Metabolic Typing 

Metabolic Typing is a testing method that helps Dr. Gaul to assess how well matched your current dietary habits are to what your body needs for balance. It is based on the work of a handful of physicians who saw just how much of a positive influence an individualized diet could have on the health and disease in a patient. A diet is therefore prescribed for an individual, not a disease state.   

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The Test

The Results

FAQs

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There are several very important influences on how well your body might respond to diet. 

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The first is what you have inherited as the genetic variations in the human biochemical pathways. Different populations of people have differing emphases in the biochemistry, likely owing to where the genes of their ancestors come from. Although a human being is an omnivore, and can eat a great deal of what is not optimal in the diet without obvious immediate negative effect, many ancestral groups will have variations in what works best for them. Getting more clear about what foods work for you is one of the functions of Metabolic Typing. 

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A second influence is how well supplied with co-factors you are. Co-factors include your vitamins, minerals, and other accessory molecules. Co-factors make your biochemical reactions more efficient. When people supplement with nutrients, they can encourage pathways that they are efficient at, or not efficient at. That means that supplements that are often recommended for "everyone" may do as much harm as good. Narrowing down which nutrients are required to create balance is one of the functions of Metabolic Typing. 

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The third influence is that of the Autonomic Nervous System. As the regulator of much of the physiology, the tone of the ANS can have a major influence on biochemistry and change the dietary requirements of an individual person. Metabolic Typing helps us to see if the ANS is playing a role in your metabolism.

How the Test is Performed

Metabolic Typing is based on testing 49 data points and then running those points through criteria that categorize what is happening in your body with your diet right now. You need to be able to provide a urine sample when you arrive. (Please note the preparatory requirements before Metabolic Typing on this document.) You will lie down to rest for 5 minutes, then resting measurements will be taken, followed by a set of timed measurements after standing. A breath hold test is also performed. A glucose challenge test may also be administered. A questionnaire with 71 questions on it will have been given to you prior to the appointment. 

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Your Results

There are four major elements to your Metabolic Typing Reports. 

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1. You're One in a Million 

This report tells you:
-  what imbalances are present and gives a summary of what that imbalance means in general.

-  what nutrients are balancing to the metabolic type and at what doses

-  what nutrients are to be avoided in supplementation where possible

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2. Your Hydration Number

This document gives you a number that shows how well hydrated at the cellular level you are. This is a value calculated from your results. It represents a combination of water, electrolyte, and cell membrane condition.

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3. Your Diet Summary Sheet

This colour coded diet sheet lists foods to emphasize in green, those that are neutral to the task in black, those that should be avoided in red, and those that should be minimized in black italic.

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4. Your MacroNutrient Balance Sheet with Further Information

This sheet shows a dinner plate that represents what fat/carb/protein ratio we are aiming for in your diet. 

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5. (ADDITIONAL SHEET FOR THOSE WITH CANCER) Supplement Summary

If you are a cancer patient, a custom sheet showing those nutrients that are cross referenced to both your cancer type and your metabolism will be supplied. Doses, sources and any other particulars will be noted on this sheet. If a Supplement Summary has been provided, there will be no nutrients listed on the One in a Million sheet. 

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6. (ADDITIONAL SHEET FOR THOSE DESIRING WEIGHT NORMALIZATION) 

This sheet will show your body measurements as taken at the appointment, your ideal measurements, and a suggested caloric intake for weight normalization. 

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Following Up

You will be following your Metabolic Diet as closely as you can for 8 weeks. We will then retest to see how much progress has been made and change the plan accordingly. 

In most circumstances, the idea is to find out where the "sweet spot" is for your diet. It is NOT meant to create restrictions in your diet forever! It is intended to help you find out how much of what types f foods absolutely need to be in your diet, and which ones will upset the balance if you rely upon them too heavily! 

Significant imbalances can take months to change -- remember you are literally changing function in billions of cells! But once you've got it, you will know what it feels like to have balance.

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Frequently Asked Questions About the Diet

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How do you come up with my water content?

By using a calculation with your saliva pH and the concentration of your urine. This gives us a sense of how well hydrated your cells are, and in particular the muscle cells where the majority of your energy is produced. There are several factors that influence your functional fluid availability. These are listed on the page listing your hydration number.

Why can I not have (this particular food)?

The foods listed on the diet sheet are green, red, black or black italic depending on the effect that they have in the imbalance that you are displaying. It is based on the clinical result of feeding that food to a person with that imbalance. If the food makes the imbalance worse, it is coded red. If it makes it better, it is coded green. If you eat a small amount and it is okay but you eat a large amount and it makes the imbalance worse, it is coded black italic. If it is black, it is neutral and has no effect on that imbalance. It is not theoretical data, where we guess what the food will do based on some nutritional property that it might have. It is based on the results of using that food in that imbalance. If you have purple and green on your sheet, ideally these foods would not be eaten together.

How do you figure out what the imbalances are?

We test 49 basic points of data when we collect information during your Metabolic Typing Visit. From that data there are a set of calculations to be done, and the data is filtered through a set of inclusion/exclusion criteria to see if your results fit that imbalance. In essence, it is a combination of results from the testing that fits you in to one or more categories of imbalance. Also, there are some big imbalances that make it impossible to measure some minor ones. 

We use the questionnaire data to get a sense of what you have noticed about dietary balance. However, if your questionnaire conflicts with the calculated data, we will typically go with the physical data rather than your impressions.

We may also do body measurements if weight loss is the goal in order to help create a goal to work towards and to get a sense of how to change your caloric intake to suit your goal and your current activity level. 

Why did my typing change?

The test is based on your current clinical state. You can make corrections or shift metabolic priorities as one imbalance heals to find another secondary imbalance that also needs correction. 

I am from (insert the country) and this is not what they eat there. 

The list shows foods from all over the world. There are foods that when used in a person with a particular imbalance, have a positive effect, even if that food was not one of the foods locally available to people in your ethnic background. Ethnic foods in the modern era have often been altered to include foods from more recent times and other locations on the planet. A great example is potato, which reached the shores of Spain in the mid 1500’s and slowly made their way across Europe. They are now found in all sorts of places that they didn’t belong, incorporated into “traditional” foods!

Why are different forms of the same food listed as having different effects on my metabolic diet? 

Again, this is clinical data based on how that food in that form affects a person with a certain imbalance. One dairy product may really work to improve an imbalance, as an example, whereas another might not. The effects of ingesting a whole food may differ from the ingestion of an oil produced from that food. With the processing, it can become a different foodstuff. 

If you are allergic to a food, these distinctions do not generally apply. 

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When I look at my plan, I see only 10 foods to eat in green! 

Yes, sometimes there are a limited number of foods that improve the imbalance in question. However, don't forget that all of the black foods are neutral, and you CAN and SHOULD also eat from those! 

There are foods on this list that I have never eaten or are not common. Should I make a point of eating them?

There are choices that appear that may not be in your current food vocabulary. Exploring a new food can feel a bit threatening at first, but you’ll never know if you like it unless you try! But no one food is required to include so long as you eat a good number of the green foods available to you. 
 

Does this test my DNA?

Not directly, no. It tests how balanced your metabolism is based on what you are eating right now. This helps us to know which pathways are strongest and weakest in you and shows you what foods might be used to balance that out. There will be foods that appear on the list that might not be common to the area that your DNA is from, but it is listed there because it is known to help that imbalance. 

There are a handful of tests for SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms) that may have an impact on your requirements for certain nutrients. This testing is in its infancy and does not tell us about an overall diet strategy. 

Does this help mitochondrial dysfunction?

Yes. The mitochondria are energy burning organelles within the cell. They are responsible for the final conversions of what you ate into energy known as ATP. When you eat to support your metabolism, you are eating to feed your mitochondria with what is best suited to your energy needs.

Supplement Questions

Do I need to take the listed supplements?

Managing the diet and food selections should be the priority. The supplements listed are co-factors to the pathways that we want to encourage, but often the foods that are coded green will often contain those same things! Taking the supplements can accelerate the process of creating balance in the body.

If you are using your Metabolic Typing plan as part of a management strategy for a serious condition, I do recommend using the supplements. If you have cancer, we will provide you with a cross referenced supplement list that lists items that are beneficial for your condition and your metabolic type.

It is very important that during the balancing process that you DISCONTINUE USE of things listed as contraindicated, unless Dr. Gaul has otherwise prescribed a product containing them for other reasons. 

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When there is more than one imbalance for which supplements are listed, should I take them all?

No, this is not necessary. If you choose to use the supplements to accelerate the process, then use the one from the TOP listed imbalances. So if you are testing as having an electrolyte imbalance, supplement that one and the next one on the list also. If there are more than 2 imbalances listed, and electrolyte imbalances are not one of the imbalances, then choose the first listed imbalance to supplement. We do supplementation this way because the first listed imbalances are almost always the MOST IMPORTANT imbalances, and you usually get the biggest impact from the effort to take the supplements for the most important imbalances. Keep in mind that your imbalances may actually change over time, so don't buy too much of the supplements at first! Finding the ideal diet is a process, and the most applicable supplements longer term may not be clear at first.

Why are the amounts of the supplements low or not the same as what I find in the store?

When you select your supplements well, you don’t need as much and taking more of them can sometimes hinder more than help. 

If you have a capsule or tablet with a higher dose, you can split the capsule or tablet or you can take it every 2ndor 3rdday to get the right dose. 

How long should I plan to take the supplements?

I suggest that you plan for an 8 week period. It is a good idea to recheck the plan every 2 months because as it becomes more balanced, a change in supplements is likely. 

I have more than one imbalance listed. Which supplements are a priority?

I recommend that patients stick to supplying the supplements for the first imbalance listed. The imbalances are listed on the report in priority order, so the first imbalance listed is likely to be the imbalance that is the last to correct.