Ray Peat on serotonin

"Estrogen strongly affects the metabolism of tryptophan, increasing its conversion to serotonin at the expense of niacinamide, which accounts for the symptoms of pellagra when the diet lacks tryptophan. When there’s enough protein in the diet, promotion of serotonin synthesis won’t result in a niacinamide deficiency, but conditions that increase the influence of estrogen will also increase the malfunctions involving serotonin."

- September 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"Estrogen increases the formation of serotonin, and both of these substances increase the formation of prolactin, and activate the renin-angiotensin system, and increase secretion of the antidiuretic hormone vasopressin, all of which synergize with estrogen in promoting water retention. Serotonin increases the formation of estrogen, so a vicious circle can easily develop when the organism is under stress."

- September 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"Hyperventilation tends to increase under various stresses, and the resulting loss of carbon dioxide increases the alkalinity of the blood, which causes the platelets to release serotonin. Estrogenic stimulation and hypothyroidism are common causes of chronic hyperventilation, with its effect on platelets, releasing serotonin, with all its harmful consequences."

- September 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"Any disruption of normal cell or tissue structure is recognized by the organism as a problem to be corrected; the appearance of ATP outside cells is a basic sign of damage and danger. Special enzymes degrade extracellular ATP into ADP, AMP, adenosine, and other purines, and these contribute to the alarm-stress signals. Increased synthesis of serotonin is one of the most important responses to leaked ATP and adenosine, but serotonin can increase the disorder of the actin system, increasing leakiness, in a vicious circle;"

- September 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"The great majority of the body’s serotonin is produced in the intestine, where the tissue is constantly exposed to foreign material such as endotoxin, but all cells in the body can produce serotonin and histamine during stress, and the blood platelets are one of the body’s defenses against serotonin; they can sequester it and carry it to the lungs for destruction. The lungs have a great capacity to oxidize it."

- September 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"Severe stresses in one part of the body spread their influence through the body, in the process now called the bystander or off-target effect. Serotonin, nitric oxide, and ATP are among the substances that are known to spread damage"

- September 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"Because it hasn’t been possible to provide evidence to support the idea that serotonin is a mood elevator happy hormone, the industry has looked for some way to explain the therapeutic benefit that they claim. They have generally settled on the idea that the SSRIs, after several weeks of use, increase the synthesis of the progesterone metabolite allopregnanolone, in the brain. That does happen, but the synthesis of those defensive steroids is also increased by any injury to the brain"

- September 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"Aerobic glycolysis, the metabolism characteristic of cancer, in which lactic acid is produced from glucose despite the presence of oxygen, is promoted by serotonin"

- September 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"Serotonin, along with estrogen, is the major promoter of prolactin secretion, and it also promotes TSH, ACTH, FSH, LH, GH, MSH, POMC, vasopressin, and oxytocin--all the pituitary hormones."

- September 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"Stresses of different sorts increase the formation of serotonin and the various pituitary hormones, leading to adaptive changes in the organism, but at the cost of causing inflammation and degeneration. Studies of several of the pituitary hormones have shown age-accelerating effects, leading to edema, inflammation, fibrosis, and decreased longevity. W.D. Denckla’s experiments showing the great life extending effect of removing the pituitary gland, while supplementing thyroid and glucocorticoid hormones, suggest the possibilities inherent in finding ways to prevent the over-production of serotonin and its associated hormones and cytokines."

- September 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"Several of the known biochemical effects of lithium are similar to those of progesterone, including antagonism to aldosterone, modification of serotonin metabolism, elevation of nerve thresholds, and facilitated disposition of ammonia."

- Nutrition For Women

"During LSD research, it was noticed that people with chronic headaches, asthma, or psoriasis sometimes recovered completely during treatment with frequent doses of LSD. Another alkaloid derived from ergot, bromocriptine, is now being used to suppress lactation (such as is caused by prolactin-secreting pituitary tumor which develops after using oral contraceptives) and is used experimentally to treat Parkinsons disease. Both LSD and bromocriptine shift the ratio of two brain chemicals, DOPA and serotonin, towards DOPA dominance. Among the effects of this is an inhibition of prolactin secretion. Prolactin excess is involved in breast cancer and in other cell proliferation, probably including the rapid cell division in psoriasis."

- Nutrition For Women

"All of the effects of prolactin excess (including amenorrhea) which respond to an increase of the DOPA/ serotonin ratio can be obtained to some extent by other, more easily available, materials. Vitamin B6 , thyroid, and progesterone all have this action"

- Nutrition For Women

"Since tryptophan promotes formation of serotonin which stimulates release of prolactin, and prolactin activates the formation of sebum (oil) by the skin, large amounts of milk could promote a tendency toward acne, when there is a deficiency of B6, thyroid, progesterone, etc."

- Nutrition For Women

"In reaction to the new corona virus, a few groups responded quickly, treating successfully with antiinflammatory things—losartan, cinanserin (a serotonin antagonist), aspirin, and azithromycin or erythromycin, which lower intracellular calcium. Aspirin’s effects overlap those of losartan, and it downregulates the angiotensin receptor, ATR1"

- May 2020 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"The pharmaceutical myth about serotonin, the happy hormone, has led most people, even researchers, to ignore the fact that it increases inflammation and activates the stress system, while reducing the efficiency of energy production."

- May 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"Drug company manipulation of information about estrogen has been more extreme than its treatment of serotonin. Activated by stress, along with serotonin, it is one of the major activators of the corticotropin release hormone, CRH, which activates the pituitary and adrenal glands, and promotes inflammation, and is a major factor in PPD (Glynn and Sandman, 29014, HahnHolbrook, 2016), as well as in other types of depression, and aging, and Alzheimer’s disease."

- May 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"Estrogen increases the brain’s capacity to synthesize serotonin"

- May 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"If it weren’t for the advertising culture, it would probably be generally recognized that both estrogen and serotonin have important roles in causing depression, migraine, and Alzheimer’s disease, all of which occur much more often in women than in men."

- May 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"With insufficient cholesterol, the normally high postpartum concentration of progesterone isn’t likely to be maintained, and instead of brain restoration, the various pro-inflammatory effects of serotonin and estrogen will predominate, with effects such as depression, joint pain, anxiety, and brain edema."

- May 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"The stimulation of CRH production by histamine, serotonin, endorphins, IL-1, nitric oxide, and/or estrogen in good health leads to the activation of complex and appropriate antistress reactions. When stress is very intense or prolonged, or if nutrition hasn’t been adequate, all of the activating signals, CRH itself, and the antistress glucocorticoids, can produce effects that aren’t integrated into the organism’s functions as it confronts its problems, and that produce symptoms and, eventually, degenerative processes and aging. That failure of integration is almost always the result of insufficient metabolic energy."

- May 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"The levels of aldosterone and parathyroid hormone are increased by stress, with serotonin acting on the adrenal cortex and the parathyroid gland to increase their secretion. All three of those hormones act on the mitochondria to lower oxidative energy production."

- May 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"the most important factors that can be optimized with existing resources. Healthier pregnancies will result in healthier and happier postpartum life. Some of these factors would be sunlight, vitamin D, milk, cheese, eggs, fruits and well cooked vegetables, fibrous foods, and optimizing thyroid function and pregnenolone and progesterone (which support mitochondrial function, protecting against aldosterone, parathyroid hormone, excess serotonin, CRK, and cortisol, besides increasing allopregnanolone), and using the safest antiinflammatory and antiserotonin drugs, such as aspirin and cyproheptadine, when they are needed."

- May 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"Things in the environment, or substances produced in reactions to environmental stress, that might cause autism, include prenatal and neonatal exposure to radiation, including isotopes from the power industry, bomb testing, Chernobyl, and Fukushima; exposure to air pollution, including nitrogen oxides, ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and particles (Jung, et al., 2013); aluminum (Mold, et al., 2018), lead, mercury, manganese, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, manganese, and nickel (Windham, et al, 2006); acetaminophen, infections, endotoxin, exogenous and endogenous estrogens, hypothyroidism, progesterone deficiency, agmatine deficiency, serotonin excess, endogenous nitric oxide (Sweeten, et al., 2004), and vitamin D deficiency."

- May 2018 - Ray Peats Newsletter

"The endotoxin, lipopolysaccharide, has a general excitatory effect effect that activates cell inflammatory processes and damages energy production, with the mediation of cell products such as nitric oxide, carbon monoxide, serotonin, histamine, prostaglandins, estrogens, and various cytokines (interleukins and tumor necrosis factor,TNF). Some of these substances enter the blood stream from the intestine, others are produced elsewhere in the body, but some are produced in the brain itself, when endotoxin is absorbed into the brain"

- March 2017 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"Despite its toxicity, L-DOPA continues to be the main medical treatment for Parkinson’s disease, though the more appropriate drugs bromocriptine, amantadine, and memantine are also widely used. Anticholinergics, similar to the hyoscyamine and belladonna that Charcot used, are sometimes used to control excessive salivation. Amantadine and memantine happen to protect against nitric oxide, serotonin, inflammation, and endotoxin, and to protect mitochondria."

- March 2017 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"Serotonin is often called a neurotransmitter, and considered to act on receptors to transmit information, which may be processed the way computers process digital information. I think it’s more useful to think of it in terms of fields and formative processes that shape the way the organism uses energy to adapt to stresses and possibilities. It is involved in the energetic and structural changes that occur during stress and adaptation."

- July 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"The serotonin advertising culture allows major medical journals and internet medical websites to say that serotonin is higher in the daytime than during the night, and higher in the summer than in winter, despite evidence from a great range of species (e.g., Poncet, et al.,, 1993; Piccione, et al, 2005; Curzon and Filippini, 1996; Prosser, 2003), showing that serotonin peaks during darkness, even in nocturnally active rats and mice."

- July 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"Serotonin is the precursor for melatonin, which is important for adapting to darkness by promoting sleep to reduce stress."

- July 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"Increased free tryptophan in the blood is the main factor determining the production of serotonin in the brain, and free fatty acids, produced by stress, cause bound tryptophan to be released from albumin in the blood."

- July 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"The synthesis of serotonin in the brain depends on the activity of the enzyme, tryptophan hydroxylase, TPH, and this enzyme is activated by excitation of the cell, with increased intracellular calcium and reduced glutathione (GSH), and inactivated by oxidation of glutathione."

- July 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"The amount of serotonin in the brain at a particular time is influenced by a variety of things that affect the balance between its synthesis and its sequestration or degradation. The so-called serotonin transporter binds and holds serotonin, reducing its interactions with other cell components, and the enzyme monoamine oxidase, MAO, degrades serotonin, turning it into the inactive 5-HIAA."

- July 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"Serotonin activates the stress hormones, and the cortisol produced as a result can have the protective effect of inhibiting the enzyme that makes serotonin, as well as activating the MAO that removes it (Clark and Russo, 1997; Ou, et al., 2006; Popova, et al., 1989). Estrogen increases serotonin synthesis, decreases its binding, and inhibits its degradation"

- July 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"The amount of serotonin in the urine, blood, and brain have been shown to be very closely associated"

- July 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"Although its name, serotonin, is based on the fact that it constricts blood vessels, it also increases their leakiness. Both of these actions contribute to its role in fatigue and inflammation, and to the therapeutic effects of serotonin antagonists in a variety of problems including arthritis (Cloutier, et al.,, 2012) and traumatic brain injury"

- July 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"Stressful exercise, increasing serotonin, decreases the brain’s ability to exclude harmful substances, including small particles"

- July 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"When large amounts of serotonin are released into the serum by endotoxin, the amount of serotonin in the brain isn’t necessarily increased. Endotoxin induces a tryptophan degrading enzyme, IDO, in the brain, producing substances that can be pro-inflammatory and immunosuppressive,"

- July 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"events in the intestine, where most serotonin is produced, in the blood where it’s transported, and in the lung, where much of it is detoxified, will affect the brain. Toxins produced by intestinal bacteria cause serotonin to be released into the bloodstream, and if the platelets aren’t able to keep it tightly bound until the lungs can eliminate it, some of it will reach the brain, where it will interfere with sleep and other brain functions."

- July 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"Although the liver has a much larger capacity than the lungs for detoxifying serotonin, the lungs detoxify several times as much of the circulating serotonin as the liver does. The reason for this is that in the high oxygen environment of the lungs, carbon dioxide is lost from the blood, and carbon dioxide is needed for retention of serotonin by the platelets. With the loss of CO2, the platelets release their serotonin very quickly, to be immediately detoxified by the local MAO."

- July 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"If something (such as smoking, or very high oxygen concentration, or a hormonal imbalance) inhibits the activity of MAO, the high local activity of serotonin can cause lung edema, decreased blood oxygenation, lung fibrosis and pulmonary arterial hypertension. Estrogen is an important inhibitor of MAO in the vascular endothelium; progesterone has the opposite effect, increasing the activity of MAO ("

- July 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"Energy deprivation, for example caused by hypoglycemia or hypoxia, causes platelets to release serotonin during stress."

- July 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"The beneficial effects of negatively ionized air on health and mood have been recognized for several decades. Beginning in the 1960s (Krueger and Smith, 1960), several investigators have found that breathing negatively ionized air accelerates the degradation of serotonin in the lungs. When the oxygen molecule carries an extra electron, it can function as the superoxide radical ion (Goldstein, et al., 1992), and this form of active oxygen oxidizes serotonin"

- July 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"Several serotonin antagonist drugs are increasingly recognized as antidepressants, and also for treatment of chronic fatigue and insomnia, and many of the degenerative diseases, but since most of them are prescription drugs, their use wont be widespread as long as most doctors accept the myth."

- July 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"The ideology around stress physiology, falsifying the meaning of serotonin, estrogen, unsaturated fats, sugar, lactate, carbon dioxide, and various other biological molecules, has hidden the simple remedies for most of the inflammatory and degenerative diseases."

- July 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"Avoiding prolonged fasting and stressful exercise that increase free fatty acids, and combining sugars with proteins to keep free fatty acids low, and using aspirin, niacinamide, or cyproheptadine to reduce the formation of free fatty acids by unavoidable stress, avoiding an excess of phosphate relative to calcium in the diet, having milk and other antistress foods at bedtime or during the night, and being in a brightly lighted environment during the day, with regular sunlight exposure, can minimize the harmful effects of excessive serotonin and reduce the inflammation, fibrosis, and atrophy associated with it."

- July 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"Besides ammonia and lactate, other stress related substances can also increase the drive to breathe more, depleting the essential CO2—endotoxin, acetylcholine, serotonin, hydrogen sulfide, nitric oxide, carbon monoxide, angiotensin, and estrogen, for example."

- July 2017 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"Cyproheptadine, 2 to 4 mg at bedtime, would help with his sleep as well as the cancer. It also has calcium blocking action, aldosterone antagonism, and antagonizes serotonins antidiuretic effect."

- Email Response by Ray Peat

"The imbalances of endorphins, serotonin, catecholamines, and other nerve-regulators that have been seen in autism sometimes can be produced in adults by combined fatigue and poor nutrition, and when the livers glycogen is depleted, it can be hard to restore the balance. Prenatal influences of different types could damage connectivity, which permitting cells to survive. Normally, a large proportion of brain cells die before birth, because of limited availability of glucose."

- Email Response by Ray Peat

"Serotonin doesnt cure depression, and both serotonin and nitric oxide impair circulation and are toxic to brain cells. Both of them poison mitochondrial respiration."

- 2001 - February

"Histamine and serotonin and other inflammatory factors released by estrogen are known to contribute to its ability to produce edema. The excess nitric oxide produced under the influence of estrogen probably contributes to some edematous, inflammatory, and degenerative conditions."

- 2000 - January - Ray Peat's Newsletter