Losing Faith In Ray Peat

StrongMom

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I found Ray's articles about three years ago. My life was messed up; I was under significant stress and had hard time sleeping, but I was medicationless. Now, after three years of billions of experimentations, I am still quite stressed, still have hard time sleeping, also have a lot of other problems I didn't have before, and am totally depended on many supplements and medications. Besides, I happened to give some of those supplements and medications to my sons on the autistic spectrum and they are in a mess just like me. I feel so guilty for doing that! I don't have a degree in medicine or biology, don't have access to continuous stream of blood or saliva tests. I don't even know what to make of the test results anyway. I just cannot figure out what works for me or for my sons. Is it really that complicated? If so, then maybe we shouldn't mess with bodies anyway, maybe we should just let the body do its best given the circumstances, perhaps in a suboptimal way. You might say, ok you are stressed and/or not following the ray's diet fully. That is true, I am avoiding pufa as much as possible, but hey I am living a typical life, going out and eating out. Who has that much time to cook and enjoy the very restricted RP diet. I enjoy food, especially bakeries. I try to find bakeries made with butter and try to have a pleasure out of eat, rather than feeling restricted that I cannot eat this or that. That is a big stress for me. Besides, initially I tried to feel my sons the RP foods. One of them backfired so badly that I had to give up after trying everything I could do for months. The other is still following the Ray's diet reasonably well, but constipated for life. I just have to give him magnesium every single day. On top of that, there is a family and friends' pressure; whatever goes wrong it is because of what I give to them. My picky-eater is losing hair at such a rapid pace that i am scared to death. I tried to reduce their thyroid medications just a tiny bit. Is this because of that I don't know. Me, myself, have been gaining weight (fat) basically since I found Ray's work. Was it worth it? No. My body changed; now I am accumulating more fat around my hips and thighs. I suppose this is an estrogen symptom. Yeah, unbelievable considering that I am almost using up a bottle of Progest-e per day! And a many other problems I didn't have before. So we are not experts, scientists; should we really do that much an intervention to our bodies? Nothing is perfect in this life, nobody is following a perfect diet, but there are a lot of people doing just fine, without any supplements or medications. Aren't we too extreme?
 
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I found Ray's articles about three years ago. My life was messed up; I was under significant stress and had hard time sleeping, but I was medicationless. Now, after three years of billions of experimentations, I am still quite stressed, still have hard time sleeping, also have a lot of other problems I didn't have before, and am totally depended on many supplements and medications. Besides, I happened to give some of those supplements and medications to my sons on the autistic spectrum and they are in a mess just like me. I feel so guilty for doing that! I don't have a degree in medicine or biology, don't have access to continuous stream of blood or saliva tests. I don't even know what to make of the test results anyway. I just cannot figure out what works for me or for my sons. Is it really that complicated?

No, it's not that complicated. Simplify, simplify simplify. Make one change at a time. For instance, eliminate obvious and extreme PUFA sources that are easiest to eliminate; when you cook, don't use margarine, soybean oil, canola oil, etc. when you can use butter, olive oil or coconut oil.

If so, then maybe we shouldn't mess with bodies anyway, maybe we should just let the body do its best given the circumstances, perhaps in a suboptimal way. You might say, ok you are stressed and/or not following the ray's diet fully. That is true, I am avoiding pufa as much as possible, but hey I am living a typical life, going out and eating out. Who has that much time to cook and enjoy the very restricted RP diet. I enjoy food, especially bakeries. I try to find bakeries made with butter and try to have a pleasure out of eat, rather than feeling restricted that I cannot eat this or that. That is a big stress for me.

Sounds reasonable.

Besides, initially I tried to feel my sons the RP foods. One of them backfired so badly that I had to give up after trying everything I could do for months. The other is still following the Ray's diet reasonably well, but constipated for life. I just have to give him magnesium every single day. On top of that, there is a family and friends' pressure; whatever goes wrong it is because of what I give to them.

I'd value your kids' opinions a lot more than other family/friends. It's their bodies, let them decide what they want based on how they're feeling (assuming basic nutritional requirements are being met).

My picky-eater is losing hair at such a rapid pace that i am scared to death. I tried to reduce their thyroid medications just a tiny bit. Is this because of that I don't know. Me, myself, have been gaining weight (fat) basically since I found Ray's work. Was it worth it? No. My body changed; now I am accumulating more fat around my hips and thighs. I suppose this is an estrogen symptom. Yeah, unbelievable considering that I am almost using up a bottle of Progest-e per day! And a many other problems I didn't have before. So we are not experts, scientists; should we really do that much an intervention to our bodies? Nothing is perfect in this life, nobody is following a perfect diet, but there are a lot of people doing just fine, without any supplements or medications. Aren't we too extreme?

Yes, most here are way too extreme. Relax and simplify.

Health is a journey, and most problems can be reversed, but it's not going to happen overnight. Change one thing at a time and learn by trial and error. If you're changing everything at once, you won't be able to tell what's working from what isn't.
 
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Optimus

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A simple look in your post history shows a high degree of interest in the supplement side of things. You (like many of us) are often looking for that 'miracle supplement' to cure things.

Drop every supplement and just focus on foods. Don't worry if you are not able to stick to the diet perfectly. Even ray says to indulge in foods of your liking sometimes.
 

kiran

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Lets start with the basics. How much carb/protein are you getting? In how many meals?
What are your staple foods, do you have gut issues?
What meds are you taking?
Are you getting enough salt? calcium?
Have you plugged your diet into cron-o-meter to check if you have any deficiencies
 
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Ray Peat encourages people to stop all supplementation. Supplements can be a problem. They are also unregulated and should be used with extreme caution in children. Also losing hair in a child is abnormal and should be looked at by a doctor. Don't rely on this site for medical care. Experience is more important than theory. If you are not getting good results from what you are doing than by all means stop. You may need to do so slowly with thyroid and progesterone but if it is not helping there is no reason to continue. And don't forget the basics of healthy food, sunshine, meaningful work, clean water and air.
 

Constatine

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I think you have fallen into the "ray peat diet" trap. There is no restricted diet approved by Ray Peat. He actually recommends one eats a vast variety of foods and suggests that very restricted diets are terrible for the organism. He has talked about a variety of foods but he has never suggested that one should only eat those foods or that one can be remotely healthy doing so. He is also very anti-dogmatic and would hate for someone to have "faith" in him. Perceive, think, act. Personal experience is the only true knowledge.
 

Tarmander

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Ray doesn't take a ton of supplements. I think most people here do not take a lot of supplements for long term without issues. My personal view is that overtime you are looking for that 1 or 2 supplements that you personally need. For me Niacinamide is one of those...like 75% of all my experimentation, and money spent has just led me to taking a bit of niacinamide here and there. I agree with the people above about simplifying, and let your kids eat what they want, they are actually still smart about that kind of thing until they get older.
 
OP
S

StrongMom

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Thanks @Dessert_All_Day @theLaw @kiran @PowertothePeatple @Optimus for all the support.


I am not a newbie; i know the RP diet really well and have been following it as much as i can. Reducing or eliminating pufa is not that hard but starch is! I just cannot do it. I love the taste so much and it is so satisfying, at least emotionally. I don't have a low carb etc. background. I love food, have a big appetite. I eat when stressed, when happy, etc. Appetite has never been an issue for me. If I am not careful i am always on an up trend in my weight. My understanding is this is due to too much estrogen. I try not to measure calories, carbs, protein as it stresses me out. I try to listen to my cravings. In the past, occasionally i had cravings for meat; however, since Peating it is gone. I guess in the past at some point I had protein deficiency, but not at this point. I add salt to taste; sugar was never an issue- I just can't live without it. I was a heavy dairy consumer anyway. So perhaps I had some protein deficiency and pufa overload before RP, but otherwise things were not extreme for me.

Cooking is quite stressful as I am a full-time working mom. I am very time constrained; in a short period of time with limited Peat-approved ingredient list, trying to cook something my kids and/or my husband can enjoy to eat is almost impossible.

Yeah, maybe suboptimal but I am down to supplements. I don't think there is much I can do on the food side without emotional damage. I stopped a lot of things; obviously if it does not work, I stop. I seem to benefit from thyroid, pregnenolone, and progesterone. The problem is the dosage. If I don't have thyroid my pulse is around 60, if I take it can raise it up to low 70s. Last year at one point I was able to raise it to 80, but then suddenly it came down to 70, could not raise it back high what ever I tried. Also, I started having high fasting sugar issues (around 125). Given my PCOS and high estrogen history, I experimented between pregnenolone and progesterone any times. They both help but at very high dosages! Even with that high dosages I am not able to overcome this high estrogenity that is only supposed to happen in the beginning when supplementing.

My sons. The one with losing hair: the doctor gave him a cream with cortisol. No progress yet. She said that hair might grow back or not, not sure. He is not even 4-year-old! I really don't want to give them a lot of medication, but they were born hypothyroid (because of me). They were fed almost a perfect RP diet, but I have made no progress with that!

I will try to read some of the threads mentioned; perhaps they give me some hope.
 

Marg

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Speaking of Niacinamide:

FWIW, I have just recently started supplementing with Niacinamide, and I am seeing positive results.

It is not expensive and you can find it at your drugstore, retail stores like Walmart, or at your health food store.
 

Tarmander

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@Marg @Lee Simeon @Tarmander @raypeatclips

I will give it a try again; I have some in hand. What benefits do you get the most from niacinamide?

It is just a tool to have on hand when things get stressful. There are draw backs though...if you start using it regularly, in high amounts, it will make you gain weight and that will stress you out, and you'll have another failure on your list. I think supplements and meds are not going to give you the kinds of changes that you are looking for, they will be too superficial. The fact that your 4 year old is taking cortisol cream is really concerning.

I know this place is really about nutrition and honing that in, but if you have been hacking away at that tree for three years, I think you should try something else. Get therapy, get religion, get relationship therapy, try something. Focus away from finding solutions, and towards understanding problems. I can almost guarantee that you know less about the problems you are trying to solve then you think you do. They could have nothing to do with where you are focusing on.

Almost every time I research a new health issue, it eventually leads to niacinamide being something to take to fix it.

I know right!
 

Travis

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And niacin would be the treatment of choice for childhood schizophrenia.

Niacin keeps neuroactive adrenochrome from forming from adrenaline:

adrenochrome.png


Hoffer and Osmond have done over 50 trials on schizophrenia, adreochrome, and adrenolutin. I just got done reading 200 pages from their book.

Basically, they think that adrenochrome causes schizophrenia. They actually ran studies where they injected people with adreochrome and observed the effects and the written reports of the subjects themselves. This is without a doubt a most logical explanation and explains everything perfectly, but the psychiatry industry doesn't want such an easy and cheap fix after getting so many PhD's in psychoanalysis and such, not to mention the pharma companies and their drugs.

Ray Peat explains a small but important slice of reality, but not everything can be explained by hormones, iron, and fats. Besides Ray Peat, Hoffer and Osmond, Linus Pauling, and Albert Szent-Gyorgyi should be given due consideration too IMO.
 
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BibleBeliever

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And niacin would be the treatment of choice for childhood schizophrenia.

Niacin keeps neuroactive adrenochrome from forming from adrenaline:

View attachment 5490

Hoffer and Osmond have done over 50 trials on schizophrenia, adreochrome, and adrenolutin. I just got done reading 200 pages from their book.

Basically, they think that adrenochrome causes schizophrenia. They actually ran studies where they injected people with adreochrome and observed the effects and the written reports of the subjects themselves. This is without a doubt a most logical explanation and explains everything perfectly, but the psychiatry industry doesn't want such an easy and cheap fix after getting so many PhD's in psychoanalysis and such, not to mention the pharma companies and their drugs.

Ray Peat explains a small but important slice of reality, but not everything can be explained by hormones, iron, and fats. Besides Ray Peat, Hoffer and Osmond, Linus Pauling, and Albert Szent-Gyorgyi should be given due consideration too IMO.
Which is the best form of Niacin to take and dosage? I have read many threads here a few times and it is difficult to conclude; you see too many warnings.
I drink a lot of very strong freshly ground coffee; which is very high in niacin; shouldn't this be sufficient for most? Tuna is also very high in niacin.
 

sladerunner69

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I think you have fallen into the "ray peat diet" trap. There is no restricted diet approved by Ray Peat. He actually recommends one eats a vast variety of foods and suggests that very restricted diets are terrible for the organism. He has talked about a variety of foods but he has never suggested that one should only eat those foods or that one can be remotely healthy doing so. He is also very anti-dogmatic and would hate for someone to have "faith" in him. Perceive, think, act. Personal experience is the only true knowledge.

In his writing I definitely get the sense that Peat doesn't want to recommend any specific foods. That's definitely true.

Have you listenned to many of his interviews though? He has no problem saying "I like this food over that food" or "food x is a problem because these reasons" He makes it very clear which foods he thinks are good and which are bad. For example he talked about beans being extremely high in phosphate and grain starch being not a good food because it irritates the digestion. When asked what kind of foods he likes he'll say fruits like oranges, melons, cherries, etc.
 

encerent

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Ray Peat encourages people to stop all supplementation. Supplements can be a problem. They are also unregulated and should be used with extreme caution in children. Also losing hair in a child is abnormal and should be looked at by a doctor. Don't rely on this site for medical care. Experience is more important than theory. If you are not getting good results from what you are doing than by all means stop. You may need to do so slowly with thyroid and progesterone but if it is not helping there is no reason to continue. And don't forget the basics of healthy food, sunshine, meaningful work, clean water and air.

He has regularly encouraged people to take supplements for all kinds of conditions.
 

Travis

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Which is the best form of Niacin to take and dosage? I have read many threads here a few times and it is difficult to conclude; you see too many warnings. I drink a lot of very strong freshly ground coffee; which is very high in niacin; shouldn't this be sufficient for most?

I drink a ton of coffee too.

Hoffer and Osmond would give people grams of niacin. I like their theory because it seems to make sense. If you look at adrenochrome, you will see that it is an indole.

Many indoles are psychedelic. DMT and psilocybin are indoles. Serotonin and melatonin are indole neurotransmitters.

Adrenalin can actually turn into a psychedelic indole in the body. Strange but true.

I think I'll let other people comment on how much niacin to take. I am only in the theoretical stage right now. Perhaps I should order some niacin myself and experiment with it?

Here is the book. Chapter 3 is called: Adrenochrome and Some of Its Derivatives and starts on page 275 in Adobe and page 267 if you are looking at the text.

Besides this book, Hoffer wrote dozens of articles on this topic.
 
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