Ray Peat Email Advice Depository

[Sefton10]

Q. (Paraphrased) TSH is higher than I'd like, Vit D is lower than I'd like, and I'm not sure what to make of the high thyroglobulin antibodies?

A. Prolonged stimulation by TSH promotes inflammation, and that leads to formation of antibodies. When TSH is normalized, the antibodies tend to subside over a period of several months. The low vitamin D contributes to an inflammatory state; keeping calcium intake high relative to phosphate supports vitamin D and thyroid functions.

Q. Do you think calcium intake relative to phosphate needs to be high on a meal-by-meal basis, or over the course of a day or week?

A. The mineral absorption is fairly slow, so I think the day’s average is what matters.

 

[tca300]

Me: You mentioned that shining red light on the testicles might be carcinogenic. May I ask how?


Ray Peat: It stimulates mitosis and angiogenesis, processes that have to be coordinated with the entire physiology.


Me: Do you think a pure red spectrum light shined anywhere on the body is probably not a good idea then?


Ray Peat: Generally, I think a broader spectrum is better.

 

[milk_lover]

Me: If I prepare my whole grain rolled oat (half a cup) with milk, butter, salt and sugar, and eat it every morning, will the net effect on my digestion and overall being be a positive? I enjoy the taste and I don’t mind eating it everyday. I enjoy it more than carrots. I am trying to find oat bran in my area, but they are really hard to find.

Ray Peat: It usually has a positive effect.

 

[InChristAlone]

I asked him if I could use saturated fat as fuel because I'm having reactive hypoglycemia to carbs and was concerned if fats clog the arteries here is his response:

RP: Saturated fats are protective; declining thyroid function causes LDL cholesterol to rise, and is an important cause of hypoglycemia, because of failure to store enough glycogen. Eating too much protein can cause declining thyroid function.

 

[Mauritio]

Q: Hello Mr. Peat,
Do you have any opinion on boiling banana peels and drinking the juice ?
It's supposedly a good source of magnesium, potassium, dopamine and some flavonoids.

A: Probably not a good idea.

Q: Because of pesticides?

A: Including the banana’s own toxic defensive chemicals.

 

[milk_lover]

Me: What is an effective fast way to relieve a stuffy nose due to allergy, bad food or an infection? If I can’t breath from my nose, I am afraid I am losing a lot of CO2 from my mouth which is not good.

Ray Peat: Antiinflammatories, including aspirin, antihistamines, fibrous foods. Occasional use of a nebulizer with a 4% saline solution can help with membranes irritated by allergens.

Me: Does using nasal spray do any good? Or does the push further irritate the membranes?

Ray Peat: Hypertonic saline is antiinflammatory.

 

[milk_lover]

Me: Do you drink your milk cold? Does the milk temperature affect the digestion of the milk?

Ray Peat: I usually prefer it at room temperature; too much cold food at once can sometimes affect the heart rhythm.

 

[Mauritio]

Q:A friend of mine started taking DHT for skin cancer. He send me this study, showing supposed evidence for androgens beeing bad for skin cancer.
Do you think there's any truth to that?

Sustained androgen receptor signaling is a determinant of melanoma cell growth potential and tumorigenesis | Journal of Experimental Medicine | Rockefeller University Press

Ma et al. uncovers an essential role of AR signaling in melanoma cell expansion and tumorigenesis, with loss of AR activity inducing cellular senescence, genomi

rupress.org

Thank you!

A:For melanoma, that sounds likely. Thyroid and progesterone with opposing effects would be more logical.

Q: Wouldn't DHT have an anti-cancer effect through its anti-estrogen effects?

A:It has been used that way in breast cancer, but it’s risky to generalize about its anticancer effects.

Q: Thanks . I'll suggest him something more generell like vitamin E or progesterone.

A: It’s important to correct any hypothyroidism.

 

[Mauritio]

Q: Do you know if subantimicrobial doses of the tetracyclines are enough to lower prostaglandin synthesis and phospholipase A2?

A: Thw tetracyclines and macrolides such as azithromycin are antiinflammatory; aspirin has similar inhibitory effects.

 

[Mauritio]

Q: What do you think of the idea of a universal basic income ?
I don't know if it would work out, but I suspect that it would be tied to the new digital ID.

A: Prices of basic foods and rent would soon rise; I think the proposal is tied to the plan for digital ID, digital money, and complete political control.

 

[Mauritio]

Q: Do you think any kind of overfeeding, especially a high fat diet, would lead to NAFLD and NASH?

A: Yes.

Q: What about all of the studies that feed rats an "atherogenic diet" full of saturated fats to induce NAFLD.
Isn't that an inefficient mechanism? As PUFA would lead to a faster fattening of the liver with the same amount of calories fed.

A: Yes, PUFA is probably essential for atherogenesis. In the experimental diets, they include several percent PUFA, so with overfeeding it accumulates quickly.

Q: Wouldn't that be a benefit of a calorie restrictive diet, that the PUFA will get burned instead of stored ?

A: If it’s restricted to the right amount, without stress.

 

[Miso]

Q: I wanted to know your thoughts on 17alpha-estradiol, the “non-feminizing” weak estrogen that is showing reproducible life span extension in male mice studies. Some interpretations suggest this to be a potential reason for why females tend to live longer than males. Could this legitimately be a “good” estrogen, or is this another ploy from estrogen pharmaceutical companies to further promote their therapies?

17‐a‐estradiol late in life extends lifespan in aging UM‐HET3 male mice; nicotinamide riboside and three other drugs do not affect lifespan in either sex
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Acarbose, 17-α-estradiol, and nordihydroguaiaretic acid extend mouse lifespan preferentially in males
Longer lifespan in male mice treated with a weakly estrogenic agonist, an antioxidant, an α‐glucosidase inhibitor or a Nrf2‐inducer
Development of 17alpha-estradiol as a neuroprotective therapeutic agent: rationale and results from a phase I clinical study - PubMed
Why do women live longer than men?

A: I don’t know about old male mice, but in humans old men often have much more estrogen than women of the same age, so a relatively neutral competitor of estrogen should be helpful. I think progesterone is likely to be better.
Q: Do you think that these milder neutral forms of estrogen compete for ER binding sites to limit the more damaging effects of stronger estrogens, or just dilute their concentration in tissues? Would there be any therapeutic applications to combine 17alpha-estradiol and progesterone to tackle estrogen, perhaps via two different mechanisms?
A: It weakens the effects of estradiol on the receptors. Progesterone acts in a variety of ways, reducing estrogen production and activation, and by degrading the estrogen receptor.

 

[Miso]

Q: With Microplastics becoming so pervasive in food and water supply, do you have any specific solutions to reduce exposure? Once ingested, do micro plastics behave similarly to raw starch granules adsorption? Aside from coffee grounds, what filtration system does Dr Peat use to filter water?

A: Reverse osmosis is be most effective practical way to filter water. Nanoparticles enter cells more easily than starch granules.

 

[Mauritio]

Q: Over the last 8 months I have developed ,what I believe to be, several spider and one cherry angioma.
Im less worried about the angiona itself, more that there could be something wrong with my metabolism.
What do you think that could be ?

A: Traditionally, high estrogen, low thyroid are thought to be involved. Vitamins K and D, and the ratio of calcium to phosphate in the diet, help to stabilize the hormones that regulate blood vessels.

Q: I actually found that applying topical vitamin D on the spider angioma totally reversed them after 1-2 months , so that's good.

These angiomas started surfacing a couple months after I moved into a new apartment in which the former owner was a heavy smoker. The walls smelled like smoke a lot and I woke up with read eyes, coughing and mucus in my throat everyday.
Do you think this could be related to some of the chemicals in cigarettes that I inhaled from the walls ?


A: Anything you can smell could have biological activity.

 

[Mauritio]

Q:
I think when you increase uncoupling of oxidation and phosphorylation you increase fatty acid oxidation in the liver.
Do you think there's an increased need for vitamin E in such a scenario?

A: Uncoupling itself tends to reduce lipid peroxidation.

 

[:M :B.]

Q: Are you willing to share with me some strategies to protect myself from the shedders?
I have been sipping on water with aspirin and sodium bicarbonate dissolved in it and taking some vitamin k2.
Curious if a person could take some azithromycin before or after being really close to a shedder?

A: It might help, but there’s no evidence yet.

 

[:M :B.]

Q: Do you know of a good strategy to shrink a goiter?

A: Both T4 and T3 can lower TSH, helping to shrink a goiter, but doing it with just T3 would tend to give you a fast pulse and a tendency to over-heat. Cynoplus has a generally good balance of T4 and T3, a 4 to 1 ratio; some people use a little T3 with it, according to how they feel and function. It’s available from farmaciadelnino.mx. One of the effect of T3 is to lower your estrogen (aspirin helps too) while increasing your progesterone. Estrogen tends to enlarge a goiter, by blocking the enzyme that converts thyroglobulin (“colloid”) to the active secreted hormones, and progesterone activates those enzymes. If the goiter is visibly enlarged, a certain amount of progesterone can activate the conversion of thyroglobulin to the extent of producing hyperthyroidism during the process (e.g., with a resting pule rate of about 125 beats per minute). It’s better to do it slowly with thyroid supplements suppressing TSH. Pregnenolone, being converted to progesterone, might have similar accelerating effects.

 

[milk_lover]

Me: My son drinks UHT milk at room temperature. After we open it, how long can we keep it unrefrigerated before it goes bad? Everywhere online they say two to three hours which I feel is unpractical for us in the go or during night.

Ray Peat: If it’s kept fairly warm after exposure to bacteria, it might sour noticeably in about 12 hours; I have bought it in two quart containers, never had one go sour before I used it.

 

[JamesGatz]

Ray's thoughts on a transhumanist future:

Q:
I believe that one of the end goals of the WEF is to have a transhumanist future where people's daily lives encompass using a VR Headset daily and also embedded microchips that are able to receive 5G signals.
I imagine having a device attached to one's head spreading EMF to the brain for extremely long periods of time would kill the person quiet quickly given that it would be a hypometabolic state almost 24/7. I feel like a person's only option would be to exit society and become completely self-sustainable.

Do you have any thoughts on a transhumanist future?

RP:
I think the only practical option is to prosecute the members of WEF and their collaborators for criminal conspiracy, and to begin a radical de-digitization of society.

 

[Mauritio]

Q: Do you think it's likely that the US dollar will loose its status as the major reserve currency in the next weeks and months?

A:The rising cost of gas and oil and wheat mean that the dollar is losing its value. If Europe experiences a greater increase in prices than the US, the currency exchange rates would show a rise in the dollar relative to those currencies, while its real value is declining. Since the non-producing financial, insurance, and real estate economy is now 20% of the GDP, there’s no obvious way for the dollar to maintain its value when other countries start using gold or their national currencies for doing business.

Q:What consequences do you think it would have ,especially for the US, if the dollar looses that status?

A: I think its policies will become wilder and more dangerous.