Peat Archive

Ray Peat's view of serotonin is one of his most radical departures from mainstream thinking. While popular culture and psychiatry treat serotonin as a 'happiness molecule' whose deficiency causes depression, Peat argued that serotonin is fundamentally a stress and inflammation mediator. He documented extensive evidence that serotonin promotes intestinal inflammation, blood clotting, bronchoconstriction, fibrosis, and cancer — and that SSRI antidepressants work not by correcting a deficiency but by desensitizing serotonin receptors over time.

Peat traced the serotonin myth to pharmaceutical marketing and noted that tryptophan (serotonin's precursor) increases under stress as muscle protein breaks down. He recommended reducing serotonin through dietary means (avoiding excess tryptophan from muscle meats, preferring gelatin-rich foods), using anti-serotonin agents (cyproheptadine, ondansetron), and supporting opposing systems (thyroid, progesterone, dopamine).