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Autism: What are the best value-for-money lab tests for my autistic child?
100 Plays8 months ago
Children's health consulting (autism, ADHD, gut dysfunction etc.): https://christianyordanov.com/childrens-health-consulting/
Get my book Autism Wellbeing Plan: How to Get Your Child Healthy: https://amzn.to/43ah6yD
My new book, How to Actually Live Longer, Vol.1: https://amzn.to/3OnZJGl
Christian Yordanov is a health author and Functional Diagnostic Nutrition practitioner. He has worked with clients with severe gastrointestinal ailments, toxicity, and debilitating chronic fatigue. He has helped people with autoimmune and neurological conditions, skin disorders, hypothyroidism, insomnia, depression, autism, obesity, and other metabolic problems.
His latest book, How to Actually Live Longer, Vol. 1, is the first in his series on slowing the ageing process and increasing longevity. He is also author of the book Autism Wellbeing Plan: How to Get Your Child Healthy — a comprehensive resource for parents to understand the most common health problems from which autistic children suffer, and how to address them.
In his clinical work, Christian uses functional lab testing to identify hidden metabolic and health imbalances, and teaches clients how to use diet, supplementation, detoxification, stress reduction, sleep optimisation, and other strategies to address their chronic health issues and transform their lives for the better.
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Transcript
Introduction to Cost-Effective Autism Tests
00:00:00
Speaker
Hi, Christian Ordonov here. Today I want to talk to you about the two best value for money tests that you can run if your child is diagnosed with autism or if you suspect they're on the spectrum or if they have
00:00:16
Speaker
some diagnosis or you can see that they have an overt health issue like it's most especially got dysfunction but also sleep issues allergies and if they get sick very often and very often is anything more than
00:00:36
Speaker
two to four times a year generally is too often. So these tests cost just, I'll be upfront, they cost depending on where you are in the world between $350 to $450 with shipping to you and pickup by courier included.
00:01:04
Speaker
they're collected at home, convenient. So they're really good on that side of things. But they're not for everybody's budget. But that does not mean that you have to run them. Otherwise, you can't help your child, right?
Importance of Testing and Alternative Protocols
00:01:20
Speaker
There's
00:01:22
Speaker
And I talk about it in my book and I'm planning as an upcoming book that will summarize the best protocols and everything I've learned over the last few years, working with families with autistic kids and other kids with health, various health issues. But you don't necessarily have to run the tests, but if you have the option, I would highly recommend doing at least one of these tests. And with more complex cases, generally both are good to do. Now the two tests I'm going to talk about.
00:01:53
Speaker
I've spoken about them before. I write about them in my book, but I feel like for the new listeners, it's good to talk about them again because they're just so valuable. So the first one is the GI map. So that stands for Gastrointestinal Microbial Assay Plus, right? Let me just pull up a sample report here.
00:02:24
Speaker
Okay, so this is a stool test that you just scoop a bit of poop. So if your child is still wearing diapers, you scoop a bit of poop out of the diaper. Otherwise, if they're pooping on the toilet, there's a way to collect it from, you know, there's a little piece of paper you slip on, they poop on it, you scoop it in. No big deal. Shake the bottle, put it in the fridge, and you have the courier cold.
00:02:53
Speaker
to pick it up the day before. So let's say you do that. You do all of this on a Sunday. You schedule the courier on a Friday to come on Monday. Your child poops on Sunday, put that in the fridge, and then you wait. The courier collects it. Now, this test tests for genetic material. So it's a QPCR test, so quantitative PCR. So they don't just detect the organisms, but they also
00:03:24
Speaker
quantify them in terms of how much genetic material per gram of stool you have present in the poop. Because that allows us to see if there's a lot of something that shouldn't be a lot, or there's very little of something that's normally
00:03:45
Speaker
present in much higher amounts, most notably the so-called beneficial or commensal microbiome or microbiota, you know, the lactobacillus, the Bifido, these guys.
00:04:01
Speaker
So why is this test really awesome? Well, for one with children that are not potty trained, it's just really the best thing ever because it's so convenient.
Understanding the GI Map Test
00:04:15
Speaker
Now with the other test, I'll talk about the organic acids test, which is a urine sample. It's a little bit, it's a little bit tricky.
00:04:26
Speaker
because with smaller kids, you have to use a pediatric collection bag and sometimes that leaks and, you know, if it happens on the first time, then we may have to reorder the kit and it just really,
00:04:41
Speaker
I found that it's better to just not put the parents through all that hassle and frustration. So this GI map gives us quite a lot of different organisms. So we can detect specific bacterial pathogens, campylobacter, your C. difficile, toxins, certain E. coli, salmonella, cholera, then you have your other
00:05:10
Speaker
parasitic pathogens like cryptosporidium, Giardia, which I myself had that we detected that on my test, and Tamimba histolytica, and then a couple of viruses. So then you also test for H. pylori.
00:05:27
Speaker
like I mentioned, the commensal keystone bacteria, also known as the, quote unquote, beneficial bacteria. So we have your Bifidobacterium enterococcus, Lactobacillus enterobacteris acromantius, and so on.
00:05:43
Speaker
And this basically gives us, there's basically three things this tells us, these commensal bacteria, whether they're in, some of them are incredibly low, incredibly overgrown, or there's a really big imbalance in them. And in all cases that informs the nutritional dietary supplement and occasionally lifestyle protocol.
00:06:13
Speaker
that I design and I give you a protocol in all cases, whether or not we run a test. So before we even get the lab results, I always give you an initial protocol to start implementing right away. So we have the initial consultation.
00:06:33
Speaker
I give you the dietary lifestyle, all the environmental, anything and everything that I think is important for you to take care of in the home as soon as possible. I give you that, the initial supplement protocol, and more often than not, I give you
00:06:50
Speaker
the baseline or the base gut balancing protocol. Because generally, most of the cases that I work with are quite complex already. Quite often, there's quite a lot of gut issues. So we have to start immediately doing stuff. And I like to not
00:07:13
Speaker
wait around until we have data, because I've seen enough cases to understand the basic patterns. So we really need to, again, do as much as we can. And any data we get with lab testing is nice to have. But like I said, it's not absolutely necessary. So if that is what is preventing you,
00:07:41
Speaker
from working with me, understand we can just do the much more basic stuff and save that money for the lab tests, for supplements, better quality food, occasionally we can invest that money in better water purification, better air purification in the home and so on.
Implications of Gut Health on Overall Well-being
00:08:06
Speaker
Other things that the GI map gives us a snapshot of is the current state of the so-called opportunistic or overgrowth microbes. These are generally, some of these are always present in the gut in relatively low numbers or in numbers that are not problematic for us. And when they overgrow, it's generally
00:08:36
Speaker
Because the other bacteria, the quote unquote beneficial bacteria, those numbers are knocked down maybe due to antibiotic, maybe due to poor diet, processed foods, inflammatory factors, immune system, dysregulation or dysfunction or suppression.
00:08:55
Speaker
And so these include a lot of gram-negative bacteria. And these gram-negative bacteria, they produce toxins that's part of their cell wall. And these toxins have been implicated in a lot of different diseases, from atherosclerosis to depression. I actually talk quite a bit about endotoxin, it's what it's called, or lipopolysaccharide. In my latest book,
00:09:25
Speaker
which is on longevity, how to actually live longer volume one. You should check that out. I believe all parents will benefit from this book because a lot of the stuff you will implement to increase your longevity will make your whole family healthier. And I discuss a lot of strategies to reduce your own stress. And I mean physiological stress, but that ties into psychological stress. So
00:09:52
Speaker
You will love this book. It's very short. If you compare, if you're watching the video, if you compare my autism book is 300 pages, this one is 200 pages and it's a smaller format. So you'll be able to read it quickly and apply the.
00:10:07
Speaker
the advice quickly. And some of it is very easy to apply. And I also have a link to an online appendix in the book where you can get some of the supplements. And some of these supplements are a core part of my protocols with adults. So you're getting a lot of my knowledge and what we do with clients. You're getting a lot of my recommendations. You'll be getting it for the price of one of these books.
00:10:38
Speaker
I should also mention, I also, I offer, I'm going to put it up on the website soon, family health consulting. So where let's say a mom and her child, we can put you on one package and I can help both of your help. We do that with some of my clients or we do couples health consulting where we help, we help obviously the couple. But this is, this is another way to get more
00:11:05
Speaker
help for your family if you need it. A lot of moms I talked to, they were just kind of one or two pregnancies. Their recovery was difficult. Taking care of the child is difficult, especially if they have a diagnosis.
00:11:20
Speaker
then it becomes even more stressful and difficult. And let's say that dad has to work or both parents have to work. So health tends to take a backseat and people's health deteriorates rather quickly. I myself, after my daughter was born, I saw pictures from about three years ago and I saw how much I've aged just in the last three years. Now,
00:11:44
Speaker
COVID stuff that was a big stressor on us also that aged me as well and a lot of other people as well but I can see how much having kids and all that all the other stressors
00:11:57
Speaker
take a toll on people. So I'd like to extend this offering to people that need help for their entire family. I'm sure we could even make an arrangement where we could do the mom, dad, and a child or two kids and a mom or whatever on one adult health consulting package. Because a lot of the recommendations will relate or will pertain to your entire family.
00:12:25
Speaker
So, you know, it won't be that much extra work for me to accommodate more people from one family. Anyway, back to the GI map. It also gives us specific inflammatory and autoimmune related bacteria, so we can catch these early.
00:12:47
Speaker
And this is all about catching overgrowth and imbalances as quickly as possible, because in the meantime, whether or not the person shows symptoms, they are causing damage. And that is through, again, especially in the case of these gram-negative bacteria, that is because they produce these endotoxin particles that activate the immune system.
00:13:14
Speaker
and it creates strong inflammatory responses to them.
Organic Acids Test and Broader Health Insights
00:13:21
Speaker
And the sooner we stop that or ameliorate it, the better off the person's health will be. And by the way, these things are
00:13:30
Speaker
I just want to just give me one second. I want to find it in my book. I'll tell you. So these bacteria, I often see them with the autistic kids. Well, in general, I see them more often. We see these endotoxin producing bacteria than overt pathogens that will give you like diarrhea and like you feel horrible and could even die from like salmonella, cryptosporidium, clostridium difficile. So these endotoxin producing bacteria.
00:14:00
Speaker
So when people, when human subjects go to the volunteer for experiments where they inject them with this endotoxin that these bacteria produce, it's called experimental endotoxemia. It, let me just tell you. So.
00:14:25
Speaker
It causes them to experience. This is, I write about this in my book, by the way, there's a gut cleansing protocol for adults in there. Uh, the how to actually live longer volume one book link will be down below, but, um,
00:14:40
Speaker
So when these human volunteers are injected with one nanogram of endotoxin per kilogram of body mass, which is 0.0001 milligrams, tiny amount, they experience increased sickness behavior, fatigue, headache, muscle pain, shivering,
00:15:02
Speaker
and or decreased motivation, alertness, energy, focus, pep, social interest. So think about it this way. A lot of these autistic kids have these bacteria overgrowing sometimes a lot, like an order of magnitude above the reference range. And these endotoxins, especially if there's other gut dysfunction, inflammatory
00:15:28
Speaker
factors from the diet, the environment, and especially if this goes on for years or months or years, well, these endotoxins, that inflammation has been correlated with all sorts of things. So depression,
00:15:42
Speaker
like I said here, reduced social interest, reduced energy focus, reduced alertness, headache, fatigue, muscle pain, and think about it this way, some of these things that let's say that manifest in an adult that says, oh, I have muscle pain, my bones hurt, you know, like when you have the flu or whatever, and it hurts,
00:16:06
Speaker
Like your bones hurt or you feel weak or you feel depressed. You can verbalize these things, but kids can't necessarily, you know, younger kids, you know, under five or whatever. So they may act out.
00:16:22
Speaker
They may self hurt, they just may withdraw, they may stim. So they have their own ways to deal with this, right? And then we may erroneously ascribe
00:16:37
Speaker
that to just oh it's because they have a diagnosis of autism or you know do you understand where how physiological imbalances got dysbiosis increased intestinal permeability these things can manifest as behavioral symptoms right but the underlying
00:17:04
Speaker
triggers was something in the gut that we can identify and then address with very basic protocols, diet, some supplements, some lifestyle stuff around the home, environmental things that we can change, reducing toxins, stuff like that, right?
00:17:26
Speaker
So it's very valuable as well to know, is it one of these type of bacteria, the gram negatives, or is it a Clostridium difficile, which we know is often, I can't say often, but in a substantial
00:17:44
Speaker
portion of autistic kids, Clostridium difficile is detected on the organic acids test, right? So the GI map, just to wrap up the test, it also detects certain, like I said, viruses.
00:17:59
Speaker
fungi and yeast, so candida and a few others. Also, other parasites like worms can be detected. Several worms and several protozoa, including blastocystis hominis, cyclospora, dientamoeba, frigidus and dolimax. Here's the thing, the GI map
00:18:24
Speaker
can sometimes catch something that the best course of action is to go to the doctor and get an antibiotic. And if you catch this early, it's a godsend, right? And I always, when we get lab test results that I facilitate getting off,
00:18:45
Speaker
I always refer my clients to the doctor because the doctor may look over it, may give their point of view, right? But in certain cases, the best thing is to just take an antibiotic and get rid of whatever pathogen, right? Most cases though, herbal, cleanses, gut support, probiotics, stuff like that will do the trick. We may have to repeat the protocol every once in a while, depending on the
00:19:15
Speaker
the presentation and how the child responds to the protocol, but generally these approaches are much gentler on anybody's system, less toxic things that are new to nature. And finally, the GI map also has several intestinal health markers, so we can see markers related to digestion,
00:19:43
Speaker
inflammation, immune response. So we have calprotectin, secretory IgA, steatocrate, elastase, beta glucuronidase, and we can even detect occult blood. So if there's blood in the stool, that's not necessarily visible. So this is actually things like calprotectin, if it's high,
00:20:08
Speaker
If there's blood in the stool, of course, the first thing I'll tell you is to see the doctor. And because you want to do a follow-up test, make sure that the blood in the stool is, if it just happens once out of, let's say, two tests, three tests, and I'm not talking about rerunning a whole GI map, there's cheap tests or that could be for free.
00:20:34
Speaker
that you could get at your local clinic to test for blood and Calprotectin. They're very cheap or free. But you want to just ensure there's not something more serious going on. And with this kind of test, you can catch things like inflammatory bowel disease very early on. And obviously with any condition, any issue, the sooner you catch it,
00:20:59
Speaker
sooner you can actually potentially stop it in your tracks or get the best outcomes possible for yourself or for your child, whoever that may be. So that's the GI map. Again, very useful, especially with smaller kids, but anyone with a doubt that have overt got this function, this is probably the best test to run to give us the most
00:21:22
Speaker
clinical insight that we can immediately apply. Now, the next test is the organic acids test. And I've spoken a lot about this. This is my absolute favorite test to run on anybody, a young old, because it covers so many aspects of the metabolism, right? So it has
00:21:46
Speaker
about 18 intestinal microbial overgrowth markers. So I should just just to reiterate, this is a simple urine collection with boys. It's easy to pee in a cup, first urine of the day, obviously, pee in the little cup, close that, freeze it, and then on that same day, ideally, you will have
00:22:11
Speaker
booked the courier to come pick it up. With girls, older girls, not an issue. Like I said, kids that are still peeing in their diapers with the pediatric collection bags, it can be a little bit finicky. So in those cases, we can do the GI map and just not put you through the... With boys, the pediatric collection bag stuff is actually easier, I should mention. But
00:22:42
Speaker
Depending on the case, we can just go with the GI map and not have to, for now, not have to deal with the... In any case, I often add the...
00:22:57
Speaker
the various things in terms of protocols and support. I often add that as part of the protocol that would address imbalances, but it would be good to know those imbalances are there because then we can sometimes double down
00:23:13
Speaker
Just to give you an example, because that can sound a bit esoteric, let's say we do the organic acids test and we discover fairly serious B vitamin deficiencies and very high oxalates.
00:23:30
Speaker
Then we have to really reduce dietary oxalates, which are parts of, which are basically anti-nutrients in grains and seeds and certain vegetables and some fruits. And if the B vitamins are low, we'll have to ensure B vitamins are taken.
00:23:47
Speaker
taking in the diet more often, so liver, egg yolks, and potentially even methylated B vitamins, B12, methyl folate, and the rest of the B vitamin family. If we see the indicators of detoxification,
00:24:05
Speaker
out of balance, then we really have to double down on reducing toxic exposures and add detoxification support usually with some amino acids and minerals and so on. So that's just kind of where catching things that are overt is very helpful.
00:24:24
Speaker
But like I said, so the first page of the organic acids test intestinal microbial overgrowth So we have your several aspergillus mold, which is the most common mold We have markers for that We have
00:24:46
Speaker
various markers. They're general bacterial imbalance markers. So if those are high, generally we can assume that the gut is in a state of dysbiosis. We have specific clostridia
00:25:04
Speaker
So that's a family of bacteria. So we have C. difficile and several other species, including Clostridium botulinum, which is another fairly nasty one. So catching these.
00:25:23
Speaker
early, the sooner, the better, the better off the person's health will be if, of course, they are addressed these imbalances. Then, like I said already, there's oxalate metabolites. Now, in my book, I talk about oxalates. I talk about what can be done about oxalates. I have previous episodes on the podcast discussing oxalates, so I won't go too deep into it, but a couple of those markers can
00:25:49
Speaker
detect genetic hyperoxaluria, so that's when it's a genetic thing. But there's also an oxalic acid marker which can be high due to certain mold and yeast species.
00:26:04
Speaker
And it can also be high due to high vitamin C intake, which is less often the case. And it can also be high because of too high of a dietary content of oxalates. And briefly, high oxalate foods include spinach, grains, like wheat and so on, and beets.
00:26:32
Speaker
sweet potato, cocoa, just these kind of foods are generally seeds, nuts, grains and certain vegetables and some fruits have relatively high content of oxalates but the worst offender is spinach.
00:26:51
Speaker
I have a whole podcast, I believe, episode on why I don't eat greens or spinach. And if I do, if I did, I would make sure they're really well cooked. So spinach, believe it or not, not a health food, I would not be going out of my way to get my kids to eat greens and eat spinach, right?
00:27:19
Speaker
This marker, high oxalic acid, is actually very common in autistic children, which is from a combination of, you know, high, you often have Candida is high, some type of fungal overgrowth. And when you have intestinal permeability, that can allow more oxalate to get into the gut and that can, it can lead to very serious health issues in some people.
00:27:43
Speaker
Some 60 or so percent of kidney stones are calcium oxalate. Oxalates can bind minerals in the gut and make them bio-unavailable.
00:27:58
Speaker
They can form crystals and then get jammed into our tissues, joints, even eyes. Actually, I've heard other clinicians talk about children with eye poking behavior. They've had extremely high oxalic acid on the organic acids test. These crystals can get into the brain as well.
00:28:20
Speaker
nothing to mess around with oxalates and detecting high oxalates on the organic acids test. It's one of the very few tests out there available to consumers with which we can detect this. So a lot of markers here, not necessarily always useful, but when they catch imbalances like this, just really godsend, you know.
Integrative Health Strategies and Early Detection
00:28:49
Speaker
Then we have more markers, these are related to the mitochondria, so mitochondrial markers for various energy production pathways, so glycolytic,
00:29:07
Speaker
Krebs cycle and amino acids. I won't get into too much detail here, but basically when some of these are high, it indicates a blockage in certain metabolic pathways related to energy production. And it's well known, and I talk about it again in my book, and I've talked about it on the podcast, that mitochondrial dysfunction is very common in autistic kids.
00:29:34
Speaker
And people that have mitochondrial dysfunction, because the mitochondria produce most of our energy, people that have mitochondrial dysfunction, generally they exhibit problems with the brain, the gut, and the muscles, because those are the organs with the highest concentration of mitochondria. They're the hungriest for energy organs, right?
00:30:04
Speaker
So then we have some neurotransmitter metabolites on the organic acids test. And these are related to dopamine, norepinephrine, epinephrine, and serotonin. And there's a marker on here that can indicate if there's neuroinflammation, which is actually quite common in autistic children, especially the more complex cases.
00:30:26
Speaker
So these are useful to see. I don't think they're not, from what I've seen, they're not dysregulated often. So they're not incredibly helpful much of the time, but in those times where they catch something, like let's say very high serotonin or very low dopamine, then they can be very helpful to guide, to really personalize the protocols, right?
00:30:57
Speaker
Then we have some more energy production markers related to fatty acid and ketone oxidation. We have nutritional markers for, so like I mentioned already, various B vitamins and some other nutrients. Then we also have the indicators of detoxification that I mentioned. So we can see if glutathione is
00:31:24
Speaker
low or deficient and glutathione is the main, the master cellular antioxidant. So obviously integral to detoxification, the immune system, we really want its levels to be optimal or as close to optimal as possible. So with this test, we can really see if support is needed on that side of things. And then there's another couple of markers that can indicate if there's increased toxic exposure. So these are the main
00:31:54
Speaker
areas of the metabolism that the test tests for very useful. Like I said, this coupled. So this, this goes for, this goes for adults and children. This some blood work.
00:32:09
Speaker
generally is really helpful. With autistic kids, this and the GI maps do test, so the organic acids test, the GI maps do test. If you can get some blood work, very helpful. Occasionally, we may do a hair test to see the excretion of toxic metals, how that's looking.
00:32:31
Speaker
Occasionally, we may do food sensitivity tests because it's fairly inexpensive. It's just a couple of dried blood spots that you prick a finger, drop a few drops of blood, and it's convenient if you're doing the organic acids test to do them together, send them together to the same lab.
00:32:54
Speaker
Those are optional once in a while we will recommend doing them you again usually if there's very high toxicity suspected or in more complex cases where the child is non-verbal and likewise with the food sensitivity panel when there's a lot of gut dysfunction that we just want to zero in on
00:33:17
Speaker
the foods that we must immediately exclude. So anything that's moderate to high on a food sensitivity panel.
00:33:27
Speaker
that we detect with it, we just immediately exclude from the diet. That's not to say that it would cover all the bases because there's a lot of different ways to react to food immunologically, but it's better than not having that data. If let's say you just detect three foods that the child is highly sensitive to, well, that's three less foods in the diet
00:33:52
Speaker
that's three less foods in the diet that could have been causing inflammation taken out. So we're reducing the overall inflammatory burden and that reduces the overall immune system drive. And keep in mind, keep in mind that this inflammation, this inflammatory
00:34:12
Speaker
These inflammatory reactions, they consume energy and consume nutrients and they cost the body resources. And these resources could be better spent towards developing the brain, the nervous system, the muscles growth, bone growth, just
00:34:33
Speaker
you know, for your child to express its full genetic potential and its full ability to grow and develop. So the sooner we can find as many of these impediments to optimal growth and development, the better off your child will be and
00:34:53
Speaker
Generally, the sooner we can address any health issues, the better setup there will be
Resources for Family Health Support
00:35:02
Speaker
for life. That's how I see it. And as a consequence for a lot of parents, a lot of stress is reduced on them, on you. And this is, again, a very important topic, which is why my How to Actually Live Longer Volume 1 book, you will get a lot of insights on how to reduce, keep your stress low.
00:35:26
Speaker
psychologically and physiologically. Excuse me. I think it will be very useful. If you haven't got my Autism Wellbeing Plan book, grab that. Make sure you go to the website, see if there's anything there that piques your interest. Like I said, I do health consulting for parents. If you need it, we can do family arrangements.
00:35:46
Speaker
I have free video courses. I have a membership platform. I have a bunch of courses on there. There'll be a lot more content in the future. So check out my website, christianjordanov.com. Any way I can help would be glad to. Hope you found this informative and I'll see you on the next episode.