Peat Archive

Ray Peat's approach to bone health centered on metabolic support rather than calcium supplementation alone. He argued that osteoporosis is fundamentally a metabolic disorder driven by hypothyroidism, cortisol excess, estrogen dominance, and parathyroid hormone elevation. He noted that conventional treatments (bisphosphonates, estrogen therapy) fail to address root causes and can worsen bone quality despite increasing density measurements.

Peat emphasized that healthy bone requires adequate thyroid function (for proper remodeling), progesterone (which stimulates osteoblasts), vitamin D and K2 (for calcium direction), and reducing parathyroid hormone through adequate calcium intake from dairy. He was critical of excessive estrogen therapy for osteoporosis, noting that while estrogen can slow bone resorption, it does so by impairing the normal remodeling cycle, leading to accumulation of old, brittle bone.