Ray Peat on urea
"As recently as the 1950s urea was recognized as the most effective treatment for brain swelling, but the science based membrane theory reasoned that the removal of water from cells was always governed by osmosis, and since urea could remove water from cells, it must be osmotically active. As an osmolyte, it was added to distilled water for intravenous use, and the red blood cells behaved as they would in distilled water, dissolving. The report that urea causes hemolysis led to general discontinuation of its use for treating brain injury."
- March 2020 - Ray Peat's Newsletter
0 upvotes"Like intracellular ATP, an appropriate amount of progesterone, T3, urea and carbon dioxide each has an infinity of beneficial effects, individually and in combination, and with their synergizing nutritional, botanical and pharmaceutical substances their use could transform the nature of health care."
- March 2020 - Ray Peat's Newsletter
0 upvotes"50 years ago, urea was widely used to treat brain injuries, but a misunderstanding of its physical properties, and now the availability of the highly profitable vaptans, have displaced it."
- March 2016 - Ray Peat's Newsletter
0 upvotes"While the flow of carbon dioxide moves from the mitochondrion to the cytoplasm and beyond, tending to remove calcium from the mitochondrion and cell, the flow of lactate and other Organic ions into the mitochondrion can produce calcium accumulation in the mitochondrion, during conditions in which carbon dioxide synthesis, and consequently urea synthesis, are depressed, and other synthetic processes are changed."
- 2000 - July
0 upvotes"Sharks, besides being primitive and not suffering from cancer, are physiologically unique in another way: their body fluids are osmotically in balance with seawater, making them hypertonic to other animals’ body fluids. The mineral content of sharks blood is not very different from that of other animals. The osmotic difference is made up by a very high concentration of urea (and of trimethyl ammonium)."
- 1991 - July - Ray Peat's Newsletter
0 upvotes"In PMS, edema is a common problem, and it used to be thought that edema of the brain was responsible for the irritability or depression or other nervous symptoms, and diuretics such es ammonium compounds and urea were commonly used. (Premenstrual salt cravings are the result of the estrogen-disturbed water balance, and salt-restriction for PMS is as inappropriate as it is for pre-eclampsia or toxemia of pregnancy.)"
- 1991 - July - Ray Peat's Newsletter
0 upvotes