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.

Bohr effect

Carbon dioxide (or acidity) displaces oxygen from hemoglobin.

Alkalosis

A pH of the blood above 7.4.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.