Ray Peat on cancer

The role of inflammation in chronic diseases

"Inflammation is seen as inherent to the disease process itself in a growing number of chronic and degenerative diseases – such as dementia, psychoses, arteriosclerosis, osteoporosis and cancer."

September 2019 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Aerobic glycolysis and lactic acid in cancer metabolism

"Aerobic glycolysis, the metabolic pathway characteristic of cancer in which lactic acid is formed from glucose despite the presence of oxygen, is promoted by serotonin."

September 2019 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

The role and effects of parathyroid hormone in the aging process

"Phosphate, which is prevalent in grains, legumes, nuts, meat, and fish, increases our production of parathyroid hormone, while calcium and magnesium inhibit its production. This hormone, which increases with age, suppresses immunity, and in excess it causes insomnia, seizures, dementia, psychosis, cancer, heart disease, shortness of breath and pulmonary hypertension, osteoporosis, sarcopenia, histamine release, inflammation and soft tissue calcification, as well as many other problems."

September 2017 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

The benefits of coconut oil for thyroid and health

"The easily oxidizable short- and medium-chain saturated fatty acids in coconut oil provide an energy source that protects our tissues from the toxic, inhibitory effects of unsaturated fatty acids and reduces their antithyroid effects. Animal studies over the last 60 years suggest that these effects also offer protection against cancer, heart disease, and premature aging. Other anticipated effects include protection against excessive blood clotting, protection of the fetal brain, protection against various stress-related problems including epilepsy, and some protection against sun-induced skin damage."

Nutrition For Women

Substances that counteract estrogen in cancer therapy

"Anything that causes tissue atrophy tends to give rise to cancer. The important question is: What causes differentiation and useful function in cancer cells? There are many substances that promote differentiation and counteract the effects of estrogen, and some of these have proven useful in cancer therapy. Estrogen-inhibiting substances include dopamine and nickel, prolactin inhibitors; chalones, the tissue-specific proteins that inhibit cell division (and possibly, though less frequently, memory peptides); the aprotic solvents DMF and possibly DMSO; progesterone and testosterone; thyroxine and iodine; magnesium-ATP, the stable form of the biological energy molecule; vitamin A, a protein-sparing nutrient that promotes differentiation; and vitamin E (and the closely related coenzyme Q, or ubiquinone)."

Nutrition For Women

The essential role of thyroid hormone in cellular respiration and biological functions

"Thyroid hormone is necessary for respiration at the cellular level and makes all higher biological functions possible. Without the metabolic efficiency promoted by thyroid hormone, life could hardly progress beyond the single-celled stage. Without sufficient thyroid function, we become sluggish, clumsy, cold, anemic, and susceptible to infections, heart disease, headaches, cancer, and many other illnesses, and appear to have aged prematurely, as none of our tissues can function normally."

Nutrition For Women

Estrogen, reproductive aging, and cancer theories

"This anti-oxygen-like effect of estrogen suggests that research on reproductive aging is converging with Warburg's theory that impaired respiration is the primary defect in cancer, as well as with Selye's observation that the effect of estrogen is similar to the initial, shock-like phase of the stress response."

Nutrition For Women

Nutritional and hormonal influences on cellular respiration

"Various nutritional, hormonal, or toxic conditions affect respiration in different ways: For example, vitamin E deficiency, estrogen excess, toxic thyroid hormones, and DNP (the formerly popular, carcinogenic reducing agent) cause oxygen to be consumed without producing the normal amount of usable energy. A deficiency in vitamin B2 or copper can prevent oxygen consumption. Cancer (contrary to a persistent establishment belief) involves a respiratory defect and causes a predisposition to hypoglycemia, which is often compensated for by the conversion of protein to sugar, leading to terminal wasting (cachexia)."

Nutrition For Women

The effects of cancer on stress hormones and nutritional needs

"Cancer overstimulates the anti-stress adrenocortical hormones and usually causes extreme wasting through the mobilization of fat and protein; blood sugar and glycogen storage are disrupted. During or after cancer treatment, a hypoglycemia-oriented diet seems desirable: frequent small meals, liver (or similar nutrients), magnesium, and potassium. Vitamins A, E, C, and pantothenic acid are particularly important under stress, but all nutrients are necessary."

Nutrition For Women

Immune system failure as a key characteristic of cancer

"Cancer patients are typically not even able to generate a normal inflammatory response, as if they were heavily dosed with anti-stress hormones of the cortisone type. The failure of the immune system, which can normally eliminate emerging cancer cells, appears to be a key feature of cancer."

Nutrition For Women

The role of vitamin E in efficient oxidation and energy production

"Within cells, vitamin E inhibits destructive and wasteful oxidation (such as that involved in aging and cancer) and makes the normal oxidative process more efficient, so that more usable energy is provided for a given amount of oxygen."

Nutrition For Women

Experimental use of vitamin A for cancer prevention

"Vitamin A is being used experimentally to prevent cancer and reverse precancerous conditions, particularly in the cervix and mouth."

Nutrition For Women

Warburg's findings on cancer and glucose consumption

"Warburg1 showed that all cancers exhibit defective respiration, by which he meant that glucose is consumed too quickly. The excessive consumption of glucose in the presence of oxygen is called aerobic glycolysis and is typical of cancer."

Nutrition For Women

Thyroid therapy as a supportive cancer treatment

"Thyroid therapy would be desirable in cancer patients, especially in cases of cachexia. Gerson and Tallberg have reported good results using thyroid hormones as part of supportive therapy."

Nutrition For Women

The role of the thyroid gland in Warburg's cancer theory

"Once we accept Warburg's thesis that impaired respiration is the main cause of cancer, the therapeutic use of the thyroid gland in cancer seems obvious."

Nutrition For Women

The role of vitamin A in cell differentiation and cancer prevention

"Vitamin A is needed for the proper differentiation of various cell types and has been successfully used to block cancer development and restore precancerous tissue to a normal state."

Nutrition For Women

Psychoactive substances and their effects on chronic diseases

“During LSD research, it was found that people with chronic headaches, asthma, or psoriasis sometimes completely recovered during treatment with frequent doses of LSD. Another alkaloid derived from ergot, bromocriptine, is now used to suppress lactation (such as that caused by prolactin-secreting pituitary tumors that develop after the use of oral contraceptives) and is being used experimentally to treat Parkinson’s disease. Both LSD and bromocriptine shift the ratio of two brain chemicals, DOPA and serotonin, toward DOPA dominance. Among the effects is an inhibition of prolactin secretion. Excess prolactin is implicated in breast cancer and other forms of cell proliferation, and probably also in the rapid cell division seen in psoriasis.”

Nutrition For Women

The role of caffeine for the immune system and possible anti-cancer properties

"Caffeine can boost immunity, both through its effects on the nervous system and directly. When injected into the brains of animals, it was found to slow cancer growth. Recently, it was discovered by chance that a very small amount of caffeine, mixed with the tars from cigarette smoke, prevented this material from causing cancer."

Nutrition For Women

Cod liver oil, vitamin E and cancer rates in animals

“Animals fed large amounts of cod liver oil almost all died of cancer, but when they received the same amount of oil along with high vitamin E supplementation, their cancer rate was normal.”

Nutrition For Women

Cancer detection through metabolic shifts using radioactive fat tests

“Recently, Dr. GG Costa and others at the Medical College of Virginia developed a cancer detection test that likely incorporates this pregnancy metabolism. The patient is given some radioactive fat, and a person with even a very small cancer exhales about three times as much radioactive carbon dioxide, showing that metabolism shifts toward fat mobilization at an early stage of cancer development.”

Nutrition For Women

Low cholesterol levels and their impact on mental health

"Low serum cholesterol levels have been linked to depression, suicide, violence, and increased cancer mortality. Since statins cross into the brain and inhibit cholesterol synthesis there, reduced mitochondrial function is undoubtedly a factor in the psychological side effects they can cause."

November 2018 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

The role of heme oxygenase in progressive phenotypic improvement

"The actual function of heme oxygenase is to support a progressive improvement in the organism's phenotype, rather than aging, inflammation, fibrosis, and cancer, which are ultimately the result of its activity today. Heme oxygenase, as well as enzymes that produce NO, HCN, and H₂S, may simply require regulation by an organism's response to an enriched environment."

November 2017 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Gene-centered perspectives on cancer and autoimmunity

"In both cancer and autoimmune diseases, the prevailing theory was that certain genes were the cause, while environmental factors such as viruses, toxins and mutagens were assessed differently."

November 2016 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Early research on the harmful effects of estrogen

"Almost as soon as purified estrogen became available for research in the 1930s, its ability to cause inflammation, cancer, miscarriages and seizures was recognized."

November 2016 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

The inhibitory effect of stimulants on cell division and tumor growth

"This effect of stimulants is probably also involved in their inhibition of cell division in cultured cancer cells (for example, ephedrine and theophylline) as well as in the ability of caffeine, which, after injection into the brain, slows tumor growth elsewhere in the body."

Mind And Tissue Russian Research Perspectives on the Human Brain

The link between chronic metabolic hyperventilation and degenerative diseases

“By ignoring the fact that 30 years of slightly elevated lactate levels could lead to cancer or other degenerative diseases, those who taught physiological chemistry also showed little interest in the idea of ​​chronic metabolic hyperventilation – the loss of slightly too much carbon dioxide even at sea level.”

May 2020 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Historical and societal implications of genetic determinism

"The doctrine of genetic determinism has historically served several functions; one important one was to justify the inability of medicine to cure diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and schizophrenia, but it is also an ideology with strong political and philosophical implications, including eugenics."

May 2018 – Ray Peats Newsletter

Theoretical foundations of cellular disease origins

"The cellular disease theory stated that cancer consists of bad cells, and the gene theory stated that the badness of the cells is irreversible, meaning that cancer can only be cured if every single bad cell is killed."

May 2016 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Transience and misconceptions about cancer cells

“Many tumors are temporary and regress spontaneously, and the doctrine of preventing cancer deaths through early diagnosis was based on false ideas about the nature of cancer. It has been known for decades that nests of cancer cells exist in every person after about the age of 50, but most of them are never detected.”

May 2016 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Seasonal fluctuations in breast cancer diagnoses

"There is a clear seasonality in the diagnosis (occurrence) of breast cancer, with a maximum in spring and a minimum in autumn (Cohen et al., 1983). The increased detection in spring coincides with rising gonadotropins (which are associated with breast and prostate cancer), and the decreased detection in autumn coincides with higher vitamin D and lower stress hormones."

May 2016 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Cancer reimagined as a developmental and adaptive process

"If cancer is viewed as an event within the developmental and adaptive processes of the body, the important task is to understand this process so that the response can be modified by reducing harmful factors and supporting adaptive and corrective factors."

May 2016 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Inflammation and fibrosis as precursors to cancer development

"In the tissues of the cancer field, inflammation and fibrosis are processes that precede and accompany carcinogenesis; therefore, all knowledge relating to the development and resolution of inflammation and fibrosis is relevant for understanding and controlling cancer."

May 2016 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Cholinergic dominance and pain peptides in cancer

"The cholinergic dominance of the learned helplessness state increases the production of substance P, a small peptide molecule that generates pain and probably also itching. Many types of cancer cells are known to produce substance P."

May 2016 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Norepinephrine: its dual roles in pain and illness

“Y. Kuraishi (2015) stated that norepinephrine inhibits pain by suppressing the release of substance P and glutamate (the excitatory amino acid), and that suppressing cancer pain leads to inhibition of tumor growth and lung metastases… apparently by inhibiting the release of substances from cancer cells (e.g., ATP, endothelin-1, and bradykinin). Things that activate and invigorate the patient while simultaneously reducing pain seem to be therapeutically appropriate.”

May 2016 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

The therapeutic development of carbon dioxide

"Carbon dioxide was once regarded as a hormone and used medically for ulcers, arthritis, cancer, and mental problems, and the work of Yandell Henderson led to its use as carbogen (5% CO₂, 95% O₂) for resuscitation. However, by the middle of the century, most therapeutic uses had been discontinued, hospitals were instructed to use pure oxygen instead of carbogen, and patients with cerebral swelling were hyperventilated with oxygen to lower their blood carbon dioxide."

March 2020 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Holistic metabolic energy structure in health and cancer

"In the 1960s, at the height of the membrane hype, the ideas of Otto Warburg, Albert Szent-Györgyi, and Gilbert Ling, who described the difference between health and cancer in terms of holistic metabolic energy-structure interactions, were ridiculed. Many of their fundamental discoveries are now accepted individually, but their significance is inaccessible within the framework of the mechanical membrane/pump/receptor doctrine."

March 2020 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

The ubiquitous role of inflammation in degeneration

"Inflammation is involved in chronic degenerative conditions, especially atrophy and cancer, and even depression."

March 2019 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Misguided ideas about the deficiencies of cancer cells

"The idea that cancer cells do not have enough electrons encouraged the use of highly unsuitable treatments."

July 2017 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

The influence of an alkaline shift on cellular excitation and energy

"The alkaline shift in pH (which becomes chronic in cancer cells) increases the excitation and energy consumption of every type of cell."

July 2017 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Therapeutic potential of carbon dioxide application

"The direct application of carbon dioxide should be helpful in all those situations where acetazolamide is known to be beneficial, but without the risk of an allergy to this drug – traumatic cerebral edema, altitude sickness, osteoporosis, epilepsy, glaucoma, ADHD, inflammation, intestinal polyps, and arthritis. Diabetes, cardiomyopathy (Torella et al., 2014), obesity (Arechederra et al., 2013), cancer, dementia, and psychoses may also benefit."

July 2017 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Hyperexcitation in cancer physiology

"An important part of cancer physiology is the overexcitation of the brain, especially the hypothalamus."

July 2016 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Aging, metabolic shifts and the tendency towards cancerous metabolism

"Aging itself involves a metabolic shift towards cancer metabolism, with a relative inability to reduce energy expenditure in the basal fasting state, as well as increased fat oxidation and decreased glucose oxidation."

July 2016 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Lactate in cancer: disruptive factor or energy saver?

"When cancer metabolism increases the amount of lactate in the blood, increased respiration lowers the carbon dioxide level in the blood (Gargaglioni et al., 2003), and the loss of CO₂ affects metabolism and physiology at all levels."

July 2016 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Cancer symptoms and anticholinergics: a possible therapeutic approach

"Anticholinergic drugs can alleviate some of the symptoms of cancer and also help restore normal metabolism."

July 2016 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

The opposing metabolic effects of estrogen and progesterone

“Estrogen has an excitatory effect, comparable to an excessive increase in temperature, and shifts energy production towards glycolysis as well as cell functions towards dedifferentiation and cancer metabolism, while progesterone has opposite effects: It reduces excitation and lowers energy demand, while shifting energy production away from inefficient glycolysis; it can restore normal differentiation and reverse features of cancer.”

January 2021 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Obstacles to understanding key biological concepts

"Some of the best-known ideas in biology – including genes, membranes and receptors – have blocked, and continue to block, our understanding of aging, cancer, stress, shock, epilepsy, regeneration, perception and thinking."

January 2019 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

A re-examination of the Warburg effect: glycolysis and cancer metabolism

"In extreme cases, the reductive energy obtained from aerobic glycolysis can be used for fat synthesis, allowing glycolysis to continue; this can lead to cancer cells that oxidize fatty acids for energy while converting glucose into fats and lactic acid."

January 2016 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

The influence of diet on cancer incidence and metabolic rate

"In 1927, German researchers reported that a fat-free diet prevented the occurrence of spontaneous cancers in rats. Since other scientists soon discovered that eliminating unsaturated fats from the diet not only prevented cancer but also caused a significant increase in metabolic rate, one could have concluded that it is not life itself that kills us, but something in the environment."

Generative Energy Restoring The Wholeness Of Life

The increased need for vitamin K due to aspirin

"Aspirin increases the need for vitamin K, even if it is not used in large quantities. People who use aspirin for arthritis or cancer often take several grams per day."

Email Response by Ray Peat

The possible role of endorphins in the symptoms of ovarian cancer

"I think that excess endorphins are often the problem and that an antagonist can sometimes be helpful. Endorphins differ in their effects on the two sides of the body, so when I knew two women (within the same year) who had puzzling one-sided symptoms for several months before they were discovered to have ovarian cancer (on the same side), I thought that endorphins were probably involved, possibly to suppress the pain on that side. Naloxone and naltrexone have some effects that are not directly related to endorphins, including on estrogen and histamine."

Email Response by Ray Peat

The many benefits of cyproheptadine for sleep and cancer

"Cyproheptadine, 2 to 4 mg before bedtime, would help with both sleep and cancer. It also has a calcium-blocking effect, acts as an aldosterone antagonist, and antagonizes the antidiuretic effect of serotonin."

Email Response by Ray Peat

Calcium and iron deposition in mitochondria and diseases

"Calcium and iron tend to be deposited together, and the mitochondria are usually the starting points for this deposition. Iron overload has been linked to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and many other degenerative diseases, including brain disorders."

February 2001

Glycolysis independence in cancer and embryonic tissues

"When the Pasteur effect fails, as in cancer, glycolysis occurs that is relatively independent of respiration, resulting in inefficient sugar consumption. Embryonic tissues sometimes behave in this way, leading to the assumption that glycolysis is closely linked to growth."

July 2000

Studies on parathyroid hormone and the interchangeability of minerals

"About 88 years ago, W.K. Koch (who is known for his cancer therapy) investigated parathyroid hormone and its connection with tetany (sustained muscle contraction) and seizures and was able to show that the key minerals sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium are interchangeable to some extent in alleviating tetany and seizures caused by the removal of the parathyroid gland, with magnesium being the most effective."

December 1999 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Koch's and Szent-György's research on life processes

"For both Koch and Szent-Györgyi, contraction, respiration, and cancer were life processes that required an understanding of the interactions of water, electrons, and proteins. Virtually all other biologists ridiculed their interest in water and electrons."

December 1999 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

The theory of clonal selection in development and cancer

"Clonal selection has been proposed to explain everything that happens in the organism, from development to cancer, because this view is consistent with the doctrine that information only flows from genes to the cell; cells simply die if they do not contain the necessary information."

1998 - Ray Peat's Newsletter 3

The cellular alkalizing effect of lactic acid formation

"When I discussed the cellular alkalizing effect of lactic acid production in my dissertation in 1972, it was not a matter of scientific controversy, and since then, newer measurement techniques have made the situation even clearer. Yet even today, conclusions about muscle fatigue, cancer, radiation damage, etc., are almost always based to a large extent on the false assumption about lactic acid and cellular pH."

1998 - Ray Peat's Newsletter 2

High altitude and lactic acid metabolism in stress and cancer

"Under all conditions studied, the lactic acid metabolism characteristic of stress and cancer is suppressed at high altitude because respiration becomes more efficient. The Haldane effect shows that carbon dioxide retention is increased at high altitude."

1998 - Ray Peat's Newsletter 2

The controversial role of estrogen in the treatment of prostate cancer

"Since it was known that estrogen treatment is dangerous for men and increases blood clotting and vascular spasms, there must have been an overriding belief that led to its widespread use in the treatment of prostate cancer. This belief seems to be that estrogen, the female hormone, counteracts testosterone, the male hormone, which is responsible for the growth—and thus the development—of the prostate. Everything about this statement is wrong, yet every part of this idea can be found present and effective in the medical literature."

May 1998 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Warburg's observations on tissue atrophy as a precursor to cancer

"Otto Warburg observed that all the cancer-causing factors he studied caused tissue atrophy before cancer appeared."

May 1998 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Hormone levels and survival of prostate cancer patients

"Prostate cancer patients with higher LH levels and lower testosterone died the fastest (Harper et al., 1984). Furthermore, a high testosterone-to-estradiol or testosterone-to-prolactin ratio corresponded to a better survival rate (Rannikko et al., 1981). Separately, patients with higher testosterone levels had a better prognosis than those with lower levels, and patients with lower growth hormone levels fared better than those with higher growth hormone levels (Wilson et al., 1985)."

May 1998 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Hormonal influences on prostate cell division

"In human prostate tissue sections, several hormones—including insulin and probably prolactin—stimulated cell division; testosterone did not under these experimental conditions (McKeehan et al., 1984). Contrary to stereotypical ideas, there is evidence that additional androgens could control prostate cancer (Umekita et al., 1996) and that antagonists against prolactin and estrogen could be usefully employed in hormone therapy."

May 1998 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Prostaglandins in cancer and the therapeutic potential of aspirin

"Prostaglandins have been discovered in prostatic fluid, where they occur in significant concentrations. They are so deeply involved in the development of all types of cancer that aspirin and other prostaglandin inhibitors should be considered a fundamental component of cancer therapy."

May 1998 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Nutritional and endocrine support for prostate health

"Thyroid supplementation, adequate animal protein, trace elements, and vitamin A are the first things to consider when preventing benign prostatic hyperplasia and cancer. Nutritional and endocrine support can be combined with rational cancer therapies, as there is actually no sharp dividing line between different approaches that aim to achieve endocrine and immunological balance without causing harm."

May 1998 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

The role of porphyrins in tumor induction and cancer hormones

"Porphyrin shortened the time required to induce tumors, and porphyrin derivatives were proposed as cancer hormones."

1997 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Pituitary hypersecretion and risks for ovarian cancer

"Two things can cause the pituitary gland to secrete excessive amounts of gonadotropins: a deficiency of steroid hormones and damage to the steroid-sensing nerves that regulate the pituitary gland. When an ovary is displaced (transplanted into the spleen), so that its hormones are destroyed before they reach the brain, hypersecretion of gonadotropic hormones occurs, and tumors develop in the ovary. The interpretation that hypersecretion causes the tumors is supported by other observations, for example, that the removal of one ovary increases the likelihood of developing cancer in the other ovary, and that long-term estrogen use (which is known to create the conditions for subsequent hypersecretion of gonadotropins) increases the risk of ovarian cancer after menopause."

August-September 1995 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Iron metabolism in pregnant women and cancer incidence

"Although pregnant women absorb iron from food very efficiently, they tend to pass on their stored iron to the baby. This could explain the greater longevity associated with a higher number of births, and in particular the lower incidence of cancer in women of childbearing age."

June 1994 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Low DHEA levels and their association with premature death

"Low levels of the hormone DHEA are associated with premature death from various causes, including cancer and heart disease."

December 1992 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

The immunosuppressive effects of morphine in pain management in cancer

"It has been known for several decades that morphine has an immunosuppressive effect, but this fact has been largely ignored when prescribing it to cancer patients. (Intravenously administered alcohol has a protective effect on the immune system and is just as effective as morphine in controlling cancer pain.)"

December 1992 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

The potential benefits of alcohol for immunity in terminal cancer patients

"The stigma associated with alcohol has prevented its introduction as an extremely useful medicine or nutrient, even in terminal cancer patients, for whom its immune-boosting properties could be of great value."

June 1991 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Shark liver extracts and their effect on cancer resistance

“Strong (who had studied genetics at TH Morgan) was interested in the fact that sharks are not prone to cancer. As a geneticist, he saw this as related to their genetic stability, that is, the fact that they have hardly evolved since an early stage of evolution, and he believed that cancer is a result of genetic instability. He found that injections of an extract from shark liver prevented mice from developing breast cancer; however, similar extracts from other livers had a comparable effect in the mice. Since his mice had too much estrogen, I assumed that their livers were lacking something necessary for the elimination of estrogen, as the liver is normally a strong regulator of estrogen, using a specific system of detoxifying enzymes.”

July 1991 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

The unique osmotic balance of sharks with high urea concentration

"Besides their primitive nature and the fact that they do not suffer from cancer, sharks are also physiologically unique in another respect: their body fluids are in osmotic equilibrium with seawater, making them hypertonic compared to the body fluids of other animals. The mineral content of shark blood does not differ significantly from that of other animals. The osmotic difference is balanced by a very high concentration of urea (and trimethylammonium)."

July 1991 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Unsaturated oils, cholesterol, and increased cancer deaths

"Decades ago, it was discovered that unsaturated oils lower cholesterol levels. However, studies showed that adding polyunsaturated oils to the diet did not prevent death from heart disease, but did increase cancer deaths."

April 1991 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Convergence of interests in the oxidative metabolism of the uterus

"Although I had studied the link between estrogen and cancer, and knew from my own experience with migraines that stress, diet, and hormones interact powerfully, I was not aware at the beginning of my research into the oxidative metabolism of the uterus that this would involve a convergence of several of my main interests."

October 1990 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

The protective effect of caffeine against cancer in rats

"Several studies have shown that caffeine has a protective effect against cancer. For example, Würzner et al. found that the incidence of tumors in rats fed coffee decreased with increasing caffeine content."

May 1990 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

The protective effects of caffeine against cancer and the stimulation of the immune system

"Caffeine has several effects that protect against cancer. It strongly protects against cancers caused by chemical carcinogens (including those in smoke), and even those caused by ultraviolet radiation. It stimulates the repair process that corrects mutations (in mammals, but not in bacteria), and it stimulates the immune system."

May 1990 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Warburg and Burk's findings on respiration in cancer

"Otto Warburg and Dean Burk showed quite clearly that defective respiration is present in all types of cancer studied."

January 1989 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Refutation of misinformation about flaxseed oil in medical diets

"An acquaintance who recently died after several months of consuming large quantities of flaxseed oil told me it had been used by Dr. WF Koch and Dr. Max Gerson. I knew that wasn't true: Gerson's program evolved from a diet for migraines and tuberculosis into a cancer therapy and included the use of thyroid extract, liver, fresh juices, and some butter, but he always explicitly repeated: absolutely no oil."

February–March 1989 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

The use of linseed oil in cancer treatment since 1939

"I am aware that flaxseed oil has been used by Mexican doctors to treat cancer since at least 1939 and that it can be toxic to cancer cells (although presumably less toxic than to normal cells*), and that its laxative effect is plausibly effective in treating constipated cancer patients."

May 1988 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

Koch's theory of natural immunity against viruses and cancer

"Koch soon developed a theory of natural immunity against viruses and cancer, based on his belief in the existence of biological free radicals capable of oxidizing virus particles and carcinogenic molecules. Koch believed that allergies were an early sign of the failure of this free radical oxidation system."

August-September 1988 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

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Supplements according to Ray Peat

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