Ray Peat Glossary

Acidosis

A blood pH below 7.4.

Amiloid

Amyloid is the old term for the "starchy" appearing (including the way it stains) proteins seen in various diseases, and in the brain in Alzheimer's disease.

Anemic

Anemic means lacking blood, in the sense of not having enough red blood cells or hemoglobin. It is possible to have too much iron in the blood while being anemic. Anemia in itself doesn't imply that there is nutritional need for iron.

Antioxidants

Vitamin E and vitamin C are known as antioxidants, because they stop the harmful free-radical chain reactions which often involve oxygen, but they do not inhibit normal oxidation processes in cells. "Chain breaker" would be a more suitable term. It is often the deficiency of oxygen which unleashes the dangerous free-radical processes. Many substances can function as antioxidants/chain breakers: thyroxine, uric acid, biliverdin, selenium, iodine, vitamin A, sodium, magnesium, and lithium, and a variety of enzymes. Saturated fats work with antioxidants to block the spread of free-radical chain reactions.

Alkalosis

A pH of the blood above 7.4.

Bohr effect

Carbon dioxide (or acidity) displaces oxygen from hemoglobin.

Cancer metabolism

"Cancer metabolism" or stress metabolism typically involves an excess of the adaptive hormones, resulting from an imbalance of the demands made on the organism and the resources available to the organism. Excessive stimulation depletes glucose and produces lactic acid, and causes cortisol to increase, causing a shift to the consumption of fat and protein rather than glucose. Increased cortisol activates the Randle effect (the inhibition of glucose oxidation by free fatty acids), accelerates the breakdown of protein into amino acids, and activates the enzyme fatty acid synthase, which produces fatty acids from amino acids and pyruvate, to be oxidized in a "futile cycle," producing heat, and increasing the liberation of ammonia from the amino acids. Ammonia suppresses respiratory, and stimulates glycolytic, activity.

Crabtree effect

Crabtree effect, observed originally in yeast, refers to the inhibition of respiration in the presence of glucose. This occurs in cancers (e.g., Miralpeix, et al., 1990) and in rapidly proliferating normal cells (e.g., Guppy, et al., 1993).

Cytochrome P450scc.

The cytochromes are "pigments," in the same sense that they contain the colored "heme" group that gives hemoglobin its color. P450 means "protein that absorbs light at a wavelength of 450. The scc means "side-chain cleaving," which refers to the removal of the 6 carbon atoms that distinguish cholesterol from pregnenolone. Other Cyt P450 enzymes are important for their detoxifying oxidizing action, and some of these are involved in brain metabolism.

Essential fatty acids (EFA)

EFA are, according to the textbooks, linoleic acid and linolenic acid, and they are supposed to have the status of "vitamins," which must be taken in the diet to make life possible. However, we are able to synthesize our own unsaturated fats when we don't eat the "EFA," so they are not "essential." The term thus appears to be a misnomer.

Free radicals

Free radicals are reactive molecular fragments that occur even in healthy cells, and can damage the cell. When unsaturated oils are exposed to free radicals they can create chain reactions of free radicals that spread the damage in the cell, and contribute to the cell's aging.

Glial

Glial means "glue-like," and glial cells are mostly spidery-shaped cells that used to be thought of as just connective, supportive cells in the brain.

Glycation

The attachment of a sugar to a protein.

Glycolysis

Aerobic glycolysis is the conversion of glucose to lactic acid even in the presence of oxygen. The presence of oxygen normally restrains glycolysis so that glucose is converted to carbon dioxide instead of lactic acid.

Anaerobic glycolysis is the increased conversion of glucose to lactic acid when the supply of oxygen isn't sufficient, which is a normal event during intense muscle action.

Haldane effect

Oxygen displaces carbon dioxide from hemoglobin, in proportion to its partial (specific) pressure.

Hydrophobic

Insoluble in water, a nonpolar oil-like molecule that repels water.

Hyperammonemia

The presence of too much ammonia in the blood.

Lactate paradox

The reduced production of lactic acid at a given work rate at high altitude. Muscle work efficiency may be 50% greater at high altitude. ATP wastage is decreased.

Lactic acidemia

The presence of lactic acid in the blood.

Lipolysis

The liberation of free fatty acids from triglycerides, the neutral form in which fats are stored, bound to glycerine.

Mitochondria

Mitochondria (the "thread-like bodies") are the structures in cells which produce most of our metabolic energy by respiration, in response to the thyroid hormones.

Mucoid

Refers to a mucoprotein, a protein which contains some carbohydrate. A glycoprotein; usually not intended as a precise term.

Myelination

Myelin is a multilayered enclosure of the axons (the long processes) of nerve cells, composed of proteins and complex lipids, including cholesterol. The layered material is a flat, thin extension of the cytoplasm of the oligodendroglial cells.

NAD+ and NADH

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, and its reduced form are coenzymes for many oxidation and reduction reactions in cells.

Oligodendrocytes

Oligodendrocytes are one of the kinds of glial (or neuroglial) cells, and structurally they are unusual in having sheet-like, rather than just thread-like processes; they have a sensitivity ("receptors") to stress and valium, and produce pregnenolone when activated. Under the influence of thyroid hormone, they wrap themselves in thin layers around the conductive parts of nerve cells, leaving a multilayered "myelin" coating. Their absorption of thyroid hormone is promoted by butyrate, an anti-stress substance found in butter and coconut oil.

Oxidation

Oxidation refers to the combination of a substance with oxygen. This can be beneficial, as in normal respiration that produces energy, or harmful, as in rancidity, irradiation, or stress reactions.

Pasteur effect

The normal response of cells to restrain glycolysis in the presence of adequate oxygen.

Persorption

Persorption refers to a process in which relatively large particles pass through the intact wall of the intestine and enter the blood or lymphatic vessels. It can be demonstrated easily, but food regulators prefer to act as though it didn't exist.

Respiration

Respiration refers to the absorption of oxygen by cells, which releases energy.

Sacharide

Monosaccharide -- a simple sugar; examples, glucose, fructose, ribose, galactose (galactose is also called cerebrose, brain sugar).

Disaccharide -- two monosaccharides bound together; examples, sucrose, lactose, maltose.

Oligosaccharide -- a short chain of monosaccharides, including disaccharides and slightly longer chains.

Polysaccharide -- example, starch, cellulose, glycogen.

Steroidogenesis

Creation of steroids, usually referring to the conversion of cholesterol to hormones.

Uncoupling

In cellular respiration, oxidation of "fuel" in the mitochondrion is coupled to the phosphorylation of ADP, forming ATP.

Uncouplers are chemicals that allow oxidation to proceed without producing the usual amount of ATP.

Unsaturated oils

When an oil is saturated, that means that the molecule has all the hydrogen atoms it can hold. Unsaturation means that some hydrogen atoms have been removed, and this opens the structure of the molecule in a way that makes it susceptible to attack by free radicals.

Vicinal water

Water near surfaces, especially hydrophobic surfaces, that is physically and chemically different from ordinary water.

Warburg effect

"Warburg Effect" refers to Otto Warburg's observation that cancer cells produce lactic acid even in the presence of adequate oxygen. Cancer cells don't "live on glucose," since they are highly adapted to survive on protein and fats.