Ray Peat Email Advice Depository Discussion/Comment Thread

haidut

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This is awfully depressing and defeatist.
Maybe this is true for people already locked into the system (kids, marriage, mortgage, etc) but if you are in a position where you can make some money in an environment where you have even one or two supportive people in your life, you could feasibly save up enough in a relatively short period of time to explore limitless options for treatment or gain a better understand of where your environmental deficits lie. It does NOT have to be nearly as difficult as many people on this forum make it out to be, and I'm speaking as someone who is only just beginning to make marginal progress in my health...

Depressing? Maybe. But only if there is no escape. Defeatist? Why? I said there is a way to balance that and keep it under control. Even Peat said when asked a few times that perfect diet is impossible unless we acknowledge the presence of restrictions in the food choices we have available to us (without going crazy in findings "perfect" food). He also said it is probably not possible to have a "right" or "good" attitude in an authoritarian workplace, which matches my observations/experience. So, recognizing things are bad is probably less pathogenic than utter delusion, which is what the latest incarnations of the psychiatric bible DSM encourages. Finally, he said recently that the most pernicious aspect of our environment is that it has eliminated meaningful choices for many/most people. So, yes it sucks but it can be a stimulus to realize the mainstream version is mostly a scam and start to look for alternatives. In that thread below he also discussed other means of counteracting those stressors, but I think the message is pretty clear - the environment is designed to be toxic to your organism.
Motivation
"...Possibly the most toxic component of our environment is the way the society has been designed, to eliminate meaningful choices for most people. In the experiment of Freund, et al., some mice became more exploratory because of the choices they made, while others' lives became more routinized and limited. Our culture reinforces routinized living. In the absence of opportunities to vary the way you work and live to accord with new knowledge that you gain, the nutritional, hormonal and physical factors have special importance."
 
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theLaw

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Depressing??? Think outside the bun..........starch free!!!:thumbsup:

low-carb-pizza-casserole-c.jpg


Low Carb Pizza Casserole - Gluten Free | Low Carb Yum
 

Tenacity

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This is awfully depressing and defeatist.
Maybe this is true for people already locked into the system (kids, marriage, mortgage, etc) but if you are in a position where you can make some money in an environment where you have even one or two supportive people in your life, you could feasibly save up enough in a relatively short period of time to explore limitless options for treatment or gain a better understand of where your environmental deficits lie. It does NOT have to be nearly as difficult as many people on this forum make it out to be, and I'm speaking as someone who is only just beginning to make marginal progress in my health...

I think the important thing to remember is that there are choices to be made, always.
 

Regina

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Thanks, great exchange. This last part struck a powerful note that I also alluded to a few times in the past:


If you live in a Western city, every time you ingest a commercial food or drink, or get shrunk into sweaty obedient mess by your psychopathic boss, or get infuriated by yet another email/text that you have been charged a "convenience" fee and your bank account is overdrawn, or get signed up for various "benefits" against your will (Wells Fargo anyone?) or (God forbid) you pop a "harmless" PPI, BP or SSRI drug you get a powerful dose of aging/disease. Unless that changes, which for most people is not likely, then some form of corrective action like supplements, special diet, aspirin, anti-serotonin, etc is needed just to slow down the deterioration.
Depressing??? Think outside the bun..........starch free!!!:thumbsup:

low-carb-pizza-casserole-c.jpg


Low Carb Pizza Casserole - Gluten Free | Low Carb Yum
o_O
 

theLaw

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I was just making the point that delicious food is not something that has to be given-up amidst all of this stress, but instead just a shift in perspective.

Peat lists the ingredients......................but we have to make the recipe.:D
 

tara

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So, recognizing things are bad is probably less pathogenic than utter delusion ...
+1
In that thread below he also discussed other means of counteracting those stressors, but I think the message is pretty clear - the environment is designed to be toxic to your organism.
+1

(Also useful to recognise, as I think Peat does, where there are opportunities, positive developments and reasons for hope. But not by blindly just 'being positive' and 'looking on the bright side'.)
 

Wagner83

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So, recognizing things are bad is probably less pathogenic than utter delusion, which is what the latest incarnations of the psychiatric bible DSM encourages.


(Also useful to recognise, as I think Peat does, where there are opportunities, positive developments and reasons for hope. But not by blindly just 'being positive' and 'looking on the bright side'.)
 

DaveFoster

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If you live in a Western city, every time you ingest a commercial food or drink, or get shrunk into sweaty obedient mess by your psychopathic boss, or get infuriated by yet another email/text that you have been charged a "convenience" fee and your bank account is overdrawn, or get signed up for various "benefits" against your will (Wells Fargo anyone?) or (God forbid) you pop a "harmless" PPI, BP or SSRI drug you get a powerful dose of aging/disease. Unless that changes, which for most people is not likely, then some form of corrective action like supplements, special diet, aspirin, anti-serotonin, etc is needed just to slow down the deterioration.
Love these kinds of posts.

Don't forget immunosuppressants and antipsychotics.
 
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M

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I've just posted Ray's advice about reducing prostate swelling and inflammation. I think he's on the money. The only recent change to my diet has been to introduce overnight soaked oats and bananas for breakfast, which very well could have caused the intestinal inflammation Peat mentioned. I'll lay off them awhile and see what happens.
 
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jb116

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I've just posted Ray's advice about reducing prostate swelling and inflammation. I think he's on the money. The only recent change to my diet has been to introduce overnight soaked oats and bananas for breakfast, which very well could have caused the intestinal inflammation Peat mentioned. I'll lay off them awhile and see what happens.
May I ask what is making you suspect swollen prostate?
 
M

member 2106

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May I ask what is making you suspect swollen prostate?

Sexual dysfunction, urinary issues, and pelvic floor tension. It's possible the latter is the root issue, and not the prostate. I'm still trying to figure it out. Wasn't having any trouble until I started eating the oats and bananas, so could have something to do with that.
 

schultz

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People who eat primarily rice in their diet are at a high risk of suffering from beriberi. I think carbohydrates need to come alongside very good sources of thiamine to avoid issues.

Do they really though? I have seen this mentioned across the forums, but I don't buy it. Rice is the staple of carb of so many Asian countries, India, China, Japan, Thailand. Looking at these countries, especially China and India, I bet the majority of the world uses rice as their main carb source, compared to other sources.

I think Tenacity is using the extreme (beriberi) to make a point. I don't think it's unreasonable to consider that some people may have subclinical thiamine deficiency, especially people who are quite active or pregnant women who have an increased need.

Here is a quote from that WHO article...

"Studies in Australia have revealed quite unexpected incidence of biochemical thiamine deficiency in pregnant mothers at term and in apparently healthy infants subsequent to the neonatal period. Thiamine deficiency was found in infants and their mothers coming from families who had a high incidence of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (Australian Health and Medical Research Council, 1978; Wood et al, 1980; Jeffrey et al, 1985)."

All kinds of pregnant women could have suboptimal levels of thiamin for all we know. It's not like they check for that. Also, people who are dieting and also doing a lot of exercise could easily develop deficiency. This study mentions athletes...

"Kaiserauer et al. [10] report that the thiamine level is low for an athlete under intensive training. Guilland et al. [11] report that vitamin deficiency in sedentary is restored to the normal range, but it is not effective for athletes after supplementing multivitamin with thiamine. Hasegawa et al. [12] propose that thiamine and riboflavin intake increase for athletes during the season compared to the off-season. Such result suggests that the athletes under continuous training may experience thiamine insufficiency."

So even a multi vitamin with thiamine in it did not restore an athletes thiamine level to normal range.

Also, certain antithiamine substances in foods exist and some may still be undiscovered. Apparently green and black tea as well as stout beer and lager. Some people say coffee is antithiamine as well, though there doesn't seem to be much research on it and also conflicting data. Never-the-less it's probably good to keep in mind.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1749-6632.1982.tb31192.x/abstract
"Subsequently, Kundig and Somogyi’ analyzed a number of fruit and vegetables for antithiamin activity (ATA) and found highest activity in blueberries, red chicory, black currants, red beetroot, brussel sprouts, and red cabbage."
"Studies of the biological effects of antithiamin compounds in animal feeding tests have been inconsistent. Hayakawa and Murata” found no significant differences in body weight, urine thiamin, erythrocyte transketolase, or the TPP effect between rats fed caffeic acid or tannin along with the basal diet and the control rats. Schaller et al.” also found that caffeic acid produced no changes in the thiamin status parameters in rats fed this substance. Studies in our laboratory showed a lack of effect of plant material containing polyhydroxyphenol compounds on weight gains and urine thiamin of rats.” This study involved a series of Korean teas and instant tea."
"Although definite effects on thiamin status by ATA compounds have not been demonstrated by rat feeding trials, the ingestion of tea and betel nut which contain these compounds have been shown to produce changes in thiamin status in human subjects."
 

Tenacity

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@schultz Yeah, that was what I was trying to say. I think the combination of a high carb diet and a metabolic boosting regimen can be a recipe for deficiency if the foods used aren't particularly nutritious. Fat and protein do not require as much thiamine as carbohydrates, so a high carb diet including low thiamine foods such as dates, honey, rice, etc. is a recipe for depletion and eventual deficiency.

As for the antithiamine characteristic of coffee, I believe caffeic acid is the offending compound.
 

schultz

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@schultz Yeah, that was what I was trying to say. I think the combination of a high carb diet and a metabolic boosting regimen can be a recipe for deficiency if the foods used aren't particularly nutritious. Fat and protein do not require as much thiamine as carbohydrates, so a high carb diet including low thiamine foods such as dates, honey, rice, etc. is a recipe for depletion and eventual deficiency.

As for the antithiamine characteristic of coffee, I believe caffeic acid is the offending compound.

That's what I thought you meant, and I think it's not unreasonable. (Sidebar: I wonder if some people who switch to low-carb experience improved health simply because they were not getting enough thiamine?)

I don't know enough about the coffee thing, or the methodology they use to test it in a lab, and so I can't figure out if how they are testing for antithiamine activity is reasonable or not. I would love to know how much it affects the thiamine absorption. If it's like 5% then who cares, but if it i closer to something like 50% or higher then that is a major problem (I doubt it's 100%). I wonder if Ray knows anything about this? I mean, he must have read the studies right? In his coffee article he even says this: "Coffee provides very significant quantities of magnesium, as well as other nutrients including vitamin B1." He specifically says B1 (and not B3 like you'd expect) but then he doesn't discuss any antithiamine action.

It's also possible coffee increases the need for thiamine by increasing some metabolic function. If it did both this and also reduced absorption it could be problematic for someone who is drinking coffee + sugar (or tea + sugar) all day with no good food sources of thiamine.
 
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Braveheart

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"If you have good thyroid function, do you think DHEA is better than pregnenolone because it's far fewer milligrams per dose (less allergenic), like testosterone?"

Dr. Peat: "Pregnenolone has its own effects distinct from DHEA’s; I think it’s important to find a well refined pregnenolone."

"I use HealthNatura's. It's one of the cleanest I could find."

Dr. Peat: "Does the certificate of analysis show where it’s made?"

"It's sourced from China with 99.9% pregnenolone and 0.1% source material."
His answer?
 

Amazoniac

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question:
What are your thoughts on these shaving products? They have minimal ingredients but I understand that you believe soap is a endocrine disrupter. Is it something to avoid in shaving creams/products as well ?

https://www.maggardrazors.com/product/xpec-unscented-shaving-cream-250ml-jar/

Ingredients : Aqua (Water), Stearic Acid, Palmitic Acid, Glycerin, Potassium Hydroxide, Potassium cocate, Myristic-Acid, Coconut Acid, Cocos Nucifera Oil

https://wetshavingproducts.com/coll...l-4-4-oz-125-g-au-naturel?variant=29918397959

Ingredients : Stearic Acid, Water, Coconut Oil, Potassium Hydroxide, Glycerin

Answers from Dr. Peat:It’s pretty standard soap stuff, isn’t likely to be harmful.
If you exchange any further message with him, consider asking him what exactly is disruptive in simple soaps.
 

jaguar43

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If you exchange any further message with him, consider asking him what exactly is disruptive in simple soaps.

I don't have any other messages with him regarding soap. I was trying to making shaving less painful since I shaved with a disposable and water only for a few years. Now that i have tried other products it seems to me that using a disposable and water only is the least irritating way to shave.
 

Lejeboca

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I am looking to travel in the summer and am based in Europe. All of the airports in the UK have 'millimeter wave' scanners at security.

Just a quick note @Stilgar. Last week, I've been through London Heathrow twice on to European or US flights (specifically Terminal 5 security). They use the standard metal detectors (ring machines) on you first and *only* if you ring, they send you to the mil. wave scanner. So no sweat, just make sure you remove high-heel or clunky boots (in addition to standard metal stuff on you).

And I agree that European airports are generally less uptight than those in the US.
 

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