Ray Peat on Red Light

Polanyi’s Adsorption Potential and the Problems of Atomistic Concepts

“Today it is clear that Polanyi’s adsorption potential was a fact, and that Einstein and Haber were dogmatically wrong with their ideas about interatomic forces. Against this background, we should question the many consequences of the same false atomistic viewpoint – including Einstein’s theory of the photoelectric effect, which attributed particle properties to light because he assumed that matter strictly consists of particles and has no action at a distance or far-reaching energy properties, as later shown by Polanyi.”

Nutrition For Women

Effects of Bright Light on Hormone and Mood Problems

“Bright light for over 18 hours a day can correct some hormone and mood problems.”

Nutrition For Women

Artificial Light in Cases of Light Deficiency Is Often Underestimated

“Lack of light can be artificially compensated for, but the brightness required for this is usually underestimated.”

Nutrition For Women

Pregnancy, Similarities to Diabetes, and Blood Sugar Trends

“Pregnancy is somewhat similar to diabetes because the metabolism adapts to oxidize fat rather than sugar. A slight tendency toward diabetes can therefore be understood as support for pregnancy. Older women are more likely to have some degree of diabetes or elevated blood sugar. With each pregnancy, there is a tendency for blood sugar to be higher and the baby to be larger and more developed.”

Nutrition For Women

Different Nutrient Levels and Their Effects on Body Tissues

“The different tissues of the body can still function acceptably at varying nutritional levels. For example, the skin, with its low energy demand, seems to remain alive for several hours after the general death of the body. The brain, with its extremely high energy demand, is usually the first to suffer from energy deficiency. With mild deficiency, the brain initially just loses functional efficiency, but a stronger or prolonged deficiency can cause lasting changes or even structural damage that is relatively permanent (and may even affect generations).”

Nutrition For Women

The Importance of Muscle Mass for Metabolic Rate and Weight Management

"Since fat has a very low metabolic rate, people who lose muscle mass through fasting will increasingly have difficulty losing weight because they have less active tissue that can burn fat. Building muscle and lymph tissue for optimal health – even if that initially causes slight weight gain – makes losing weight easier later because the mass of metabolically active tissue increases."

Nutrition For Women

Environmental influences on thyroid activity

"A lower room temperature and brighter light stimulate the thyroid."

Nutrition For Women

Effects of bright light on hormone production, energy metabolism, and muscle tone

"Bright light also stimulates hormone production and energy metabolism and increases muscle tone."

Nutrition For Women

Against the theory of the regulatory cell membrane

"Ling, D. N. Nasonov, A. S. Troshin, and others showed not only that the postulated regulatory cell membrane is unnecessary, but that it is impossible. The surface of a cell is the boundary between phases, and inside a cell there are slight phase variations, but (except in the case of vacuoles) there is no place for the aqueous solution supposedly enclosed by a barrier membrane."

November 2018 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Minimizing stressors and strengthening protective factors

"It is important to minimize low-level stressors and injuries and optimize protective factors – such as light, carbohydrates, thyroid hormone, carbon dioxide, and the sense of a meaningful future."

November 2017 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Effects of thyroid deficiency on memory and hyperactivity

"Even a mild thyroid deficiency impairs memory and attention. The Russian paradigm, with its focus on energy and inhibition, suggests that thyroid function should be carefully examined in hyperactivity."

Mind And Tissue Russian Research Perspectives on the Human Brain

Daily rhythms of brain activity and mental health: The role of light and pineal gland stimulation

"Since a healthy person has pronounced daily cycles of brain activity (which reflect an appropriate concentration of brain amines) and many psychotics show flattened cycles – with disturbed sleep as well as disturbed waking consciousness – cyclical light stimulation of the skin and head could be useful to support regular cyclical activity of the pineal gland and the brain."

Mind And Tissue Russian Research Perspectives on the Human Brain

Therapy Aspects: Light, Gut Flora, Sleep, and Stimulation

"In any therapy, the light environment and gut flora should also be considered (endotoxin activates HIF), as well as the cycles of sleep and activity and the quality of environmental stimulation."

July 2017 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Optimizing Energy Production for Better Regeneration

"If we optimize the known factors that improve energy production (for example, red light, short- and medium-chain saturated fats, and pregnenolone) so that our metabolism resembles that of a ten-year-old child, I see no reason to assume that we could not also have the regenerative and healing abilities typical of that age. I suspect that both brain growth and remodeling processes could continue indefinitely."

Generative Energy Restoring The Wholeness Of Life

Thyroid Hormone and Fatty Acids in the Activation of Respiratory Enzymes

"Thyroid hormone, palmitic acid, and light activate a crucial respiratory enzyme and thereby suppress the formation of lactic acid. Palmitic acid is found in coconut oil and is also naturally produced in animal tissues. Unsaturated oils have the opposite effect."

July 2000

Effect of Light on Glucose Oxidation and Respiratory Efficiency

"Light promotes the oxidation of glucose and is known to activate the crucial respiratory enzyme. Winter ailments (including sluggishness and weight gain) and nighttime stress must be considered in the concept of a respiratory defect: there is a shift toward the respiration-inhibiting production of lactic acid, which damages the mitochondria."

July 2000 - (1)

Warburg's Research on Respiratory Enzyme and Carbon Monoxide

"Otto Warburg showed that the respiratory enzyme containing a heme group is inhibited by carbon monoxide because it binds to this enzyme – just as it binds to hemoglobin. Warburg also demonstrated that visible light restores the activity of the respiratory enzyme by breaking the bond with carbon monoxide."

1997 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Comprehensive List of Protective Nutrients

"A complete list of protective food chemicals and natural agents – or analogs to our body's own protective factors – would be very long. However, certain ones deserve special attention, including succinic acid, which stimulates respiration and protective steroid synthesis; thyroid and vitamin E, which promote normal oxidation while preventing abnormal oxidation; magnesium; sodium and lithium, which help retain magnesium; tropical fruits containing GHB; coconut oil, which protects against heart necrosis, lipid peroxidation, hypothyroidism, hypoglycemia, and histamine damage; Valium agonists, natural antihistamines; as well as adenosine and uridine. Stays at higher altitudes and exposure to bright, long-wavelength light can prompt the body to optimize its own anti-stress chemistry. Avoiding the feeling of being trapped is a high-level adaptation factor."

June 1992 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Connection between stress hormones, aging, and light research

"Having studied the effects of light on hormones and health for years, I began to realize that the existing knowledge about the role of stress and glucocorticoid hormones in aging perfectly fit my concept of 'winter disease.'"

January 1991 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

The role of light and nutritional factors in therapy for light deficiency

"Besides the question of the specific ways light affects us (for example, by maintaining the function of the essential respiratory enzyme cytochrome c), I have also considered nutritional factors that could worsen the problem of light deficiency (such as an excess of unsaturated fats), as well as the possibility of other therapies – including medications – that might be more practical and cost-effective than hormone supplementation."

January 1991 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

The role of visible light in enzyme regeneration

"Ordinary visible light has several positive effects on animals. One of these is the regeneration of the enzyme SOD (superoxide dismutase) by causing its copper atom to rebind to the protein."

October 1990 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Light and the normalization of hormone production

"Light also increases the activity of normal respiratory enzymes and tends to normalize (or maximize) hormone production – including progesterone and thyroid hormones."

October 1990 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Global warming and artificial light: Impact on brain development

"I would expect that an increase in Earth's temperature and greater use of artificial light (or migration) would lead to extended youth and the development of better brains."

October 1990 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Bright light supports progesterone production

"A lot of bright light helps maintain progesterone production."

January 1988 - Ray Peat's Newsletter
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Supplements according to Ray Peat

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