Ray Peat on insulin

"The reduction of parathyroid hormone by increased calcium and vitamin D is closely related to reduced obesity, and to the health problems associated with obesity—hypertension, insulin resistance, heart arrhythmias, depression, and various inflammatory conditions."

- September 2017 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"Pantothenic acid is needed by the liver to destroy insulin (insulinase), so hyperinsulinism, causing hypoglycemia, can sometimes be remedied with this nutrient."

- Nutrition For Women

"Fructose doesnt stimulate the pancreas as glucose does. It is gradually converted into glucose. In people with high blood lipids, however, it is utilized by liver and fat tissues several times faster than it is in normal people: it is as if the cellular doors were already open in these people, maybe as a result of high insulin levels, and the cells accept fructose more rapidly than normal."

- Nutrition For Women

"Some B vitamins (B1 and B2 and probably niacin) are said to have similar effects on the utilization of sugar. Some forms of diabetes involve normal or high levels of insulin, others, a lack of insulin; both have been found to respond to nutrition, but especially the high insulin form."

- Nutrition For Women

"The pancreas can be damaged by prolonged malnutrition, so that the inability to produce insulin may be permanent. Magnesium and vitamin B6 deficiencies are known to be involved in damage to the pancreas. Insulin itself is only part of the insulin-like system (Adv in Metabol Disorders 7, p.26, 1974); proper treatment requires a proper study of all factors."

- Nutrition For Women

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

- Nutrition For Women

"Pantothenic acid in very large doses was recently found to protect against stress even when an animals adrenals were removed. Since the nutrient is needed to destroy insulin, I think part of its anti-stress effect comes from minimizing hypoglycemia, and so reducing the amount of cortisone needed."

- Nutrition For Women

"Excess estrogen is known to cause hypertrophy of the adrenal cortex. Since estrogen stimulates insulin release and lowers blood sugar, the hypertrophy may be to compensate by raising blood sugar."

- Nutrition For Women

"Vitamin C is now known to lower blood cholesterol. Eggs are rich in cholesterol, but they also contain lecithin, which appears to make the cholesterol useful, or at least less harmful. Niacin and vitamin E also help to regulate cholesterol. High insulin levels, caused by eating sugar, seem to be important in allowing cholesterol to damage the blood vessels."

- Nutrition For Women

"Eggs, for several reasons might actively protect against the formation of cholesterol deposits. One of the men who discovered insulin, Best, later showed that choline (a component of lecithin) can prevent fatty degeneration of the liver."

- Nutrition For Women

"Since insulin persists after disposing of excess sugar, it tends to keep blood sugar low and to intensify craving for carbohydrates. Pantothenic acid helps to destroy insulin; this is one way it helps to maintain adequate blood sugar levels."

- Nutrition For Women

"The idea that a calorie is a calorie, or a simple calorie counting approach fails to recognize not only the specific dynamic action of proteins (the action of oils is usually called uncoupling of oxidative phosphorylation), but also fails to recognize events at the organismic level, such as insulin secretion, which form a link between the form in which food is taken (composition and timing) and the behavior, appetite, and metabolism."

- Nutrition For Women

"It’s the oxidation of glucose (producing carbon dioxide), which is favored by warmth and the right amount of insulin, that can prevent inflammation"

- March 2021 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"A two day fast causes both diabetics’ and normal people’s glucose tolerance to deteriorate, and when diabetic men were put on a 75% carbohydrate diet their glucose tolerance was better than on a 44% carbohydrate diet (Anderson, 1977). The high carbohydrate diet improved the men’s insulin sensitivity, and fasting, similar to a high fat diet, impairs insulin sensitivity."

- January 2017 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"Some of the obvious changes of aging, such as loss of muscle (Martinez-Moreno, et al., 2007) and gain of fat (Bahadoran, et al., 2015) and decreased sensitivity to insulin (Ropelle, et al., 2013), are produced by increased nitric oxide."

- January 2016 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"Estrogen and PUFA create insulin resistance, and the resulting state of diabetes and stress de-energizes tissues,"

- 2001 - February

"Diabetes, of both the insulin dependent and the non-insulin dependent types, is commonly associated with increased cortisol."

- 2001 - February

"Increased adrenaline, like increased cortisol, is a feature of depression, stress, and inflammation; mobilizing fats, it can become part of a vicious circle, in which free fatty acids cause insulin resistance, activating the stress reactions."

- 2001 - February

"Although carbon dioxide probably associates with most of the amino groups in the body, only a few of these reactions have been studied. For example, it is known to bind to insulin, affecting its conformation. I think this is likely to explain some of the effects of the thyroid hormone in diabetes, since thyroid increases the production of carbon dioxide."

- 1998 - Ray Peat's Newsletter - 3

"In human prostate slices, several hormones —~ (including insulin, and probably prolactin) stimulated cell division; testosterone did mot,, under these experimental conditions. (McKeehan, et al., 1984.) Contrary to the stereotyped ideas, there are suggestions that supplementary androgens could control prostate cancer (Umekita, et al., 1996), and that antagonists to prolactin and estrogen might be appropriately used in hormonal therapy"

- 1998 - May Ray Peat's Newsletter

"The main inhibitory transmitter substance in the brain is GABA (gamma amino butyric acid), which is closely related to aspartic and succinic acids. GABA has many anti-stress effects, besides the direct brain quieting action. For example, it causes a sequestration of insulin, keeping some sugar from being turned into fat, and it promotes progesterone formation, which protects many systems from damaging hyperactivity."

- 1991 - January - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"I experimented with various herbs known to have antihistamine and anticholinergic action, with the thought that they would help to sustain blood sugar through the night. (For example, insulin secretion is stimulated by acetylcholine from cholinergic nerves, and lowering its action during the night would decrease the need for adrenalin and cortisol.) My best results so far have been with a combination of the mildly sedative Jimson weed and the stimulant Ephedra;in combination, it seems that their antihistamine and glucose sustaining effects predominate, allowing comfortable sleep without the dry-mouth effect of their anticholinergic action."

- 1991 - January - Ray Peat's Newsletter