Ray Peat on ATP

December 4, 2025

Biological water binding and its relationship to cellular energy

"Water storage 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 the water are mutually dissolved in each other, and their affinity for each other is influenced by the cell’s energetic relationship 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 tire easily and absorb excess water; the barrier structure loosens, allowing macromolecules, ATP, and other metabolites to leak out while foreign substances enter. Typical muscle enzymes like lactate dehydrogenase and creatine kinase appear in the blood in typical hypothyroid myopathy, and heart proteins – including a special form of lactate dehydrogenase and the muscle protein troponin – appear in the blood after heart strain or fatigue combined with hypothyroidism or systemic inflammation."

– September 2019 – Ray Peats Newsletter

ATP leakage 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 presence 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, which contribute to alarm and stress signals. Increased synthesis of serotonin is one of the main responses to leaked ATP and adenosine, but serotonin can increase disorder in the actin system and enhance permeability – creating a vicious cycle."

– September 2019 – Ray Peats Newsletter

Connection between ATP and tumor growth

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

– September 2019 – Ray Peats Newsletter

Spread of damage through bystander effects

"Heavy stresses in one part of the body spread their influence throughout the entire organism, in the process now known as the bystander or off-target effect. Serotonin, nitric oxide, and ATP are among the substances known to propagate damage."

– September 2019 – Ray Peats Newsletter

The Role of Vitamin E in Stabilizing ATP and Relaxing Tissue

"Vitamin E preserves 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 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, brain softening is the first symptom of vitamin E deficiency."

– Nutrition For Women

The Inhibition of Cell Division by Chalones Requires ATP and Vitamin E

"Normal inhibitors of cell division (chalones) are not retained in normal amounts in cells 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 seems to be part of their trophic influence on healing and inflammation. A. E. Needham (Growth Process of Animals) 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 nutrition, as fresh food contains abundant ATP."

– Nutrition For Women

Evolution and Wakefulness: Connections with Brain ATP Content

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

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

The Potential Therapeutic Use of ATP in Psychoses

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

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

Pharmacological Benefits of Ginseng and Eleutherococcus for the Cell

"In a pharmacological approach, a reduced consumption of glycogen, ATP, and creatine 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 active transport and requires the use of ATP. However, experiments by Ling and others showed that the energy metabolism of cells could be poisoned so that no ATP was produced, yet the cells were still able to maintain their ion gradient, even though sodium could freely diffuse through the membrane into the cell. All ATP has to do is be present and passively take its place in the cell."

– March 2020 – Ray Peats 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 binds to protein molecules with considerable energy and that its presence determines the shape of the protein molecule."

– March 2020 – Ray Peats 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 fundamental resting state, in which it prefers potassium over sodium."

– March 2020 – Ray Peats Newsletter

Protein interactions and the influence of cardinal adsorbents

"Anything 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 strongly adsorb, especially ATP and steroids, have a strong influence on the system's properties. Molecules that bind strongly to proteins change the way proteins affect the properties of water, and the properties of water determine the metabolism of cells as well as their interactions with each other and with the environment. Ling called these influential binding molecules 'cardinal adsorbents.'"

– March 2020 – Ray Peats 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 formation of inflammatory factors like TNF-alpha, which promote the sleep rhythm."

– March 2018 – Ray Peats Newsletter

High-energy brain states and ATP content of the muscles

"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. When ATP is depleted by sustained strong stimulation or not replenished quickly enough, for example due to hypothyroidism, relaxation is very slow, leading to cramps."

– March 2018 – Ray Peats Newsletter

The electron-withdrawing effect of ATP compared to binding energy

"Gilbert Ling's work shows that it is the electron-withdrawing effect of ATP that explains its actions, 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 recall 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 Peat's Newsletter

Progesterone stabilizes cells and improves metabolic functions

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

– January 2018 – Ray Peat's Newsletter

Effects of the thyroid on calorie needs and glucose regulation

"In my teenage years and twenties, I needed about 8000 calories per day when physically active, about 4000 to 5000 when sedentary, but after taking thyroid hormone, I only needed about half as many calories. The thyroid is the fundamental regulator of blood sugar, and it causes it to be fully oxidized for energy production, so it efficiently produces ATP—with relatively few calories."

– Email Response from Ray Peat

Treatment of lactic acid excess by inhibiting glycolysis

"Heart failure, shock, and other problems associated with an excess of lactic acid can be successfully treated by inhibiting glycolysis with dichloroacetic acid, which reduces lactic acid production, increases glucose oxidation, and raises ATP concentration in the 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 lower energy production could arise from a reduction of carbon dioxide, thus 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 formation and create a situation where the system would have two possible states: the glycolytic stress state and the CO₂-forming, energy-efficient state.”

– 2000 – July

ATP formation in water-poor cellular environments

“When ATP breaks down, it absorbs water, and in a water-free 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 forms spontaneously. When the reactants form ATP and release water, energy (at least theoretically) is absorbed in the chemical bond. Viewed abstractly, this shows that the formation of ATP and the uptake of energy can be caused by factors that control the activity or availability of water.”