Your Check Engine Light Is On! How the OATS Test Helps Find the Real Reason Your Body Isn't Running Right

Your labs look fine, you are doing “all the right things,” and yet your energy still will not come back. That gap between normal bloodwork and real-life symptoms is where functional medicine gets practical, because we can stop asking only what you have and start asking how well your body is actually working.

We walk through the Organic Acids Test (OAT), a urine-based functional medicine test that measures metabolic byproducts and helps us interpret what is happening inside the cells. Using a simple car and truck analogy, we explain why replacing “parts” like random supplements, thyroid meds, or hormone support can miss the true issue when the engine is not producing horsepower. We break down what the OAT can reveal about mitochondrial function and ATP production, Krebs cycle bottlenecks, B vitamin and nutrient utilization, oxidative stress, detox-related pathways, and even gut-driven signals that may point toward dysbiosis, yeast or Candida overgrowth, and oxalate issues.

If you are dealing with chronic fatigue, brain fog, crashes after meals, weight loss resistance, IBS symptoms, migraines, long COVID concerns, or you just do not feel like yourself, you will hear how we use the OAT alongside hair tissue mineral analysis (HTMA), targeted bloodwork, GI testing, mycotoxin testing when mold exposure is suspected, and genetics when it fits the case. We also address a common trap: treating the results like a shopping list and ending up with supplement fatigue instead of progress.

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Transcript

Root-Cause Care At Harmony Hub

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Harmony Hub Health, where my mission is to provide comprehensive, affordable, integrative care that addresses the root cause of health issues. At the Hub, the focus is on individual patient journeys. I strive to optimize health, vitality, and longevity, fostering a community where each person can thrive in body, mind, and spirit. You

The Check Engine Light Problem

SPEAKER_00 0:36

know the one. It starts making a little clicking sound, nothing major, you kind of ignore it. Then the engine check light comes on. You stop at AutoZone, they plug in a little scanner. The guy behind the counter says, Looks like an oxygen sensor problem. So you replace it, the light comes back. Then someone tells you it's the spark plugs, still not fixed. Now it's the fuel injector, then maybe a battery, then the alternator. $3,000 later, your car still runs terribly. Welcome to what many people experience in healthcare.

Two Foundational Tests First

SPEAKER_00 1:11

At Harmony Hub Health, there are two things I check before I start replacing parts. If you've ever been a patient of mine for more than a week, you've heard me say there are two tests that are almost always required before we start rebuilding your engine. First, we look at your minerals with hair tissue mineral analysis. Minerals are like the nuts, the bolts, the belts, and the electrical system that keeps your engine running. Then we look for foods constantly creating inflammation with a food IgG test. You know, driving with bad gas doesn't matter how nice your engine is. You can keep replacing expensive parts, but if you keep pouring contaminated fuel into the tank, you're never going anywhere. Those two tests are the foundation of almost every functional medicine program I build.

The Old Truck That Still Struggles

SPEAKER_00 1:56

Then came along one particular truck. Sorry if you know that it's you, but I recently had a patient remind me exactly why I love functional medicine. Picture an older pickup truck. Oh, that sounded really bad. Um I guess, well, there's no other way to say it. He is an older pickup truck. Okay, we changed the oil, we balanced the tires, we fixed the alignment, um, we replaced worn belts, cleaned the fuel lines. Now the truck drives much better, but it still can't get up the hill. Oh, I could actually just take that a couple different ways too. But not that, not that. But it still can't get up the hill. The owner says it runs better, but something still isn't right. And that was this patient. So don't mind me. I just spent a lot of time trying to research cars and how I can relate everything with I want to say to cars. My husband is a car guy. I don't know if he's gonna listen to this or not, but he's a general manager of a Porsche dealership, and this may just go really bad. Um, but with this patient, my old truck, I balanced his minerals, we repaired his leaky gut, his inflammation was getting much better, his digestion was happier, but his gas pedal felt sluggish. His energy just wasn't there. I could have just said, well, I did what I could, you're just getting old. But no, nobody buys that anymore. If the truck still isn't climbing the hill, something inside the engine still needs attention. So

Introducing The Organic Acids Test

SPEAKER_00 3:31

we plugged in a bigger diagnostic scanner. Okay. Um, this is the Oates test. This is a functional medicine test that can explain why you're still feeling exhausted when other things look normal. Okay, maybe you've tried thyroid medication or hormone therapy, um, you've replenished vitamin D, B12, iron, magnesium, you're buying all of these supplements off of Amazon and you're still tired. Maybe your brain is foggy, um, you have anxiety or you're not quite sure why, and you can't lose weight, you're crashing after meals, your muscles ache, your stomach doesn't feel right. Um, you feel like your body simply isn't making energy anymore. And the problem is most traditional testing looks at what your body has. Functional medicine asks a completely different question. How well is your body actually working? One of my favorite tests to answer that is the organic acids test, commonly called the oat or oats test. This is one of the closest things we have to lifting the hood of your metabolism and watching your cells run in real time. At Harmony Hub Health, it has become one of the biggest aha moments for patients because it explains why your body isn't functioning, not just what is high and what is low. All right.

What A Urine Test Can Reveal

SPEAKER_00 4:48

So the organic acids test is a urine test that measures dozens of metabolic byproducts your body naturally produces every day. Think of metabolism like a factory. Every machine inside the factory leaves behind small bits of evidence showing whether it's working efficiently. Those leftovers are called organic acids. By measuring them, we can evaluate how well many systems are functioning, including your mitochondria, your energy production, your B vitamins, neurotransmitters, detoxification, which seems to be one of the problems that many patients have. Oxidative stress, oxalates, gut bacteria, yeast overgrowth, um, amino acid metabolism, fat metabolism, and carbohydrate metabolism. It's incredibly comprehensive from just one urine sample. The organic acids test is probably the most advanced diagnostic computer that we have in functional medicine. Um, not the little code reader from AutoZone, but the expensive one. The one the dealership plugs into your vehicle and tells you what every sensor, injector, fuel trim, and electrical system is actually doing. That's what an Oats test feels like. Um, instead of asking if you have enough gas, it asks, why isn't your engine producing horsepower? That's a completely different question. Umy blood tests only tell us what's circulating in your bloodstream at that exact moment. The Oates test can tell us what's happening inside the cells. It's almost like reading yesterday's diary instead of taking one little snapshot. The people that benefit from an Oates test the most are those with chronic fatigue, um, long COVID, um, EBV history, mold illness, brain fog, ADHD, anxiety, depression, even autism spectrum disorders, fibromyalgia, chronic pain, migraines, IBS, constipation, diarrhea, SIBO, Candida, if you have weight loss resistance, exercise intolerance, any autoimmune disease, chemical sensitivity, or hormone imbalance. Honestly, I think I just listed everything. Um, I don't see many people that don't fall into one of those. Um, if anybody says I just don't feel like myself, this test can help explain why. So the

Mitochondria And Real Energy Output

SPEAKER_00 7:10

mitochondria is where the Oates test really shines. Every cell has tiny little engines called mitochondria. Their engine's job is to take food and oxygen and make ATP. And ATP is your body's energy currency. Everything requires ATP. Your brain, your muscles, your heart, your hormones, your immune system. Even blinking requires ATP. So when mitochondrial struggles, everything kind of struggles. Your mitochondria are your engine block. No engine, no movement. You can wax the truck, you can buy new tires, you can even install leather seats. None of it matters if the engine won't turn over. And that ATP is the horsepower. Um, calories or gasoline, but horsepower is what actually moves the vehicle. You don't care how much gas is sitting in the tank, you care whether or not you can pull a trailer up the mountain. And one of the biggest mistakes in healthcare is assuming that if somebody complains of fatigue, it just means they have low thyroid or low iron, um, low testosterone. This old truck, we did not even go to testosterone. Um, low estrogen, sometimes it's true, many times. Um, your body just simply cannot make energy efficiently. That's a mitochondrial problem. The Oates test helps identify exactly where the process slows down. And this is

Krebs Cycle Bottlenecks And Nutrients

SPEAKER_00 8:37

where we get into the Krebs cycle. Um, this is where a lot of um anatomy and physiology professors lost us all when we were in school. Um, but think of the Krebs cycle as the transmission. Forget diagrams. Imagine your transmission, fuel comes in, then gear shift, power gets transferred. If third gear breaks, your truck can still run. It just doesn't run very well. The Oates test tells us which gear is not shifting. Okay. Um, everybody hated that Krebs cycle in school. I did too. Um, but you know, the Krebs cycle is that wheel, and each step needs specific enzymes, specific vitamins, specific minerals, antioxidants. And if one step gets stuck, the whole process slows down. Um the organic acid test can really show us where the traffic jam is happening. The nutrients that keep your Krebs cycle running is the magnesium, B1, 2, 3, and 5, uh alpha lipoic acid, lipoic acid, coQ10, iron, manganese, L-carnitine, and riboflavin. This is one reason I love combining the oats test with that hair tissue mineral analysis. The oats can show where energy production is slowing down, while the HTMA helps me understand whether mineral imbalances may be contributing to those metabolic bottlenecks. Together, they often provide a much clearer picture than just looking at one of them by themselves. And it can really show functional vitamin deficiencies. Um, something very fascinating is you can have normal B12, normal folate, normal B6, and still have cells acting deficient. But why? Because having nutrients and using nutrients are different things. The Oats evaluates whether your cells appear to have enough of several nutrients to support normal metabolism, not just whether those nutrients are present in the blood. Vitamins are spark plugs, especially B vitamins, those are spark plugs. Magnesium is like engine oil. CoQ10 is premium synthetic oil, iron is the oxygen delivery system, and carnitine, um, that kind of brings more fuel into the engine. So it's kind of like a little tow truck. Without them, your engine can really sputter. Um, minerals, even though I normally call them the spark plugs, in this picture, we'll call them the nuts and bolts. You know, everyone wants horsepower. Nobody talks about bolts until one falls off. Then we

Gut Clues Yeast And Oxalates

SPEAKER_00 11:09

have gut health, and this is what can really confuse people because how can you see gut health in a urine test, right? Um, the organic acid test can provide clues about your microbiome. Um, certain organic acids can suggest if there's yeast overgrowth or fungal overgrowth or dysbiosis or bacterial fermentation patterns. Does it replace a comprehensive stool test like a GMAP? Absolutely not. Um, think of it as looking at the metabolic fingerprints left behind. If those fingerprints suggest something is off in the gut, we often pair the oats with a stool test for a more complete picture. Um, then gut health, I would say, is the fuel tank. Your gut is not the engine. It's where the fuel comes from. So dirty fuel, water in the gas, wrong octane, your engine does pay the price. Um then candida. Yeast overgrowth has been associated with symptoms like brain fog or sugar cravings, gas bloating, fatigue, skin problems is what I typically see, and recurrent infections. So the Oats test includes several metabolites that can suggest yeast or fungal overgrowth, um, helping determine whether additional evaluation or targeted treatment is appropriate. I think of yeast as sugar in the gas tank. You can keep driving, but eventually something is going to clog. Then we have oxalates, and that is my favorite section of the Oats test because it's usually the hidden culprit. Most people have never even heard of oxalates. Oxalates are naturally occurring compounds found in many foods, and your body can also produce them. For some people, too many oxalates contributes to kidney stones, joint pain, vulvar pain, muscle pain, brain fog, pain with urination, and digestive symptoms. Um, the oats helps identify whether oxalate metabolism deserves a closer look. If elevated, the next step isn't simply to stop eating spinach. We consider gut health, nutrient status, and the place of dietary changes so we don't create new problems while solving the old ones. Um, the test also shows neurotransmitters. Many people come to Harmony Hub Health and they say, you know, I'm not depressed. I just don't feel like me. The oats can provide indirect information about metabolic pathways involved in producing neurotransmitters like your dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin. While it does not directly measure brain neurotransmitter levels, it can highlight nutritional or metabolic factors that may influence those pathways. That's one reason I often use it alongside a thorough clinical history and when appropriate, genetics or other testing. I am a certified provider with genetics three by four. Um, then we have our oxidative stress, and I think of oxidative stress as the rust. Okay. If you leave your truck outside for 20 years, um, it rusts. That's oxidative stress. Um the same thing happens in your body: inflammation, infections, mold, viruses, smoking, pollution, poor diet, high blood sugar, chronic stress, all of those increase oxidative stress. The oats includes markers that can reflect oxidative stress and glutathione-related metabolism. And it gives me clues about how much wear and tear the body may be experiencing. Um, hormones, then, are the gas pedal. You know, your engine might be healthy, but if the gas pedal isn't connected, you're still sitting in the driveway. Um, one reason why I frequently recommend the oats for patients dealing with persistent symptoms after infections is that it can reveal downstream effects on metabolism. You know,

Mold Long COVID And Layered Testing

SPEAKER_00 14:56

it doesn't diagnose long COVID or Epstein bar virus reactivation or LIMES, but it can show evidence of impaired mitochondrial function, increased oxidative stress, nutrient depletion, or other metabolic disruptions that commonly accompany chronic inflammatory illnesses. Those findings really help me to do a personalized recovery plan. Um, when we talk about mold, um, you know, patients exposed to water damage buildings often describe that they feel someone unplug their battery. That's because mold exposure affects your mitochondria, your detox pathways, oxidative stress, and the nervous system. Um, the oats doesn't tell us whether mold is the cause, um, but if the metabolic pattern raises suspicion, it may support further evaluation with either mycotoxin testing and a very careful environmental history. One test rarely tells the whole story. Um, at Harmony Hub Health, we often combine the Oats with HTMA to evaluate mineral patterns that affect enzyme function, comprehensive blood panels to assess hormones, inflammation, nutrients, and metabolic health, um, GI testing when digestive symptoms are significant, uh, mycotoxin testing when mold exposure is suspected, um, hormone testing when symptoms suggest endocrine imbalance, and genetics, um, when methylation or detoxification pathways may influence treatment decisions. So the goal isn't to order more tests, it's to order the right tests based on your own story.

Why The Report Is Not A Shopping List

SPEAKER_00 16:35

Um, the biggest mistake people make once they get some of these results back is they want to buy 27 supplements. Please don't do that. I just had somebody come to me the other day with a bag of supplements and their provider, and I'd never want to dad another provider, but got some of these results back and just automatically wanted them to take 27 new supplements. The report is not a shopping list, okay? The purpose of the oats is to identify why the metabolism is struggling. Sometimes the answer can be a mineral deficiency, sometimes it's mold, sometimes it's gut dysfunction, sometimes it's chronic stress, sometimes it's poor sleep hormones or blood sugar. Supplements without understanding the root cause can often lead to what I call supplement fatigue. And I just did a podcast about that. It might have been either last week or the week before. Um, but a cabinet full of expensive bottles does not mean progress, okay? Um, instead of chasing abnormal markers one by one, I do like to build a personalized plan that may include nutrition changes to support energy production, um, mineral repletion based on the HTMA, um, targeted vitamin support when functional deficiencies are found, um, gut healing strategies, any way to support mitochondrial health, ways to optimize sleep, um, regulating the nervous system, um, hormone optimization, movement and recovery strategies, and treatment of underlying infections or toxic exposures when needed. Um, when we improve how the body's factory functions, many symptoms begin improving together because we've addressed shared root causes rather than treating each complaint separately. So the organic acid test is one of the more powerful tools in functional medicine because it helps answer a question conventional medicine usually doesn't even ask. Why isn't your body making energy the way it should? It gives us insight into cellular function, not just lab values. For patients struggling with fatigue, brain fog, chronic illness, digestive issues, or simply feeling unlike themselves. It often provides missing pieces that allow us to create a more targeted and individualized treatment plan.

Roadmap To Recovery And Closing

SPEAKER_00 18:50

At Harmony Hub Health, we believe your symptoms are not random. They are clues. The Oates test helps us organize those clues into a roadmap towards health. If you have not been feeling like yourself, it may be time to look a little bit deeper. At Harmony Hub Health, we don't just ask what's wrong, we want to know why. An organic acids test combined with detailed history and the right functional testing can help uncover metabolic roadblocks that may be contributing to fatigue or brain fog, gut issues, or whatever problem you're experiencing. If you're ready to stop guessing and start understanding how your body is actually functioning, we'd love to help. Schedule a functional medicine consultation with Harmony Hub Health and let's build a plan based on your biology, not just your symptoms. This podcast is for educational purposes only and should not be considered medical advice. Every check engine light is different, and no two bodies or cars are built exactly alike. The information shared here is meant to help you understand how the organic acids test fits into a functional medicine evaluation, not to diagnose or treat a medical condition on your own. Just because your neighbor's truck needed a new alternator does not mean yours does. Always work with a qualified healthcare provider to determine the right testing and treatment plan for your unique engineer.