What the Heck are Mitochondria?

Hey, everybody, it's Dr. Mark Hyman. Welcome to my weekly house call. Your chance to ask me your questions. Today we're going to talk about mitochondria, which is one of my favorite subjects and something you probably never heard about. There's a great question from rreals on Twitter, which is, I've heard a lot about your mitochondria. What is it and why is it so important? And we're going to talk about that. This is a great question. So what is mitochondria? Well, mitochondria is the source of your energy and is how you make energy from food and oxygen that does every function in your body. There are little factories in our cells that take the food we eat and the oxygen we breathe, and they convert them to energy. And that energy is called adenosine triphosphate, or ATP. And it's used to support every function in the body. It's like our body's gasoline. Now, when the mitochondria are damaged, you suffer from all sorts of symptoms like low energy fatigue, memory loss, pain, rapid aging, and much more. Each cell hold hundreds or even thousands of mitochondria. They're found in greater amounts in really active organs and tissues like the muscles, the heart and the brain. In fact, the heart and the brain are the most. In fact, we have more than 100,000 trillion mitochondria in our bodies, and each one contains 17,000 little assembly lines for making ATP. So it's a massive operation. Mitochondria are the place where our metabolism happens. When you say you have a slow metabolism, that's what it means. Now, when your mitochondria aren't working properly, your metabolism runs less efficiently or can practically just shut down. Problems occur because these powerful energy producers are very sensitive and they're very easily damaged. And when they're damaged, you suffer all sorts of symptoms of low energy that we just talked about. Fatigue, memory loss, pain, rapid aging, and so much more. Fatigue is the most common symptom of poorly functioning mitochondria. And, and it's the reason we tend to poop out as we age. You look at a little kid running around an old person, they're moving at different speeds. It's because of the mitochondria. We add constant insult and injury to our mitochondria, and this causes them to break down and stop producing enough energy. So mitochondria, really important and many things can damage our mitochondria. The main way your mitochondria are damaged is by uncontrolled oxidative stress or rusting. Now, that might sound complicated, but we're really all familiar with what oxidative stress is, even if some of us don't know what the term actually means. See, it's that rust on our cars. It's the brown color that appears on an apple when you cut it and leave it exposed to air. It's the rancid vegetable oil or the nuts in our cupboards. It's even the wrinkles that form on our skin as we age because of sun damage. What most of us don't realize is that our own tissues are rusting, our own fats are going rancid, and our brains are melting as we go about our daily life. Now, what starts this process is some insult. Too many calories. That's why fasting prolongs life. Smoking, a sunburn, exposure to environmental toxins, anti nutrients, all the chemicals in our food, sugar, which is probably the most important mitochondrial toxin we're exposed to. And that tips the balance, starting this chain reaction of cellular and tissue damage that leads us down a long road to weight gain and chronic illness and rapid aging. Okay, so that sounds terrible. How do we care for our mitochondria? First, it's really simple. Eat less or no processed food. Get rid of junk food, no fast food. Cut down or eliminate sugar or refined sugar or starches. Those things are the real drivers of mitochondrial issues. In fact, you should really avoid these things altogether. Except maybe sugar is an occasional treat or as I like to say, a recreational drug. You also have to detoxify your body by getting rid of environmental and even internal toxins. You need to cool off inflammation in your body and balance your hormones. All these things help to actually correct your mitochondrial function. Now, once you've done that, you need to boost your mitochondrial function and provide the mitochondria with the correct environment to thrive. So you want happy, thriving, replicating mitochondria. So the first thing you do is exercise. It's the most powerful mitochondrial booster you can do. Interval training, especially. That's when you go super fast, slow, super fast slow. And that increases the efficiency and the function of your mitochondria. So your metabolism speeds up. And strength training, which increases the amount of muscle and the number of mitochondria in your body, so your metabolism increases. Muscle burns seven times. Many calories as fat, for example. Also, eat real, whole, colorful plant food, because that's where all the protective nutrients are for our mitochondria. That's eight to 12 servings of fresh vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds, beans every single day. These foods are full of antioxidants and phytonutrients and chemicals that protect your mitochondria. Next, take mitochondrial protective and energy boosting nutrients. So it's the right diet, it's the right kind of exercise, and it's also special nutrients that help fuel and speed up and enhance the function of your mitochondria. So it's easier to make energy. That's acetyl L, carnitine, lipoic acid, COQ10N, acetyl, cysteine, NADH, D, ribose, resveratrol, magnesium aspartate. These are all part of the assembly line that helps your mitochondria make energy. Also, you want to increase your intake of omega 3 fats. Why? Because they help build your mitochondrial membranes, which are the things that actually the food has to get into and oxygen has to get into. So taking care of your mitochondria can make you leaner, can make you smarter, and it can help prevent aging and and increase your energy. So these are my steps for taking care of your mitochondria. You can read more about the mitochondria on my blog. And if you like this video, be sure to share it with your friends and family on Facebook and Twitter. Also, tweet me your questions using the hashtag housecallwithdrhyman and maybe next week I'll make a house call to you.