By Dr. Linda J. Dobberstein, DC, Board Certified in Clinical Nutrition
Article Highlights:
Mitochondria and Energy Production: Mitochondria are the powerhouses of cells. They are vital for energy, metabolism, hormone production, and immune regulation. They are the source of youthful energy!
Optimizing Mitochondrial Health: Engage in regular exercise, maintain a balanced diet with proper meal timing, ensure quality sleep, and reduce environmental toxins.
Supplements like Coenzyme Q10, PQQ, and B vitamins can enhance mitochondrial function and protect against oxidative stress, supporting vitality.
Ever wished you had the boundless energy of children or marveled at seniors achieving incredible feats? From Ponce de Leon's quest for the Fountain of Youth to modern aspirations for endless vitality, our pursuit of youthful energy persists across ages.
What leads to an abundance of energy in our youth, but dwindles as the years go by? Genetics, diet, physical activity, lifestyle, environment, stress and sleep all influence our energy production, but at its core lies mitochondrial health. Protecting and supporting your mitochondria is essential for vital energy and youthfulness.
Mitochondria: Center of Energy Production
Mitochondria are the powerhouses of cells responsible for producing most of your cellular energy. The production of ATP, or energy, involves the Electron Transport Chain, the Krebs’s Cycle/TCA Cycle, and beta oxidation or burning of fats, which occurs in and across mitochondria membranes.
Additionally, mitochondria play fundamental roles in amino acid metabolism, regulation of cell signaling pathways, and cell death. They are also involved in hormone production, immune regulation, body temperature regulation, and heat production. Mitochondria form vast, complex, and dynamic networks among themselves, within cellular boundaries, and even into other tissues.
Every cell and organ in your body has mitochondria. The highest energy organs, like your heart, kidneys, and brain, have thousands of mitochondria per cell that produce vast quantities of ATP to keep you going!
Astonishing Amount of ATP Production
The amount of ATP (energy) produced daily by your mitochondria is astonishing. In a healthy adult at rest, ATP production is equivalent to 1 gram per pound of body weight each day. For example, a healthy 150-pound adult produces 150 grams of ATP daily.
This ATP production level dramatically increases with exercise, but also declines with physical inactivity and factors that contribute to rapid aging. A loss of ATP production is associated with a progressive decline in mitochondrial activity, resulting in aging, loss of stress resilience and age-related metabolic changes.
Mitochondrial Stressors and Cellular Effects
The greatest daily stressors to mitochondria include excess calories, high carbohydrate intake, and sedentary lifestyles. Furthermore, pesticides and herbicides, heavy metal toxins, plastics and plasticizers, antibiotics and many medications, mold exposure and water damaged buildings, and severe stress all damage mitochondrial function.
The mitochondrial response to these challenges leads to downregulation of antioxidant defenses, reduction of ATP production, increased free radical production, and mitochondrial DNA damage, which leads to premature cell death, aging, and age-related metabolic changes.
A Spring in Your Step or Gray Hair?
A hallmark of your mitochondrial health is muscle strength and mass. If you have youthful energy and strength with a spring in your step, you are doing great! However, increased difficulties with movement, moving slower, and having less strength reflect declining mitochondrial health.
Other signs of aging mitochondria include fatigue, wrinkles, graying hair and hair loss, joint deterioration, blood sugar difficulties, memory, mood, and other brain health concerns. Age-related mitochondrial decline impacts exercise tolerance, visual acuity and hearing, urinary tract and kidney function, liver metabolism, heart and lung function, immune resilience, and much more.
Mitochondrial health can be measured with a urine test called 8-OHdG, which evaluates mitochondrial DNA damage and oxidative stress.
Exercise is Crucial
Physical activity is the single most important factor to improve mitochondrial health. A sedentary lifestyle, even short-term inactivity such as being bed ridden from illness leads to an “atrophy” of mitochondria numbers and their ability to produce ATP efficiently.
Exercise stimulates the birth of new mitochondria or biogenesis. It also stimulates the processes of fission, fusion, and mitophagy, which are essential mechanisms for recycling mitochondrial parts, cleaning up, and removing damaged components.
However, overexertion from chronic exhaustive activities or athletic overtraining generates high amounts of ROS free radicals, causing substantial wear and tear on mitochondria health. This can overwhelm the fission and fusion processes, leading to mitochondrial dysfunction.
Strength training, HIIT (high intensity interval training), and aerobic exercise help mitochondria. The best exercise is the one that you will consistently perform.
Optimize Meal Timing and Calorie Restriction
Meal timing and calorie restriction are also vital to mitochondrial health. When and what you eat impacts your mitochondrial health.
- Eat 3 meals per day: Allow 4-5 hours between meals and don’t snack or eat after dinner. Mitochondria need time between meals to burn fats and glucose for energy production.
- Avoid excess calories: Too many calories impair mitochondrial function and energy production, similar to flooding a car engine with too much fuel.
- Eat nutrient-dense foods: Insufficient protein, fats, carbohydrates, or nutrient-poor foods fail to provide necessary nutrients for ATP production and mitochondrial protection.
Improve Sleep and Glymphatics
Quality sleep is essential for mitochondrial health, aiding in brain function and circadian rhythm synchronization. Sleep is also a molecular clean up time for the brain, a process known as glymphatics. The glymphatic system serves to remove waste products and deliver nutrients.
Mitochondria produce melatonin, which functions as an antioxidant inside the mitochondria. This is the only antioxidant that has immediate direct access inside mitochondria, protecting the organelles from free radical stress and affecting circadian rhythms. Thus, sleep quality and synchronized circadian rhythms are of prime importance for mitochondria health.
Nutritional supplements that promote healthy sleep include:
- Melatonin: Enhances sleep quality and supports mitochondrial antioxidant function.
- RelaxaMag: Special magnesium formula with glycine that aids in falling asleep faster and improving sleep.
- Sleep Helper: Sleep support blend with taurine, an amino acid that reduces stress and promotes relaxation without sedation.
Nutrients that support healthy glymphatic function include:
- Brain Protector: This brain formula includes fisetin, RALA, and curcumin to enhance neuroprotection and cellular clean-up.
- Immune Plus: This lymph system formula contains arabinogalactan, a helpful nutrient to take at bed to support lymph flow and glymphatic function.
These principles of exercise, meal timing, calorie restriction, and sleep quality improve mitochondrial energy production. Furthermore, a cascade of positive effects on mitochondrial metabolism, enhanced clean-up of old cells, and quality control of cellular metabolism also occurs. These fundamental principles delay the effects of mitochondrial aging.
Nutritional Supplements for Mitochondrial Health
Life demands often exceed what sleep, diet, and exercise can provide. Here are some proactive tips to manage and optimize mitochondria function to bring back that spring in your step!
Optimize your nutrient status to protect mitochondria from free radicals produced during ATP production and mitochondrial biogenesis. Top nutritional support includes:
- PQQ: Promotes mitochondrial biogenesis and protects against oxidative damage.
- PEA Ultra: Protects mitochondrial integrity.
- Glutathione Ultra: Acts as a major antioxidant within mitochondria.
- Pterostilbene: Stimulates mitochondrial biogenesis and has antioxidant properties.
- Astaxanthin: Protects mitochondria from oxidative stress.
- Turmeric Gold: Contains curcumin, which modulates inflammation and oxidative stress in mitochondria.
- Fisetin: Promotes mitochondrial function and longevity.
Support Mitochondrial ATP Energy Production. Use these core nutrients to support mitochondrial ATP mechanisms - electron transport chain, fatty acid oxidation, and Kreb’s cycle.
- Coenzyme Q10: Essential for ATP production in the electron transport chain.
- B Vitamins: Pantethine (B5), niacin (B3), methylcobalamin (B12), folate (B9), thiamin (B1), and riboflavin (B2) work to support Kreb’s cycle energy production and are crucial for ATP production and mitochondria. See Daily Energy Multiple Vitamin and Super Coenzyme B Complex.
- Acetyl-L-Carnitine: Transports fatty acids into mitochondria for energy production.
Additional Tips for Mitochondria Health
- Reduce your toxic load in your personal environment. Remove or reduce exposure to mold toxins from water-damaged materials and buildings, pesticides, herbicides, plastics and plasticizers. Dust regularly to remove these toxins from the environment. Consider an organic wool or natural latex mattress and an air purifier for the bedroom.
- Be mindful about your food portions and quality and allow for time between meals. Avoid grazing, overconsumption, skipping meals, high-calorie nutrient-poor junk foods, extreme restrictive diets, alcohol, and other factors that stress mitochondria. The Five Rules of The Leptin Diet provide a great platform and easy-to-implement dietary lifestyle for metabolism.
- Engage in healthy intellectual and social activities. Learn new skills such as woodworking, gardening, or solving puzzles, and engage in “brain games”. Practice effective stress management techniques.
Whatever your age and activity level, healthy mitochondria are at the core of your inner fountain of youth! Support and protect your mitochondria every day.
