Garth Nicolson explains how oxidative damage to mitochondrial membranes causes energy loss in chronic illness and aging. Damaged lipids make the inner membrane leaky, disrupting the cell's ability to produce energy. Providing undamaged lipids can restore membrane function and reduce fatigue.
During chronic illnesses, we know that mitochondrial function goes down. And we were very interested in how to restore mitochondrial function. And the role that the actual membrane and the membrane lipids play in this whole process turned out to be incredibly interesting. And the upshot of it all was that we were able to replace the damaged lipids and membranes. And I should say that lipids get damaged, like other structures of our cells, the proteins in the DNA, by excess oxidative events, oxidative stress, as we generally call it, which is really the production of excess oxidative molecules that tend to damage molecules in our cells. And lipids turn out to be very sensitive to this whole process. And it turns out the inner mitochondrial membrane, which is the functional part of the membrane in terms of energy production, is exquisitely sensitive to these oxidative events that occur inside cells. And when the lipids get damaged, the inner mitochondrial membrane becomes leaky. And because it becomes leaky, the potential across the membrane can't be maintained. And this is absolutely integral to the production of energy, that membrane dynamic. And also across the membrane, the chemical potential across the membrane must be maintained for energy production. And it turns out when the lipids are damaged, this can't be maintained, and energy production goes down. So we tried to think about how to fix this when it occurs, and it occurs naturally during aging, for example, occurs during all types of disease processes, infection, chronic illnesses, cancer, all kinds of different situations cause destruction of the inner mitochondrial membrane lipids. And it turns out we have a natural process for repairing lipids in our cells anyway. And by making use of that natural process and providing undamaged lipids for this natural process, we're able to actually see the complete circumvention of destruction of energy production inside the cells. All of a sudden, the reemergence of mitochondria that, with their repaired membranes, are capable now of producing the energy at the levels that they normally should. And, and we see this on an organismic level or holistic level as the resurgence of energy and vitality and the reduction of fatigue.
