Mitochondria - why should you care?
Keeping your mitochondria healthy is key to your health.
If you didn’t come to my talk on longevity at the Malvern Health & Wellbeing Fair, you missed a treat! I spouted science for half an hour! And 10 minutes of that was about your mitochondria and why keeping them healthy is so important if you want to age well.
Mitochondria are little organelles in (almost) every cell in your body which produce energy from the oxygen your breathe and the food you eat. The more energy a cell needs to perform it’s function, the more mitochondria the cell has. In heart muscle for example, 40% of the space in each cell is taken up by mitochondria to provide the energy to keep the heart beating. Liver cells and kidney cells also have a large number of mitochondria, because they work constantly to get rid of toxins and waste products from the body. And muscle fibres also have more mitochondria - those in more active people have more than those in couch potatoes!
Producing energy results in the release of free radicals - those pesky little things which cause damage in the form of inflammation in the body if they aren’t dealt with. So any metabolic function which needs energy - from the heart beating to breaking down a sugar molecule to cell replication - all produce free radicals, and this is happening all day long.
Since more active people have more mitochondria, perform at a higher metabolic rate and produce more energy to fuel their activity, it is natural that they produce more free radicals, and so eating well - including lots of antioxidants from dark green veg and dark berries and omega 3 fats - is essential to protect the mitochondria from damage and allow them to keep working efficiently. But even if you are a couch potato, your mitochondria need looking after - they are like your car engine: Put good fuel in and they will work well, but put the wrong fuel in and it can end in disaster!
So what can we do to ensure the mitochondria we have remain healthy and continue producing energy efficiently? What can we do to increase the number of mitochondria we have so we remain full of vim and vigour? And what can we do to replace worn out and damaged mitochondria with lovely new, healthy, efficient ones?
Lift heavy shit!
When you build muscle, you increase the number of muscle fibres in each muscle strand
Each muscle fibre has mitochondria in it
Ergo, more muscle mass, more muscle fibres, more (and new, efficient, healthy) mitochondria you will have
Do high intensity exercise.
When the body struggles to produce enough energy for the activity you want it to do, it gets rid of the inefficient mitochondria which aren’t cutting it, and replaces them with new healthy ones
10 minutes of high intensity exercise a day has been shown to be ideal from many different standpoints, so just do it! But producing new health mitochondria is a really important reason to get up out of your chair and do something which gets you puffing and panting and sweating.
Find something you love, or just do it because you know it’s good for you!
Dance
Run
Do a HIIT class
Walk briskly up a hill
Do some intervals - run as fast as you can for 2 minutes, then rest for a minute and repeat x 5
Intermittent fasting
Give your mitochondria a break from producing energy - if they have to work constantly, they will wear more quickly!
There are a number of different ways to do this - choose the one which suits you
The 5:2 diet. For two, non-consecutive days a week, reduce your calories to below 500 (women) or 600 (men)
Fast on alternate days. Again, reducing calories to 500 for women and 600 for men but on alternate days of the week
Complete fast for 24 hours. Just drink water for one day a week
Set yourself a number of fasting hours in any 24 hour period. For example, fast for 16 hours and only eat in an 8 hour window, between 10am and 6pm.
My preferred way of intermittent fasting is to only eat in a 12 hour window during the day, stopping eating at least 3 hours before I go to bed. This gives my body a chance to metabolise my last meal while I’m still active, rather than the mitochondria working as I sleep. This method might be better for women, as hormonally, we can struggle with low blood sugar particularly at certain points in our cycle if we cut calories too much. I find it works for me, as I start work at 6 or 6:30am and have a very active lifestyle. Any longer without food, especially in the winter months when I’m out in the cold with clients, just doesn’t work for me and I find energy levels slump, I feel cold and I crave sugar!
Cold water therapy
Short bursts of controlled stress can produce a healthy adaptive response in the body (hormesis)
Cold water therapy increases the production of new mitochondria in the muscles (as well as a whole host of other benefits
Find a way which works for you
Turn your shower to ice cold for 20 seconds at the end of your shower. Gradually increase to 3-4 minutes
Run a cold bath and add ice to it. Jump in a gradually increase the time to 5 minutes (or more!)
Take up wild swimming. Always go with a friend, use a swimming float, only stay in for 1 minute per degree of water temperature (until you are experienced enough to do longer), make sure you have warm clothes and a warm drink afterwards, don’t drive until 15 minutes after you are dressed to ensure you aren’t at the wheel when you get ‘after-drop’.
Add in a good magnesium supplement
Production of new mitochondria requires magnesium. Without it, your body won’t be able to replace the old mitochondria and energy levels will be low
Production of energy by the mitochondria also requires magnesium
My preferred magnesium supplement is Body Prime from Synergy Worldwide. Not only has it improved energy levels for clients, it can also reduce or prevent leg cramps, restless leg syndrome and tension headaches and aid restful sleep. Magnesium is used in over 300 processes in the body, so taking a supplement (especially because our food is now lacking due to intensive farming and low soil quality) is essential for efficient metabolism and I would recommend you all do so. You can order yours by going here: https://new.synergyworldwide.com/GB/en-GB/Shop/Product/body-prime?referralID=2295120
Adding in any one of these healthy habits will improve your energy levels by improving the quality or quantity of your mitochondria. Getting healthier doesn’t have to take ages - 2/3 minutes cold at the end of your shower each day or 10 minutes high intensity exercise could make a big difference, adding in 2 capsules of Body Prime will help, and you’ll notice your improved energy, mood and mental clarity immediately!
#onehealth.