I would like to start with a quote of Joseph Campbell.
Joseph Campbell is a writer and an author of ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’, one of my best books that I ever read.
Campbell says “The cave you fear holds the treasure you seek.”
My intention of cave here is our body which generally either we neglect or less prioritize or we always fear to comprehend it. If we go little deeper to comprehend, our body holds amazing treasure, very tiny but indispensable tiny machines to run, mitochondria.
What is your biggest fear in life? Probably, it could be to lose life, to lose this precious body by catching a chronic disease like cancer, heart disease or neurodegenerative disease and to give up all aspirations in this life.
These treasures, tiny machines, mitochondria, must be protected and preserved for an aspiring healthy life.
Excellent, happy, and healthy mitochondria work as automated tiny life rotors in our body 24/7 all day and all night.
They never stop working, think about it, if any machine runs 24/7 without stopping then how much care, precision, and attention it needs.
Remember, our mitochondria in our body are exactly the same type of machines, if they fall apart and crumble, then we are done for the rest of our life.
These tiny machines are in all cells and they have direct and indirect relationships across all organs and metabolic systems in our body.
They work in cohesion for vital organs like heart, brain, liver, kidney in our body incessantly.
So the bottom line is: developing healthy food habits, exercise, sleep, and stress free lifestyle are keys for happy, healthy and overall robustness of tiny mitochondria.
“Jonathan Kipnis: ‘Good cleaning happens when we are actively dreaming at night’.”
Orian Shirihai, MD, PhD, a professor of UCLA and mitochondrial researcher says “Our liver is not the same liver during the day and during the night time. If we eat at night, we disturb our circadian rhythm and confuse our mitochondria’s metabolic switches, harming our liver.”
So, the message is, don’t disturb liver’s work schedule for night clean up.
If we eat at night we are confusing our mitochondria and liver that it is day time.
Remember, during the day time, our mitochondria focus on energy transfer, and during the night, they focus on recovery in the name of autophagy, mitophagy, and mitochondrial dynamics.
Our brain uses twenty percent of the ATP in our body, and its consumption results in adenosine accumulation in the brain, that is the signal to sleep.
In the circadian system, mitochondria are involved in the production of melatonin which is the hormone that makes us sleepy.
Once we sleep, cleaning up starts.
By its nature, in circadian rhythm, our brain manages our schedule based on sunlight, just like our smartphone tells us when the next meeting schedule is.
We have a habit of drinking alcohol and heavy dinner at night, that’s not a good habit.
Don’t drink alcohol at night because it disrupts liver’s work schedule to night clean up.
In addition, alcohol metabolite acetaldehyde is a rust for cell components.
Alcohol disrupts histamines in the brain which regulates sleep-wake cycle.
Jonathan Kipnis, PhD, a neuroscientist and professor at the Washington University School of Medicine, says “Good cleaning happens when we are actively dreaming at night.”
Recent research also shows that coffee consumption and infrared saunas are good habits for liver cleaning activities.
“Average Americans consume 250g of carbohydrates per day, that need to be reduced significantly to achieve good health status for mitochondria.”
So, the key is to have a good night sleep of at least seven to eight hours, and let mitochondria, these tiny machines, do their work.
If you sleep less than seven hours regularly, you make less mitochondria, you reduce mitochondrial DNA count, and you accelerate cellular aging in your body.
Poor sleep habit also affects the production of ghrelin, a hormone responsible for stimulating hunger.
Sleep deprived people produce more ghrelin that increases appetite and crave for carbohydrates and sugary foods.
Jamie Zeitzer, PhD, a sleep scientist and professor from Stanford University, says “Quality sleep has more things to do with stress.”
Dr. Zeitzer adds “You can use caffeine to replace sleep is definitely not true.”
There is another process for cleaning and repairing our body which is called fasting.
Generally, intermittent fasting is considered as 12 to 16 hours.
This goes in different forms like autophagy fasting which is 18 hours, metabolic fasting is 20 hours, and gut repairing fasting is 24 hours.
In autophagy fasting, which is at least 18 hours, I generally eat at 6 pm and eat at 12 pm the next day.
Your blood glucose level determines whether you are in the fasted state or the fed state.
Fasted state is the cell cleaning and repairing stage, this is an autophagy state.
Fed state is the mTOR stage, this is anabolic and cell building stage.
Optimal fasting sugar is 70 to 90 mg/dL.
Dr. Daria Mochly-Rosen, PhD, a professor at Stanford University and the author of a fabulous book about mitochondria “The Life Machines” says “Mitochondrial dysfunction isn’t just about having less energy, but rather underlies many chronic diseases, aging, and organ failures.”
So, the question is how to make our mitochondria happy, healthy, and sustainable so that we can live with a good healthspan and lifespan.
Again, the foundational component for healthy mitochondria is quality diets.
Alicia Kowaltowski, MD, PhD, a professor at the University of Sao Paulo and an expert mitochondria scientist, says, “Regarding good diets for mitochondria, overall, the best scientific consensus is that diets that include all three foods, carbohydrates, fats, and proteins in moderation are best.”
If we have an imbalance in these foods, our mitochondria lose the ability to switch between foods that creates metabolic inflexibility and leptin resistance.
Remember, if we fly too high, there is sun and if we fly too low, there is ocean. So, we always have to seek the middle ground for best performance.
Average Americans eat imbalanced food with too much carbohydrates.
Average Americans consume 250g of carbohydrates per day, that need to be reduced significantly to achieve good health status for mitochondria.
“Barbecue foods, especially meat products, produce carbon monoxide, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, heterocyclic amines, and AGEs, all damage mitochondria, they are agents for cancer and chronic diseases.”
Paulo Coelho, an author of ‘Maktub’, one of my best books on reflections of life, faith, and self-discovery, says “One day you will wake up and there won’t be anymore time to do the things you’re always wanted. Do it now.”
I always relate this with my health status, I can’t have time to do anything that I want if I fall into the trap of ill health.
Coelho further adds “If you’re still alive, that’s because you haven’t yet reached the place you’re supposed to reach.”
And if we suffer with ill health and chronic disease like cancer and heart disease, we can’t reach anywhere in this life.
Preserving our tiny machines, mitochondria, help us to avoid ill health and promotes healthy aging.
In the present fast pace of life, we’re always in rush, we eat many wrong quick polished fast foods. One of the worst habits to kill and damage our tiny life machines is to eat foods without thinking what we are eating.
For example, barbeque foods, especially meat products, produce carbon monoxide and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, PAH.
Both chemicals damage mitochondria, PAH produces reactive oxygen species, ROS, which are free radicals to damage cells.
Remember, PAH and heterocyclic amines are agents for cancer and chronic diseases.
Carbon monoxide affects mitochondria the same way as cyanide. It stops oxidative phosphorylation, the process by which ATP is produced.
Compared to other meat products, barbequed fish and vegetables produce less PAHs.
Likewise, high salt and sugar content foods, low fiber and processed foods contain advanced glycation end-products, AGEs, which make foods delicious but they poison our mitochondria.
Glycation is a chemical reaction between sugar and proteins or fats during baking, cooking, and frying.
In addition, AGEs trigger cancer when they attack DNA in our cells.
Trans fat, fried foods contain toxic chemicals like 4-HNE and acrolein.
4-HNE binds to proteins and changes its functions and stability.
It increases mitochondrial reactive oxygen species, the free radicals, reduces mitochondrial functions, and activates programmed cell death.
“Remember, everything is compounded in life, not only money, everything including habit, knowledge, and thinking process, whatever tiny it might be, very few people comprehend this, be those few people.”
There are some other chemicals which are very detrimental for our mitochondria.
Paraquat, a pesticide, is still used in the USA on cornfields, soybeans, wheat, cotton, and grapes.
It is a main culprit of Parkinson’s disease when we eat foods contaminated with paraquat.
It’s been banned in many countries like Sweden, Germany, and China, but not in the USA.
Smoke habits are notoriously bad for our mitochondria.
Scientific studies precede public policies, so keeping track of science is the public’s right especially for lifestyle activities.
We all know smoking is a cause of cancer.
Ireland was the first country to ban smoking in indoor workplaces.
They have a law that requires a cancer warning label on alcoholic drinks starting in 2026.
Let’s see another very unavoidable part of our current fast pace lifestyle, stress.
It affects our mitochondria tremendously.
Adrenaline is secreted from the adrenal glands sitting on the top of our kidneys.
This hormone is to make sure that we are ready either to flee or fight.
Cortisol is produced in the mitochondria in the adrenal glands.
It increases glucose levels in our blood and enhances our brain’s use of glucose so that we can think.
Keep in mind that these hormones are good in emergencies but if the stress is regular, continuous, and ongoing every time and all the time, it can be devastating to our health.
If we are always in stress in our life, our body is always in crisis mode, there won’t be enough effort for our cell maintenance. Because all energy and ATP production goes only for emergencies.
Emergencies mean taking care and providing energy to vital organs to just survive.
So the essential question is how to reduce our stress and live healthily and relax our mitochondria.
Of course, there are things that reduce stress for each of us, many of us may not know this yet.
But, certainly, there are ways to reduce it.
For example, for me, it’s either a long walk or long distance running or sometimes I also feel relaxed by reading a thought provoking book on weekends at home.
One book I recently read in this category is ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’ by philanthropist author Mitch Albom.
In ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’, Mitch Albom says “The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.”
I felt extremely relaxed after reading this book, and I recommend all to read, you won’t regret your time.
For my lovely wife Dipika, it’s a day time nap when she gets time, after this, she feels extremely relaxed.
You might have different things, find it, and just apply and follow.
Here is the kicker from my own experience in life to reduce and eliminate stress from our lives:
Once you start your relaxing thing, you start to enjoy it, and you gradually start to feel much relaxed. And, please, keep it repeating, that’s how you reap the benefit by compounding.
Remember, everything is compounded in life, not only money, everything including habit, knowledge, and thinking process, whatever tiny it might be, very few people comprehend this, be those few people.
“We have to eat vitamin B regularly for healthy and happy mitochondria because they are water soluble and easily washed away, unlike vitamin A,D,E,and K which are fat soluble and can be stored for a longer period.”
One more good habit to make our mitochondria happy and healthy is to make our microbiome gut balanced and happy.
Our gut mitochondria need butyrate compounds to produce ATP which they get from a balanced microbiome and they depend on us for fiber that we eat from fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and legumes.
Same is for acetate and propionate, short chain fatty acids, SCFAs, made from resistant fibres and complex carbohydrates.
Recent research shows that in colon cancer, these SCFAs help by inducing programmed cell death, apoptosis, that involves our mitochondria.
Our gut microbiome produces urolithin A from pomegranate fruits and once absorbed by our body it produces mitochondrial proteins.
This makes our mitochondria more refreshed, energetic, and powerful.
Remember, Urolithin A is a powerful phytonutrient that promotes mitophagy and removes damaged mitochondria from our body.
Other important foods that can be converted to urolithin A are strawberries, raspberries, walnuts, and pecans.
Dark chocolate is another essential food, the metabolized polyphenols produced through the microbiome make our mitochondria healthy.
Likewise tryptophan rich foods like chicken and chickpeas are also important for mitochondria.
They are good precursors for melatonin as indole-3-propionic acid, IPA in short, is very good for mitochondrial health.
Justin Sonnenburg, PhD, a microbiome expert, professor in Stanford, and author of ‘The Good Gut‘
recommends a daily dietary fiber consumption for adults is about 25 to 30 g.
One micronutrient essential for mitochondrial health is vitamin B complex.
Vitamin B is essential for mitochondria for ATP production.
There are eight vitamins B that we should be aware of.
We have to eat vitamin B regularly because they are water soluble so they are easily washed away, unlike vitamin A,D,E,and K which are fat soluble and can be stored for a longer period.
“When you do exercise, it helps to express the protein PGC-1alpha and that releases irisin and that helps to convert white fat tissue into brown fat tissue which produces heat and reduces the risk of obesity.”
These are some important everyday foods that we have to eat regularly to get all different kinds of vitamin B.
1. Thiamine, vitamin B1, is found in brown rice, lentils, peas, oranges, bananas, nuts, and whole grain bread.
2. Riboflavin, vitamin B2, is found in milk, eggs, cereals, mushrooms, and plain yogurts.
3. Niacin, vitamin B3, is found in meat, fish, wheat flour, and eggs.
4. Pantothenic acid, vitamin B5, is found in chicken, beef, eggs, mushrooms, and avocados.
5. Pyridoxine, vitamin B6, is found in pork, chicken, turkey, fish, peanuts, soybeans, wheat germ, oats, bananas, and milk.
6. Biotin, vitamin B7, is made by bacteria in the microbiome, it is mostly made by eating eggs, liver, legumes, sweet potatoes, nuts, and seeds.
7. Folate, vitamin B9, is found in broccoli, brussels sprouts, leafy green, cabbage, kale, spring greens, spinach, peas, chickpeas, kidney beans.
8. Cobalamine, vitamin B12, is found in meat, fish, milk, cheese, and eggs.
Good food habits are, no doubt, compulsory for healthy mitochondria. But, there is also a second part along with it, that is regular exercise.
As we age, exercise has an added advantage in our lives. It stimulates autophagy and mitophagy, that means damaged cell components are isolated and recycled into new cellular structures.
It helps to increase antioxidant protection to protect from free radicals.
Nadege Zanou, MD, PhD, a researcher from University of Lausanne says
“When you do exercise, it helps to express the protein PGC-1alpha and that releases irisin.
This helps to convert white fat tissue into brown fat tissue that produces heat and reduces the risk of obesity.”
Brown fat gets its color from an abundance of mitochondria in our body.
Gerald Shadel, PhD, a professor from Salk Institute and mitochondria scientist, says “Exercise is the way to go to protect your mitochondria.”
Conclusion
Remember, mitochondria not only provide energy or repair cellular malfunctions, most importantly, they provide building blocks, signaling, killing cells that should die, protecting from viruses, detoxifying pollutants, and managing the yin-yang of oxidants and antioxidants.
These are the statements from some current experts in the area of mitochondrial research and its implication in current medical science.
Research reports that metformin, the common diabetic medicine, triggers a cascade of events that ultimately promote autophagy and mitophagy. It also has a direct effect on complex I in the electron transport chain.
Nir Barzilai, MD, expert on mitochondria and aging, says “Mitochondrial dysfunction is one of the hallmarks of aging.”
James Mccully, PhD, professor at Harvard medical school and expert on mitochondria says “a novel approach to cardioprotection is an autologous mitochondrial transplantation.”
Dr. Sitaram Emani, MD, a pediatric cardiovascular surgeon at Boston Children’s Hospital, utilized mitochondrial transplantation as a technique to recover damaged hearts. Dr. Emani utilized this technique to inject one billion mitochondria into a damaged heart, resulting in a successful recovery for the patient.
Dr. Terry Wahls’s, MD, the author of ‘The Wahls Protocol’ TedTalk ‘Minding your mitochondria’ is a must watch if you want to know about these tiny machines in our life.
Yam Timsina, PhD, writes primarily on health basics, scientific progress, social upliftment, and value creation.
Disclaimer: “Please note that some links in this post are affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission if you make a purchase through them, at no extra cost to you.”
