always had sleep issues - like getting up for 3-4 hours in the night 2-4 times a week from the time he was about 9 months old. Teeths very hard, still nurses a lot, and didn't really start solids until 18 months old. No "obvious" signs of food intolerances until about 5 months ago, when he suddenly developed a perpetually stuffy nose and itchy butt.
Trial and error and the help of all the mamas here, and we figured out he was sals sensitive, and had trouble digesting a ton of foods, including gluten, casein, complex starches, and sugars. He also had low stomach acid, which pointed at low zinc.
We started supping minerals (esp. zinc, mag, molybdenum, selenium) and I started taking a lot more vitamins to pass to him. We're also using digestive enzymes (for him and me). We've gained a lot of foods back the past 4-6 weeks, so now all we are avoiding are gluten, casein, most fruit, and corn sugar.
First test that was done was the DDI Hair Elements test, here.
This test showed:
1) Very high antimony. Source, likely his bed and PJs (fire retardants), although our dishes are also leaching small amounts. We're making him (and me) a new bed with no fire retardants and washed all PJs/bedding in wash soda to get out the fire retardant.
2) Pretty high arsenic. Probably same sources as the antimony (they are similar and often cross contaminated). We tested our water for this and several other things, it's clean.
3) A little high on lead and cadmium. These are the ones that after research actually worry me the most - they stay in the body the longest, and can have nasty effects at relatively low levels. Source still not obvious - it's not lead, dishes, or any obvious contamination. Both are in food in low levels, and many ASD kids don't detox metals at all well - so it may not be increased exposure, but decreased detox causing these levels to move into the yellow.
4) Very low zinc. We had already started supping by the time I did the hair test, so I'm guessing we'd get very different results now, but nice confirmation of what we saw in terms of low stomach acid suggesting low zinc.
5) High levels of some odd stuff like boron, cobalt, and vanadium. I think these all came from our dishes (high quality stoneware, but many years in the dishwasher were causing the glaze to leach).
6) No evidence of mercury toxicity. It passes all the counting rules, and doesn't show any of the other patterns sometimes seen with mercury toxic hair tests. Not entirely surprising, he's not vaxed and neither was I, but I do have 3 amalgams, and if he isn't mercury toxic, he's probably the only ASD kid in the hair tested universe who isn't
.
Next test done was the DDI Urine Toxic Elements profile, here. The main reason we did this test was to have a baseline before we try helping him detox metals, and also to see what appeared to be current exposure. Because of that, I haven't spent a lot of time trying to interpret the test the way I did with the hair test.
However, a few comments, in case it helps anyone else considering the test:
1) High barium and nickel - I'm ignoring these, LOL! Neither was high in his hair test, so either they are new exposures, or he's just doing a good job of getting rid of these on his own. Barium could be because of supping magnesium, that can help chelate barium.
2) High levels of some minerals like copper, zinc, mo, mag. For things like zinc and mo, I think it's because we are supping, and he is getting more than he can absorb right now (which hopefully relates to what he can use). I'm happy to see the high copper - ASD kids often end up high in copper, so I think it is a sign that we are normalizing his zinc levels. Or a sign our water has high copper, we're testing to rule that out.
3) Lots of sulfur being peed. Not sure what form (sulfur, sulfite, sulfate). When I have the brain bandwidth, I need to investigate this more, or find a more detailed test - sulfur/sulfate issues can cause issues with both salicylates and heavy metals detox, and I suspect it's where his detox pathways are most challenged.
So, for the most part, we're ignoring this test in terms of trying to interpret it - it will mostly become useful once we have two of them to compare. This is just baseline. Oh, and it does suggest lead is a current exposure, since lead excretion is high.
Most recent test is the urine porphyrins test from the lab in France, here, and here. I have to say, without the first two tests, this would have been confusing as all hell. Still is confusing. Two very important helps on interpreting it were this (done by the guy who runs the French lab) and this. Here's another article critical of the french pee test, suggesting getting the right reference range for your age is important, I need to learn more about that.
Here's what I get from the test so far (note that there isn't much more to the results than what I posted, very little interpretation):
1) The test has two different reference ranges on the two pages. This is most important for his precoproporphyrin - in one range, he's normal, in the other, he's high. The only thing known to drive preco high is mercury. However, even without that, the test seems to suggest he may have "a little" mercury - a couple of his ratios are just above normal. I've emailed the lab to find out which ratio to use, but we'll move forward assuming we *could* run into mercury. High pentacarboxyporphyrin is also generally a mercury marker, but I'm still reading to see if other things can to this besides mercury.
2) Lead is definitely high, and probably more of a problem than his hair test made obvious (perhaps his levels are building because he doesn't detox well - his hair grows very slowly, so his hair test would tend to reflect older information). One worry I have is that I am his primary lead source - it is common for pg and nursing mamas to dump lead out of their long term bone stores (as your body grabs calcium). And we went dairy free in March, so my calcium intake would have gone down then, which may have increased my blood lead. I've ordered a blood lead test to check. That would make for a complicated situation - DS nurses a LOT, I don't want to wean him, but increasing my calcium with his restrictions will be very tricky.
3) Arsenic is high (uroporphyrin levels) - again, not a surprise from the hair test. And not an enormous worry - we think we know the source (bed), we're addressing it, and arsenic clears from the body fairly quickly.
4) Overall toxic load (copro levels = mercury + lead + arsenic) are high - not a surprise, and this is the number we will be watching to bring down over time. I think this is the best test for identifying quickly if body metals burden is going down (hair tests take a while because new hair has to grow first). Because his copro is elevated more than his preco, it suggests lead is our biggest issue, mercury may be an issue, but not a huge one.
.A little background. DS is likely on the autism spectrum, although we don't have a formal diagnosis. He has less social/relational skills than most kids his age, and less language (understood and spoken). He has very strong abilities with patterns and space.
He has always had sleep issues - like getting up for 3-4 hours in the night 2-4 times a week from the time he was about 9 months old. Teeths very hard, still nurses a lot, and didn't really start solids until 18 months old. No "obvious" signs of food intolerances until about 5 months ago, when he suddenly developed a perpetually stuffy nose and itchy butt.
Trial and error and the help of all the mamas here, and we figured out he was sals sensitive, and had trouble digesting a ton of foods, including gluten, casein, complex starches, and sugars. He also had low stomach acid, which pointed at low zinc.
We started supping minerals (esp. zinc, mag, molybdenum, selenium) and I started taking a lot more vitamins to pass to him. We're also using digestive enzymes (for him and me). We've gained a lot of foods back the past 4-6 weeks, so now all we are avoiding are gluten, casein, most fruit, and corn sugar.
First test that was done was the DDI Hair Elements test, here.
This test showed:
1) Very high antimony. Source, likely his bed and PJs (fire retardants), although our dishes are also leaching small amounts. We're making him (and me) a new bed with no fire retardants and washed all PJs/bedding in wash soda to get out the fire retardant.
2) Pretty high arsenic. Probably same sources as the antimony (they are similar and often cross contaminated). We tested our water for this and several other things, it's clean.
3) A little high on lead and cadmium. These are the ones that after research actually worry me the most - they stay in the body the longest, and can have nasty effects at relatively low levels. Source still not obvious - it's not lead, dishes, or any obvious contamination. Both are in food in low levels, and many ASD kids don't detox metals at all well - so it may not be increased exposure, but decreased detox causing these levels to move into the yellow.
4) Very low zinc. We had already started supping by the time I did the hair test, so I'm guessing we'd get very different results now, but nice confirmation of what we saw in terms of low stomach acid suggesting low zinc.
5) High levels of some odd stuff like boron, cobalt, and vanadium. I think these all came from our dishes (high quality stoneware, but many years in the dishwasher were causing the glaze to leach).
6) No evidence of mercury toxicity. It passes all the counting rules, and doesn't show any of the other patterns sometimes seen with mercury toxic hair tests. Not entirely surprising, he's not vaxed and neither was I, but I do have 3 amalgams, and if he isn't mercury toxic, he's probably the only ASD kid in the hair tested universe who isn't
.Next test done was the DDI Urine Toxic Elements profile, here. The main reason we did this test was to have a baseline before we try helping him detox metals, and also to see what appeared to be current exposure. Because of that, I haven't spent a lot of time trying to interpret the test the way I did with the hair test.
However, a few comments, in case it helps anyone else considering the test:
1) High barium and nickel - I'm ignoring these, LOL! Neither was high in his hair test, so either they are new exposures, or he's just doing a good job of getting rid of these on his own. Barium could be because of supping magnesium, that can help chelate barium.
2) High levels of some minerals like copper, zinc, mo, mag. For things like zinc and mo, I think it's because we are supping, and he is getting more than he can absorb right now (which hopefully relates to what he can use). I'm happy to see the high copper - ASD kids often end up high in copper, so I think it is a sign that we are normalizing his zinc levels. Or a sign our water has high copper, we're testing to rule that out.
3) Lots of sulfur being peed. Not sure what form (sulfur, sulfite, sulfate). When I have the brain bandwidth, I need to investigate this more, or find a more detailed test - sulfur/sulfate issues can cause issues with both salicylates and heavy metals detox, and I suspect it's where his detox pathways are most challenged.
So, for the most part, we're ignoring this test in terms of trying to interpret it - it will mostly become useful once we have two of them to compare. This is just baseline. Oh, and it does suggest lead is a current exposure, since lead excretion is high.
Most recent test is the urine porphyrins test from the lab in France, here, and here. I have to say, without the first two tests, this would have been confusing as all hell. Still is confusing. Two very important helps on interpreting it were this (done by the guy who runs the French lab) and this. Here's another article critical of the french pee test, suggesting getting the right reference range for your age is important, I need to learn more about that.
Here's what I get from the test so far (note that there isn't much more to the results than what I posted, very little interpretation):
1) The test has two different reference ranges on the two pages. This is most important for his precoproporphyrin - in one range, he's normal, in the other, he's high. The only thing known to drive preco high is mercury. However, even without that, the test seems to suggest he may have "a little" mercury - a couple of his ratios are just above normal. I've emailed the lab to find out which ratio to use, but we'll move forward assuming we *could* run into mercury. High pentacarboxyporphyrin is also generally a mercury marker, but I'm still reading to see if other things can to this besides mercury.
2) Lead is definitely high, and probably more of a problem than his hair test made obvious (perhaps his levels are building because he doesn't detox well - his hair grows very slowly, so his hair test would tend to reflect older information). One worry I have is that I am his primary lead source - it is common for pg and nursing mamas to dump lead out of their long term bone stores (as your body grabs calcium). And we went dairy free in March, so my calcium intake would have gone down then, which may have increased my blood lead. I've ordered a blood lead test to check. That would make for a complicated situation - DS nurses a LOT, I don't want to wean him, but increasing my calcium with his restrictions will be very tricky.
3) Arsenic is high (uroporphyrin levels) - again, not a surprise from the hair test. And not an enormous worry - we think we know the source (bed), we're addressing it, and arsenic clears from the body fairly quickly.
4) Overall toxic load (copro levels = mercury + lead + arsenic) are high - not a surprise, and this is the number we will be watching to bring down over time. I think this is the best test for identifying quickly if body metals burden is going down (hair tests take a while because new hair has to grow first). Because his copro is elevated more than his preco, it suggests lead is our biggest issue, mercury may be an issue, but not a huge one.
whew!
.
