Ray Peat on Sugar

January 29, 2026

Aerobic Glycolysis and Lactic Acid in Cancer Metabolism

"Aerobic glycolysis – the cancer-typical metabolism where lactic acid is produced from glucose despite the presence of oxygen – is promoted by serotonin."

September 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Substances That Promote Brain Growth and Efficient Energy Use

"Progesterone, glucose, or glycine converted into glucose (Zamenhof and Ahmad, 1979) increased brain growth by either boosting energy supply or improving the ability to use energy effectively."

September 2017 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Milk Components Support Efficient Energy Use

"Milk provides lactose, which is quickly metabolized into glucose, as well as small amounts of other substances, including progesterone and thyroid hormone, which promote their efficient use."

September 2017 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

The Role of the Liver in Converting to Active Thyroid Hormone

"The liver provides about 70% of our active thyroid hormone by converting thyroxine into T3, but it can only supply this active hormone if it has enough glucose. Frequent snacks – for example, drinking a few ounces of orange juice about every hour – keep T3 levels up by supplying glucose to the liver."

Nutrition For Women

Environmental Influences on Evolution and Inheritance

"The accumulation of environmental aspects in our tissues – which changes the function of our tissues and their affinity for various substances – is a short-term counterpart to the general upward drift of evolution and has clearly known connections to inheritance: Hormonal influences cross the placenta in both directions, and the mother's efficiency determines the fetus's nutrient supply – e.g., sugar. Persistent changes, i.e., cross-generational environmental influences, are visible in a wide variety of organisms and organs, but in the brain – the environmental organ – these Lamarckian effects are especially visible and particularly crucial."

Nutrition For Women

Metabolic Inefficiency in the Estrogen-Dominant State versus Oxidative State

"Energetically, the estrogen-dominant metabolic state is less efficient than the oxidative state dominated by the thyroid and progesterone (or testosterone). The estrogen state is – like the learned helplessness state in rats – parasympathetic, in that many chemical balances have shifted away from the mobilized sympathetic or adrenergic state. For example, the estrogen state lowers blood sugar, while the mobilized state conserves glucose by oxidizing fat."

Nutrition For Women

Estrogen-Related Blood Clotting and Metabolic Problems

"It is well known that taking estrogen can cause the blood to clot too easily. Other effects include anemia, low blood sugar, and a slow-working liver."

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Different Effects of Progesterone and Cortisone on Blood Sugar, Brain Stability, and Brain Aging

"Although progesterone and cortisone both raise blood sugar and stabilize lysosomes, their effects on the brain are very different: in high doses, progesterone acts as a sedative and anesthetic, while cortisone is stimulating, and cortisone causes changes in the brain that resemble aging."

Nutrition For Women

Glucose and hormones for alleviating schizophrenia symptoms

"Pfeiffer studied the connection of porphyria with certain forms of schizophrenia, but I don't believe he mentioned that a good dose of glucose or an anti-estrogen hormone like testosterone or progesterone can make the symptoms disappear."

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The superior efficiency of oxidative metabolism compared to fermentative metabolism

"Sugar can be used for energy with or without oxygen, but oxidative metabolism is about 15 times more efficient than non-oxidative, glycolytic, or fermentative metabolism. Higher organisms rely on this highly efficient oxidation to maintain integration and normal function."

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Tissue response to stimulation and oxygen use

"A response to stimulation involves producing more energy, with a proportional increase in oxygen and sugar consumption in the stimulated tissue. This produces more carbon dioxide, which dilates the blood vessels in that area, thus supplying more sugar and oxygen. If the irritation becomes destructive, efficiency is lost: oxygen is either wasted, leading to a bluish discoloration of the tissue (provided blood flow continues; bluish discoloration can also indicate poor circulation), or it is not consumed, causing redness of the tissue. If more sugar is consumed as compensation, lactic acid also dilates the blood vessels."

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Systemic effects of inflammation and exhaustion on blood sugar and energy efficiency

"However, severe inflammation or profound exhaustion lowers blood sugar throughout the body and delivers large amounts of lactic acid to the liver. The liver synthesizes glucose from lactic acid, but at the cost of about six times more energy than is gained from inefficient metabolism – so the organism overall becomes 90 times less efficient than in its original state. Additionally, unproductive destruction of energy molecules (ATP or creatine phosphate) further increases waste."

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Adrenal gland response to inflammation and stress hormones

"When the organism detects inflammation or other stress (possibly by sensing changes in blood sugar, lactic acid, or carbon dioxide – or all together), the adrenal glands release anti-stress hormones, including adrenaline and cortisone (provided these glands are not exhausted or 'starved'). Both adrenaline and cortisone can raise blood sugar to meet the increased demand."

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Effect of cortisone on protein conversion and immunity

"Cortisone stimulates the conversion of protein into sugar, and since there are no stored proteins (except for small amounts circulating in the blood), this means cortisone begins converting the organism into fuel for the problem area. In acute emergencies, lymphatic tissues shrink first; this is acceptable because they can be restored after the animal recovers, and their function – immunity – is partly a matter of a longer time horizon, from days to weeks. However, if these tissues are chronically depleted by stress or malnutrition, an infection is more likely to be fatal – as in old age or poor populations."

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Nutritional and hormonal influences on cellular respiration

"Various nutritional, hormonal, or toxic conditions disrupt respiration in different ways: for example, vitamin E deficiency, estrogen excess, a toxic thyroid, and DNP (the formerly popular, carcinogenic uncoupling agent) cause oxygen to be consumed without producing the normal amount of useful energy. A deficiency of vitamin B2 or copper can prevent oxygen consumption. Cancer (contrary to a persistent established doctrine) involves a respiratory defect and leads to a tendency toward hypoglycemia, which is often compensated by converting protein into sugar – leading to the final wasting state (cachexia)."

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Vitamin B2 deficiency and its effects on lactic acid

"Sugar wastage, which leads to the formation of lactic acid, can result from a vitamin B2 deficiency, and lactic acid appears to stimulate new blood vessel formation."

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Stress management through nutritional and environmental corrections

"In general, stress should first be addressed by correcting the defect – which can be environmental or nutritional. An increased nutrient demand usually includes protein and fat; acute hypoglycemia may require a large amount of sugar, indicating that the adrenal glands might be exhausted. In this case, pantothenic acid, vitamin C, vitamin A, magnesium, and potassium should be supplied in addition to other nutrients."

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Commonalities of injury and exertion in energy demand

"Injury and exertion have in common that more ‘fuel’ is needed. I think blood sugar levels are therefore at least helpful in understanding stress – even though other substances are involved in the signaling or coordination processes."

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Blood sugar as an integrating factor in stress

"From my own experience, I tend to believe that blood sugar is an important integrating factor and that the organism can probably perceive small or rapid fluctuations that would be very difficult to detect with usual laboratory methods. For example, it is known that especially men under the stress of a blood draw release adrenaline, which tends to increase blood sugar concentration."

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Differences in fructose metabolism in people with high blood fats

"Fructose does not stimulate the pancreas like glucose. It is gradually converted into glucose. However, in people with high blood fats, it is used by liver and fat tissue many times faster than in people with normal levels: it is as if the 'cell doors' in these people are already open—perhaps as a result of high insulin levels—and the cells take up fructose faster than usual."

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Importance of potassium for sugar utilization in diabetes

"Potassium is necessary for sugar utilization and should probably always be tried as a supplement in the diet of diabetics."

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The role of B vitamins in sugar utilization and diabetes

"Some B vitamins (B1 and B2 and probably niacin) are said to have similar effects on sugar utilization. In some forms of diabetes, insulin levels are normal or high, while in others there is an insulin deficiency; both forms have been shown to respond to diet, especially the form with high insulin."

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Sugar excretion in urine under stress without relation to insulin requirement

"Stress can cause sugar to appear in the urine—as can many other conditions—and this does not require insulin treatment."

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Effects of progesterone treatment on veins and suicidal depression

"Just as the veins on the forehead immediately shrink when a large amount of sugar is taken during a migraine, I have seen that veins (on the back of the hand) disappear under progesterone treatment—exactly at the moment when a suicidal depression resolves. This suggests that there might be a kind of migraine state in the vascular system of the brain's limbic system; at the same time, there are also very rapid shifts in brain chemistry."

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Effects of cancer on stress hormones and nutrient requirements

"Cancer overstimulates the adrenal cortex's anti-stress hormones and usually causes extreme wasting through the mobilization of fat and protein; blood sugar and glycogen storage are disrupted. During or after cancer treatment, a diet against hypoglycemia seems sensible: frequent small meals, liver (or comparable nutrients), magnesium, and potassium. Vitamins A, E, C, and pantothenic acid are especially important under stress, but all nutrients are necessary."

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Menopausal symptoms and progesterone deficiency

"Strickler found that only 10% of his patients with menopausal symptoms like hot flashes actually felt and benefited from estrogen when given alternately with a placebo. These studies and several dozen others convinced me that menopausal symptoms mainly result from a progesterone deficiency relative to estrogens. The 10% who really feel better from estrogen may have an estrogen deficiency, but this was not detected, and several other factors could explain the euphoria: For example, a healthy thyroid can respond to increased estrogen with increased thyroxine production—which at least makes the person feel different and may raise blood sugar, increase alertness, etc."

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Estrogen causes adrenal cortex hypertrophy to compensate for blood sugar

"It is known that an excess of estrogen causes hypertrophy of the adrenal cortex. Since estrogen stimulates insulin release and lowers blood sugar, the hypertrophy could serve to compensate for this by increasing blood sugar."

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Chronic stress and low blood sugar as factors in diabetes

"Animal studies have found that cortisone can trigger diabetes, apparently by damaging the pancreas. It is also suspected that chronic stress (which can be triggered by low blood sugar) may be a factor in the development of diabetes."

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Influence of vitamin C on cholesterol and related nutrients

"Vitamin C has been proven to lower blood cholesterol levels. Eggs are rich in cholesterol but also contain lecithin, which apparently makes the cholesterol useful or at least less harmful. Niacin and vitamin E also help regulate cholesterol. High insulin levels caused by sugar consumption seem important for cholesterol to damage blood vessels."

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Zinc, vitamin A, and the influence of blood sugar on herpes

"Zinc and vitamin A could also affect blood sugar. It is well known that emotional excitement, too much time in the sun, working too long without eating, etc., can trigger a herpes outbreak (for example, cold sores); low blood sugar likely triggers the outbreak."

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Benefits of honey and milk for liver glycogen

"Two or three tablespoons of honey in a glass of milk provide some magnesium as well as sugar to increase the stored glycogen in the liver."

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Daylight and blood sugar as factors influencing sleep

"Since blood sugar is usually higher during the day—due to the effect of light on various glands—some people with impaired liver function find it easier to sleep during the day."

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Warburg's findings on cancer and glucose consumption

"Warburg1 showed that all cancers have defective respiration—which meant that glucose is consumed too quickly. The excessive consumption of glucose despite available oxygen is called aerobic glycolysis and is typical for cancer."

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Diabetes, pregnancy, and fetal brain nutrition

"It is known that diabetic women typically have large babies with large heads who learn quickly. With each pregnancy, a woman tends to have lower glucose tolerance or appear more 'diabetic.' HCG, the hormone that helps maintain pregnancy, raises blood sugar to meet the fetus's need for abundant sugar. In this respect, diabetes and pregnancy have much in common. And as women age, they tend to develop diabetes and thus are more likely to better supply the fetus—especially its brain. In addition to this natural tendency, a mature woman is less likely to live on snack foods."

Nutrition For Women

Nutrient needs during pregnancy and effects on development

"Better nutrition before and during pregnancy and breastfeeding makes a big difference for the baby's mental and physical development. Young pregnant women should be especially careful to avoid low blood sugar. Older women likely need a bit more vitamin E and should be particularly sure not to ingest toxic amounts of copper through their water supply or cooking utensils."

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Insulin, carbohydrate cravings, and the role of pantothenic acid

"Since insulin remains elevated after breaking down excess sugar, it tends to keep blood sugar low and increase cravings for carbohydrates. Pantothenic acid helps break down insulin; this is one way it helps maintain adequate blood sugar levels."

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Maternal adaptation to fat and fetal glucose dependency

"During pregnancy, the mother's body adapts to increasingly rely on fat so that most of the available sugar can be used by the baby. The brain consumes the majority of the body's glucose, so mental fatigue can easily affect blood sugar levels. The developing baby is extremely dependent on glucose for its energy supply, and its brain can be damaged by a lack of sugar."

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Similarities between pregnancy and diabetes as well as blood sugar trends

"Pregnancy itself resembles diabetes in that it involves an adaptation to oxidizing fat instead of sugar, so a mild tendency toward diabetes can be understood as supporting the pregnancy. Older women are more likely to have some degree of diabetes or elevated blood sugar levels. With each pregnancy, there is a tendency for blood sugar to be higher and the baby to be larger and more developed."

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Estrogen-Altered Nutrient Needs for Blood Sugar Stabilization and a Healthy Pregnancy

"Vitamin E, vitamin A, and magnesium are additional nutrients that help maintain blood sugar. Vitamin B12 is needed to utilize vitamin A. Folic acid, vitamin B6, and zinc are depleted by increased estrogen and are especially important for a healthy pregnancy. Too much copper can lower blood sugar; too much iron can destroy vitamin E, and a vitamin E deficiency can cause jaundice, which may affect the baby's brain."

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Central Regulation of Estrogen and Its Link to Key Body Factors

"Estrogen is centrally—or rather decisively—regulated by the liver. Estrogen, progesterone, iodine, sugar, and stress are closely interconnected."

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Shift in US Perception of the Benefits of Breast Milk

"Around 1973, some Americans began to discover that human milk is good for human babies and helps prevent diseases. It will no longer be so easy to convince American women that the best nutrition for their babies comes from a formula made of cow's milk, sugar, and vegetable oil."

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Low Blood Sugar, Sweet Cravings, and Vitamin A

"Low blood sugar usually causes a strong craving for something sweet. It is known that a vitamin A deficiency leads to increased hunger—I suspect this works through the blood sugar mechanism."

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Metabolic Effects of Caffeine and Adrenaline on Sugar and Fat Utilization

"Since both caffeine and adrenaline increase metabolic rate, fat is likely burned faster. It is known that adrenaline raises blood sugar—apparently by inhibiting glucose utilization and increasing fat use. Coffee usually raises blood sugar due to its adrenaline-like effect."

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Human Chorionic Gonadotropin in Weight Loss Clinics: Effects on Appetite and Metabolism

"Many weight loss clinics use injections of the pregnancy hormone human chorionic gonadotropin to make weight loss diets easier and possibly improve fat distribution. This hormone shifts energy metabolism toward using fat instead of sugar, allowing blood sugar levels to rise. This suppresses appetite. The hormone is produced by the placenta to make sugar available to the growing fetus."

Nutrition For Women

Amphetamines and Their Effects on Appetite and Hyperactivity

"Amphetamines mimic the effect of the alarm part of the nervous system (sympathetic) and thereby increase blood sugar levels; this is probably the mechanism (or part of it) that suppresses appetite. Low blood sugar is associated with hyperactivity, and this is likely why the same medication works for hundreds of thousands of hyperactive children who receive it so they can sit quietly in school; coffee also works for hyperactivity – and might also help with weight loss."

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Muscle Atrophy Due to Stress and Cortisone During Training

"If training produces too much stress and too little actual muscle work, the muscles will atrophy because cortisone shifts amino acid metabolism toward glucose production."

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Lactic Acid as a Signal for Glucose Production During Exercise

"The formation of lactic acid (running out of breath) is the most important signal that new glucose must be produced. That is why aerobic exercise is the most stressful."

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Biophysical Approach and Individual Nutrient Needs

"Emphasizing the uniqueness of individual needs should be seen in the context of seeking the most general principles: This can help us recognize meaningful patterns and make things that would otherwise be trivial significant. I think a biophysical approach to the cytoplasm is one of the principles that helps perceive such patterns. More specific and immediately useful ideas concern stress, the efficient or wasteful use of sugar, and the energetic 'charge' of cells."

Nutrition For Women

Dietary Thermogenesis and Endogenous Energy Regulation

"Dietary thermogenic factors include sodium, calcium, vitamin D, carbohydrates – especially sugar – and protein, which interact with our endogenous energy-regulating factors, particularly thyroid hormones and progesterone."

November 2020 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Prenatal Influences on Brain Development and Adaptability

"Experiments over the last 60 years have shown that more or less glucose, carbon dioxide, heat, and progesterone during embryonic and fetal development can influence brain growth – as well as the way the brain controls later development and adaptability."

November 2017 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

The Role of the Cholinergic System in Glucose Oxidation

"The cholinergic parasympathetic system tends to reduce the oxidation of glucose. Excessive activation of this system leads to shock, with an extreme inhibition of respiratory metabolism; under normal circumstances, however, the activity of this system increases at night and decreases during the day."

November 2017 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

The Respiratory Pathway: The Central "Main Path" of Metabolism to Balance

"The field, the integrity of the organism, is maintained by an orderly respiratory metabolism and can be disrupted by mechanical trauma, excessive stimulation, toxins, etc. – or by the lack of oxygen, glucose, or substances that specifically neutralize inflammation signals."

November 2016 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Beyond TSH: hypothyroidism and systemic metabolic disorders

"Due to inefficient glucose use in hypothyroidism, fatty acids are mobilized from tissue, contributing to stress and inflammation. In autoimmune diseases, free fatty acids are consistently elevated."

November 2016 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Thymus gland atrophy: causes and supportive factors for restoration

"Factors causing thymus gland atrophy include cortisol and other glucocorticoid hormones, estrogen, prostaglandins, polyunsaturated fatty acids, lipid peroxidation, nitric oxide, endotoxin, hypoglycemia, and ionizing radiation. Progesterone and thyroid hormone support thymus gland restoration and provide protection by counteracting all these atrophy factors. Increasing sugar in the diet can correct some of the metabolic changes of aging."

November 2016 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Oxygen supply and activation of glycolysis in working muscle

"At low altitude, a tissue activates the glycolytic process when its oxygen consumption exceeds the blood's ability to supply oxygen – as in a heavily working muscle. In this process, glucose is converted to lactic acid to provide additional energy."

May 2020 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

The role of maternal physiology in regulating the fetal environment

"The physiology of a healthy mother constantly adjusts the intrauterine conditions in interaction with her environment: She regulates temperature, provides oxygen and sugar, regulates carbon dioxide levels and essential nutrients, and simultaneously keeps larger toxins away."

March 2021 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Adaptation problems of premature infants in new environments

"The premature infant, who suddenly leaves its low-oxygen, CO2-rich, and sugar-rich environment and experiences the extreme new environment of a hospital incubator, is an extreme example of how our normal adaptive responses can become destructive when directed in the wrong direction by an unfavorable environment."

March 2021 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Oxidative metabolism to maintain protective factors after pregnancy

"In childhood and adulthood, a robust oxidative metabolism can maintain some of the essential protective factors of pregnancy, including adequate levels of glucose and carbon dioxide, good temperature regulation, and avoiding an overproduction of superoxide and lactate. Under these conditions, cytokines can contribute to adaptation and ongoing development."

March 2021 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Warmth and insulin in preventing inflammation

"It is the oxidation of glucose (which produces carbon dioxide) – favored by warmth and the right amount of insulin – that can prevent inflammation."

March 2021 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Maintaining body temperature as a substitute for exercise

"Simply maintaining body temperature can provide these benefits of exercise (Hoekstra, et al., 2020), as long as glucose levels are maintained."

March 2021 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Cellular energy production and inflammation

"A disruption of energy production is fundamental to inflammation. When cellular stimulation increases faster than oxygen can be supplied, there is a shift towards glycolytic energy production, where glucose and amino acids are converted to lactic acid."

March 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Sleep's mitigating effect on stress-induced catabolism

"The stress of darkness creates an inefficient catabolic state in which cortisol breaks down tissue to provide glucose, and sleep reduces this stress to some extent."

March 2018 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Lipolysis intensity and disruption of restorative sleep

"The intensity of lipolysis at night decreases during the most restorative deep sleep, yet free fatty acids themselves tend to increase lactate by blocking the oxidation of glucose to carbon dioxide and dampen glucose metabolism. This creates an inflammatory and excitatory state that disrupts deep sleep."

March 2018 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Salty snacks and better sleep quality

"Salty snacks are especially helpful in promoting falling asleep – presumably because they stabilize blood sugar and lower adrenaline. Ice cream, which combines sugar, calcium, and some fat that prolongs sugar absorption, is often effective in improving sleep quality."

March 2018 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

The crucial role of thyroid hormone in maintaining deep sleep

"Thyroid hormone is – by promoting the oxidation of glucose and increasing ATP – extremely important for the ability to achieve and maintain the necessary deep sleep."

March 2018 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

The protective role of glucose for gut health during stress

"Intense or prolonged stress damages the gut, impairs its barrier function, and allows bacterial toxins – especially endotoxin – to enter the bloodstream. Glucose is the crucial factor that protects the gut epithelium during stress."

March 2017 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Nitric oxide triggers a metabolic shift towards glycolysis

"Nitric oxide causes a metabolic shift towards glycolysis even in the presence of oxygen and wastefully produces lactate from glucose."

March 2017 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

List of Various Medications and Supplements

"Acetazolamide, agmatine, amantadine, aminoguanidine, antibiotics (minocycline, tetracycline, etc.), antihistamines, aspirin, bromocriptine, DCA, emodin, glucagon, glucose, memantine, methylene blue, niacinamide, T3 (triiodothyronine), vitamin D, vitamin E."

March 2016 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

How Ideology Distorts the Understanding of Stress Physiology

"The ideology surrounding stress physiology, which distorts the importance of serotonin, estrogen, unsaturated fats, sugar, lactate, carbon dioxide, and various other biological molecules, has hidden the simple means against most inflammatory and degenerative diseases."

July 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Mitigating the Harmful Effects of Excess Serotonin

"By avoiding prolonged fasting and strenuous exercise, increasing free fatty acids, combining sugar with proteins to keep free fatty acids low, and using aspirin, niacinamide, or cyproheptadine during unavoidable stress to reduce free fatty acid formation; also avoiding an excess of phosphate relative to calcium in the diet, consuming milk and other anti-stress foods before sleep or at night, and being in a brightly lit environment during the day with regular sunlight exposure, one can minimize the harmful effects of too much serotonin and reduce the associated inflammation, fibrosis, and atrophy."

July 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

The Role of CO2 in Relaxing Smooth Muscle and Oxygen Supply

"Since CO2 relaxes smooth muscle, cells that are active and consume oxygen and glucose (producing CO2 in proportion to their activity) cause nearby blood vessels to relax and expand. This delivers more oxygen and glucose – matching the increased demand."

July 2017 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

The Connection Between Diabetes and Hypothyroidism

"Diabetes and hypothyroidism are closely linked because the use of glucose is necessary for activating thyroid hormone – and this thyroid hormone, in turn, is necessary for the efficient use of glucose."

July 2017 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

The Brain-Stabilizing Effect of Carbon Dioxide

"Since carbon dioxide acts as a stabilizer in the brain, among other things by relaxing blood vessels, a loss of carbon dioxide leads to vessel constriction, insufficient supply of oxygen and glucose to the brain, and thus a decreasing metabolic rate."

July 2017 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

The Immediate Effects of Energy Deficiency on Cell Health

"Energy deficiency caused by too little glucose or oxygen immediately leads to cell swelling and is accompanied by excitation; the ammonia associated with energy deficiency and excessive excitation also contributes to the swelling."

July 2017 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

How Glucose Deficiency Affects Cellular Metabolism

"Glucose deficiency causes glutamine to be used as fuel, producing more ammonia. Ammonia then promotes (through an excitatory effect on cells and direct activation of enzymes) the glycolytic utilization of glucose. This results in lactic acid even in the presence of oxygen, and the glucose deficiency is further maintained."

July 2017 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

The role of glucose in reducing cellular excitation through oxidation

"That glucose can reduce excitation in other situations is probably related to an increased oxidative state."

July 2016 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

The metabolic response to a cell crisis: a matter of survival

"When cells are dangerously overstimulated, oxygen and glucose are depleted. In the absence of oxygen – or when the ability to use oxygen is blocked – glucose is converted to lactate, and when glucose is exhausted, glutamine is converted to lactate."

July 2016 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

The effect of lactate in a reduced cell state and the inhibition of glucose oxidation

"With limited oxygen supply but unlimited lactate availability, the cell's metabolic reactions shift toward a reduced, electron-rich state. This state inhibits glucose oxidation by blocking the enzyme pyruvate dehydrogenase, thus supporting lactate formation. These are internal processes of stressed cells that can be interrupted when the organism provides corrective factors to restore oxidation."

July 2016 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

How sugar oxidation calms cells – through the production of carbon dioxide

"The cell-calming effect of sugar oxidation is probably related to increased carbon dioxide production, which shifts the electronic balance toward a more oxidized and coherent state."

July 2016 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Aging, metabolic shifts, and the tendency toward cancer-like metabolism

"Aging itself involves a metabolic shift toward a cancer-like metabolism, with a relative inability to reduce energy consumption in the basal fasting state, as well as increased fat oxidation and decreased glucose oxidation."

July 2016 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

The effect of increased CO2 on the redox balance and metabolism of the cell

"When CO2 is increased, the cell's redox balance shifts toward oxidation (Melnychuk, et al., 1977), the use of glucose for growth and fat synthesis is inhibited, and the Krebs cycle is activated (Melnychuk, et al., 1978)."

July 2016 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Replacement of the sperm cell by simple substances

"Loeb showed that the specific biological stimulus of a sperm cell, which interacts with a receptor in the egg cell, was not necessary to fertilize an egg; seawater, with added salt or sugar or urea or acid or base, was sufficient."

January 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Glucose metabolism: a direct path

"One of my professors, Sidney Bernhard, simply counted the molecules carefully and found that glucose metabolism involved a direct transfer of substrate molecules from one enzyme to the next—th"

January 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Rapid cellular effects of thyroid hormone and estrogen

"It has been observed that the active thyroid hormone almost immediately increases the oxygen consumption of cells, and estrogen equally quickly increases the uptake of sugar and water into the cells. These changes are far too rapid to be the result of communication with the cell nucleus leading to the synthesis of new proteins."

January 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

The role of reductive balance in cell-organizing factors

"The reductive balance is an important cell-organizing factor that, for example, controls the conversion of the relatively inactive estrone into the potent estradiol. (This often begins a vicious cycle of excitation, exhaustion, and degeneration, which requires the intervention of stabilizing substances like carbon dioxide, thyroid hormone, sugar, and progesterone.)"

January 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

The role of progesterone in brain energy processes

"A fundamental part of progesterone's ability to protect the brain from stress probably lies in its support of the energy-intensive mitochondrial oxidation of glucose to carbon dioxide."

January 2018 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Progesterone stabilizes cells and improves metabolic functions

"In addition to directly stabilizing the cell's internal structures, progesterone increases ATP concentration and oxygen consumption, lowers excitatory systems and numerous inflammation-related processes, reduces intracellular calcium concentration, and enhances glucose utilization. This leads to increased carbon dioxide production and also adjusts breathing and pH levels."

January 2018 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

The brain's high glucose consumption

"When a person is physically inactive, the brain consumes about 60% of the body's glucose. And because it depends on glucose, it is easily damaged even by short periods of low blood sugar."

January 2017 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Extreme stress and biological adaptation: a balancing act for survival

"During adaptation, the functional load is shifted to the system that handles the new challenge. Various stimuli – from nerves and hormones – activate the cells of this responsive system, and resources like amino acids can be drawn from less active systems to support the new functional level. The organism must precisely align its stimulating factors, and the resources – including glucose stored as glycogen in the tissues – must be sufficient. If the stimulation is too strong or too widespread, and too much fat is mobilized relative to glucose, self-damaging processes can occur."

January 2017 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Rethinking Diet and Blood Sugar Control: The Balance Between Macro- and Micronutrients

"A two-day fast worsens glucose tolerance in both diabetics and healthy people. And when diabetic men were put on a diet with 75% carbohydrates, their glucose tolerance was better than on a diet with 44% carbohydrates (Anderson, 1977). The carbohydrate-rich diet improved the men's insulin sensitivity, and fasting – similar to a high-fat diet – worsens insulin sensitivity."

January 2017 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Connections in Fat and Carbohydrate Metabolism

"When fats instead of glucose are oxidized, more oxygen is required to produce the same amount of energy, and less carbon dioxide is produced."

January 2017 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

The Biological Shift to Fat: Adaptation Mechanisms of Energy Use

"The biological changes associated with the shift of energy sources from glucose to fatty acids and amino acids during stress, aging, and dementia have been called the 'deprivation syndrome.'"

January 2017 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Cortisol Responds to Low Glycogen Stores

"When there is not enough glycogen stored in the liver, muscles, and other tissues to meet the brain's nocturnal glucose needs, cortisol rises. This breaks down tissue proteins to provide amino acids and glucose, and this nightly stress also increases free fatty acids."

January 2017 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Protective Substances Against the Effects of Hypoglycemia or Impaired Glucose Oxidation

"Other substances that protect against the effects of hypoglycemia or impaired glucose oxidation include progesterone, caffeine, certain anesthetics including xenon, niacinamide, agmatine, and carbon dioxide."

January 2017 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Nitric Oxide: The Double-Edged Sword of Metabolic Regulation

"Nitric oxide blocks the ability to utilize sugar but slows metabolism. Therefore, it might serve to adjust the size of developing organs and enable survival when less fuel is available."