A brief discussion on the glucocorticoid system and sugar's interactions. Cortisol, the most prominent glucocorticoid, is primarily synthesized in the adrenal cortex. In Peat's view, it serves a role as a primitive signalling hormone used to unlock extra stores of energy during an especially critical emergency.

I recently got sent this video of a “science-based” fitness guy discussing the role of PUFA in sunburn, claiming that it doesn’t worsen the inflammatory response after being exposed to UV, and that it’s anti-inflammatory.

PUFA does indeed cause sunburn, pretty unequivocally. Let’s build up from mechanistic foundations towards realistic conclusions.

Firstly: PUFA’s double bonds are uniquely absorptive of high frequency (UV light). (Sahi et al., 2019)

The virtues of Quinine in regards to inflammation and serotonin.
 
Leaning heavily on @haidut’s compilation of the literature (with some updates), I wanted to give a brief overview of why day-drinking gin & tonics isn’t as bad of an idea as you would think. The anti-inflammatory effects of quinine are actually quite pronounced. A rodent dermatitis model showed significant improvements when treated with quinine, compared to a no-treatment control.

Dermatitis score, scratching frequency, and total IgE. (Lower is better, for all).

Interesting findings from this paper, titled "The Role of Dietary Fat in Carcinogenesis" First of all, the data. Low amounts of either fats, PUFA or SFA, are not particularly carcinogenic. However, the cutoff for carcinogenicity is much lower for PUFA, with a 10% sunflower oil diet causing a large spike in tumor numbers, compared with the 20% tallow group.

In my personal life, I've been extremely critical of SSRI usage. I'd like to talk about how exactly an excess of serotonin contributes to the reduction of an organism's energy.

My goal with this thread is to update some of the references that Peat used. The first article on Peat's website is about learned helplessness, and I think it's there on purpose.

Learned helplessness, mediated by serotonin, is probably the largest fundamental issue of health.

Learned helplessness prevents people from learning, adapting, and creating.

🚨Original Research Alert🚨

A few weeks ago, I was investigating Peat’s article, “Heart and Hormones”. Specifically, I was trying to understand this claim: I ordered a copy of “Chemical Physiology of Contraction in Body and Heart Muscle” (The book I suspected Peat cited) by Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, I needed time to read it thoroughly.

For the first time (to my knowledge), the contents of this book are being shared on the internet.