Pyruvate Supplements?

Koveras

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Dec 17, 2015
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In a stressed or unhealthy individual pyruvate can be converted to lactate and reinforce the stress metabolism. In a healthy individual, I'm not sure that there are any specific benefits or reason to supplement.

"There seems little doubt that there are signals for the increased mobilization of fat in shock, trauma, and sepsis." "The tissues are attuned to the oxidation of fat, and as a consequence most of the energy production is derived from fat oxidation. The increased fatty acids exert an inhibitory effect on the complete oxidation of glucose, so although glucose may be taken up at an accelerated rate, the relative contribution of glucose oxidation to total energy production may fall. Rather than being completely oxidized, pyruvate is reduced to lactate and released into the plasma at an accelerated rate. The lactate then contributes to the production of glucose in the liver, completing a cyclical process called the Cori Cycle” “...The enhanced mobilization and oxidation of fat is one of the fundamental responses to stress.”

"The ability of the mitochondria to oxidize pyruvic acid and glucose is characteristically lost to some degree in cancer. When this oxidation fails, the disturbed redox balance of the cell will usually lead to the cell’s death, but if it can survive, this balance favors growth and cell division, rather than differentiated function. This was Otto Warburg’s discovery, that was rejected by official medicine for 75 years. Cancer researchers have become interested in this enzyme system that controls the oxidation of pyruvic acid (and thus sugar) by the mitochondria, since these enzymes are crucially defective in cancer cells (and also in diabetes). The chemical DCA, dichloroacetate, is effective against a variety of cancers, and it acts by reactivating the enzymes that oxidize pyruvic acid. Thyroid hormone, insulin, and fructose also activate these enzymes. These are the enzymes that are inactivated by excessive exposure to fatty acids, and that are involved in the progressive replacement of sugar oxidation by fat oxidation, during stress and aging, and in degenerative diseases; for example, a process that inactivates the energy-producing pyruvate dehydrogenase in Alzheimer’s disease has been identified (Ishiguro, 1998). Niacinamide, by lowering free fatty acids and regulating the redox system, supporting sugar oxidation, is useful in the whole spectrum of metabolic degenerative diseases. -Ray Peat, PhD"

"Lactic acid itself, and the longer chain fatty acids, inhibit the regulatory enzyme pyruvate dehydrogenase (which is activated by insulin), reducing the oxidative production of energy. Drugs to activate this enzyme are being studied by the pharmaceutical industry as treatments for diabetes and cancer. (for example, DCA, dichloroacetate). -Ray Peat, PhD"

"Estrogen impairs the mitochondria in multiple ways, including blocking the function of cytochrome oxidase, decreasing the activity of ATP synthase, increasing heme oxygenase which produces carbon monoxide and free iron, damaging mitochondrial DNA, and shifting metabolism from glucose oxidation to fat oxidation, especially by inhibiting the mitochondrial pyruvate dehydrogenase complex. These changes, including the loss of cytochrome oxidase, are seen in the Alzheimer’s brain. The fact that this kind of energy impairment can be produced by estrogen doesn’t imply that estrogen is the cause, since many other things can cause similar effects–radiation, aluminum, and endotoxin, for example.” -Ray Peat, PhD"
 
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Innergetic

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Aug 19, 2015
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Good info, thank you. I'd wondered if it would've just produced more lactate, making things worse overall. It was just weird that I'd never heard of pyruvate supplements before.
 

smith

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Jul 2, 2017
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Does anyone know of a source of SODIUM pyruvate as opposed to calcium?
 

TreasureVibe

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Jul 3, 2016
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The effect of nitrogen sources including yeast extract, peptone, soybean hydrolyzate and some inorganic nitrogen sources, as well as the nitrogen concentration on the fermentative production of pyruvate by Torulopsis glabrata WSH-IP12 was investigated. The addition of yeast extract greatly inhibited pyruvate accumulation, while peptone was shown to be the most favorable nitrogen source. In flask culture, 15 g l(-1) peptone was needed to consume 80 g l(-1) glucose with 23.4 g l(-1)of pyruvate accumulated. Pyruvate production was markedly dependent on the ratio of carbon to nitrogen (C:N), its production was improved by increasing the concentration of glucose and peptone proportionally and reduced by exclusively increasing the glucose concentration. In a glucose fed-batch culture, cell growth and pyruvate production slowed after 28 h. However, cell growth and pyruvate production recovered after further nitrogen, in the form of peptone and ammonium sulfate, was added to the culture. A final concentration of pyruvate of 54.5 g l(-1) was achieved at 64 h (yield to glucose consumed of 0.471 g g(-l)). By using aqueous ammonia instead of potassium hydroxide for pH control, 57.3 g l(-1) pyruvate with a yield of 0.498 g g(-1) was produced by 55 h. This result further indicates that nitrogen level plays an important role in the production of pyruvate.

Effect of nitrogen source and nitrogen concentration on the production of pyruvate by Torulopsis glabrata. - PubMed - NCBI
 

agnostic

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Dec 15, 2012
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Since Haidut has spoken positively about pyruvate supplementation in the introduction to his new product Pyrucet, I was wondering if anyone in here has experimented with pyruvate. Pyruvate supplementation is of particular interest to me because my son suffers from epilepsy and there is now increasing evidence that pyruvate supplementation could be highly beneficial in the treatment of epilepsy. Here are two very interesting studies:
A unique array of neuroprotective effects of pyruvate in neuropathology
Metabolic correction by pyruvate halts acquired epilepsy in multiple rodent models. - PubMed - NCBI

The abstract of the second paper says:

Metabolic intervention strategy of epilepsy treatment has been gaining broader attention due to accumulated evidence that hypometabolism, manifested in humans as reduced brain glucose consumption, is a principal factor in acquired epilepsy. Therefore, targeting deficient energy metabolism may be an effective approach for treating epilepsy. To confront this pathology we utilized pyruvate, which besides being an anaplerotic mitochondrial fuel possesses a unique set of neuroprotective properties as it: (i) is a potent reactive oxygen species scavenger; (ii) abates overactivation of Poly [ADP-ribose] polymerase 1 (PARP-1); (iii) facilitates glutamate efflux from the brain; (iv) augments brain glycogen stores; (v) is anti-inflammatory; (vi) prevents neuronal hyperexcitability; and (vii) normalizes the cytosolic redox state. In vivo, chronic oral pyruvate administration completely abolished established epileptic phenotypes in three accepted and fundamentally different rodent acquired epilepsy models. Our study reports metabolic correction by pyruvate as a potentially highly effective treatment of acquired epilepsies.

I also searched the internet for freely available pyruvate supplements and found that almost all pyruvate supplements contain calcium pyruvate. Since calcium pyruvate contains about 15% elemental calcium, it would not be practical to supplement higher doses of pyruvate with this form. Sodium pyruvate would probably be better, but I could not find a pure sodium pyruvate supplement. There is, however, a product from Swansons that contains a mixture of calcium pyruvate, sodium pyruvate and potassium pyruvate:
Swanson Ultra Triple Pyruvate Electrolyte Complex 60 Veg Caps - Swanson Health Products

There is also creatine pyruvate, which might be another good source of pyruvate:
https://www.amazon.com/Creatine-pyruvate-capsules-Scitec-nutrition/dp/B004EPYBT8
 

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