The Energy Within: Mitochondria, Brain Fog & the Secret to Aging with Vitality

Welcome back, Synergy listeners. We are so excited for today's conversation because it's one you have been asking for. If you've been with us for a little while, you already know today's guest. Her last episode quickly became one of our most listened to, and for good reason. She's a gift for taking complex science and making it simple, practical, and actionable. We are thrilled to welcome back Katherine Arnston, founder and CEO of Energybits. Katherine's journey began with helping her sister through a breast cancer diagnosis, which led her to discover one of the most nutrient-dense and overlooked foods on the planet, algae. Since then, she has been on a mission to help people understand the powerful impact on health at a cellular level that algae has. And today, we're going to go deeper. This isn't just about superfoods. It's about your mitochondria, the energy centers of your cells that influence Everything from how you feel to how you age. If you've been dealing with fatigue, brain fog, or just not feeling like yourself, this episode is going to connect some important dots for you. Let's dive in. Grab a cup of coffee, grab a glass of tea and a utensil. You are going to want to take notes. Catherine is on fire. She is going to inspire you today.

Catherine, thank you so much for being here. We are very excited to have you back. And today, the first time we had you here, we talked a lot about energy bits and recovery bits and all the research and all of the strategy behind production and getting it into the consumer. And today, we wanted to dig a little bit deeper because our consumers, our listeners, are really asking a lot of really good questions about mitochondria. You know, a lot of them are coming into us and they've got brain fog, they've got fatigue, they're not sleeping well at night. They maybe have a family member with cognitive changes, maybe their parents or their aunts and uncles, and they're concerned about their cognitive health. So we wanted to dig in today with you and talk really about the mitochondria.

That is my sweet spot. That's, I love talking about the mitochondria and I, and it's such a complicated thing. Um, which is why when we were just talking, I wrote, just finished writing my book called Love Your Health to Bits with Algae, which will come out in January 2027. But, um, there's a whole chapter devoted to mitochondria and a whole chapter devoted something to something called the electron transport chain, which is what inside the mitochondria, which is where the actual energy is created. And when these things start to fail, they manifest as brain fog and weight gain and fatigue and indigestion and constipation. And so those are all symptoms. But the deeper problem, the root cause, 99% of the time is mitochondrial damage. And so we can Dig right in there. And, and, uh, and, and I, and I, before we even go there, I want to tell your community that in, uh, 4 weeks I turn the ripe old age of 70. That's 7-0. So I am no spring chicken, uh, and I have been taking spirulina and chlorella algae every single day since I started the company 17 years ago. And I drink, I have handfuls of them every day. And I have taken no medications. I take no other supplements. I sleep I sleep well, poop well. I walk 2 miles every day with a weighted vest. I do yoga, high intensity. I run a multimillion-dollar company. I just wrote a book, 400-page book. I just got my PhD 2 years ago at the age of 68. So I want people to know that aging is natural, declining is not. And when you understand the recipe, like I'm not much of a cook. I have 2 sisters, they're killers in the kitchen. They don't even need a recipe. They just throw stuff together and bingo.

Me too.

Me, I'm not a cook, so I need a recipe, and I need to know all the different things that go in my recipe. And when I follow the instructions and have all my ingredients, I do pretty well. Your health is the same. As long as you know what the ingredients are, you are better prepared to have a healthy outcome. And so, and it comes down to 2 basic things, 'cause there's so much complexity out there. Simplicity is sort of a lost art, right? So, the 2 basic things are nutrition in, toxins out. That's it. That's the whole story. Nothing more complicated than that.

That's your secret to getting to 70 and having all of the energy that you have. I'm just curious, how did mitochondria become something that you became passionate about? Like, where did that come from?

Well, when I have an MBA, I'm Canadian. I was working with international business, nothing to do with nutrition. And then 7, 18 years ago, my younger sister developed breast cancer, and she's fine now, she completely healed. But her oncologist told her to change her diet to an alkaline diet before she started chemo. She didn't tell her what an alkaline diet was or why it was good for her. So my sister, baby sister, called me and it's like, well, I don't know, I'm doing international business, what do I know about nutrition? But I'm a good researcher and I love my sister, so I found out what an alkaline diet was by going on the internet. Turned out to be a plant-based diet. She did change her diet, she did go through chemo. I started reading about plant-based nutrition, saw how powerful it was. I also learned that there's a German scientist who won Nobel Prize in the '30s by the name of Otto Warburg who found out that cancer or any chronic disease cannot exist in cells if they're slightly alkaline. So then I started digging more into the alkalinity story and ended up giving up my corporate career, went back to school, studied nutrition, and I discovered this thing called PubMed, which is where millions of scientific papers are. So I'm just a naturally curious person. And as I just kept learning about metabolic health and cellular health, this mitochondria stuff kept showing up. And I, and I knew nothing about science. I had studied business, and I actually had a 10-year career in interior design, nothing to do with science. But I'm very curious, and I'm very passionate, and I like to make a difference in the world. And so I basically taught myself metabolic health Cellular health, mitochondrial health. And then like 2 years later, I got my PhD in natural health just so people would feel confident in my knowledge. And so I would feel confident in my knowledge because it was kind of weird. I thought, I've taught myself stuff that PhDs, double, triple PhDs are getting, and, and how is it that I'm connecting the dots in a way that they haven't? But it's because I am someone who has to know how stuff works.

Yeah.

I have to know. And I will keep digging and digging. And you know what Einstein said? Brilliance or intelligence or great masters aren't people who are smarter than anyone else. They're people that will stay with a problem longer than anybody else. And that's me. I was determined to figure out what is going on in the mitochondria and why does algae seem to be An answer to so much of these problems. And like, 'cause everybody knows, and we'll talk about some of these antioxidants that are important for the, for the, for the mitochondria, but nobody seems to know they're found in the highest concentration in algae. Like, it's just so, so I'm so motivated 'cause Mother Nature has provided us with algae. I'm not taking credit for algae, but I do take credit for growing it very carefully to preserve the nutrients. But— And that's very important. That has to be, that has to be part of this.

Topic.

Yes. Yes. And there are 2 main things I mentioned— nutrients in, toxins out— but the other one is nature. Just follow nature's bounty, whether it's sunlight or moving or sleep or breath and algae, because algae was the first life on Earth 4 billion years ago. Not just the first plant, the first life. And it's all documented in science. And it's a whole chapter in my book.

So, Catherine, I want to kind of bridge the gap here because your background was in interior design. And when I think about the mitochondria and how the mitochondria is designed and coupled with your curiosity and tenacity for just learning and learning, I'm sure your background in interior design paid you back.

Well, because interior design and anyone who doesn't, you know, it doesn't pursue interior. When you go into a beautiful room, it doesn't matter whether it's a home or a lobby of a hotel. and you feel enveloped and you just feel great. It's never one thing.

Right.

It's the blend of the proportions and the textures and the lighting and the shaping and the, and, and the harmony of— it's like an orchestra visually. And it's a very interesting observation because in my book, and as I was learning about the mitochondria, I thought, this is incredible. I can't believe that this industrial design, whatever you want to— it is the most brilliant design in the universe. It's just, it's breathtaking, the simplicity and the functionality and how it's a closed ecosystem. It's, it's, it's, uh, and, and it is very much like interior design, how I like to do things. So, um, so that's—

I love it.

I never thought of it that way.

So talk about the mitochondria for those— for our listeners. Obviously, they know mitochondria, they know energy, right? That's, that's really where kind of the conversation for most people stops. And You alluded to something earlier that's really important for our listeners to understand, is that backbone of the mitochondria and energy production is what repairs everything else. When there's a lack of repair coming from the mitochondria, then things start to break down. So talk a little bit more about the structure of the mitochondria and kind of why it's so important in that way.

Yes. So we have mitochondria in all of our cells. I think there's something like 100 trillion mitochondria, and your body makes 2 million more every second. And what's really interesting about the mitochondria is that every other cell in your body, including the mitochondria, have a, what's called a lipid membrane. But the mitochondria have a second inner membrane that is impenetrable by drugs, by almost all antioxidants. And, and it hearkens back to when the mitochondria actually Your mitochondria evolved from algae. And, and it was a single-cell bacteria.

Yeah.

That eventually got absorbed. And that inner membrane is a remnant from when it was by itself. Now, the reason why this is so important for me to mention is because the most important part of your body is in the mitochondria. And Mother Nature must have known to keep it safe by give— making sure the second membrane was maintained. Because think of it, in a building, You have lights and you have, uh, and there's an energy source that keeps the lights on. But if you have a storm and you have a power outage, you can't very well do any work 'cause it's dark. Well, your mitochondria are the equivalent of not just the power source, but also the lights. And what happens is, as we get older, the mitochondria start to die.

Mm-hmm.

So you have fewer of them, and the ones that you have are damaged. So instead of having a bright light, you have a flickering little light, and you have even less of it as you get older. This cellular energy that's made by the mitochondrion, it's called by made something called the electron transport chain, which we'll talk about. This creates this stuff called ATP, which is cellular energy. This isn't just energy to run to the grocery store or have a great workout. This is for your neurotransmitters, your lymphatic system, for your digestion, for your sleep, cellular repair. Absolutely everything requires cellular energy. Now. You can live 4 minutes without oxygen. You can live 3 seconds without ATP. It's all, it's been studied. It's that important 'cause your body can't store ATP. So whatever is being made in the moment is being used in the moment. And that's why when you use spirulina, we'll talk about that in a minute, it gives you so much energy if you're working out. But you may not notice if you're just sitting on the sofa because The energy isn't being deployed for athletic activities, or— but you will notice it if you're reading a book or driving a car because it's deployed because your brain needs it. So this whole cellular energy thing is where the rubber hits the road. When you have less of it, nothing works very well. Because the way I describe it is, let's say you had a dinner party and everyone was really happy and you were so successful, and then you go, oh, I forgot to get the dessert, but oh, I have one cupcake left from yesterday's dinner. And so you take that one cupcake. And you divide it between your 20 guests, nobody gets much of a cupcake, so nobody's very happy. Well, if you don't have enough cellular energy in your body, none of your organs, none of your body processes are happy, 'cause it's like, like they've taken that little bit of ATP and dividing it between thousands and millions of activities. So anytime you can increase more mitochondria, or anytime you can increase the efficacy of the mitochondria, you're gonna get cellular energy. So now there's extra energy, not just for— Uh, you know, being used to your regular stuff. It could be used for healing, for recovering, for repair. But if you don't have that extra energy, you're, you're down to the bare bones. You're, you're surviving, not thriving. And you want your mitochondria to help you thrive. But to do that, they need— there needs to be lots of them, and they need to be healthy. Now, the way they get damaged is through multiple— because you asked me about that, or on the note— they get damaged by multiple things— toxins in our air, toxins in our food, glyphosate pesticides, EMFs, stress, because stress causes cortisol increases, excess carbs. And we'll talk about why excess carbs are just as bad as, you know, toxins, because the electron transport chain can't keep up with it. So anything that causes the mitochondria to get their electron transport chain to become overloaded or damaged, uh, has a spiral effect. We all know that inflammation is the root cause of most chronic diseases. But I said, well, what's causing the inflammation? And why— and everyone's going for peptides and NAD+. You don't need any of those. Those help reduce inflammation in the cell. But if you can get rid of the, the cause of the inflammation, so going one deep step deeper, you don't need any of that stuff. And the cause is always the electron transport chain where the energy is actually produced. So let me walk you through how it's actually produced so you can understand it. And then I'll talk a little bit more about how algae can help correct this and other things that you can do to help correct it. Because correcting it is ultimately the holy grail for everybody. This is your longevity. This is for your health. Get rid of brain fog, get rid of weight gain, get rid of Fatigue, it all comes down to healing your electron transport chain. Here's your cell, not doing that very well. You have all these mitochondria. Now they're sort of peanut shaped. Now you may think, oh, how important is mitochondria? Well, your brain has two million mitochondria per per cell, per cell. The second highest is women's eggs, oocytes, because they takes a lot of energy to make a baby. The third highest is your heart. There's about eight thousand per And after that, it's muscles. There's about 5,000 in muscles. And then skin and fat have only like 1,000. So that's a good—

That's a good trivia question, Kelly. Right.

And now we're thinking, what about the retina? Doesn't the retina have a lot of mitochondria?

The retina is, is part of the brain. So it has—

Okay.

Okay.

2 million per, per cell. And in fact, good point on the retina. A lot of, uh, there's a, there's a lot of science that shows there's certain, uh, um, I don't think it's glaucoma. Maybe is it glaucoma? I can't remember which one it is, but they're realizing when you have damaged mitochondria, in your retina, it's a 100% predictor that you will have a heart attack because you can't— you can see the damage. Whatever damage, whatever damage is going on in your retina is going on everywhere. And, um, and I've had some personal experience. A very good friend of mine had that diagnosis. I can't remember what it is. And then literally 6 months ago, and he was healthy as a horse, he was skiing, had a heart attack and died on the spot. So, uh, this whole mitochondria situation is really important. So the higher concentration of mitochondria are where your highest energy needs are. Okay.

So that's why I want to point out to our listeners, because that's why when we start feeling that brain fog, right? Think about that. Think about what's really happening there. Those mitochondria aren't getting what they need to fuel the brain for energy for you to be able to think and process the way that you want to process.

And I'm so glad you brought that up, Kelly, because sometimes people come in and say, I don't really have low energy. And energy to them, by definition, is physical energy, right?

Yes.

And so they're not seeing brain fog as a lack of energy. And so I think it's very important to differentiate and help people understand. And you did a good job at that, Katherine, really explaining that energy to the cell It's that ATP turnover to regenerate, to restore, to do all the things that that has to do.

When I'm sitting with the patient, I'm asking them, tell me about your energy. Tell me about your day, your energy flow. And then I'll say, is it physical energy or is it mental energy? Because they disconnect those commonly. And so oftentimes they dismiss that mental energy as, I'm just tired, I need more sleep, which could be the case, or I'm getting older, it's Hormones. They're not thinking mitochondria specifically, right? And all the things that we need to be doing to restore mitochondria, to your point, repair, but also to make more. We've got to be making more. We got to be in the business of making more mitochondria. And we'll get to that too. But yeah, I think you're doing a really good job of laying that out. So you mentioned the mitochondria and the electron transport chain. There's 4 stages that mitochondria has to go through. And Katherine mentioned that when we're eating a high-carb diet, for some people, excessive sugar, excessive carbs, your mitochondria can't keep up with that. And so we form lactic acid. So oftentimes that's why you're waking up stiff and achy, right? You wake up in the morning, you're like, I feel like the Tin Man. I got to work things out before I can move around, right? That's coming from that stickiness that happens at the cellular level.

Yeah.

And there's a great video I love to direct people to. It's Lucille Ball. And the scene is she's in a chocolate factory and she's supposed to be putting chocolates in a particular And they keep speeding up the conveyor belt and she can't keep up. So she starts shoving them in her mouth or throwing them over her shoulder. That's sort of what happens in your electron transport chain when you eat a high-carb diet. Your electron transport chain can't keep up with all those carbs that— and so they fall off. They don't get moved along because they're supposed to be converted into electrons that then get turned into ATP. And when they can't keep up, more of them fall off and become free radicals. And then the free radicals damage your mitochondria, which cause you to— and the whole machinery, as you mentioned, gets gummed up. And your cell will always create ATP. But if it says, you're giving me too much garbage, I can't keep up, I'm going to switch over to fermentation. It's called glycolysis. And a byproduct of that is, is is acidic, which is what causes the lactic acid, the Otto Warburg effect. But before we get there, so I showed you the cell and the mitochondria inside the cell, and then here's the mitochondria. So the mitochondria has that second inner membrane. And people, I'm not sure if people know that the mitochondria have their own DNA. We all have our, I think, 22,000 regular DNA, which are, by the way, located in the cell, nowhere near the mitochondria. And they last a lifetime. Your mitochondria have 30, I think 37 DNA, and their average lifespan is like 10 days. Why? Because the mitochondria's DNA is located right where the ATP is produced. And people aren't aware that a byproduct of this cellular energy that we need are free radicals. It's just— It's just the way it is. You get ATP, you also get free radicals. And that's exactly where the mitochondrial DNA is. So Mother Nature though, in her brilliant design, she knew that this was gonna be an issue. And so there's this one particular antioxidant called superoxide dismutase that neutralizes that free radical. 'Cause when you have the ATP, the type of free radical that is produced is called superoxide. It's a very, very damaging free radical only found in the mitochondria. Now, the good news is we— our bodies make this antioxidant that it's called dismutase. Like when you think about it dimming a light, it reduces the free radical superoxide to water and oxygen, which protects the mitochondria from damage. I make the analogy, it's like having a big golf umbrella, because if you get stuck, you're shopping or you're golfing and you're stuck in the rainstorm, you have one of those big golf umbrellas. You don't stop the rain, but you stop getting wet. So this superoxide dismutase, which is an antioxidant, behaves the same way. It acts like a golf umbrella. It doesn't stop the free radical superoxide, but it stops it from damaging the mitochondria and converts it into oxygen and water. So our bodies make this stuff for us from the moment we're born, just like it makes hormones and melatonin. However, At the age 30, it slows down the production of this particular antioxidant. By 40, you have even less of it. 50, even less of it. So that big golf umbrella you used to have becomes the size of a tote umbrella. By the time you're 50, it's the size of a cocktail umbrella. So your poor old mitochondria are getting damaged and hit with all these free radicals because it doesn't have the protection that it had. And when you have damaged mitochondria, They die or they don't perform very well. And this is what leads to cellular decay. This is what leads to brain fog, fatigue. Everything ultimately comes down to damaged mitochondria because in the electron transport chain, there are too many free radicals escaping and becoming and damaging the entire machinery. So the good news—

And this is why mitochondrial health has become such a topic of interest is because people are beginning To realize the research has been there, but it's becoming more talked about for, you know, most recently, because we realize now if we don't pay attention to this, we will have advanced aging and we will not be able, no matter what we do, to your point, you know, you can add the peptide, you can add all of the other tools in the toolbox, but the reality is, is if you're not doing things to nurture the mitochondria, then none of those other things really matter. So, yeah, foundational piece.

Yeah, it, it's like trying to stop the, the tide. It's impossible. Absolutely impossible. You have to shore up the real cause of aging and disease and fatigue and brain fog. And it's always gonna be the mitochondria and the electron transport chain. Um, so the good news is all the things that the mitochondria and the electron transport chain, particularly this antioxidant called superoxide dismutase that your body slows down its production is found in the highest concentration in the universe in spirulina algae. Number 2 is in chlorella. You can't get superoxide dismutase from any other food. There's a like infinitesimal amount in broccoli or sauerkraut, but it gets damaged in the stomach lining. Spirulina has 7,000 times more superoxide dismutase than cabbage. So it's basically nonexistent anywhere else. You can't get it in tablets. And if you even had it in tablets, if it Get damaged in your stomach lining. Now, this is why spirulina is so remarkable because it's not even a plant. Spirulina is what's called a cyanobacteria, which means it has no cellulose wall because it's a bacteria. It's not a plant. So why is that important to know? It gets absorbed into your bloodstream instantly if you chew it, and in minutes if you swallow it. And that means it almost bypasses digestion. So all the nutrients like this very important antioxidant that behaves like a big golf umbrella, superoxide dismutase, gets into the mitochondria, pops open that golf umbrella, boom, you start. And there's other nutrients that I'll tell you about in a minute that also generate energy.

So, Katherine, can that be measured? Is there a way to measure the efficacy of that?

Yes. And in fact, 2 years ago, we did a small clinical trial with a, um, a company called MeScreen, and they have developed a blood test For mitochondria.

I've done that. Yeah.

Yeah. So we had a small group and we had blood tests before. Then we gave them, the participants, half men, half women, they were all in their 50s, spirulina every day, 30 tablets. And then we measured their blood after 7 days and then again after 30 days. And Hemal Patel oversaw the research. He's the main researcher for Dr. Joe Dispenza, by the way. So down in UC San Diego. And And Dr. Patel said he'd never seen anything with such remarkable results in a week. He said in another study he had done with somebody, a group of people, they did intermittent fasting for 90 days. And that helped improve mitochondria ATP production. 'Cause what it does, when you do intermittent fasting or any kind of fasting, you don't eat, you have a shorter window of time of eating, which gives your body and your cells a chance to clean up. So when your cells are working better because they're cleaned up, they're able to generate more ATP. So he said, you know, there were better results from after 7 days of spirulina than the 90 days of intermittent fasting, partly because there was autophagy. There's no carbs in spirulina. It also improved the efficacy of the mitochondria. And there's different measurements that they— and that was 2 years ago. So they haven't They have even better, probably, metrics and markers than they did 2 years ago.

Have you heard of the lab called MitoMe?

MitoMe?

MitoMe. It's a lab that's also assessing mitochondrial function, and they actually map out the electron transport chain.

Oh, wow.

I just did that one a few weeks ago. It's super fascinating and really good information.

Oh, I'm going to get in touch with them. Oh, thank you.

Yeah, I would love to hear. So if you start doing anything with them, let us know because Okay. Yeah, I think we're going to need better tools for assessing mitochondrial health.

Yes.

I do believe that. And I do believe we're going to have to have better strategies for supporting mitochondrial health. And I'll have to tell our backstory, too. When we met you, Katherine, was at a conference, and Lori and I had been using spirulina and chlorella years ago, and the company that we were using went out of business, and so we could no longer find spirulina and chlorella in a pure form. And so we stopped using it because we're like, we don't want to be putting more toxins in, and no one could tell us purity or any of that.

I mean, there were plenty on the market.

There were a lot on the market. And take them without that knowledge. And so when we stumbled upon you, you would have thought we were 2 kids in a candy store, and you had the little packets of your spirulina and chlorella.

Like, we were grabbing those to take back to our To take it after a multitude of questions, because Kelly and I are forever scientists.

Where is that source?

How is it tested? All of the things, right?

And then it was all the questions. All the right questions.

All the questions. Yeah. Because it's so important, to your point, not putting more toxins in, right? That's a huge problem in today's world that we live in. Our lakes are polluted, so a lot of what's been being produced on the market is contaminated. And it's such a valuable Nutrient to have, but if you can't get it pure, then you're not doing yourself any favor.

And so, well, it's not, it's not even that the purity is absolutely, absolutely critical, but number 2 is the efficacy. Because that, that antioxidant that I said acts as a, uh, as a big golf umbrella called superoxide dismutase, it's also an enzyme. And this used to confuse me so much, and I'm sure lots of people, because they hear certain terms, and I didn't realize Proteins can also be antioxidants, can also be enzymes. They can be multiple things. And it, you know, it says like 5 different personalities. So the, this particular antioxidant, superoxide dismutase, which is essential for your mitochondrial health, is also an enzyme. And if it's a, and any enzyme that's exposed to temperatures over 114 degrees is deactivated. It just is. Whether you're cooking at home or, you know, Drying it. And the trouble is most of the lower-priced algae tablets, they grow their algae in China and India. They don't pay as much attention to quality and they need to get to market quickly. So they use high heat to cut corners. Boom, deactivates the superoxide dismutase. So I tell people it's like, you know, getting a great deal on a Ferrari except you lift the hood and there's no engine in there. So you could other— so we're a raw food because we don't use the high heat. So all of the nutrients are preserved. And in fact, and we grow ours in Taiwan, cuz it's the only place that will grow it according to my standards. And I went to Taiwan 2 months ago. I took a camera crew with me and I was there. I took, it took 24 hours, actually ended up being 48 hours just to fly there. Then it took me an hour and a half on a train to get into the agricultural area, then another bus for an hour and a half. But I did it. And, and when I tell people we grow ours in triple filtered spring mountain water, there's the mountain. There's a picture of me. It's not AI. It's Catherine at the farm. So I, I, you know, I'm so, you know, all about the transparency to show people the qual— what we do to be sure that this is grown carefully, not just safely, but also to preserve the functionality. And then we do third-party lab tests here in the United States 'cause we sell through doctor's offices and they have to know that what's on the label is what's in there and that, and that there's no toxins. So, um, I don't know anybody else that does that.

So I have a question. I really appreciate that. Yeah, we certainly do.

Yes. And we're using it left and right. And I know Kelly's got a question, and I want to circle back just not to forget this, is you had mentioned 30 tablets as well. And I just want to make sure that we heard that everyone heard that, that I do believe that 30 is more of a treatment, right? And therapeutic amount. Yes, a therapeutic amount to get them to where you want them to be. And then 10 is more maintenance. Is that correct?

Or—

Yes.

Okay.

So if someone's going to start and we have the best value are the large bags, and I know we have a discount code for your community, but just to show you that 10 tablets a day would be a great starting place. So a bag would last you 3 months, and with your discount code, it brings it down to $104. So 10 tablets a day costs you, drum roll, $1 a day. $1 a day to feed your mitochondria, to get your brain back, to get your fatigue back. It also, by the way, satisfies your hunger. You could eat 30 for lunch. Anyone who's on a GLP-1, please, please, please take spirulina. We wanna protect your muscle mass. There are, 400,000 uses of protein in your body. It's not just your muscle, ladies. It's everything. In fact, and we'll circle back to the electron transport chain in a minute, those are proteins. You need protein for everything. And spirulina has the highest protein in the world, 3 times more than steak, chicken, or fish. Ours is 64%. You can't find anything in the world with more protein. than spirulina. Chlorella has the second highest, it's 60%. Yeah, go ahead.

I have a question. So it's a cyanobacteria.

Yes.

Is there any concern for patients that are environmentally sensitive to cyanos? So when you think about off-gassing and you think about things in lakes that people react to, is there any concern? Because I know yours has grown pure. Is there any concern for that?

Well, there would be concern if your supplier was growing it in a lake or a, or an ocean. And there's a company that does grow it in Klamath Lake. Please don't take those because you can't keep mycotoxins out of the wild bodies of water and algae will absorb whatever's in the water. So for our algae or for fresh or frozen spirulina, those are the only other 2 I can recommend for complete efficacy and safety. The answer would be no, there would be no Uh, uh, issues with ours or with fresh or frozen. But, uh, I can't vouch for any other brand 'cause I just don't know their quality control.

I've also heard your analogy before that really resonated with me, and I hope I don't get this wrong when I'm trying to reiterate it, but back to you. Um, but you had mentioned, um, somewhere in maybe one of your podcasts, and it just again bears repeating, but spirulina, you take it at the start of your day and chlorella at the end of your day. And you, um, you gave the analogy Of staying in a hotel and room service.

Right.

I forgot about that.

Bringing you everything.

That was an old one. I've heard that one before, too, but I forgot about it.

I forgot about that.

Yes. So just bringing everything you need. Right. And then at night, it's like calling room service to clean it all up. Right. Or did I get it wrong?

You got to say housekeeping comes and cleans it up.

Yeah.

Room service brings it.

That's the spirulina. And then housekeeping comes, the chlorella, and cleans it all Yes.

'Cause, um, so generally you want energy and focus and your hunger satisfied in the morning, in the afternoon, before a workout. And that's when spirulina is best used 'cause it gives you the energy, it give— it satisfies your hunger. Um, it stops the hangry, it gives you focus. It doesn't matter whether we have truck drivers and brain surgeons who use this stuff. Hockey players, hockey players put 75 spirulina in their, in their smoothie before a game because they need a lot of focus and energy on the ice.

Nice.

And then they put 75 chlorella in their smoothie after the game. So generally think of spirulina as a morning. That's why I said room service. When I travel, sometimes I get room service and I'm so satisfied and I've got everything I need for the day. And I'm like, oh, that's, that's like spirulina. And then when you come back to your room later in the day, the bed's made, the garbage is taken out, it's all cleaned up. And chlorella is really your housekeeping because what it, it, it's, does belong to the plant kingdom. It does have a hard cell wall, and that hard cell wall attaches to all toxins, heavy metals, glyphosate pesticides. I'm living in Florida where radon is a big issue here. And radon converts to radiation in your lungs. And this has been used to remove radiation for decades. The United Nations used it after the Chernobyl disaster for that very reason. And after the Fukushima disaster, the global supply of chlorella was bought up by all the Asians and there wasn't any chlorella available until the next crop, which was like 2 months later. So chlorella is very, is very critical for pulling out heavy metals, glyphosate, any kind of pesticides, mold spores, toxins from microplastics. And then it has the highest chlorophyll in the world, which is why it's called chlorella because of the chlorophyll, which builds your blood and kills bad bacteria. It also has fiber in it that feeds your gut, which are the good bacteria, the fiber that they need to create short-chain fatty acids that help create your health immune system. And there's a couple other cool things. And it has, chlorella has the highest glutathione, which is an antioxidant, particularly important for your liver. And when I was reading the, writing my book, I stumbled across a very, very important Um, extra benefit, again related to gut, because this is really a gut health algae. Well, spirulina is a brain health, and, um, this will be very interesting for women in particular, and it deals with constipation. I had no idea constipation was such a big problem in America. 1.3 million emergency visits a year, and most of them are either women or children. It's just, I found out that women actually have a larger, longer colon just 'cause our colon has to go around our uterus and stuff. But this solves constipation. People get constipated if they are stressed, they're not having enough fiber, they're, they're on medications, they're traveling, too much dairy. Um, and that pretty much sums up about 90% of America, right? Well, how does this—

Too many blends, lack of water.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. So you're gonna love how this, how, how this solves the problem. Problem. I had no idea. But, uh, well, first of all, this has the highest tryptophan in the world. Tryptophan is a precursor to melatonin, which helps you sleep. So this is another reason why we say take it before bed. But it also is a precursor to something called serotonin. Now, most people know that serotonin is the happy mood transmitter in your brain, but 80% of your serotonin is actually made and used in your gut. And what does serotonin do? I was stunned to find out it controls what's called bowel motility, also known as a poop. We're talking bowel movements, people. This helps move the bowel movement. It's incredible. And, and here's the other thing. I stumbled across a statistic that women have 52% less serotonin than men. So when we are stressed and our serotonin is being used up rapidly, we don't have more serotonin to fill the gap. This explains why women have so much more constipation, so much more depression, anxiety, Alzheimer's. It's a combination of the too much, uh, the lack of serotonin. And when we get older, as we get into menopause and perimenopause, menopause, when— that's when everybody loses that protective antioxidant called superoxide dismutase. But women, at the same time, we're losing estrogen. Guess what? Estrogen is also an antioxidant for your mitochondria. So boom, we get hit twice as hard.

Twice.

So it's not in your— it's nothing you're doing wrong. It's our biology. We have less serotonin. We have— we lower our estrogen at the same time we're lowering superoxide dismutase. Our mitochondria are fighting fire And they're not winning. And so that's why spirulina, which will bring back the superoxidase to put the fires out in your brain, and then it will help your body. And then the chlorella helps you restore the the serotonin. So you start to see why they work beautifully together. This is really a gut health algae. Spirulina is a brain health algae.

Am And you've made it really easy because one of them's called Energy and the other one's called Recovery.

Yes.

So it makes it very easy to not forget which one is morning and which one's evening.

Yes. Yes.

So all these studies are coming about— out about neurodegenerative diseases, especially Parkinson's, and the increase, the exponential increase in cases in the last few years. And the prodrome to that is constipation for a lot of patients.

Interesting.

Interesting. 20 years before onset of neurodegenerative symptoms, there's constipation, right? There's all of that neuroinflammation. There's a serotonin connection. There's the gut connection to the brain, that gut-brain connection. And so thinking about things earlier as we're walking through life, addressing them earlier. And I often hear people, especially in the world of constipation, that's just how I That's just how my family is. You know, if I go once or twice a week, that's okay. No, that's not okay.

That's like, that's what happens with alcoholics. They say, well, my family, they're all alcoholics, so I'm gonna be one too. No, that's what you've observed. That's why I say aging is natural, declining is not. All we are observing is people declining. It doesn't have to be that. The Blue Zones, people are living till they're 90 and 100. What do they do? They eat whole foods. Foods, they move, they're connected with society and their families, they're getting natural sunlight. So anyways, I really harp a lot on just because we see examples in front of us doesn't mean that's the only example that's available. I want people to know there are other options. And this gift from Mother Nature is a miracle, literally a miracle, but it has to be explained to people in a way that they understand. And I'm so Grateful to all these scientists who wrote 100,000 studies on spirulina and chlorella, and and most people would not have the tenacity or the endurance to go into all. I've read probably 4,000 of the 100,000, but and I try to pull the nuggets out to make it easy for people to understand what's going on. And when it comes to the brain health issue, there's a terrific book I can recommend by Dr. Chris Palmer. He wrote a book called Brain Energy. He's a psychiatrist and a assistant professor at the Harvard Medical School, and his entire book is about how every single health— brain health issue— depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, postpartum depression— is all due to damaged mitochondria. All of it all starts there.

Thanks for sharing that. So have— in all of the studies, have there been any studies that look at urinary pH measurements using spirulina and chlorella, like correcting for pH? I guess especially chlorella. Has anything— anybody looked at that Because I think that's such an easy thing to measure for people at home and really trying to keep that body in an alkaline state for healing and repair. And to your point earlier, cancer prevention. Have there been any direct studies on that?

Well, there's a lot of studies on the alkalinity of the cells and the pH strips. I'm not 100% sure they're the best indicator because different parts of your body require different different alkalinity. So your stomach, for example, has to be very acidic, and same with your colon.

Okay.

But your cells— and the range is 0 to 14, and your cells need to be about 7.2 to stay alkaline. Your blood needs to be 7.34, very specific number. And if it's— and it becomes acidic from too much exercise, too much acidic food like coffee and dairy and carbs and sugar. And your body is again so intelligent that if you— if your blood became too acidic, you would literally die. So what it does is if you are stressed and drank— ate too many carbs and blah, blah, blah, it pulls minerals out of your bones, organs, and tissue and moves it into your blood to neutralize it. So, but then that leads to things like osteoporosis. Right, and a depressed immune system. So the key is, and this is why I believe my sister's oncologist wanted her to have an alkaline diet, so there was enough alkalinity that that didn't have to happen. And the alkaline—there's a you can go online, there's a chart, there's charts that show you different alkaline levels. So like lemons and limes are very alkaline. Almonds are alkaline. Any plant is alkaline. There is nothing more alkaline though. than spirulina and chlorella? Nothing. Anything over the alkalinity of spirulina is— you get into like baking soda or soap, and you can't obviously eat those. So if you're looking to increase your alkalinity, this is the simplest, effortless way to do it. And I do wanna talk about cancer in a minute, but let me just give you a little bit more detail on the blood. So Mother Nature again, brilliant. When she made our blood, hemoglobin is what carries, holds the oxygen, and it's held by an iron atom. So I say the hemoglobin is sort of like bubble wrap, 'cause inside is the iron atom, and that's where the oxygen is kept. And so the hemoglobin has a negative charge around it, so it repels, just like if you've got a couple of magnets, they repel one another, right? So this, when you have a negative charge on your, uh, in, on your hemoglobin, they don't clump, which means they can carry the oxygen and they can get into the, all the capillaries 'cause they're the right size. When you have too much acidic food, too much stress, too much exercise, they strip off the negative charge. Now the hemoglobin's clumped. That means now they're distorted, they're fat. When they're distorted, they can't carry oxygen, so they can't deliver oxygen to your cells. This contributes to acidity. At the cell level because they're not getting the oxygen. This is what happened with COVID It stripped off the negative charge, so there wasn't oxygen being delivered to the heart, and then the the the iron atom got bumped up and ended up going into the lungs, which caused damage there. So so anyways, all these things just prove to me that the body is so intelligent and so elegantly designed, and if we just know what to give it, and spirulina and chlorella are the two top things. They wouldn't have been created by nature 4 billion years ago if they weren't so important. They just needed to be explained to people and grown carefully. So the alkaline diet, you don't even have to do the whole alkaline diet as long as you're taking spirulina and chlorella. You've got— that's your— I call spirulina your health insurance, or sorry, your nutritional insurance. I call chlorella your health insurance because they work together. But I do want to talk a little bit about cancer because cancer, especially breast cancer for women, obviously is— of course, men are getting it too— is escalating. And it's just, it breaks my heart. And I started the company because my sister had breast cancer. Mother Nature, she has provided for us. Spirulina is called a blue-green algae because it has 2 pigments in it. It has the green one called chlorophyll, which we all know. And that's the only green one, one pigment in chlorella. But spirulina has a second pigment called phycocyanin. You've probably never heard of it. It's spelled P-H-Y-C-O-C-Y-A-N. It's phycocyanin. Phycocyanin is proven to kill cancer cells. And I'm gonna tell you how it works. There's a couple of ways. So I didn't get a chance yet to tell you about how the electron transport chain works, but I'm gonna tell you now. So this is the thing that actually makes that energy and it works like a relay, right? Race. We've all seen relay races where you have a runner and they pass a baton to the next runner who passes the baton to the next runner, and they try to cross the finish line first. Okay, this is how your energy is created in the electron transport chain. But instead of runners, you have proteins, and instead of passing a baton, they pass electrons. So one protein passes it to the next protein and passes the electron, and at the end result Result, you have ATP. It's a little bit more complicated, but that's basically the series. They pass these electrons along. Now, there's 2 little helper molecules. One of them is called cytochrome c. And the way I describe it, it's like if you were in that relay race, maybe you were worried that you weren't going to make it. So you had a friend who had a Ferrari, and they kept the Ferrari in the, in the trees just in case you needed to jump in the Ferrari and get a ride to the next station. That would be cheating. But anyways, that's the concept. Well, in your electron transport chain, you have a little Ferrari, but it needs a key. The key is the blue pigment in spirulina. Because what this blue spirulina— what the blue pigment does in spirulina, if you have a healthy, healthy cell, it, it's like putting the key in the ignition of that Ferrari and flooring the accelerator. So now the electrons can move faster, which is why you get energy, cellular energy, not a stimulant. So the blue Pigment in a healthy cell gives you more energy by turning the key in the Ferrari called cytochrome C. Now, if the cell is a cancer cell or a senescent cell, which is an unhealthy cell, the blue pigment goes into the cell and goes, "I'm on to you. You are not healthy. I am not hitting the accelerator. No key for you. No soup for you," and it ejects the cytochrome C molecule. Which kills the cancer cell. Unbelievable. I call this intelligent food for a reason. You have to be intelligent to take it, and it knows what to do in your body. You have a healthy cell, you get more energy. You have an unhealthy cell, it kills it.

So, Catherine, is that the same— that, that blue pigment, is that the same process that happens with, um, methylene blue? Well, because that's all the same, you know, that's the same conversation around mitochondrial health, and you'll see methylene blue used in protocols. I haven't used it myself, but I'm just curious about—

first of all, methylene blue is a— it's a dye. It's a chemical. Yeah, it's a chemical. Okay, we do not want to put chemicals in our bodies. Yeah, and they've done a lot of research that said it's very— it overrides your system. It's very easy to get to a state of toxicity with methylene blue. Please do not. You're going to find a lot of research. Yeah, this is natural. This is food. There's— this just makes your system work better. It does not override it. It just makes it better. So anything that's natural, but you have to have high quality, 'cause also that blue phycocyanin deactivated by high heat. You get the cheap stuff, you're miss— you're not getting your umbrella to protect your mitochondria, and you're not getting the cancer-killing capabilities of the blue pigment. So, and that, by the way, the blue pigment, oh, and so Okay. Chemotherapy companies put phycocyanin in their chemo treatments now. And the way they measure whether the treatment is working is they measure the amount of this stuff called cytochrome c, the ejected Ferrari. 'Cause if there's a lot of it, they know that it's killed the cancer cells. 'Cause cancer cells cannot go through apoptosis, which is healthy cell death. People think, oh, cell death. No, it's actually good stuff. It's sort of like, Apoptosis is when it's the equivalent of a retirement. You've worked long at a bill— at a company, you've done a great job, they throw you a party, you give all your work and leads to the next generation, and they continue your work. Everybody's happy. Because with cell apoptosis, the cell says, okay, I've done a good job, I'm going to now divide myself into a bunch of other little healthy cells, and they'll just keep the machinery The unhealthy cell death is called necrosis, and this is what happens in cancer cells. It's a cell that doesn't know that it's sick, and so it keeps— it's very inflammatory, and it causes the cell to expand, and eventually expands like a balloon and explodes. And then all of the gunk, the free radicals, the toxins spread out to the rest of the cell, cells, which then get sick and they become— and that's why this is the process by which cancer can sometimes spread very quickly. So you want healthy cell death, but cancer cells can't go through it. They can't retire themselves. But this process allows you to do that. The other way that this blue phycocyanin helps with cancer is that it has what's called anti-angiogenesis properties. Angiogenesis is the formation of blood vessels, which you want when healthy. But cancer is devious. It reroutes the blood vessels to feed it. And so, because it needs it. So this is sort of like having a police car come in and stop that rerouting. It's like, nope, you're not going there. And it's proven to have that capability, which is called antiangiogenesis. So these are very, very important attributes of these These pigments— pigments have healing properties we're just starting to really learn about. And I could go on and on about it, but I know—

We could talk forever. And I can see how passionate you are about just getting this out to the public, getting this message out there. And it's something that needs to be heard. But before we close our time today, I want to know, what is your strategy? What is a non-negotiable for you as you're walking through life in each decade? This is a new decade for you.

Yeah.

Like, what are your non-negotiables from a health and wellness perspective for you personally?

Sleep, for sure. And I'm very careful about my diet. You know, I wake up in the morning and I always have a spring glass of water with fresh-squeezed lemon, which helps, you know, clean your liver. I go straight to my spirulina. I have spirulina and chlorella. I take both of them in the morning. I mix them up and I put sea salt on them because I also want my electrolytes. Electrolytes to you know keep my you know capability of keeping water in my body. I couldn't I could not live without spirulina and chlorella. It's it's that simple. Sleep and and sleep is the other thing I can't live without. The other ones I whole foods. I don't eat any processed foods. I don't eat sugar. My body will not tolerate sugar of any kind, not even honey, nothing. So I eat a very very clean diet. I eat much less now as I get old. The older I get, the less I eat, and. I think passion actually is very energizing. I have a lot of that. Movement.

Yes.

You know, getting, and particularly outside if you can. I moved to Florida because in the winter in Boston, it was so dark and dreary, I couldn't get out for my walks. So I walk every day here. It's terrific. So, and, you know, focusing on the things that are meaningful for me. My interests, I'm very focused on my purpose of being here. I know what it is. I'm lucky that way. Not everybody gets to have that opportunity.

So, um, but I could— Tell us a little bit about your book that you have coming out, because that's such an accomplishment to finish your PhD and then write a book.

I know. So I'm curious about the book, and then I'm curious about what's next. Oh my God. Uh, well, hopefully getting a million books sold is what's next. Lots. Yeah. I'm determined to get a New York Times bestseller. And, and, um, uh, you know, I just want to— I promised the universe, God, whoever you want to call it, that I would bring to the world. It's been there for 4 billion years, but it had to be explained and it had— it needed a bit of a makeover. So I start— I realized about a year ago I needed to write a book. Now, I've been— remember, I've been researching for 17 years. It took me about a month to organize all my material. And then I wanted it to be rich enough with science but playful enough to enjoy reading it. And because I've talked to other scientists and they said writing a science book is easy because it's just for I'm a scientist.

Yeah.

Writing a science book for consumers, very difficult. But I think I accomplished it because it's, I mean, it's really, really playful. I mean, I can't believe I, I don't think I'll ever be able to do better, although there's probably one more book in me, but not for a couple of years. And it will be more of my spiritual business journey. But I just wanna, I just wanna get this out to the world into, you know, on TV shows and corporate wellness, make algae as As common today as, you know, maybe taking vitamin C. Get it into nursing homes and children's lunches. I'll tell you one of my— you wanna know what my— one of my goals is? I want algae on the food pyramid right beside meat and vegetables because it has more protein than meat and has all the benefits of vegetables. It deserves a spot, and I'm, I'm going to do that. I love it. I love it.

So the name of the book is Love Your Love Your Health to Bits with Algae.

Oh, I love it.

Yeah. And there's even fun pictures, and you can preorder on our website, energybits.com. I'm going to do an Audible version and a Kindle and all that sort of jazz.

And that'll be out January 2027. Okay.

Yeah. As a clinician, as Kelly and I have been clinicians in this functional medicine space over 20 years Each. And one of the things we talk to our clients about all the time is the foundations, right? What you eat, what you drink, how you sleep, move, and think. And then when it comes to supplementation and support, I think there's a lot of question around what should I spend money on? Because there's so much out there. And you reinspired me today to really talk about algae as a foundation.

Yes.

Right. part of that foundation. So thanks for reinspiring me today. I can't wait for this to actually air. And thanks for your time, your commitment to the science, your commitment to the research, and your commitment to quality. It goes a long way, and it seriously means so much to us as those that are out there in the room with our consumers who are truly looking for guidance in quality.

Absolutely. And we have a 20% discount code synergy when people come to energybits.com. And I'll just say one last thing is that there's so much confusion, there's so much fear, and there's so much change, and there's so much uncertainty. And I would just say, put your faith in nature. It will never let you down. And listen to your voice, your quiet little voice. That's your intuition. It will never let you down. If something makes you feel good, Pursue it, learn more about it, and trust yourself. And that's why when I open my book, that's why I say trust yourself. Algae's been here before anything, the first life on Earth. I mean, honestly.

Wonderful wisdom spoken from Katherine. So we will definitely utilize that in of our, you know, in all of our material too. Your marketing team is pretty amazing. I don't know if you know that, um, but, you know, I just want to say that to you too because they are getting your word out there. They're doing a great job at it. We love the collaboration. We're going to continue to support that too. So, um, thanks for your time today. I hope you have a wonderful weekend. The Synergy This podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing, or other professional healthcare services, including the giving of medical advice, and no doctor-patient relationship is formed. The content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Users should not disregard or delay in obtaining medical advice for any medical condition they may have and should seek the assistance of their healthcare professionals for any such conditions.