Darkness & Light & Madness

[Rinse & rePeat]

“Weighted anxiety blankets are meant to offer the pressure of a warm hug, bringing a calming effect and signaling to the body that it is safe. This is very beneficial to those who struggle with anxiety and panic, as it can calm our bodies and allow it to switch from that overstimulated sympathetic nervous system to the parasympathetic nervous system that allows our body to better relax. In addition to anxiety, there are other things that weighted blankets may be helpful with as well, including:

Insomnia
Chronic pain
Fibromyalgia
Restless legs
Stress
Post-traumatic stress disorder
Dementia
Depression

Top 10 Stress Management Techniques for Students

If you are a stressed student, finding ways to cope with stress is essential for your health. Discover some of the best stress management techniques for students.

www.verywellmind.com

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“The inhibitory serotonergic "harm avoidance" system, and the opposing excitatory activating "novelty seeking" systems are constantly being influenced by many factors, including nutrition, hormones, environmental challenges and opportunities, social interactions, seasons, and the rhythm of night and day alternation.” -Ray Peat

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“It is now known that pregnenolone is one of the major hormones in the brain. It is produced by certain brain cells, as well as being absorbed into the brain from the blood. It protects brain cells from injury caused by fatigue, and an adequate amount has a calming effect on the emotions, which is part of the reason that it protects us from the stress response that leads to an excessive production of cortisone. People feel a mood of resilience and an ability to confront challenges. “ -Ray Peat

 

[cupofcoffee]

I don't think anything (readily available to everyone at least) comes close to sunlight as a tool to fight learned helplessness. It can totally flip my mood/motivation in just 5 to 10 minutes.

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

I don't think anything (readily available to everyone at least) comes close to sunlight as a tool to fight learned helplessness. It can totally flip my mood/motivation in just 5 to 10 minutes.

I agree, but for some people it runs deeper and they need all the help they can get to stay off medication.

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“Excess stress (which can block progesterone synthesis and elevate estrogen) may bring on symptoms in someone who never had them. Spending a summer in Alaska, with an unusually long day, may relieve the symptoms of a chronic sufferer. Dark cloudy winters in England or the Pacific Northwest are powerful stressors, and cause lower production of progesterone in women, and testosterone in men. Toxins can produce similar symptoms, as can nutritional deficiencies. A very common cause of an estrogen excess is a dietary protein deficiency--the liver simply cannot detoxify estrogen when it is under-nourished.” -Ray Peat

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“Fresh Mushrooms Exposed to Sunlight. When fresh button mushrooms are deliberately exposed to midday sunlight for 15–120 min, they generate significant amounts of vitamin D2, usually in excess of 10 μg/100 g FW [17,35,39,40], which approaches the daily requirement of vitamin D recommended in many countries (Table 1).”

A Review of Mushrooms as a Potential Source of Dietary Vitamin D

When commonly consumed mushroom species are exposed to a source of ultraviolet (UV) radiation, such as sunlight or a UV lamp, they can generate nutritionally relevant amounts of vitamin D. The most common form of vitamin D in mushrooms is D[2] , with ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

I found an easy and natural source of vitamin D, clam juice! 1 tablespoon is 15% of your daily needs!

 

[SamYo123]

@TheSir, I experience that too if I haven’t had enough sugar before bed, but also if I’ve had something that irritated my intestines. It will often accompany a repeating song in my head and restless legs. I haven’t experienced any of that since getting over my fear of refined sugar and replacing the majority of my fruit calories with it. Go figure.

how you consuming the white sugar?

 

[Jennifer]

@SamYo123, I've since replaced the sugar with dairy fat but when I still consumed it, I mainly used it in tisanes and my homemade ice cream and custard.

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“Stress, exercise, and darkness, increase the release of free fatty acids, and so promote the liberation of tryptophan and formation of serotonin.” -Ray Peat

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“Bright light can reverse the cholinergic effects of inescapable stress (Flemmer, et al., 1990).” -Ray Peat

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“With aging, cells have less ability to produce energy, and are often more easily stimulated. The accumulation of polyunsaturated fats is one of the factors that reduce the ability of mitochondria to produce energy (Zhang, et al., 2006, 2009; Yazbeck, et al., 1989). Increased estrogen exposure, decreased thyroid hormone, an increased ratio of iron to copper, and lack of light, are other factors that impair the cytochrome oxidase enzyme.“ -Ray Peat

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“Thyroid hormone, palmitic acid, and light activate a crucial respiratory enzyme, suppressing the formation of lactic acid. Palmitic acid occurs in coconut oit, and is formed naturally in animal tissues. Unsaturated oils have the opposite effect.” -Ray Peat

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“I haven't seen any recent studies of the effects of lens removal on the nervous system, but a 1953 study of 21 patients reported a high percentage of behavioral disturbances following the surgery: "Following the operation 20 patients showed some alteration in behavior including changes in mood, psychomotor disturbances, paranoid and somatic delusions, hallucinations, disorientation and confabulations. In 3 cases the disturbance was characterized as severe." "It is concluded that disturbed behavior is an integral part of the reaction of almost all cataract patients because of a complex interaction of a number of factors".”
-Ray Peat

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“Having enjoyed the mild climate of Mexico, I became very conscious of the harm done to us by northern winters, and began developing the idea of "winter sickness." In 1966-67, allergies, PMS, weight gain, colitis, and arthritis came to my attention as winter-related problems, and I assumed that the high-latitude incidence of MS related to what I was seeing and experiencing. Studies in Leningrad began revealing that mitochondria are injured during darkness, and repaired during daylight. I observed that hamsters' thymus glands shrank in the winter and regenerated in the summer; shrinkage of the thymus gland is a classical feature of stress, and usually reflects the dominance of cortisone, though estrogen and testosterone also cause it to shrink. Winter's darkness is stressful in a very fundamental way, and like any stress it tends to suppress thyroid function. In the hypothyroid state, any estrogen which is produced tends to accumulate in the body, because of liver sluggishness.
I began to see that PMS could be controlled by certain things--extra light, supplements of sodium and magnesium, high quality protein, and correction of deficiencies of thyroid and progesterone. In working on my dissertation, I saw that tissue hypoxia (lower than optimal concentrations of oxygen in the blood) may result from estrogen excess, vitamin E deficiency, or aging. There is a close biological parallel between estrogen-dominance and the other hypoxic states, such as stress/shock, and aging.” Ray Peat

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

This was posred by Sean.R elsewhere….



View: https://youtu.be/mRowQpLn3u8

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“Darkness is stressful and catabolic. For example, in aging people, the morning urine contains nearly all of the calcium lost during the 24 hour period, and mitochondria are especially sensitive to the destructive effects of darkness. Sleep reduces the destructive catabolic effects of darkness.” -Ray Peat

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

Vitamin D likely effective as an antidepressant

That is the simple conclusion of the largest meta-study to date. Namely, vitamin D in doses above 2,000 IU daily has antidepressant effect when used as monotherapy. The antidepressant effects of vitamin D when used in combination with pharma antidepressant drugs is already well-established, so...

raypeatforum.com

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

The more time you spend in the sun, the longer you live.

Yes, that's what this review finds. All the sun-avoiders and sunscreen-lovers should read this. I remember peat said in an interview a few years ago that people with melanoma have longer life expectancy than people without it. It sounds crazy, but when you think about it, it does make sense...

raypeatforum.com