Ray Peat on Carbon Dioxide (CO2)

Short answer: Ray Peat treated carbon dioxide as a protective substance, not a waste gas. He wrote that it opposes lactic acid, relaxes blood vessels, keeps calcium in the bones, and explains why people and animals living with more of it tend to live longer.

What Ray Peat wrote about carbon dioxide

He set carbon dioxide against lactic acid. When energy fails, lactic acid rises as carbon dioxide falls, cells swell and take up water. Raising carbon dioxide reverses that. Source: The transparency of life: Cataracts as a model of age-related disease, Lactate vs. CO2 in wounds, sickness, and aging; the other approach to cancer, Mitochondria and mortality

He used long-lived animals as evidence. Queen bees, naked mole rats and bats all live in air with more carbon dioxide and outlive similar animals by a wide margin. Source: Protective CO2 and aging

Altitude was his human example. At altitude the body holds more carbon dioxide and makes less lactic acid, and he connects that to lower rates of several diseases, including cataracts. Source: Altitude and Mortality, The transparency of life: Cataracts as a model of age-related disease, Fatigue, aging, and recuperation

Carbon dioxide regulates minerals. It increases the absorption and retention of calcium and the excretion of phosphate, and allows calcium to be laid down in bone. Source: Phosphate, activation, and aging

It relaxes blood vessels and bronchial muscle, and supports the delivery of oxygen. Hyperventilation, which blows it off, increases the leakiness of capillaries. Source: Phosphate, activation, and aging, Bleeding, clotting, cancer

Simply increasing carbon dioxide lowers lactic acid and ammonia and raises GABA, the calming transmitter. Source: Fatigue, aging, and recuperation

Thyroid hormone is the main source: it keeps oxidative metabolism running, and oxidizing sugar produces more carbon dioxide than oxidizing fat. Source: Water: swelling, tension, pain, fatigue, aging

What he suggested in practice

• Breathing into a paper bag for a minute or two at a time, which he suggests for lowering blood pressure and steadying heart rhythm.
• Enough calcium, and sometimes extra salt and baking soda, to raise the carbon dioxide held in the tissues.
• Vitamin B1 to increase carbon dioxide and reduce lactate.
• Sugar and thyroid function, which decide how much you produce.

Where he wrote about it

This topic comes up in 62 of the articles on his site. These are the most relevant ones:

• Altitude and Mortality · original on raypeat.com ↗
• Protective CO2 and aging · original on raypeat.com ↗
• Genes, Carbon Dioxide and Adaptation · original on raypeat.com ↗
• The transparency of life: Cataracts as a model of age-related disease · original on raypeat.com ↗
• Osteoporosis, harmful calcification, and nerve/muscle malfunctions · original on raypeat.com ↗
• Bone Density: First Do No Harm · original on raypeat.com ↗
• Phosphate, activation, and aging · original on raypeat.com ↗
• Water: swelling, tension, pain, fatigue, aging · original on raypeat.com ↗

My take

Carbon dioxide is the main vasodilator in the body and the gut's best friend. It lowers the pH of the colon, suppresses Gram-negative bacteria and stabilizes mast cells. More carbs burned well means more CO2.

Quick answers

What did Ray Peat say about carbon dioxide?

That it is a protective substance that opposes lactic acid, stabilizes cells, relaxes blood vessels and helps the body keep calcium in bone.

How did Ray Peat suggest increasing CO2?

By supporting thyroid function and sugar oxidation, getting enough calcium, sometimes using salt and baking soda, taking vitamin B1, and breathing into a paper bag for a minute or two.

What did Ray Peat say about bag breathing?

He describes breathing into a paper bag for a minute or two at a time as an easy way to raise the carbon dioxide in the blood, lower blood pressure and improve heart rhythm.