Harnessing the Power of Algae: Energy, Detox, and Sustainable Wellness with Catharine from Energybits - Part 2

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Welcome back to part two of the Synergy podcast with Kathryn from Energy Bits. Again, so excited to have her here. Lean into this information. We have so much to share with you. And today it's all about mitochondrial health.

I know. I'm excited to talk about those little powerhouses that live inside our cells.

So, Kel, why is or why are the mitochondria so important?

I think they're important for multiple reasons. You know, when we're born and we're young and we're growing, we're in that growth phase. We have a lot of mitochondria and they're producing energy and they're helping growth and development happen. As we age about age 30, we start losing mitochondria in number. And we also have a harder time fueling the mitochondria. And the mitochondria are responsible for your energy production. There's an inner layer in the mitochondria and an outer layer. And those layers are important because they prevent toxins from getting into the mitochondria and killing the mitochondria. And they can excrete toxins out of the mitochondria. And the way we feed the mitochondria is extremely important too. And oftentimes we're not thinking about feeding our mitochondria. Right. We think about what do we want to eat, not necessarily what we need to eat.

Without further ado, here is segment two of Energy Bits and the whole exploration of algae in relationship to mitochondrial health.

Let's do the deep dive into the science about the mitochondria. When you're going to find out how spirulina is your superhero, that brings your mitochondria back to life, multiplies them and gets everything back on track. So your brain and your energy improve. So here's your cell and inside the cell is a nucleus. And all these little peanut shaped things are your mitochondria. So again, remember, 2 million of these peanut shaped things inside your each cell in your brain. The next highest is women's eggs. And after that it's your heart, which is about 8,000 per cell. And then muscles and then skin and things are like about a thousands. But anyways, so inside the cell is where your mitochondria. Mitochondria, this is where cellular energy, which is called ATP, is produced, which is good. The downside that most people aren't aware of a byproduct of ATP are free radicals. Now, free radicals are very damaging. And the problem is your mitochondria have their own DNA which are located right inside that mitochondria cell itself, exactly where the free radicals are produced. So your mitochondria DNA are constantly exposed to free radicals, which is what's caus them to be damaged and mutated and dying now. And the only 37 mitochondria DNA, but they control all 20,000, 22,000 of your other DNA and cellular community. They control everything. Think of your mitochondria DNA as air controllers. They're very small and there aren't many of them, but they control everything. So when they die or get damaged, this is when your health, your focus, your energy drops. This is when you start gaining weight, this is when you have bad digestion. So the is to protect those mitochondria which are being constantly bombarded by a rain of free radicals. In case you aren't familiar with what a free radical is, Mother Nature loves balance. So a free radical is a molecule that has an unpaired electron around it. Usually the electrons that are circulating the molecules need to be paired, so they're in twos or fours or six. And if it has an unpaired electron, which is what a free radical is, that molecule will steal an electron from another molecule, causing tissue damage. And now that one's unbalanced, and it will steal an electron from the next one. Sort of like when you're a kid and someone, you're at school and someone stole your, your lunch, and then maybe you stole somebody else's lunch, and then they stole somebody else's lunch. And so overall damage, an antioxidant has extra, extra electrons. It's like having the kid at school with extra lunches to give away to everybody. So antioxidants generally are used to neutralize the free radical so it doesn't steal the electron from somebod else. So but the problem is the mitochondria have a inner membrane that prevent virtually all antioxidants from getting in there. So vitamin C can't get in there, vitamin E, these are your classic antioxidants. The good news is there are three for sure, actually four, but three for sure that can get in there and neutralize those free radicals. One is chlorophyll, the other one is glutathione, and the most important one is called superoxide dismutase. And the good news is algae, particularly spirulina, has the highest concentration of all three of these antioxidants that can get in there to neutralize those free radicals to protect your mitochondria. So most important, I'm Sorry.

Think about your mitochondria, your spirulina, as food for your mitochondria. I've been calling it brain food. I'm going to start calling it mitochondria food, because that's exactly what you're doing, is feeding the mitochondria. And there's a way to measure oxidative stress. In functional medicine, we can actually measure biomarkers that tell us, are you winning the game? Do you have enough antioxidant protection to prevent that mitochondrial damage? And that's really powerful when people are working toward making lifestyle changes and they want a way to objectively measure, like, what's going on. So I mentioned urinary ph is a really inexpensive way to measure that. And then measuring an oxidative stress panel is another way for us to really deep, deep dive in to see, do you have enough of these key antioxidants to protect the oxidative stress that we all endure? You know, life is about oxidative stress. You know, we're going to have it. It's just, how do we control for the damage that can be created with that oxidative stress?

Exactly. Because the ATP, you want adp, because that's cellular energy. The byproduct is the free radicals. It's like you want to eat food, but the byproduct is the leftovers that need to be taken out to the garbage.

Right.

So, you know, you don't want to stop eating because. But so you don't want to stop the ATP. You just want to manage and remove the free radicals. And so your mitochondria are protected. And we're actually doing a clinical trial, small clinical trial, later this year with a company called MI Screen. And they've developed. We met them at the Dave Asprey show. They were right beside us. They have a panel that tests your mitochondria health and the oxidative stress. And so we're going to be giving. We're going to be testing people, giving them the spirulina, and then testing them again a month later. And I know what the results are going to be, so I can hardly wait to get started.

I bet.

So back to the mitochondria. You need antioxidants to reduce and remove those free radicals, but most can't get in there. The most damaging free radical is called superoxide, and it's the free radical that's created in the process of this ATP. So it's only in the mitochondria. Superoxide. And the reason why it's so damaging. It has three unpaired electrons. The good news is there's something called superoxide dismutase. Dismutase. It's reducing the superoxide. And basically what it does is it puts out the fire of the free radicals. Like having a fireman in there taking that, all that, those free radicals and hosing it down. So that's what you want. You want this superoxide dismutase, removing those free radicals. Now, the good news. I have good news. Your body makes this stuff called sod from the moment you're born, through childhood, teenage, early adulthood, until you're about 30. And after 30, it stops producing this superoxide dismutase. And by 40, you have none. And by 50 and 60, your body is not creating any superoxide dismutase. Think of this superoxide dismutase like a big golf umbrella. If you have a big golf umbrella and you're stuck in a rainstorm, you're laughing because you're protected. That's what superoxide dismutase does. It protects your mitochondria from the rain of free radicals that are being naturally released during the production of ATP. So you're protected all childhood, your teens, until you're 20. Then when you start to get to 30, your body is making less of that superoxide dismutase. So that big golf umbrella is now about the size of one of those totes umbrellas, city umbrella.

So how many people have gone through life? You know, before age 30, you could eat anything you wanted to eat. You could get as much sleep or not as much sleep as you wanted to get. You could bounce back, feel great, not understand what your elders were telling you about how their energy was declining. And then after age 30, you notice things change. I know, for me, you know, back before I became educated about nutrition, you know, before age 30, I was drinking a Coke every day. Every afternoon I had a Coke and usually a cookie too, right? And then I hit 30, and I was like, ugh, the weight's starting to come on. And so I started doing, of course, Diet Coke at the time, because I didn't know any better. And finally, you know, understood more about nutrition and made some profound changes. But I'm just saying, it is a profound shift after age 30, and then another profound shift after age 40. Those changes are real. So what you're experiencing in your body is real, right? But there are some things that you can strategically do to help improve function. So even though your body's not producing sod as well as it was when you were younger, you can support SOD production, right? Yeah.

Yes, that's what spirulina does.

Yeah, absolutely.

The sod. And it also encourages your body to make stuff. So. So as you pointed out, you're not imagining these changes. This is just the way it is. And here's why. 30 is the magic number. This is when your hormones for women, well, everybody, especially women, you go into perimenopause and then menopause, you have less melatonin, so you're sleeping less because melatonin helps you sleep. We only lived until 30, until about 150 years ago. Our biology thinks that we're going to die at 30. So everything stops, slows down in terms of the protective nature, whether it's hormones, antioxidants, it's just the way it is. But because of our new lifestyle, we are living to 80, 90, probably in, you know, some of us, 100, probably me, because I eat so much algae. So. But it's, you know, evolutionarily, we will never catch up. So this decrease of this sod is real.

Right?

And if you don't compliment, if you don't start taking spirulina, you can't get sod from food. And yet, here's the thing. There are 25,000 studies, medical studies, that prove SOD reduces inflammation, protects mitochondria, reduces heart disease, reduces Alzheimer's. The science is there, but nobody's realized that you can get this high concentration of superoxide disease from spirulina. Spirulina has the highest concentration, chlorophyll, chlorella has the second. But spirulina is the main one. And this is why it's really mitochondria, food, Right? So when you take. So back to the totes umbrella explanation. So you had that big gulf umbrella called sod all the way up until about your 20s or 30s. Then by 30, it's a totes umbrella. By the time you're 40, it's about the size of a cocktail umbrella. And after 40, zero. So now your mitochondria are being exposed to all this free radical damage. They're dying, they're mutating, the lights are going out, nobody's replacing them, is gone. This is why you have brain fog. This is why you have lack of energy, because nobody has restored your electricity. It's like you didn't pay your bill, your electricity got shut off.

Right?

It's that basic. We need to turn the electricity back on and get your lights back on. And you do it with superoxide dismutase. Because as you get older, it's just the way it is. Your inflammation when you, all the disease, all the inflammation from the lack of mitochondria health and also the toxins are increasing. This is exactly 50 is when all these diseases, these chronic diseases start kicking in. So spirulina, because it has the highest concentration of superoxide disease and because it's a bacteria, which means it gets absorbed so quickly, almost instantly, it, it's the superhero that gets back into your mitochondria, gives it the big gulf umbrella again. And also one of the reasons why your mitochondria get so damaged is because of this flood of free radicals. The spirulina chlorella create virtually zero free radicals through the, in the digestive and the energy process. So a, you have fewer free radicals and the ones that are there are being escorted out or because they're. What the, what the superoxide dismutase does is it turns it into harmless water. Ta da. Maintains the alkalinity, maintains the oxygen levels, maintains the ability of this, of the mitochondria to generate cellular energy. So this is why it's so important, particularly after the age of 30, for you to be taking spirulina every single day. It's effortless because it comes in these little tiny tablets. You can swallow them, you can chew them, you can add them to trail mix, you can add them. The chlorella actually tastes pretty good. Although I will admit most people do smell right.

I haven't tried chewing the spirulina yet.

Yeah, it's really ch. Honestly, it's so chewy. Because of the high protein and all the essential fatty acids, 99% of people swallow them, but they're size of a baby aspirin. Kids love them by the way. These are, there's zero drug interactions. They're safe for every single age. You could give this to newborns. In fact, in Japan, if they can't, if the babies can't digest mother's breast milk, they give them spirulina and water. And this is the only thing that keeps them alive. And I did a deep dive. I'll send you the article. I looked at the amino acid profile of mother's breast milk and found out, wow, that looks really similar to spirulina. It's almost identical to spirulina. So I, I call spirulina mother's breast milk because mother nature's breast milk because it's a gift to us from mother Nature. Spirulina was the first life on earth. Not just the first plant, the first life almost 4 billion years ago. It's all documented in evolutionary science. So I also called Spirulina spiritualina because there's something spiritual about being the first life. And it has all these nutrients, so it's effortless to take. Why wouldn't you take this? Because after the age of 30, you are going to get brain fog. It's just because your mitochondria are being damaged and they're the ones that create the cellular energy. So your brain works, so your heart works, so your lymphatic system works, so your digestion works. And if you don't have enough office workers and you don't have lights for the office workers, nothing gets done. And this is also leads to toxins accumulating in the cells, which leads to disease and leads to acidity. So you can see how it's all work together.

Right, so you mentioned the changes that are happening with lifespan. Right. We are living longer, but oftentimes longer life doesn't equate to longer health span.

Exactly.

Right, exactly. And so if we can close that gap between how long we're living and how long we're healthy and keep that health longer than we have done, we've done a lot for society, we've done a lot for our families. You know, no one wants to be a burden on their family. Right. So I think about as we age, what can we be doing? What are the strategies that we need to have in place to help us age well?

And the other thing is, I've realized, you know, as you get older, you're set in your ways, right. By 30 or 40, you have a lifestyle that you're very comfortable with and change is really hard. So a lot of these diets that are being proposing are out there. Many of them I think are really terrific, but they require a huge amount of change and that's really hard for most people. The reason why I like spirulina, you don't have to. If you don't want to change anything, just add them, just take them. So you will start to feel better. I promise you will start to feel better. And then you may be motivated to make more change. But if nothing else, you know, when you're feeling brain fog and lack of energy, it's like you're in a boat with a lot of holes and your boat is sinking. Spirulina and chlorella will fill those holes. Keep your boat afloat. Now, if you want to upgrade your boat by changing the way you eat and the Other lifestyle issues, that's your choice. But spirulina will keep you afloat. But you have to take it every day. And here's the other cool thing, it has so many nutrients in it, it can replace many of your other supplements. And supplements, by the way, tend to be made in factories with artificial ingredients, which your body isn't even absor. So it's very expensive. And they all. Everybody's countertop is littered with supplements. Multivitamin, CoQ10, biotin, fish oil. You don't need fish oil when you take spirulina. And I remind people, where do you think the fish get the omega 3 from? Because that's what people take fish oil, they get it from, from the algae. So you can eliminate a lot of these nutrients and make and get the nutrients from food. So you'll save money, you'll save time. And when you. We have a 20% discount code for your listeners, but a bag normally is $130. It's $105 with your discount code. And the reason I'm telling you that is because if you took 10 tablets of spirulina every morning, which we generally recommend, that works out to a dollar a day. I'd say your energy, your brain focus, your life is worth a dollar a day. It's very cost effective and efficient. You just throw them back in a second in a swallow. And if you drop a few on the floor, if you have a cat or dog, they will love it because it's great. So it's really powerful, nutrient dense, scientifically proven, and ours is clean and raw.

Catherine, One of the common complaints we get, I mentioned fatigue is kind of top on the list. I would say second to that would be constipation, you know, and I feel like chlorella is such a beautiful adjunct to the diet when it comes to helping the. Helping the gut microbiome repair. And you mentioned that it also helps with peristalsis, which I didn't know until today. I think that's fascinating too. Tell us a little bit more about the gut microbiome and how impactful algae, especially chlorella, is to the gut microbiome.

We have, I think, is it 10 times more or 100 times more bacteria in our gut than we have cells in our body? And so, and they're so important. And this is why some people have really difficult digestive or massive weight gain. They're doing fecal implants to restore and change the bacteria. Because if you have the there's bad bacteria and there's good bacteria. A lot of people have the bad bacteria because they're eating too many processed foods which cause candida. And so the. And I know I've experimented with myself. If I eat dairy, I don't have a bowel movement because what happens is it stimulates this candida overgrowth, which slows down my digestive tract. And it. I just don't have a good elimination. So this bacteria and your gut health is so important. What you put in is critical, but what you get rid of is equally as critical. This is why colon cancer is on the rise, because so many people are constipated when things are. When stuff is sitting, I call it the junk in your trunk sitting in your colon. That's stuff that your body didn't want, it wants to get rid of. Imagine if you didn't take your garbage out.

Take the garbage. Taking the garbage out.

Right, Right. It's stinky, it attracts bacteria. That's what's going on in your colon if you do not have regular bowel movements.

And when it's sitting there, it's recycling.

Yes.

All of those toxins get recycled back into the hepatic system. And so you can feel very unwell when you're constipated. Yes.

It's like, let's say again, you had a dog and the dog got into the garbage and starts dragging all the pieces around back into your living room. It's like, wait a second, stop that. We got rid of that. Well, you thought you got rid of it, but it's still stuck there until you actually eliminate it. By the way, toxins get removed from your body four ways. One is through your breath, one is through sweat, one is through urine, and the fourth is through bowel movements. So I know people are having a difficult. There's a lot of constipation because I just go into a CVS or drugstore and I see entire rows, aisles full of these different supplements, you know, tablets to help with constipation. Chlorella is your answer. Now, you may be taking chlorella because you're constipated, but you're still getting 60% protein, the highest chlorophyll in the world, 40 vitamins and minerals. So you may be taking it for one reason, but it's going to give you so many other benefits. So the reason why it's so helpful is because a, it has the fiber that heals the gut biome. And, and there's something called short chain.

Short chain fatty acids. Yes. I was going to get into that because short chain fatty acids are really what we need to repair the gut lining. And your bacteria in your gut microbiome make the short chain fatty acids. But they have to have the right nutrients and the right fiber to be able to do that. Those short chain fatty acids also help with weight. So a lot of people struggle with extra weight. As she mentioned, the mitochondria energy slows down as we get a little bit older. Sometimes the pounds start packing on. And so that's a really good strategy for decreasing appetite and also decreasing fat accumulation.

Part of also what happens in your colon is you get all these bad bacteria. Well, I want to show you. And chlorella has the highest chlorophyll in the world. Spirulina has the second highest. I want to show you this chart. This shows the chemical composition of chlorophyll. And the chemical compass is your blood. Chlorophyll has magnesium in the middle, your blood has iron. But I just want to show you how similar they are. They're virtually identical. So when you have chlorophyll, high chlorophyll content again, you're getting healthier blood. And your blood feeds everything, your colon, your gut, your brain, your skin. And so when you have a lot of chlorophyll, you're having healthier cellular growth. And chlorophyll, remember I showed you that chart earlier, is a fat based pigment. Yes. So what it does is that you need healthy fats because your cells have a, what's called a lipid membrane. That's a fancy way of saying fat. And so any kind of healthy fats, vitamin A, vitamin D3, omega 3, they heal the cell wall. Well, chlorop, a fat based pigment. So it heals the cell wall everywhere, including in your gut and your colon. So that's another benefit of the chlorella because it has so much of the chlorophyll. By the way, only a portion of the chlorophyll gets digested in your stomach. The rest of it travels through your colon. And so if you do take chlorella daily, and I hope you will, your poop might be a little green. But I tell you, that's a badge of honor. It proves that it's, it's been pulling all the garbage out, neutralizing all the bacteria and getting rid of what I call the junk in your stimulate peristalsis. And the reason why a lot of people eat vegetables is because of the fiber. This replaces the need for fiber. And the trouble is as you get older you have fewer digestive enzymes, so you. Maybe you can't eat fiber because it causes so much gas and distress. You never get the gas and distress from the chlorella. It just. It just is very soothing, very healing. They've used it for IBS and Crohn's disease for decades. And. And it's very, very healing. But for d. So for healing purposes, general healing, 10 tablets of chlorella at night, we, again, we recommend it before bed because that's when your body goes through a detox repair cycle is sufficient if you want a therapeutic dose. If you have. If you're taking cancer treatments and you want to pull out extra radiation, you would need 30 tablets. If you had some alcohol, you would need 30 tablets. So detox purposes, you need 30 tablets of the chlorella. Again, it's the one we call recovery bits. But if for maintenance purposes in general healing and removing constipation, 10 would be sufficient. So 10 spirulina in the morning or afternoon or before a workout, 10 of this chlorella after a workout or before bed would. And it also helps you with digestion. So. And that also helps with your gut health. The other thing I'd like to mention is that you may. Some people may be familiar with lectins and oxalates, which are found in some plan plants, particularly things like spinach or nightshade vegetables. And oxalates are very sharp proteins that can puncture your stomach lining and can lead to autoimmune or gut health issues. And so both algae have virtually no. Well, have no. They have no oxalates or lectins. Oxalates or lectins are made by plants as a way to defend themselves from bugs or predators because they do the same things to the bugs or predators. They make their tummies hurt. Well, algae started in the ocean, so it's never had to defend itself from bugs or predators because it was in the water. It's not a land plant, never has been, never will be. So. So you can take chlorella if you're a carnivore, a paleo person. Lots of people go carnivore because they have had compromised stomach linings. And so you can still get all the nutritional benefits of plants and none of that what's called the anti nutrients because they're not in spirulina or clarity.

So, Kathryn, I have enjoyed having you so much. We could spend the entire day, maybe even a week, going into all of the fabulous things that algae can do for everybody, really. Is there anything else you want to share with our listeners before we end the podcast today?

Yes, and we may have to come back because I didn't even go into the electron transport channel.

I know, right?

So fascinating in a whole nother section because that's how the actual ATP is produced. But what I do want people to know is that algae isn't new, it's just new to you. And think about it, you probably didn't know about chia or matcha or kiwa or collagen powder or bone broth or CBD until somebody here in America explained it to you. Because all these things, chia and bone broth, they've been used for centuries in other countries. So they're not new, they just weren't explained to you properly. And so same with algae. It was the first life on Earth 4 billion years ago. It has been used by the Aztecs, by the Egyptians 2,000 years ago. It's been used daily in Asia for 60 years. It's a multi billion dollar agricultural crop there. It's as big as the beef industry is here. So the reason I want to tell you that is because it's. People think algae, that's pond scummy stuff and it's not. It is the answer to everything. It's endorsed by countries all around the world. We just need to help educate you and make sure you have a clean, safe source. So I'm very proud that 14 years I've learned so much science that I can help you understand what it is. And I provide you through our company a very safe, pure, clean source of spirulina and chlorella. So source so clean that we're the only algae sold by doctors. So please give it a try, give it a even just buy the single pouches. They're $6 on Amazon if you just want to try it out. But the best value are the large bags. They're $130. But we have a discount code Synergy S Y N E R G E E that you can use on our website energybits.come, e n e R G Y B I T S the discount code Synergy works on all products, all the time. We have this really cute canisters. All the brands come in canisters with. They come with a bag and there's a little opening in the canister. You open the bag, put the tablets in the canister and then you just shake them out. So practitioners, if you're listening, this is a great to sample the products for your. For your patients as well. We have two Brands of Spirulina. I found women didn't like the packaging, the blue packaging. And I started the company because of my sister. And so women's health is important. So we. I made a prettier version of Spirulina. Called it Beauty Bits. By the way, spirulina has more collagen in it than collagen powder, so it's really great for your skin and hair. So these two.

So they're exactly the same, they're just different packaging? Yeah, just.

And this is the one I have on my counter. It is what it is. We just, we ladies, we just like things that are pretty. And I want women to be as comfortable pulling this out of their handbag as the guys are pulling this out of the gym bag. So it is what. They're exactly the same, just packaged differently. This is spirulina. This is your mitochondria. Energy focus, Brain health, hunger. Algae Chlorella is your is recovery bits. This is your wellness detox. Gut algae. And then for people that don't want to think about taking them separately again, Spirulina is usually in the morning, chlorella, usually at night. We do have another brand called Vitality Bits, which is a blend of the two algae. So they're. It's a blended algae, so it's not half and half. So. So that your discount code, Synergy works on all of them, but algae is. Is here for us. It was a gift to us from Mother Nature. We grow it so carefully. Algae is not like growing broccoli. It's more like making wine. There's so much of the production process determines the quality and the safety and the purity. And I'm proud of that. We do it in a way that highly efficacy. So whether you're a client or a consumer learning about algae, come into our website, energybits.com we write a full blog. You can learn about a lot of different things there. If you're a practitioner, we'd love to work with you as well, but reach out to us@customercarenergybits.com if you have any questions. But algae has been waiting 4 billion years to be discovered by us here in North America. Why should the Asians be the only ones enjoying enjoying all these great benefits? I want you to enjoy them too.

Thank you so much.

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