Ray Peat on magnesium 🧵

“Getting enough sodium in the diet helps to retain magnesium, but both of them are lost easily when thyroid function is low; when the thyroid status is good, the requirement for magnesium is easily met by ordinary foods. The things I most often recommend for magnesium are the water from boiling greens such as beet, chard, turnip and kale, and coffee.” “Magnesium carbonate is a very good supplement, except that it can cause intestinal irritation. People tell me that they don't have bowel irritation from magnesium glycinate. Either Mg chloride or Mg sulfate with baking soda can be absorbed through the skin. Both carbonate and glycine are beneficial in themselves, but each of the compounds has its own impurities. Supplements of citrate have other effects on metabolism, that could be harmful.”

Tips to Boost Thyroid Hormones🧵 Lower Stress:

Cortisol and adrenaline inhibit thyroid hormone conversion, reducing the amount of active thyroid hormone available and increasing reverse T3, which creates a vicious cycle.

Common, often easily corrected causes of high cortisol and adrenaline:
Lack of quality sleep.
Lack of carbohydrates.
Lack of sodium.
Lack of potassium.
Lack of magnesium.
Lack of calcium.
Fasting.
Chronic caloric restriction.
Noise pollution.
Shallow breathing.
Black coffee on an empty stomach.
Constant media/device stimulation.

Other things that may help:
Vitamin C from acerola powder.
L-Theanine.
Glycine.

Many people suffer from hypothyroid symptoms despite normal labs because thyroid hormone isn't acting inside cells.

Wilson’s T3 Protocol addresses this by temporarily resting the thyroid with supplemental T3 - resolving conversion issues on withdrawal. 🧵 T3 is the active thyroid hormone. It is what controls metabolism. T4 is only a precursor.

However, the gland releases mostly T4, which must be converted into T3 to have its effect.

Reverse T3 (rT3) is another product of T4. rT3 causes issues when it becomes elevated.

Selenium is one of the most important nutrients for thyroid health, especially for those with thyroid autoimmunity. Let’s take a look at some of the research. 🧵 First, why is selenium important?

Selenium is required for thyroid hormone conversion.

A deficiency can lead to hypothyroid symptoms, even if hypothyroidism is not diagnosed.

More importantly, selenium calms autoimmune thyroid processes, Hashimoto’s, Graves', and thyroid eye disease, and it can accelerate the normalization of thyroid hormone levels during extreme stress.

The thyroid threads so far.

1] The thyroid system.

https://x.com/lowmegatron/status/1884997130902773841

2] Thyroid hormone tests.

https://x.com/lowmegatron/status/1897692536606466293

The thyroid hormone T3 is essential for a fast metabolism - but the thyroid gland only releases a little T3 - and a lot of inactive T4. The local conversion of T4 to T3 is critical for metabolic health.

Here are some tips for optimizing conversion. 🧵 Eat enough.
Eat regularly.
Eat carbs.

Caloric restriction, fasting, and low-carb diets decrease thyroid hormone conversion. These diets program the body to survive famine, slowing the metabolism by creating reverse T3 instead of T3.

https://twitter.com/1744031563187150848/status/1884997190772306390

Ray Peat on sugar and cancer... 🧵

"There have been many attempts to starve a cancer by lowering the blood sugar, but the tumor is sending out signals to provide sugar and protein, amino acids and fatty acids that it needs to grow." “If you look at the blood sugar in an animal or person carrying a tumor, their blood sugar generally is at least normal, and even if they don't eat any sugar, they'll still keep their blood sugar at about the same level.”

A man admitted to the hospital for rheumatic fever had complete remission from diabetes. His diabetes recurred a week after his release. 🧵 "The possibilities first entertained were that the previous diagnosis of diabetes was inaccurate or that spontaneous remission had occurred: neither seemed likely, and the diagnostic dilemma was resolved by the reappearance of sugar in the urine one week after discharge."

How To Lower Prolactin 🧵👇 Optimize thyroid.

Low thyroid hormones increase the TRH stimulation of prolactin.

Sub-clinical hypothyroidism is associated with elevated prolactin.

"The cases (of hypothyroidism) had significantly lower levels of total testosterone and free T4 and higher serum prolactin levels."

Fat-soluble vitamins can help with endotoxin. 🧵

Endotoxin causes:
Low Testosterone
Erectile Dysfunction
Obesity
Type 2 Diabetes
Depression and Anxiety
Lack of Empathy
Alzheimer's and Parkinson's
Cardiovascular Disease Vitamin D deficiency causes “leaky gut”.

The symptoms of leaky gut syndrome are caused by endotoxin-induced inflammation and energy down-regulation.

Reducing excess histamine can improve migraines, heart health, breathing, and skin conditions. One way to solve histamine issues is to maximize histamine detox. Here is what you need to know. 🧵 The most significant histamine reducers are the enzymes DAO and HNMT.

DAO is the most important of the two, as histamine issues often center around gut production, where DAO destroys histamine.

Ray Peat on Weight Loss 🧵

“My recommendation is to eat to increase the metabolic rate, rather than any particular foods. Usually the increased metabolic rate, with adequate protein, causes some muscle increase, and when that happens the basic calorie requirement will increase. The increase of muscle mass should continue for several weeks, and during that time the weight might increase a little, but usually the loss of water and fat will compensate for the greater muscle mass. I have heard from several people that they think I recommend drinking whole milk, which I don't, because the amount of fat in whole milk is very likely to be fattening when a person is using it to get the needed protein and calcium. When a person wants to lose excess fat, limiting the diet to low fat milk, eggs, orange juice, and a daily carrot or two, will provide the essential nutrients without excess calories.” “Per calorie, sugar is less fattening than starch, partly because it stimulates less insulin, and, when it's used with a good diet, because it increases the activity of thyroid hormone. There are several convenient indicators of the metabolic rate--the daily temperature cycle and pulse rate (the temperature should rise after breakfast), the amount of water lost by evaporation, and the speed of relaxation of muscles (Achilles reflex relaxation).”

Here are some lesser-known histamine hacks. 🧵
𝘏𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘐𝘉𝘚, 𝘐𝘉𝘋, 𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘴, 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦, 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘶𝘳𝘦, 𝘶𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘢, 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘴, 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘬𝘦, 𝘷𝘪𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴, 𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘪𝘦𝘴, 𝘩𝘢𝘺 𝘧𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳, 𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘩𝘮𝘢, 𝘶𝘭𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘴, 𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘩𝘦𝘢, 𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘰𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘴, 𝘳𝘩𝘦𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘪𝘥 𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘴, 𝘧𝘪𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘭𝘢𝘮𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. The tocotrienol form of vitamin E (T3) reduces dermatitis by stabilizing mast cells and decreasing histamine release.

Tocotrienol and other forms of vitamin E reduce lipid peroxidation - the oxidative conversion of polyunsaturated fatty acids into more inflammatory byproducts. Lipid peroxidation byproducts like 4-HNE cause mast cell degranulation, releasing histamine and serotonin.

Learn more about free fatty acids and lipid peroxidation in this thread:

Here are some useful pointers on thyroid hormone supplementation. 🧵 It's best to read the prior threads first. The first thread explains the main mechanisms of thyroid hormone synthesis, transport, conversion, and the final destination of T3. T3 and T4 are thyroid hormones.

https://twitter.com/1744031563187150848/status/1884997130902773841

Combining selenium and myo-inositol reduces thyroid antibodies, lowers TSH, and increases thyroid hormones in people with hypothyroidism.

The combination also increased TSH in a hyperthyroid patient - it seems to normalize rather than simply increase thyroid function.

Selenium and Myo-inositol are important for thyroid hormone synthesis, and low levels may predispose to the development of hypothyroidism. People with hypothyroidism have a higher demand for myo-inositol.

Study 1:
“In the present study, we were able to demonstrate that, in subclinical hypothyroidism, patients with autoimmune thyroiditis, treated with Myo-Inositol and selenomethionine, experience a reduction of the increased TSH that selenomethionine supplementation alone was not able to promote. Concomitantly, the concentration of the two autoantibodies declined in both groups.”

Study 2:
“TSH, TPOAb, and TgAb antibody levels were significantly decreased in patients treated... a significant fT3, and fT4, increase, along with an amelioration of their quality of life, was observed. Remarkably, TSH values of the hyperthyroid patient increased from 0.14U/ml up to 1.02U/ml, showing a complete restoration of TSH values at a normal range.”

The amount of these nutrients used in the study is easily achieved through diet, too.

There is 83 μg of selenium in:
2 oz oysters, or
3 large eggs, or
10 oz mushrooms

There is 600 mg of myo-inositol in:
12 oz cantaloupe, or
15 oz orange, or
30 oz mandarin

Levels in orange juice seem to vary a lot, but most I can find are much lower than in fresh fruit.

Ray Peat on Endotoxin 🧵 "I'm inclined to think that even cancer is largely an endotoxin problem. Chronic, year after year, bad food, irritating the intestine, causing increased histamine and serotonin and estrogen. A constant stream of endotoxin flowing through the system, shaking up chromosomes, creating inflammation, fatiguing the repair systems. Finally, when the repair systems are down, to a certain extent, the cancers that are constantly popping up stop being removed. And so if you don't die of acute sepsis, then heart disease and cancer, I think, are the result of chronic exposure to the endotoxin."

Few things have such a powerful effect on health as correcting hypothyroidism.

Some people need thyroid hormone supplementation to get healthy and the type of thyroid hormone makes all the difference.

This thread explains different thyroid hormone supplements on the market. 🧵 History Of Thyroid Supplementation:

The first documented use of animal thyroid extract to treat hypothyroidism was in 1891 with Dr. George Murray. He had noted that myxedema, the deposition of mucopolysaccharides in the dermis, causing thickening and swelling of the skin, occurred when patients had their thyroid gland removed, and that successful thyroid gland transplantation in animals prevented these symptoms.

He suspected, correctly, that hypothyroidism was the common cause of myxedema. Murray developed a method of treating myxedema by injecting a preparation of sheep thyroid gland into humans.

Results in his case study of Mrs. S., age 46 after three months of treatment:
> Facial swelling decreased significantly
> Hand and foot swelling reduced
> Speech improved from slow and drawling to more fluent
> Mental activity and memory improved
> Physical activity increased
> Menstruation returned after a 4-year absence
> Skin became less dry, and perspiration returned
> Temperature normalized from consistently subnormal

[The photo is not Mrs S but another woman treated for myxedema with thyroid.]

By the 1930s, another thyroid preparation became commercially available—Natural Desiccated Thyroid (NDT), which is taken orally. NDT is made from livestock thyroid glands. Armour was a large producer of NDT for many decades, and the supplement is often known as Armour Thyroid.

NDT contains a protein containing both thyroid hormones (T3 and T4) in a ratio of about 4:1 T4:T3. T4 was synthesized in 1927 and became widely available in the 1950s, and T3 was also synthesized and brought to market in the 1950s.

Most people got better with NDT, but later lab-range errors and the widespread use of T4-only medication have led to less effective treatment of hypothyroidism today. Ray Peat explains the errors leading to this problem in the linked video.

Dysregulated calcium can clog your arteries and calcify your soft tissues. What you eat determines how your body regulates calcium and whether you have strong bones or calcified tissues.

Most people are doing all the wrong things. 🧵 > Calcinosis is abnormal calcium deposition in soft tissue.
> Calciphylaxis is the calcification of blood vessels.
> Hans Selye showed that calcinosis could be triggered by parathyroid hormone.
> Adding a “calciphylactic challenger” like serotonin to the mix caused calciphylaxis.

Testing for hypothyroidism is an art and a science. Blood tests reveal part of the story, but they don't show whether thyroid hormone reaches and activates cells. And that's what really matters.

Let's take a look at some thyroid tests and what they can tell us.🧵 TSH is the most common thyroid lab test, but it does not test thyroid hormones directly. TSH is a pituitary hormone usually secreted in response to low thyroid hormones.

Higher TSH means the body is asking for more thyroid. The normal range is usually around 0.4 to 4.0.

But this is arbitrary, and the upper cutoff is too high. It started with a higher cutoff of 10.0 and has been creeping downward over the decades as the medical establishment slowly and incrementally fixes its mistake.

A more reasonable upper cutoff is around 2.0.

TSH below 0.4 can indicate hyperthyroidism when the thyroid hormones are too high. However, even the low cutoff is not reliable when people are taking thyroid hormones. Then, the TSH will often need to be completely suppressed to relieve symptoms, something many doctors are not aware of. In that case, blood tests of thyroid hormones are more reliable.

The linked post explains how the TSH range was set incorrectly and the problems with having an upper range for normal at 4.0.

TSH is an unreliable marker of thyroid hormone levels in many contexts, even when the errors in setting the range are accounted for. It should never be taken as a gold standard for thyroid function.

Oranges lower depression risk by modulating gut bacteria, decreasing endotoxin.

“We found that eating one medium orange a day may lower the risk of developing depression by about 20 percent. And the effect seems to be specific to citrus.” PMID: 39543781

https://twitter.com/1744031563187150848/status/1881765597190771171

https://x.com/lowmegatron/status/1881384588691259619

How to protect yourself from seed oils and other polyunsaturated fats. 🧵

1] Minimize Lipid Peroxidation:
> Benfotiamine
> Vitamins E and C
> Progesterone
> Boswellia
> Coconut oil
> Vitamin D3
> Vitamin A (retinol)
> Aspirin
> Ginger
> Coffee
> Zinc
> Taurine
> DHEA (no more than 15 mg/day)
> L-theanine
> Optimize thyroid (TSH elevates COX)

2] Minimize Free Fatty Acids:
> Eat regularly
> Eat carbohydrates regularly
> High-carb meals/diet
> Eat a little coconut oil
> Get adequate sleep
> Minimize psychological stress
> Ginger
> Glycine
> Pyrucet (Idealabs)
> Niacinamide
> Magnesium
> Aspirin
> Vitamin E

3] Support Glucuronidation and Sulfation:
> Limit PUFA intake
> Consume carbohydrate
> Consume fruits - they contain glucarate
> Calcium d-glucarate does the same thing but is more concentrated
> Vitamin C supports glucuronidation
> Coffee
> Caffeine
> Rosemary
> Dietary sulfur
> Niacinamide (increasing NAD+ helps sulfation)
> Vitamin A (retinol)

4] Eat mostly saturated fats:
> Coconut oil
> Cocoa butter
> Butter/ghee
> Cream and cheese
> Beef fat/tallow

Most importantly!

5] Avoid highly polyunsaturated fats:
> Soybean oil
> Rapeseed/canola oil
> Sunflower seed oil
> Peanut oil
> Cottonseed oil
> Corn oil
> Safflower oil
> Grapeseed oil
> Flaxseed soil
> Hemp oil
> Chia seed oil
> Evening primrose oil
> Fish oil

Read the more detailed explanation below.
[PUFA=Polyunsaturated fatty acid.] Problem 1: PUFA consumption.

The first problem is diet. Reducing consumption is the most important thing in the long term.

Although some PUFAs can stay in fat tissue for years, symptomatic improvement can be seen in weeks.

Saturated fats, in addition to replacing PUFAs, also have some protective effects, including lowering the lipid peroxidation of PUFAs; more on that later.