Nuclear Peating
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One of Ray Peat's most important recommendations to those following bioenergetics is to regularly measure yourself. Most commonly, this is body temperature and heart rate. Lab tests are also useful but less important because blood levels often do not match tissue levels for the things that matter most (hormones) but are still useful for what mostly lives in the blood, like cholesterol. Then, as a result of these measurements, you can adjust nearly in real time using the theory of perceive, think, act.
Unless someone can demonstrate the scientific invalidity of the methods used to diagnose hypothyroidism up to 1945, then they constitute the best present evidence for evaluating hypothyroidism, because all of the blood tests that have been used since 1950 have been shown to be, at best, very crude and conceptually inappropriate methods.
Another interesting point is how Peat focused much of his career on the so-called "reproductive aging." Basically, the idea is that the reproductive system is a good indicator of metabolic health because it's sensitive to numerous factors like thyroid, PUFAs, vitamins, sex hormones, glucose oxidation, almost if not everything. One big problem here is how it's often hard to quantify how healthy you are in this aspect. In women, you have ovulation and other obvious indicators like that. But in men, aside from the obvious symptoms of a metabolic issue like ED, which is limited in how much it can reveal and can be totally absent despite a metabolic disorder, gauging reproductive health is limited to lab tests and subjective feelings.
Well, as it turns out, I think I've found a way to do one of those lab tests at home. The size, quantity, and motility of sperm reflect input factors like LH/FSH, estrogen, and overall gonadal function. It turns out that to assess this all you need is a phase contrast microscope and cheap commodity consumables like plastic sample slides. This kind of microscope uses a neat optical trick invented in the 1930s and actually won its inventor the Nobel Prize. As a result, they're basically a commodity, albeit one that costs about $1000 to get started with.
So why do such a thing? Aside from the body temperature and heart rate and subjective feelings, most of us don't get blood tests very often, usually on the order of yearly to every several months, and if you're dedicated, every month. But a phase contrast microscope would let you quantitatively monitor another metabolic factor on the order of every couple days. If you're like me then this sounds awesome especially if you are a recovering victim of keto dieting. I have already found a good looking used microscope on eBay and am almost ready to pull the trigger.
I'm calling it Nuclear Peating because it's "going nuclear" with the Peat philosophy of perceive, think, act.
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Update:
I've ordered the microscope and a special F to X mount adapter for my Fujifilm camera to get "awesome" photos with.
