Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Click Here if you want to upgrade your account
If you were able to post but cannot do so now, send an email to admin at raypeatforum dot com and include your username and we will fix that right up for you.
RP:In your book Generative Energy, you note how artificial sleep can be useful as restorative therapy for old or sick organisms.
Are there any substances or activities that can help induce deep sleep when temporarily unable to do so naturally?
When looking to increase bowel transit, is the use of pure cellulose (usually derived from trees) or wheat bran good choices of insoluble fiber?
A hahaha. No. Theres a half-dozen things you can sensibly do right from this board.Can someone ask Ray Peat if smoking one or two rolled up organic cigarettes a day protects against covid 19 and other infections?
Great post. Thx!Me: Do you think some people could be sensitive to the carotenes in orange juice? Could the carotenes in orange juice and carrot be keeping people in a hypothyroid state despite doing them everything else right?
Peat: The content in oranges is so low I don’t think even a gallon a day would affect the thyroid, but a glass or two of carrot juice definitely can.
Me: What are your thoughts on taking enzymes like serrapeptase?
Peat: Could cause unwanted internal bleeding.
Me: What is the minimum amount of fat that you would recommend for a young woman?
Peat: The amount in 1% milk, eggs, some lean meat and cheese, is more than enough. When there’s enough milk in the diet, the metabolic rate can tolerate more fat without gaining body fat.
Me: I am thinking about using herbs to get rid of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth and leaky gut symptoms. Are these safe? What are your opinions?
Peat: I think the risk of allergic reaction balances any benefit from a germicidal effect.
Me: What do you think of the traditional Mongolian diet? It is heavily based on dairy and often includes animal organs. Vegetables are very limited.
Peat: Milk compensates for the lack of vegetables.
Me: What are your thoughts on high dose thiamine therapy? HIGH-D0SE THIAMINE (HDT) THERAPY for Parkinson's Disease
Peat: I think it’s appropriate to keep investigating its use in serious conditions such as Parkinson’s.
Me: [I asked him about impacted wisdom teeth]
Peat: My impacted lower wisdom teeth rotated into position in about three weeks when I took a little DHEA. Several people have told me of similar experiences.
Me: [Asked him about safety of Botox and a Botox injectionist's website]
Peat: Not at all, her website is toxic. Botox damages the brain.
Me: [asked him about chronic muscle knots]
Peat: Hypothyroidism and excess parathyroid hormone are the main causes. Deficiencies of vitamin D, vitamin K, and magnesium are other common causes.
Me: [asked him about a good diet for my dog]
Peat:
I think meat, fish, cottage cheese, eggs, well cooked potatoes, squash, and fruit are safe, same as for people. Losartan protects eyes, as well as lungs and other tissues.
PLoS One. 2015; 10(10): e0141137.
Losartan Treatment Protects Retinal Ganglion Cells and Alters Scleral Remodeling in Experimental Glaucoma
Harry A. Quigley,# 1 ,* Ian F. Pitha, 1 Derek S. Welsbie,# 1 Cathy Nguyen, 1 Matthew R. Steinhart, 1 Thao D. Nguyen, 2 Mary Ellen Pease, 1 Ericka N. Oglesby, 1 Cynthia A. Berlinicke, 1 Katherine L. Mitchell, 1 Jessica Kim, 1 Joan J. Jefferys, 1 and Elizabeth C. Kimball# 1
Marta Agudo-Barriuso, Editor
Purpose
To determine if oral losartan treatment decreases the retinal ganglion cell (RGC) death caused by experimental intraocular pressure (IOP) elevation in mice.
Methods
We produced IOP increase in CD1 mice and performed unilateral optic nerve crush. Mice received oral losartan, spironolactone, enalapril, or no drug to test effects of inhibiting angiotensin receptors. IOP was monitored by Tonolab, and blood pressure was monitored by tail cuff device. RGC loss was measured in masked axon counts and RGC bodies by β-tubulin labeling. Scleral changes that could modulate RGC injury were measured including axial length, scleral thickness, and retinal layer thicknesses, pressure-strain behavior in inflation testing, and study of angiotensin receptors and pathways by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, Western blot, and immunohistochemistry.
Results
Losartan treatment prevented significant RGC loss (median loss = 2.5%, p = 0.13), while median loss with water, spironolactone, and enalapril treatments were 26%, 28% and 43%; p < 0.0001). The lower RGC loss with losartan was significantly less than the loss with spironolactone or enalapril (regression model p = 0.001; drug treatment group term p = 0.01). Both losartan and enalapril significantly lowered blood pressure (p< 0.001), but losartan was protective, while enalapril led to worse than water-treated RGC loss. RGC loss after crush injury was unaffected by losartan treatment (difference from control p = 0.9). Survival of RGC in cell culture was not prolonged by sartan treatment. Axonal transport blockade after 3 day IOP elevations was less in losartan-treated than in control glaucoma eyes (p = 0.007). Losartan inhibited effects of glaucoma, including reduction in extracellular signal-related kinase activity and modification of glaucoma-related changes in scleral thickness and creep under controlled IOP.
Conclusions
The neuroprotective effect of losartan in mouse glaucoma is associated with adaptive changes in the sclera expressed at the optic nerve head.
Go to:
Introduction
Glaucoma is the most common preventable cause of blindness worldwide [1], and its damaging effects are known to be mediated through alterations at the optic nerve head (ONH) produced by the action intraocular pressure (IOP) [2,3]. Engineering models of ocular tissues that describe IOP-induced effects show that peripapillary sclera (PPS) behavior is important in determining the effect of IOP on the ONH [4,5,6]. Risk factors for human glaucoma include features related to scleral anatomy or physiology, including axial myopia, corneal hysteresis, and corneal thickness [7]. In human glaucoma eyes the sclera is stiffer by in vivo indirect measurement [8] and by in vitro inflation testing [9], and undergoes alterations in PPS collagen fiber orientation [10].
The sclera is substantially altered in experimental glaucoma in mice [11] including axial elongation, increase in stiffness on inflation testing [12], loss of non-fibrillar matrix [13] thickening and reorientation of collagenous fiber layers, decreased scleral permeability [14], increased scleral fibroblast activity and division, and increase in integrin-linked and actin-cytoskeletal signaling by proteomic analysis [15]. Alterations in PPS affect susceptibility to experimental glaucoma damage. Mice with a mutated connective tissue gene for collagen 8α2 have larger eyes, with stiffer sclera at baseline and they resist glaucoma injury more than do wild type C57BL/6 mice [16]. Increased scleral cross-linking by application of glyceraldehyde led to increased retinal ganglion cell (RGC) death in experimental mouse glaucoma [17]. It is therefore likely that both the baseline state of the sclera and its dynamic alteration could affect the manner in which IOP is translated into a damaging stimulus in glaucoma.
The transforming growth factor β (TGFβ) pathways are activated in experimental and human glaucoma in trabecular meshwork [18] and ONH [19,20]. Proteomic analysis of sclera in mice with experimental glaucoma show >2-fold increases in thrombospondins 1 and 4, known activators of TGFβ [15]. The selective angiotensin 1 receptor (AT1R) inhibitor, losartan, suppresses Smad2 phosphorylation and TGFβ expression in its canonical pathway, as well as inhibiting phosphorylation of extracellular signal-related (ERK) in a parallel pathway. Blockade of AT1Rs increases AT2R activation, reducing TGFβ stimulation [21]. Overactivity of TGFβ in the Marfan syndrome leads to aortic dissection [22,23], and selective AT1R inhibition by losartan is beneficial in mouse Marfan models and has entered clinical trials [24]. Candesartan, an AT1R inhibitor, was reported to decrease RGC loss in experimental rat glaucoma with oral dosing [25], no detailed studies were performed in that report to show the mechanism by which the drug acted.
We hypothesize that losartan-induced inhibition of TGFβ signaling in a mouse model of glaucoma would alter RGC survival by modifying the scleral response to chronically elevated IOP. Potential therapeutic alterations of the sclera could supplement IOP-lowering therapy in human glaucoma by reducing IOP-generated stress at the ONH [26].
Me: What are your thoughts about yoga and meditation?
Peat: Best when incorporated into regular activities.
Me: [asked him about headaches that occur when backbending]
Peat: Bacterial endotoxin creates a chronic inflammation and leakiness of blood vessels, reducing stress tolerance.
Me: [asked him what he thought would be a good career today]
Peat: Teaching can be interesting as well as inoffensive.