Damian Knightly

Your "happy hormone" is a metabolic suppressant and lowers IQ Here's how excess serotonin shuts down your mitochondria, how to clear it (section 4), and the cofactors that matter:📢👇 Serotonin isn't a feel-good molecule in excess. It acts like a stress hormone that drains CO2 from your tissues, stalls pyruvate dehydrogenase and drives prolactin and cortisol up through the pituitary. 1. Carbonic Anhydrase, CO2 Depletion, and the Lactate Lockout CO2 isn't metabolic waste. It's a protective molecule that limits lactic acid formation and works as an antioxidant inside the cell. Serotonin-Driven CO2 Degradation: Excess serotonin raises carbonic anhydrase activity. Carbonic anhydrase breaks down CO2, which removes the brake on lactic acid formation. Glucose gets diverted into lactate instead of being fully oxidised. The Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Feedback Loop: Lactic acid inhibits pyruvate dehydrogenase, the enzyme that turns pyruvate into acetyl-CoA so it can enter the Krebs cycle. That same reaction releases CO2. With pyruvate dehydrogenase inhibited, you make less CO2, which lets more lactate form and stalls the enzyme further. Each turn of this loop makes the next one worse. 2. TPH1, Gut-Derived Serotonin, and the Prolactin–ACTH Axis Most of your serotonin is never made in the brain. The Gut Serotonin Load: 95% of total body serotonin is made in the gut by tryptophan hydroxylase 1 (TPH1). TPH2 handles the brain. A diet high in tryptophan and methionine and low in glycine keeps this load high. Gut dysbiosis adds to it. Serotonin to Prolactin to Cortisol: Serotonin signals the pituitary to release prolactin. Prolactin raises cortisol through ACTH. Serotonin excess also lowers dopamine and GABA, which is why you feel flat and anxious at the same time. 3. MAO-A Clearance, Glycine, and Restoring Oxidative Flux Fixing this means clearing serotonin and getting pyruvate back into the mitochondria, not adding more precursors. Clearance Bottlenecks: Monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A) breaks down serotonin, and insulin resistance raises it. Glycine supports serotonin clearance, used short term at 2–3 grams. Balancing methionine with glycine-rich protein lowers the tryptophan and methionine load at its source. Reopening Pyruvate Dehydrogenase: Pyruvate dehydrogenase depends on thiamine pyrophosphate (TPP) to convert pyruvate into acetyl-CoA. Fat-soluble thiamine forms like benfotiamine and allithiamine have up to 7 times higher availability than thiamine HCl or mononitrate. PUFAs also block pyruvate dehydrogenase and push palmitic acid out of cardiolipin, so cutting them removes a second inhibitor from the same enzyme. 4. The Serotonin Clearance Protocol Don't add more precursors. Lower the tryptophan load, slow down how much serotonin your gut takes up, and get pyruvate flowing back into the mitochondria. Step 1: Cut the Tryptophan Load for 2–4 Weeks Replace the typical chicken breast, turkey, egg white, oatmeal and banana diet. Build meals around bone-in red meat with collagen or marrow, plus lamb, goat, beef and oysters. For carbs, use berries, pulp-free juice and raw honey. Raw dairy is the exception, within reason. When a food is high in both calcium and tryptophan, the tryptophan is pushed toward niacin instead of serotonin. Step 2: Rebalance Methionine and Glycine Drink a cup of bone broth from quality bones between meals, so the glycine offsets tryptophan from muscle meat. If you can't get quality bones, use 2–3 grams of glycine for a short period to help clear serotonin. Don't take glycine with high-calcium foods. Step 3: The Binder Salad (3–4 Times a Week, Between Meals) 1–2 raw carrots, chopped (not grated) A bit of ginger, 30–40g beef liver, 1 tsp cold-pressed black seed oil, 1–2 tsp coconut oil, sea salt Ginger lowers how strongly the gut responds to serotonin, black seed oil reduces how much serotonin the gut absorbs, and the carrot fibre binds excess estrogen. Step 4: Short Thiamine and Magnesium Course (2–4 Weeks) Thiamine deficiency increases serotonin production. Take thiamine together with 50–150mg of magnesium. Thiamine helps pyruvate dehydrogenase work again and raises CO2. It also lowers lactic acid, especially when taken before a workout. Step 5: Raise CO2 at the Source Don't cut carbs. Fructose from fruit and unheated honey produces more CO2 than fat or protein. Get daily sunlight and drink naturally carbonated water. Remove things that drive lactate: alcohol, fermented foods and chronic overwork. Cut PUFAs. They block pyruvate dehydrogenase directly. Step 6: Ginkgo Biloba, Cycled Ginkgo does the opposite of serotonin: it increases blood flow to the brain, where serotonin reduces it. Use it a couple of times a week at most. Don't take it daily. 4. Blind Self-Experimentation Liabilities Pushing serotonin precursors or cutting them without mapping the system turns a metabolic bottleneck into months of anxiety, insomnia and hormonal drift. Precursor Rebound: 5-HTP and tryptophan can feel good for days, then bring on insomnia and anxiety as carbonic anhydrase activity and prolactin climb. Wrong Thiamine Forms and Doses: Water-soluble thiamine salts have poor availability. Starting high instead of at a small 50mg dose can expose other cofactor gaps, because the Krebs cycle also depends on B2, B3, B5 and magnesium. Unmapped Pharmaceutical Variables: SSRIs act on SERT, and they have valid use cases, such as people stuck in chronic hypervigilance. Never adjust or stop one without your prescriber. Stacking supplements on top of medication without mapping SERT activity and MAO-A clearance is a costly guessing game. Every internal system operates under unique constraints. What resolved serotonin overload for someone else can easily push your prolactin higher or stall out your baseline. DM me "SEROTONIN" with your main struggle if you want a protocol optimized for your body specifically.

How to fix 99% of gut problems in 12-week, step-by-step plan for someone who doesn't know where to start 👇 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Why most gut protocols fail Most people jump straight to killing bacteria or stacking supplements. But pathogens don't grow out of nowhere. They grow when your defences are down: • Low stomach acid • Slow transit time • Unbound iron feeding bad bacteria • Low thyroid function • Medications used like tic tacs • Malnutrition • Unhealthy mast cells Fix the environment first and the gut has a chance to heal. Skip it and you're just managing symptoms. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ WEEKS 1-2: Stop the damage Before you add anything, stop doing the things that break your gut down, and please follow this program step by step (less is more) Cut: • Seed oils (Only use cold-pressed olive oil or coconut oil.) • Alcohol and nicotine(iF you have to drink go for clear spirits like vodka) • Artificial sweeteners • Food additives, xanthan gum, and preservatives • Modern grains, oats, and corn • Soy, legumes, peas, and lentils • Nuts and seeds • Cheap dairy • Raw vegetables • Plant protein powders Fix how you eat: • Eat slowly and chew every bite. Chewing triggers stomach acid and digestive enzymes • Never eat stressed. Cortisol suppresses mucus production and slows gut repair (If you can do 5 min breathing or prayer before you start eating) • Don't train fasted. It increases gut permeability and lets endotoxins into your blood.(If you do, add 5g glycine after youre done training) • Keep your phone and laptop off your stomach. • Only use NSAIDs and other medications when you really need them. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ WEEKS 1-12: Calm your histamine If you react to lots of foods, your mast cells are probably on edge. Avoid these for 4-12 weeks: • Aged cheeses, kefir, and yogurt • Kombucha, kimchi, sourdough, and vinegar • Cured meats and canned foods • Tomatoes, bananas, and dried fruit • Chocolate and coffee Then: • Only eat freshly cooked meals. Leftovers build histamine as they sit. • Add mast cell calming foods: chamomile, ginger, turmeric, peeled apples, and peeled peaches • Lower your stress. More cortisol means a bigger histamine reaction. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ WEEKS 3-4: Rebuild stomach acid Stomach acid is your first line of defence. When it's low, food sits undigested and bacteria move in. Signs it's low: • Bloating and gas • Heartburn • Undigested food in your stool • Brain fog and fatigue • Low B12 Your stomach needs B vitamins, zinc, salt, and thyroid to make acid. Eat: • Pasture-raised egg yolks, never raw egg whites. They deplete biotin. • Oysters or shellfish, at least weekly • Medium-cooked red meat with bone marrow • Sea salt, not Himalayan pink salt • Quality organic organ meats Fix B12, which you need for the stomach lining: • 30-60g organic beef liver, 3 times a week for 2-3 weeks • Then 200g every 7-10 days • Add turmeric and black pepper to reduce iron absorption. If you are grossed out by eating liver, DM me and I will send you a delicious recipe on how I prepare it. Supermarket liver isn't the same. Buy organic or from a small local farm. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ WEEKS 3-6: Speed up transit time When food moves too slowly, bacteria get time to ferment it. • Stick to easy-to-digest proteins: eggs, white fish, oysters, soups • Walk for 5-15 minutes after every meal • Aim for 10-15k steps a day • Drink ginger tea between meals. • Eat berries on their own first thing in the morning. • Take EVOO shots between meals and keep eating saturated fats • Limit starches until things improve You can't have a healthy gut while sitting at a desk all day. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ WEEKS 5-8: Starve the bad bacteria Unbound iron is one of the most overlooked drivers of gut problems. It feeds harmful species and kills beneficial ones. • Cut iron-fortified foods for 3 months. That includes all grains. • Add cold-pressed black cumin seed oil, 1 tsp twice a day with meals. • Eat pineapple, carrots, squash, pumpkin, garlic, and onion. Sulfur binds iron • Eat foods rich in vitamin C: acerola, berries, kiwi • No alcohol for at least 4-12 weeks Why black seed oil over oregano oil: Oregano oil wipes out everything, including good bacteria. Black seed oil targets harmful and spoilage bacteria but spares strains like Lactobacillus. One warning: don't go zero-carb to "starve" bacteria. Unless your thyroid is very healthy, it hides your symptoms for a while and then backfires harder. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ If you suspect SIBO or Candida Watch for: • White coating on your tongue • Constant sugar or dairy cravings • Dandruff • Pale skin • Trouble digesting fat • Bad breath Don't self-diagnose. Get tested. A hydrogen breath test is a valid starting point. Strong antimicrobials used the wrong way can damage the gut lining and set you back. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ WEEKS 9-12: Rebuild the lining Once the damage has stopped and the bacteria are under control, rebuild. Your gut needs: • Vitamin K: stops oxygen building up in the gut and supports stomach acid • Vitamin A (retinol): also helps control gut oxygen • B vitamins and zinc: hold the intestinal barrier together • Magnesium: needed for more than 300 enzymes, including digestive ones • Glutamine and glycine: fuel the cells lining your intestines Where to get them: • Beef liver, kidney and heart • Chicken liver • Oysters • Egg yolks • Bone broth and bone marrow After a few weeks without histamine triggers, add grass-fed gelatin. Foods that support the gut lining: • Ginger • Aloe vera • Okra • Slippery elm ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Don't forget the liver. Poor liver health always leads to poor gut health. Support it with: • Choline (egg yolks) • Glycine and taurine • B vitamins, especially B3 • Vitamins C, E and K • Bioavailable protein, without overdoing it Cut plastics, pesticides, PFAS and fragrances wherever you can. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Week 12+: Reintroduce slowly. • Bring back dairy only after 2-3 months, and have something acidic before it • Test fermented foods one at a time and watch how you react • Keep the basics forever: sleep, sunlight, movement, real food ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Signs your gut has healed: • No bloating • No acid reflux • No brain fog • No fatigue • No skin issues or dandruff • Stable mood • No vitamin deficiencies • Visible half-moons on your nails, which take longer to show up Your gut holds about 60% of your immune system. Fix it, and nearly everything else gets easier. If you have a diagnosed condition or take medication, work with your doctor before changing your diet or adding supplements. Save this and send it to someone who's been bloated for years and doesn't know where to start.

If you're always tired, your hair is thinning and your blood work keeps coming back "normal", the problem may not be your thyroid gland at all. It can be that you have a conversion problem. Here's why it happens, how to fix it, and the cofactors you need 📢 Sound familiar? • You drink coffee to get through the morning • You skip breakfast because you're never hungry • You run cold • You sleep badly • You can't put on muscle no matter how hard you train Here's what's happening: • Your thyroid mostly makes T4, a storage hormone your cells can barely use • It has to be converted into active T3 • 70-80% of that conversion happens in your liver • Smaller amounts happen in your gut and kidneys When your liver is low on fuel, your gut is out of balance or you're missing key nutrients, T4 sits there unconverted and your metabolism slows down. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 1. The Liver Glycogen Bottleneck Your liver needs stored glucose (glycogen) to convert T4 into T3. Years of low-carb dieting leave it without the fuel it needs to do that. Why low carb backfires: • Low glycogen is itself a stress signal • It slows conversion • It disrupts sleep • It causes hypothyroid-like symptoms even when the gland itself is healthy Refilling the tank: • Fructose is the liver's preferred fuel and can refill liver glycogen by up to 300% • Weeks 1-4: high-potassium fruits • After week 4: any local, seasonal fruit • Honeycomb 1-2x per week, ideally after training • Get enough B vitamins and magnesium so your body can actually use those carbs ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 2. The Nutrients Conversion Depends On Your thyroid can't make or activate hormones without specific raw materials. Miss one and the whole chain slows down. The core thyroid nutrients: • Copper + Selenium → needed to make thyroid hormones (low selenium is linked to autoimmune thyroiditis) • Zinc → runs the T3 receptors, supports vitamin A and helps recycle vitamin C • Vitamin A + B12 → let your cells use thyroid hormone (vitamin A also helps regulate TSH) • Vitamin D → low levels downregulate thyroid function Where to get them: • Copper, Vitamin A, B12 → beef liver • Zinc → oysters, beef • Selenium → seafood, beef, Brazil nuts (max 3-5 a day) • Vitamin C → berries, acerola, pulp-free citrus juice • Vitamin D → sunlight, building up gradually to about 1 hour of direct skin exposure a day The glutathione link: • Made in your liver, it helps convert T4 into T3 • Protects the thyroid from hydrogen peroxide damage every time it processes iodine • Depends on selenium, vitamin C, zinc, magnesium, glycine and sulfur-rich foods (eggs, garlic, onions) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 3. The Gut-Thyroid Connection Part of T4-to-T3 conversion happens in your small intestine, and that step depends on acetic acid made by a healthy gut. Functional hypothyroidism: • Gut out of balance (dysbiosis) → less acetic acid • Less acetic acid → T3 doesn't get activated • Result → hypothyroid symptoms even though the gland itself is fine The stress multiplier: • Cortisol directly suppresses thyroid output • Adrenaline drains the same liver glycogen you need for conversion • Undereating is one of the strongest stressors there is What to do: • Eat at maintenance calories • Get about 1.7g of protein per kg of bodyweight • Keep carbs at 30-40% of your calories ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 4. The Most Common Mistakes Throwing supplements at your thyroid without understanding how conversion works often makes things worse. Supplementing iodine blindly: • Your body recycles a lot of iodine every day • Get it from cod, shrimp and a bit of seaweed • High-dose iodine supplements can also interfere with selenium status Ignoring thyroid disruptors: Your thyroid has one of the highest blood flows of any organ, so toxins reach it fast. Watch out for: • Seed oils • Alcohol • Artificial sweeteners • Soy • Fluoride and chlorine in tap water • Caffeine when you're low on B vitamins • Long-term high-dose NAC (depletes copper) Misreading your labs: • Biotin supplements can throw off thyroid test results • Stop all supplements a couple of weeks before blood work • A full panel isn't just TSH. It means: – TSH – Free + total T4 – Free + total T3 – Reverse T3 – Antibodies ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Everyone's body works within its own limits. A protocol that fixed one person's conversion problem can stall someone else's progress, depending on their gut, stress levels, liver function and mineral status. Save this or share it with someone whose labs keep coming back "normal" but still feels exhausted. Peace Damian