Dr. Greg Eckel breaks down how mitochondria generate cellular energy and why they matter for living longer. Mitochondrial damage comes from oxidative stress, toxins, and heavy metals. He covers interventions like hyperbaric oxygen, intermittent fasting, cold plunges, saunas, and supplements like NAD precursors and resveratrol.
Chapters
Mitochondria are the kidney bean shaped organelles of every cell and they are considered the energy factory. So the main role and function of the mitochondria is energy production. So in the body we call that ATP adenosine triphosphate. ATP is the currency. It's what all of the cells, the mitochondria, all of the cells run on ATP, which is energy. The mitochondria, when you look at it, so think that kidney bean shaped organelle right back to ninth grade science class. But there's a whole electron chain transport in there that is the end product. So you got oxygen, nad other byproducts in and you get ATP out. So the ATP comes out of the mitochondria, they manufacture it. That's why it's considered the energy factory. They also are involved in cell signaling. And that's a whole discussion around the innate intelligence of our bodies, of the body's ability to heal itself in that the mitochondria are really instrumental in signaling the different facets of the system to coordinate itself. The mitochondria are kind of the darlings right now in the longevity movement because of the discovering of the sirtuins, the genetic expression of proteins that rest or regenerate the cells. And the mitochondria in particular get damaged with free radicals. I live in Portland, Oregon for a port of time and it was the May day protest where you know, you had the youth on May Day out there throwing bricks through windows. Well that is, those are free radicals and that's what happens in our cells. And what happens, the free radicals then damage the mitochondria so then they're not able to produce the energy then. So you get a lot of fatigue, you get a lot of dysfunction. But also in an aging fashion. This is that wear and tear cause component around, around aging in that you're wearing out your pieces and parts at a, at a rapid rate. This is where by, you know, just as an aside, why smoking is one of the worst things anyone can do for their health is that that smoke comes in, it's hot and it's toxic and it kills the, it kills our cells. But in particular it's introducing free radicals that then damages the mitochondria which then leads to a deficit of energy, which system can't catch up. And then you get into pathology and then aging and death. The great thing about the whole mitochondria and the energy economy is that we can put in input into the system. One, you know, remove the obstacles to cure is let's get the free radical or those oxidative species out of the body. We can do that with. There's a great technology called EBOO E B O O. Extra Blood Ozonation and oxygenation Therapeutics is a great way to flood the pipes with oxygen and that will clear these reactive oxidative species, ROS or free radicals, however you like to call them. But that will clear them out. Hyperbaric oxygen will also do very similar things for the body. You know, diet and nutrition is very important here too. Because if we don't have the substrates for our body to heal, even if you're taking all of the latest greatest things, your body just doesn't have the resources or the general lumber to create new. So in particular we're looking at proteins. Proteins break down into amino acids. Amino acids are what our DNA every cell creates. That's the blueprint and map for every cell of our body. So if you don't have essential amino acids in your diet, they're called essential because essentially you can't make them in your body, you can only get them from your diet. So if there's a lack or a need there, you don't have the building blocks to heal. You know. Some great ways to influence mitochondrial health and the energy economy of the body is through intermittent fasting or caloric. Restrict caloric restriction, one of the longest studied aspects of longevity. 1935 Some of the original research was done on caloric restriction, intermittent fasting, same thing but much shorter period of time. So intermittent fasting, also known as time restricted eating where you're only eating in a certain area of time. You know, our modern day conveniences have actually led to a increase of a lot of chronic illnesses because we never give the digestive tract break to turn on autophagy which is clearing out old debris or senescent cells which we're going to talk about in a little bit. But here intermittent fasting, time restricted eating, great cold plunges is another technique that I recommend my patients to do with that component of going into a deep freeze for a short period of time shocks the system and is a reset component. It's anti inflammatory, really stimulates the mitochondria to produce more energy. Another great technique on feeding your mitochondria is ketogenic diet or keto adaptation. Glucose is what we typically run the energy economy on for all of our cells. But ketones is the favored substrate for the brain but also for the body. So I really do coach folks and encourage this keto adaptability. Moving from ketones to to glucose, back to ketones. Well, how do you get into ketosis, which is a caloric restriction component? So we talked about caloric restriction as one of the most studied components of longevity. Well, here the ketogenic diet can also aid your mitochondria in producing more energy for the long term. We also have saunas and saunas are interesting, right? We talked about the cold plunge and what cold does for the body. And in particular, the saunas really stimulate what is called heat shock proteins. And this is all about clearing out cellular debris to make the mitochondria more efficient at what they do, which is producing energy. Resveratrol is one of the largest studied nutrients for mitochondrial health. And then one little fun fact. Creatine is one of those substances that can really feed the mitochondria. And people don't really talk about it because it's more in the muscle building category, but it really is a great food for the mitochondria. Some other great therapeutics for mitochondria health. We've got, of course, the darling nad. We have apigenin as well. We've got berberine as one of my favorites for mitochondrial health. These are all substrates that come in and can feed the mitochondria, make them more efficient at producing more energy for our bodies. There are many routes to increase NAD in the body. One of the best routes is exercise and actually weightlifting. Now we all are looking for a supplementation as well because NAD decreases with age. By our 50s, we have 50% less NAD, which this is a big component for the mitochondria to create energy for our body. There are a couple players here. There's niacinamide, there's nicotinic riboside nr, and then there's nmn, which is the preferred supplementation that I've seen. It's got the best research that to support raising NAD levels in the body. So while we can talk about lifestyle and supplementation things, the first tenet is to remove obstacles to cure, and that is levels of toxicity. What are the things that get in the way of the mitochondria actually creating energy in the body? Well, heavy metals, pesticides, oxygen deprivation, not getting enough oxygen into your system. These are big players as far as mitochondrial toxins that make them less efficient and actually damage them from doing their job. In particular with heavy metals, there's a couple different routes that we go about that. I know there's a lot on the interwebs around chelation therapy. I will tell you it's a very safe and effective therapeutic. I've been using that 22 years in the clinic. We use an oral supplementation, which is the slow boat. Or we do an IV chelation therapy, which I call the fast boat, which will really clear the cellular debris, take the metals out of the body and really help a person get back to wholeness. Why is this important in longevity when we're talking about the gut brain axis and the vagus nerve and parasympathetic activity? Without our brains, nothing else is happening, right? That balance comes together at the hypothalamus, which I call the switchboard operator. So that's really the connection here in a longevity play.
