Ray Peat on ATP

December 4, 2025

Biological water retention and its relationship to cell energy

"The storage of water by living matter is a topic that reductionist biology has been reluctant to address. There are no pumps for biological water, and it took a long time before a water-channel protein was even proposed. The structural molecules of a cell, its metabolites, and water are mutually intersoluble, and their affinity for one another is influenced by the energetic ratio of the cell to its environment. This mutual affinity is regulated by the balance of hormones and nutrients. ATP is a crucial factor in regulating the optimal state of water binding."

– September 2019 – Ray Peats Newsletter

Effects of hypothyroidism on muscle fatigue and metabolites

"When metabolic energy fails, as in hypothyroidism, muscles fatigue easily and absorb excess water; the barrier structure becomes compromised, allowing macromolecules, ATP, and other metabolites to leak out while foreign substances penetrate. Typical muscle enzymes such as lactate dehydrogenase and creatine kinase appear in the blood in typical hypothyroid myopathy, and cardiac proteins—including a special form of lactate dehydrogenase and the muscle protein troponin—appear in the blood after cardiac exertion or fatigue in combination with hypothyroidism or systemic inflammation."

– September 2019 – Ray Peats Newsletter

ATP exit and the vicious cycle of serotonin

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

– September 2019 – Ray Peats Newsletter

Relationship between ATP and tumor growth

"Extracellular ATP reaches high levels in tumors and becomes part of a self-stimulating, growth-promoting system."

– September 2019 – Ray Peats Newsletter

Spread of damage through bystander effects

"Severe stress in one part of the body spreads its influence throughout the entire organism, in a process now known as the bystander or off-target effect. Serotonin, nitric oxide, and ATP are among the substances known to spread damage."

– September 2019 – Ray Peats Newsletter

The role of vitamin E in stabilizing ATP and relaxing tissue.

"Vitamin E maintains ATP; ATP is a source of biological energy, but it also stabilizes or relaxes tissues. This energized relaxation is the state of readiness."

Nutrition for Women

The effects of vitamin E deficiency on tissue function

"In a vitamin E deficiency, certain tissues lose so much ATP that they can no longer function normally. Muscles cramp and can eventually harden and become dystrophic. Magnesium also helps maintain ATP levels and can be used, for example, to relieve menstrual cramps. In an extreme case of vitamin E deficiency, reflexes become abnormal; in some animals, softening of the brain is the first symptom of a vitamin E deficiency."

Nutrition for Women

The inhibition of cell division by chalones requires ATP and vitamin E.

"Normal inhibitors of cell division (chalons) are not retained in cells in normal amounts when ATP and vitamin E are lacking."

Nutrition for Women

The role of ATP in healing and growth in animals

"Sensory nerves can release ATP into surrounding tissues, and this appears to be part of their trophic influence on healing and inflammation. AE Needham ( Growth Process of Animals ) has discussed the possibility that it is a vitamin: when added to the diet of animals, it increases their growth. This must have some significance for our diet, since fresh food is rich in ATP."

Nutrition for Women

Evolution and wakefulness: Connections with the brain's ATP content

"It has been found that the ATP content of the brain increases with evolution and with the level of alertness."

– Mind and Tissue: Russian Research Perspectives on the Human Brain

The potential therapeutic application of ATP in psychoses

"I don't know if ATP has ever been used therapeutically in psychoses, but since it is a central point in both energy metabolism and structure, its use is clearly suggested by theory."

– Mind and Tissue: Russian Research Perspectives on the Human Brain

Pharmacological benefits of ginseng and eleutherococcus for the cell

"In a pharmacological approach, reduced consumption of glycogen, ATP and creative phosphate (Dardymov, 1971), combined with increased protein synthesis (Rozin, 1971) and increased resistance of cells and organisms to stress, can be achieved through ginseng, eleutherococcus and 2-benzylbenzimidazole."

– Mind and Tissue: Russian Research Perspectives on the Human Brain

Active transport and the role of ATP in cells

"The membrane theory states that the process of accumulating a substance against its concentration gradient is an active transport requiring the use of ATP. However, experiments by Ling and others showed that even when the energy metabolism of cells was so disrupted that no ATP was produced, the cells were still able to maintain their ion gradient, even though sodium could freely diffuse across the membrane into the cell. All the ATP has to do is be present and passively take its place within the cell."

– March 2020 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Ling's view on the binding energy of ATP

"Since Ling did not imagine that the binding energy of ATP is constantly consumed to drive sodium pumps in the membrane, he did not concern himself with the energy that could be released by the hydrolysis of this bond. He knew – like Albert Szent-Gyorgyi – that the ATP molecule attaches itself to protein molecules with considerable energy and that its presence determines the shape of the protein molecule."

– March 2020 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

The role of ATP in cellular stability

"In a muscle cell, the presence of ATP stabilizes the muscle in its relaxed state, and in every cell, similar connections between ATP and proteins stabilize the cell in a basic resting state in which it prefers potassium to sodium."

– March 2020 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Protein interactions and the influence of cardinal adsorbents

"Everything that binds to a protein, such as potassium or ammonium, has an inductive effect on the protein's structure and its interactions with the environment. Substances that are strong adsorbers, especially ATP and steroids, have a strong influence on the system's properties. Molecules that bind strongly to proteins alter how proteins affect the properties of water, and the properties of water determine cell metabolism as well as their interactions with each other and with the environment. Ling called these influential binding molecules 'cardinal adsorbents'."

– March 2020 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

ATP release, inflammatory factors and sleep rhythms

"When cells are excited, they release some ATP into their surroundings, where it signals fatigue or injury and activates the production of inflammatory factors such as TNF-alpha, which promote the sleep-wake cycle."

– March 2018 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

High-energy brain states and muscle ATP levels

"The electrical and metabolic properties of this high-energy resting state of the brain can be observed in a healthy skeletal muscle, which has a high ATP content and relaxes immediately after excitation and contraction. If the ATP is depleted by sustained strong stimulation or is not renewed quickly enough, for example due to hypothyroidism, relaxation is very slow, leading to cramps."

– March 2018 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

The electron-withdrawing effect of ATP compared to the binding energy

“Gilbert Ling’s work shows that it is the electron-withdrawing effect of ATP that explains its effects, and not its internal binding energy.”

– July 2016 – Ray Peats Newsletter

Cell organization and the influence of energy on protein solubility

“Many of the new observations that view cells as self-organizing coacervate systems are reminiscent of Gilbert Ling’s findings. For example, ATP increases the solubility of proteins (Patel et al., 2017), and when energy is depleted, some proteins precipitate out of solution and form membraneless organelles, filaments, and granules.”

– January 2021 – Ray Peats Newsletter

Progesterone stabilizes cells and improves metabolic functions

"In addition to directly stabilizing the cell's internal structures, progesterone increases ATP concentration and oxygen consumption, reduces excitatory systems and numerous inflammatory processes, lowers intracellular calcium concentration and increases glucose utilization, leading to increased carbon dioxide production while simultaneously regulating respiration and pH."

– January 2018 – Ray Peats Newsletter

Effects of the thyroid gland on calorie requirements and glucose regulation

"During my teens and twenties, I needed about 8,000 calories a day when I was physically active, about 4,000 to 5,000 when I was sedentary, but after taking thyroid hormone, I only needed about half as many calories. The thyroid gland is the basic regulator of blood sugar, and it ensures that it is completely oxidized for energy, so that it efficiently produces ATP – with relatively few calories."

– Email reply from Ray Peat

Treatment of excess lactic acid by inhibiting glycolysis

"Heart failure, shock, and other problems associated with excess lactic acid can be successfully treated by inhibiting glycolysis with dichloroacetic acid, thereby reducing lactic acid production, increasing glucose oxidation, and boosting ATP concentration in cells. Thyroid hormone, vitamin B1, biotin, etc., have the same effect."

– 2000 – July

Glucose, glycolysis and energy production in cells

“Glucose – and apparently glycolysis – are required for the production of nitric oxide as well as for the accumulation of calcium, at least in some cell types, and these coordinated changes that reduce energy production could arise from a reduction in carbon dioxide, that is, from a physical change even more fundamental than the energy level represented by ATP. The use of Krebs cycle substances for the synthesis of amino acids and other products would reduce CO₂ production and create a situation in which the system would have two possible states: the glycolytic stress state and the CO₂-producing, energy-efficient state.”

– 2000 – July

ATP production in water-poor cellular environments

"When ATP breaks down, it absorbs water, and in an anhydrous environment, the equilibrium shifts in favor of ATP formation. The chemical activity of water in cells is lower than that of ordinary water. Under the right (water-poor) conditions, ATP is formed spontaneously. When the reactants form ATP and release water, energy is (at least theoretically) absorbed in the chemical bond. Abstractly speaking, this shows that the formation of ATP and the absorption of energy can be caused by factors that control the activity or availability of water."