Page 40 - Spring2010

The Role of Oxalates in

Autism and Chronic Disorders

by William Shaw, PhD

A

mummy that had been preserved for a couple of
thousand years in the high desert of Chile was dis-

covered upon X-ray examination to have a very
large oxalate stone in the kidney, about the size of a golf

ball. The discovery of this ancient sufferer is testimony
to the fact that kidney stones and oxalate toxicity have

afflicted humans for a very long time.
Oxalates (the salt form of oxalic acid) are extremely painful when depos-
ited in the body. About eighty percent of kidney stones are caused by oxalates
and they are by far the most common
factor in kidney stone formation. There is
also a large degree of genetic variability
in the ability to detoxify the chemicals
that produce oxalates. Perhaps twenty
percent of the population has a genetic
variance that increases their likelihood
of producing oxalates, even when not

consuming a high-oxalate diet.
40 Wise Traditions SPRING 2010