This document discusses how getting rid of oxalate is unlike what you may have been taught about “detoxing”. The original document was written by Susan Owens, and has been summarized here for members of the Trying Low Oxalates group.
Many group members come from a background of complementary/ alternative treatments and may not realize that the way the body gets rid of oxalate is different. We call this process “dumping” because oxalate can be quickly “dumped” (from places where it is stored in the tissues) into the blood stream – and the results can range from unpleasant to life threatening. What we are talking about is the mobilization of oxalate out of the tissues from where it has been stored. Please read through the following important points about dumping!
1. Dumping oxalate IS NOT A DETOXIFICATION process that is handled by the liver. The liver helps to get rid of chemicals that have to be modified - first with a Phase I process (p450 enzymes) which often oxidize the substance and then by Phase II processes like glucuronidation, etc which tend to make the substance more soluble (so it’s easier to get rid of). Detoxification involves essentially changing the identity of the substance being detoxified by chemical modification. That DOESN'T happen with oxalate. Our bodies have no way to make oxalate less toxic. Our only options are ways to make our bodies cope better, or get rid of it better, which includes getting it to be "eaten" by oxalate degrading microbes in our intestines. There is no evidence that the process of oxalate being metabolized can happen in our bodies other than our guts.
2. Oxalate leaves the body unchanged. The only thing that may happen to oxalate in the body is that (because it has two negative charges) it may often bind minerals. So what members need to know is that oxalate is just as toxic as it is leaving as it ever was, which is exactly why when large amounts of oxalate leave at once, it can sometimes produce serious symptoms! These symptoms are so grave that when someone with primary hyperoxaluria (PH) gets a new liver (that no longer makes oxalate), the sudden release of large amounts of oxalate from the rest of the body (where it is stored) can even end up being fatal. They don't know much about how to keep it from being fatal, which is why a PH patient is at much greater risk from a liver transplant compared to people getting a transplant for other reasons that don't involve dealing with oxalate.
3. The previous two points are why we do not recommend dropping your oxalate levels too quickly. It is all about quantity when you are talking about oxalate.
4. Oxalate is NOT a sensitivity issue. Oxalate is actually characterized as a poison (in sufficient quantity), and like all chemicals that are that toxic, the issue is how much you are exposed to at once. When we are taking in oxalate through the diet, especially habitually, the body will likely NOT react to it, but will stash it away somewhere out of the way (most often in your bones quantitatively). Once stored, oxalate may not show up symptomatically for years and years. The problem becomes its accumulation and how it can insidiously impair our body's chemistry over time.
5. “Dumping”, which is the process of how and when oxalate will leave our bodies, has not been well studied. Studies on primary hyperoxaluria have shown us that you release oxalate from tissues when your blood level goes down, which probably explains why lowering oxalate in the diet can often get this process started. This may have little to do with measuring what is happening in urine because there are multiple places to secrete oxalate, and we don't know very much about how the body decides when to concentrate its focus on urine vs intestine vs. lungs vs. skin. Susan Owens’ EJPN study showed plasma and urine did not correlate, especially in healthy controls where urinary secretion seemed limited.
6. It took Susan Owens’ Autism Oxalate Project a long time to realize that the goal is NOT to eliminate symptoms that are caused by oxalate, but instead to allow our bodies to secrete the oxalate as safely as possible, and we learned that this sometimes meant that reducing oxalate more slowly was far better.
7. It took a long time to realize that treatments that stop the release of oxalate may stop symptoms, but it is a mistake to thing they are "healing". Stopping the efforts of your body to secrete oxalate can amount to putting it off for later. Such treatments may improve how you feel temporarily, but it doesn't reduce oxalate's toxicity! THEREFORE, it is not appropriate to think that if treatment X (new supplement, new drug (diflucan), homeopathic treatment, etc.) got rid of symptoms that you believe "oxalate caused", that it is now correct to say or assume that approach TREATED oxalate or made you where you were no longer "oxalate sensitive". It just doesn't work like that. Nothing makes oxalate safe. (Read that last sentence again!) Calcium or minerals in the gut may make us absorb less, but it is still oxalate, and capable of later doing harm if it stays in the body at levels that are harmful.
8. In this support group, we have learned ways to make ourselves more comfortable during dumping without stopping the clearance process. Protecting our bodies from the oxidative stress oxalate causes is one good strategy accomplished with antioxidants or arginine or even antihistamines. BUT they are not "detoxifying" oxalate. They are just helping us tolerate the effects from oxalate as it leaves the body.
There is some information below about the toxicity of absorbed oxalate. Keep in mind that our whole goal is to allow the body to slowly get rid of our excess oxalate and limit its effects on our cells so we don't get serious symptoms later.
These are links that discuss oxalate's toxicity:
Note that when Susan Owens first started the Autism Oxalate Project (and the support groups), parents or adults had been taught by others to micromanage by symptoms, expecting that the last change made was responsible for whatever followed, good or bad. We soon learned that the timing of oxalate's exit from tissues follows rules that we don't yet understand, and may have absolutely nothing to do with your new supplement or treatment. That took a long time for us to learn, but finally we did learn it and in the past ten years, we have sorted a lot of it out by helping over 30,000 people through the two support groups on Yahoo and Facebook.
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