This test measures the concentration of Organic Acids in a urine specimen against a normal standard.  The organic acids excreted in the urine are either products or reactants in relationship to a given enzyme.  If an enzyme is not functioning well, then the reactants build up in the cell, spill into the intracellular spaces, spill into the blood, and be filtered by the kidneys, and show up as higher than normal concentration in the urine.  

Likewise, low levels of a product would indicate that an enzyme was functioning poorly.  The same sequence of a poorly functioning enzyme would cause the deficient concentration in a “downstream” molecule.

The test can thus serve as an indicator of what vitamins and minerals are possibly missing.  And thus, which nutrients should be supplemented to improve the body’s metabolic balance and function.  

Again, if the reactant molecule (i.e. the molecule coming into the enzyme to be processed) shows up in a high urine concentration, this indicates that the enzyme was ineffective in converting the reactants into products.  This serves as an indication of a deficient quantity of vitamins and minerals present in the body to serve as cofactors to change the shape of the enzyme, and thus make it active and effective.

Likewise, if there is a low level of product associated with a step in the enzymatic transformation of a series of molecules, then the same thing is indicated.  The enzyme is deficient in its activity, and thus only a small amount of product is formed.  When the reactant builds up, the products deplete.  Thus, the concentration of the urine can look at molecules from both sides of the enzymatic reaction.  Both a high-value reactant and low-value products indicate the same thing, that the enzyme is working poorly because it has not an adequate concentration of a vitamin and/or mineral to change its shape and thus activate it by changing its shape.

The fundamental process of reaction is reactants coming together on an enzyme, which biotransforms the reactants into a product.  The enzyme is a protein shaped in a particular way so that the charges exposed on the active site of the enzyme are correspondent to the charge shape configuration of the reactants.  The positioning of two reactants in the enzyme causes the reactants to be closely juxtaposed.  The shape of the enzyme may be modified by a high energy molecule, which then discharges its energy and brings two reactant molecules close enough together to bond, or alternately breaking off a piece of a single reactant molecule to change it.  In any case, the enzyme needs to have vitamins and minerals as components of its structure to change its shape, and thus give proper charge-shape to the active site where the reactant molecules attach in preparation for biotransformation by the enzyme.

The Urine Organic Acid test examines a series of molecules from the important systems of the body: Energy production, Detoxification, Nervous System, Endocrine, Methylation, and GI Dysbiosis.  Different molecules are of primary importance in each system’s biotransformation sequence.  A rate limiting enzyme would be the most important step to detect.

In the cell, there are numerous steps of biotransformation through which a molecule must pass to produce the final structural or functional molecule.  Thus, the terminology of “reactant” or “product” is dependent upon which side of the enzymatic reaction the molecule is considered.  And, if there are a number of enzymatic steps in the biotransformation, any reactant or product in the middle of the chain could be considered a metabolic intermediate.

The Urinary Organic Acid test is done first thing in the morning.  A certain number of foods should not be eaten for a few days before the test.  The urine is collected in a cup, and a dip stick is wetted with the urine, and immediately put into a small bag filled with a dessicating powder.  After letting the urine sit and dry for the required time, the bag and powder are shipped to the lab and the report will come back to the doctor.  

The report lists the concentration of each urinary acid, and recommends the vitamins and minerals that should be supplemented to help restore the proper function of the implicated enzymes.