Cycle of Illness: Mitochondria

What is Mitochondria:

As you’ve seen in the previous videos, we’ve talked about mitochondria multiple times. So today we’re going to take a closer look into the mighty mitochondria, what they do, what affects them, and how to heal them.

They are absolutely crucial to your overall health, and without them, you’d be no bigger than bacteria!

They were originally discovered in 1963 – by accident! Since then scientist have found that they are in every single cell of your body -that’s 37.2 trillion to be exact – and each cell can have more than one mitochondria!? The only exception to this rule is with the red blood cells, as these do not contain mitochondria.

Could you imagine if you got a blood transfusion if red blood cells had mitochondria? The problems it would cause? You’d be getting some strangers DNA! THAT would NOT go well!

It takes a lot of different cellular processes to keep us alive and well, and the mitochondria are at the core of it ALL! Deservedly so, they have also generated a significant amount of attention from scientists and physicians in the most recent decade for its role in numerous life processes.

The mitochondrion is most famously known for its role in generating energy for cells and for the body - and they are commonly referred to as the powerhouse of the cell because they’re like a battery for your cells.

But this is not like some common single celled ordinary household battery. Oh no! Not mitochondria, they’re high class batteries like a TESLA batteries you’d find in an electric car!

So what does that mean? One mitochondria (just like Tesla car batteries) is like a bunch of teeny tiny little batteries (or units) racked and stacked to generate bioelectric energy like an array. This helps to manage energy safely and provide access to high currant – aka speed for the car, or energy for your body.

So if one teeny tiny unit in the TESLA battery gets damaged, or a section in the mitochondria gets damaged – they will still be able to generate energy without the entire cell (or battery) failing. It’s like a redundant fail safe your body has provided to protect you, ensuring energy, health, and longevity of your mitochondria. Each mitochondria has approx. 1.4 volts of energy, multiply that by the sheer number of cells and amount of mitochondria in each cells – and that’s a giant amount of energy! And all of that energy goes into keeping you alive and well.

Pretty cool right?

But in order to make that energy, the mitochondria it has to perform a process called cellular respiration. This process is like digestive system for the cells. It’s designed to break down carbohydrates and fatty acids (sugars, fats, and proteins) that we eat, and turn it into chemical energy, called ATP. It produces 90% of the chemical energy the cells need to live. It goes through this fancy complicated process using glycolysis which goes to the Krebs cycle, and then Electron Transport Chain in order to do it – which also, technically, all happens simultaneously.

But to break down all the science-y goblity guk and sum it up in an easy to understand way…

When you eat food, your gut digests it, turning it into vitamins and nutrients for the body so you have more energy.

The mitochondria does the exact same thing, but it takes “IN” that nutrition you ate (that nutrition your gut absorbed) and breaks down those nutrients from fat and carbs inside the cell. Then it turns THAT into the energy (ATP) you feel and get every day.

So, you can see, without the mitochondria breaking down your nutrition and converting it, it wouldn’t matter how much you ate; you’d still have no energy and be exhausted.

So if there isn’t any energy (like nutrition to feed it) or it starts taking on damage from poor nutrition, serious illness like a virus or infection, lack of exercise, too much stress, lack of oxygen -like during heart attack or stroke; the cells CANNOT

live.

If you cut off the oxygen it causes cell damaged to mitochondria, if you rapidly restore oxygen it can get overwhelmed and produce a heavy dose of “free radicals”.

You can start to see just how much important mitochondria is to your health.

The mitochondria DNA consists of:

- 37 genes

- 13 proteins that make up the mitochondrial respiratory chain so it can convert nutrients to energy

- 22 Mt-RNAs (tRNAs),

mt-tRNAs contain post-transcriptional modifications introduced by nuclear-encoded tRNA-modifying enzymes. They are required for deciphering genetic code accurately, as well as stabilizing tRNA.

- 2 mt-rRNAs (rRNAs) found on mitochondrial DNA.

Ribosomal ribonucleic acid is a type of non-coding RNA which is the primary component of ribosomes, essential to all cells. rRNA is a ribozyme which carries out protein synthesis in ribosomes

- There is also a small stretch of DNA that doesn’t code for any protein. This is involved in regulation of mtDNA replication and contains the start site for replication and for transcription. (copying itself)

Mitochondria can ONLY be inherited by your maternal side; they are passed through the egg. No paternal mitochondria survive the fertilization process. So if your paternal side has any mitochondrial issues, they won’t be passed down from the father.

(Note: nuclear dna is the dna in your cells, not mitochondria, and is passed down from all ancestors. This is the DNA you always hear about – the double strand helix, versus the round disk shape for mitochondria.)

A single mitochondrion only uses 3% of its genetic makeup to produce energy for the cell. As you can see by its genetic makeup in the picture above, there’s a whole lot more to it, so you can imagine it has far more roles than just cellular respiration and making energy.

They are also responsible for:

Cellular Respiration

Cellular Energy (powerhouse)

Calcium Homeostasis

Promote cell growth and multiplication

Responsible for Cell Death (apoptosis)

Heat Production

Support Cell Metabolism (why metabolism gets slower as we age)

Regulates Major Metabolic functions of the body

Synthesize Bio-molecules

Regulate Innate Immunity (mast cells)

Stem Cell Regulation

DNA Maintenance

Stress Response

Other roles of Mitochondria:

REDOX homeostasis

Reactive Oxygen species (ROS)

Metabolic flexibility

Inter-Cellular communication

Autophagy (bodies way of cleaning out damaged cells “self-eating”)

Mitophagy (degradation of mitochondria by autophagy – often occurs to defective mitochondria following damage or stress)

Biogenesis of Heme

Iron-Sulphur protein assembly and biogenesis

Lipid metabolism

Carb metabolism

Amino Acid metabolism

If the Mitochondria gets Damaged:

Generate Oxidative Free Radicals

Signals innate immune system = Inflammation

The mitochondria have a host of responsibilities and jobs in order to keep you healthy. Interruption or corruption of the processes can cause systemic affects that include immune function, cell development and growth, amongst others. So its easy to see when mitochondria gets damaged or goes wrong, it opens the door to illness, worsening symptoms, and serious disease.

What Affects Mitochondria

In recent times we’ve seen a rapid increase in reported toxic effects of drugs, pollutants, chemical and non-chemical stressors (emotions-but remember those mirror neurons as well), on mitochondria.

There has been a steep rise in the occurrence of chronic illness in the population; and receiving a definitive diagnosis is getting harder and harder because it mimics so many other illnesses. Because it can mimic so many other diseases, often patients are treated with courses of drugs. However, more drugs isn’t exactly the answer to the problem, and it can actually cause further problems and health concerns.

Here is a list of drugs that can also affect mitochondria.

(note: with medical, research and pharmaceutical advancements this list is ever changing)

When mitochondria and/or mitochondrial DNA become damaged and it can no longer repair itself, it will implement either apoptosis, which is cell death or it could wind up continuing to divide.

50-60% Mitochondrial damage:

You’re going to feel stiffer, feel those old injuries more, and have increased sensitivities

** It’s important to understand that those with food allergies and intolerances address mitochondria as well. It’s not just about addressing our guts and microbiome (although both are extremely critical in improving your overall health.). This is why those who switch to a healthy organic diet filled with lots of fruits and vegetables, drink smoothies and/or juice can reduce their sensitivities and feel a whole lot better. They’re feeding their mitochondria which supports the respiratory cycle that gives you energy. (we’ll get more into the nutrients etc shortly)

60-90% Mitochondrial Damage:

This is where you’re going to start have muscle issues and neurodegeneration

Inherited mtDNA mutations are functionally recessive until you reach a certain level or threshold of damage.

There are different stages of Mitochondrial Damage:

Its something we all face all the time. When we get sick with something like the flu (for example), we basically just rest. Fighting the flu virus is the ONLY thing the body has to do because we are resting and not using up any additional ‘resources’ in order for the body to fight the virus. Once the flu is gone, you’re up and about and back to normal. So in stage 1, there was nothing else to do but eliminate the threat, and all that was needed was rest.

Stage 2: is a little different…The cells were not designed to handle continuous stressors/toxins etc. When that happens, the body starts prioritizing. Think of it as a self-preservation measure. We all do it naturally to protect ourselves from certain stressors or dangers; our bodies naturally do the exact same thing.

For example: Ever gotten heart burn and/or stress so bad that your body shut itself down because it ‘thought’ it was having a heart attack? The body prioritized itself and sent itself into ‘preservation mode’ so it can prioritize and address the problem one thing at a time. Our bodies have this amazing capacity to heal itself.

However, when the body starts to prioritize because of constant bombardments of chemicals, toxins, sensitivities, virus, etc… it starts making metabolic changes. When it starts making these changes, and as stated earlier, it mimics MANY diagnosis’. Some of the metabolic changes are:

Mast cell issues
Further Methylation issues (B12/folate/SAM)
Histamine Intolerance
Pyrroles (kryptopyrroluria) (stress disorder, mood changer)
Adrenal issues (High cortisol)
Dysbiosis (microbial imbalance)
Gout (uric acid imbalance)

This particular stage is where we find ourselves feeling all the symptoms but can not get a clear diagnosis and we do not fit into the definition of a particular disorder. That’s when most of us are addressing the symptoms but haven’t found the root cause of the disorder.

Often times we requiring medications (like mast cell stabilizers, pain relief, anxiety meds, sleeping meds, etc). What is needed is to support methylation, balance mood, stress, support and heal mitochondria, reduce inflammation, loose weight, and balance body acidity levels back to alkaline in order to support restoring our bodies back to homeostasis (proper balance in the body)

Stage 3: This is when the mitochondria start becoming pretty damaged due to prolonged and chronic stress to the body. The nutritional resources become depleted because they lost their ability to adapt.

This where you usually notice you’ve made improvements and gotten most of your quality of life back but then something happens and it seems to worsen the overall symptoms. I call it the plateau effect.

The easiest way to tell if you’re in stage 3:

For example, after you healed whatever threat your body had to deal with (say like the flu or a particularly rough allergy season), and you healed after the threat was eliminated, but it bumped you up another level in progression of your chronic illness - ie another permanent-like symptom.

Another example of stage 3 is when you’ve done very little (like only took a shower and that was it) but your body acts like it ran a marathon and you’re down for days; but you heal and recover and soon you’re taking showers again without a problem as long as you've addressed your toxin load.

This happens when you’ve addressed every single item in the cycle of illness. This means you’re eating a diet with 9 cups of fruits and vegetables a day, exercising. – even if its just walking, Tai Chi / Qi Gong, meditating ,you’ve eliminated your stress (as much as possible and made peace with it); and you’ve become ‘stuck’ and cannot reverse the symptoms after you’ve addressed all the toxins and detoxed.

Of course, this also depends on genetics, age (children most susceptible), genotype (prolonged exposure that damaged DNA), and the number/severity/and type of toxins you’ve been exposed too.

This is where you may notice you made all this progress… then were exposed to a certain toxin and it took you right back down and you seem stuck, and cannot get back to where you were before the exposure/illness/toxin/ or stressor.

Prime example, the shower scenario we mentioned earlier. Where you take a shower and your body acts like it is running a marathon while you’re trying to take your shower. And even if you’re eating right, trying to get back to exercising regularly; you’re body continues to act like its running a marathon. Now we’re not talking about just trying for a week or two, you’ve been at it religiously for a few months and have made very little to NO improvement.

At this stage you’re noticing significant muscle and neurodegeneration.

There is “some” testing available to determine the cell damage stage you’re in, but not for mitochondria. As of yet, they are still cost prohibitive and not reliable. It may have to be determined using cell damage tests and functional methods.

If you are in any of these stages, ESPECIALLY IN STAGE 4, and you’re thinking of using MORE drugs to treat it – you may want to skip them and try a natural approach first, as adding more drugs to the system can further complicate things (especially if you have MTHFR or other methylation impairments).

We NEED to restore our bodies to their ‘natural healthy balance’ (or homeostasis) and start taking taking care of our mitochondria and overall health because everything is so tightly tied together. So lets look at the steps we need to take in order to heal, restore and grow new mitochondria.

Reduce the Toxins and DETOX!

First and foremost, it’s about reducing sources that are threats or stresses to our body. Until we eliminate or reduce them, our bodies CANNOT restore itself back to homeostasis. If we don’t detox and eliminate the sources, we will accrue additional damage to the mitochondria.

For some reason when comes to treatments options, this step is the most overlooked option and yet one of the most important ones to take.

This is going to require a lot of will power and determination to accomplish, but once you do, it can make a pretty significant difference in how you feel; especially if it’s caught early.

Its important to find out what is stressing (chemicals, products, foods etc) the body and what treatment protocols will also prevent further stress. Try to go as natural as possible, as this is the best option. The reason for this is because many medications are scientifically proven to damage mitochondria.

It’s not possible to avoid ALL toxins, but you need to detox in order to keep or improve your health. Do your best to stay away from the things you CAN control that you know will affect you.

Don’t get discouraged if you’re having difficulty doing this. This can be a tricky step, but you’ll learn which ones are triggering you via trial and error. You’re doctor can also help you with this after some blood panels identifying your toxicities.

You also don’t want to over-look emotional toxins. Emotional stressors can be just as damaging and may need detoxing/or healing This has to deal with your stress, traumas, mindfulness, and being very careful what you watch, read, and think about.

The mirror neurons are directly tied into your nervous system, and they can’t tell the difference between what you’re reading/ watching or thinking, and causing your body to react as if its really happening to you in real time. And as we have already learned, stress indirectly causes quite a lot of damage to the body.

This step is very important because it helps grow new mitochondria. It also burns off that toxic white adipose tissue (this is that harmful belly fat) that’s causing more inflammation in your body as well as damage, and has very little mitochondria or health benefits. Exercise will help you lose excess weight and metabolize the white adipose tissue into healthy brown adipose tissue that is filled with mitochondria.

Because muscle is one of the main tissues of the body that requires a lot of mitochondria, due to its energy requirements; you’ll also want to build muscle to increase your mitochondria. There’s some confusion as to whether or not you want to build lean or bulky muscles, however IMO, I’d stick with lean muscle as that requires less “force” to build them. Using too much force and that can further damage and disrupt the aerobic processes within the mitochondria. (there’s aerobic, anaerobic processes that can get goofed up if you work out too hard that can cause further issues – this can even happen in healthy people, so its best if you don’t overdo it.)

This step requires what I call “The Goldilocks Effect” because it’s a fine line you have to walk and it can be difficult to figure out where that line is. Not to mention it can change from day to day. You don’t want to stress the body more and cause more damage, but at the same time exercise helps you to grow new mitochondria that will help you to heal, and it also helps your body to detox faster.

Start with something simple, like just walking, yoga (which also helps mindfulness, and building muscle), Tai Chi, or Qi Gong – or even just stretching exercises if you’re bed or chair bound. Start slowly and work your way up. Every little bit helps!!

If you’re body gets inundated with toxins again due to things like surgery, virus, or infection, etc. you will need to let your body prioritize and handle the stresses first – especially if you’re in the later stages of mitochondrial damage. So, Rest!

You’ve heard me say, elimination doesn’t heal – only nutrition does. As we learned earlier, the mitochondria need that nutrition, to digest it, and spit it out as ATP – or energy for your body. Without that energy it becomes a stress on the body, It can carry on with nutritional deficiency for a little while, but it will eventually start to cause issues in the body and damage to mitochondria.

Let’s take a look at the Standard American Diet.

What you see here is a typical western diet. This is their weekly grocery shopping to feed the family.

In this picture, I see predominantly boxed, bottled, canned, or fast food with very little, to no fresh fruits and vegetables for daily consumption. You’re body NEEDS those fruits and vegetables

In order to keep you healthy. The standard American diet is high in inflammation (which damages cells) and is nutritionally deficient. We are the most fed, and undernourished nation.

It’s not the greatest picture, but you can see here just how undernourished we are. We don’t even meet the minimum daily requirements in order to keep us healthy. 80% of American's are omega 3 deficient, iodine is approx 75% deficiency, and its crucial for helping remove toxins and it lowers prostrate and breast cancer. As well as necessary for the kidney and liver to clean out the toxins in your blood as well. Its essential for detoxification. As you can see, we have some heavy deficiencies in our diet.

These processed foods, as shown above, will NOT help you to heal your mitochondria and only further contribute to your demise

So what can you do??

We need 9 cups of healthy fruits and vegetables per day - and that is very easy to achieve, especially if you’re making smoothies or juicing.

Daily Requirement for Healing and taking care of Mitochondria:

Leafy Greens (3 Cups), Romaine, loose leaf lettuce, red loose leaf lettuce, spinach, arugula, kale etc

Sulfur Vegetables: (3 cups)

- Cabbage Family: broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, kohlrabi, collards, rutabaga, turnips, Kale

(most nutrition vegetable ever!)

- Other Sulfur vegetables: Onion, shallots, leaks, garlic, mushrooms, asparagus

Fresh Grass-fed Meat

Fresh Grass-fed Organ Meat

Your mitochondria is completely dependent on the nutrients you take in, so if you’re not getting proper nutrition, it’s a matter of ‘WHEN’, not ‘IF’, that it will start to be significantly affected. You cannot live without your mitochondria so it’s important that you take good care of them.

The GOOD news is that you can heal mitochondria. Now, some of this is going to depend on your genetics, age, how long you were exposed to the toxins/stressors- and what that toxin/stressor was; along with your nutritional deficiencies.

However, determination and will power -a LOT of need determination & willpower (not going to lie)- you can make considerable progress and live a MUCH better, happier, healthier, and more fulfilled life.

Now I know not everyone can tolerate all these items, so get what you can, and choose what works for you. The following is to teach you what is needed to optimize performance, but I understand everyone has different tolerances.

Because everyone is different and unique, I put together some other methods of trying to heal mitochondria that are a little less known and not considered by main stream medicine.

There is evidence that cold therapy improves mitochondrial health through a process known as ‘mitochondrial biogenesis’ – ie, producing more of them. It also has many more benefits as well when it comes to helping with your health.

Red Light Therapy or FIR is designed to enhance cellular function. It can help reduce inflammation, improve blood flow, and enhance the performance of energy-making mitochondria in the cell. Red light therapy can increase the number of mitochondria, and also boost their function in the cell.

These CAN get quite expensive, so an alternative is to look at local chiropractor or natural health office, or you can call around to local tanning salons to see if they have one available.

PEMF produces and brings a healthy energy charge into the interior of the cell behind the cell membrane that raises cellular energy so the cell can heal itself faster. It can charge the interior parts of the cell including the nucleus and the mitochondria. These are pricey as well, but, they work. The reason I know this is because Nasa uses them!!

In the Early space program, our astronauts and Russian cosmonauts were getting really sick during their stay in outer space.

Nasa started studying why this was happening and it took them several years to figure it out. They concluded that while the men were in space (at that time it was only men) they were suffering because the lack of being in earths magnetic field was draining their energy (their mito batteries) and making them sick. Remember, without mitochondria or them functioning properly, you can’t live.

Since the discovery, countries with the space program have equipped the shuttles, space capsules, and their space suits with Pulsating Magnetic Field Generators to simulate Earths magnetic field. Since they have done this our astronauts no longer have the issues of lack of energy or getting sick while in space.

(now there’s a few things we still have to figure to ensure the health of our astronauts, but this was a big one.) So if its good enough for Nasa, you KNOW it works.

So if you’re facing the same types of problems you may want to consider using a PEMF device since studies have shown that PEMF therapy promotes and maintains general cellular health and function.

This is usually the easiest option, as it doesn't require any expensive equipment and it can really work wonders. It does however, require discipline and will power ( A LOT, not going to lie. I say this as I've surpassed the 7 days - make sure you have doctors permission when embarking on this.)

When the body is fasting or doing a 7 day water fast, malfunctioning and damaged mitochondria get taken out with the trash. This is highly important because it allows the mitochondria to clean out the waste and damaged debris in the mitochondria. During the water fast, your body doesn’t just take out the trash from the mitochondria, it starts taking it ALL out -Like a spring cleaning! This includes toxins, damaged cells, mutating cells, kills harmful bacteria in body and gut, cleans out the microbiome and helps you reset it, and dare I say, even cancer cells. You're starving out anything harmful in the body and flushing out everything. And doing so has so many health benefits.

IN CONCLUSION:

You’re mitochondria are essential for life and the health of you and your body. Exposing your body to environmental stressors like allergens (that ones you can control), contaminated food, water, air, mycotoxins, toxic beauty products, smoking, drinking etc… and depriving your body of essential nutrients, (that you couldn’t possibly get enough of if you’re eating the standard American diet and skipping fresh fruits and vegetables), are lifestyle risk factors (those habits we were talking about) that you can easily fix.

These items will cause damage to mitochondria, which will in turn significantly raise your risk of illness, serious disease and even cancer. If not treated, it can create a vicious cycle and your health will continue to decline.

Its as simple as starting to eat more fruits and vegetables. Serve vegetables with your meal, drink 1 or 2 smoothies a day. You want to aim for a total of 9 cups per day, which is extremely easy to accomplish, especially if you’re drinking smoothies. Substitute breakfast and lunch with smoothies, or a smoothie and salad. Make sure they’re organic, fresh, and come from a grocery store, farmers market, co-op, or a whole foods type market. STAY AWAY from big box store produce!! It’s not worth your health.

Yes organic food is more expensive. But ask yourself this, spend the money to buy healthy organic produce, or pay for it later in expensive medical bills and declined health.

Don’t ask yourself why organic food is so expensive, ask yourself why the other foods are so CHEAP!! The more you improve you mitochondria, the more you improve your food triggers and other health issues.

Promote a healthier, more vibrant tomorrow by taking the necessary steps to reduce mitochondrial damage today!

Love and Light,

Happy Healing

References:

https://www.mymetabolicmeals.com/mitochondria-health/

https://rarediseases.org/rare-diseases/primary-mitochondrial-myopathies/

https://www.jbc.org/content/early/2020/02/27/jbc.RA119.012419

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Biology/mitochondria.html

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24495877/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17112576/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11004456/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4684129/