It was one of the most exciting plays I’ve ever seen. There was a kick-off, and the losing college football team retrieved the ball too far back to feel any hope. As the young man with the ball was being charged, he threw it laterally to a teammate, who was only able to run a short distance before the defense was hot on his heals. He too found escape by passing the ball behind him, but the ball was fumbled, picked up in time, and again, laterally passed to another. This happened literally five or six times. The play confused the defense to the point that when the final pass was made, the ball was run into the end zone. Touchdown! It was incredible.
Looking at that play made me think of the mitochondria—the tiny organelles found within the vast majority of our cells. Brain cells, stomach cells, muscle cells, kidney cells, liver cells, heart cells all have mitochondria, and one of the reasons they are such a big deal is because they are our energy producers. The process of energy production within the mitochondria is quite complex. One player in the assembly line passes to another, who in turn takes it as far as he can and then passes to another. On it goes until—touch down! Energy is produced, and the cell has the resources to function optimally.
Energy is the stuff of health and youth. And growing old or being sick is associated with fatigue and “where’s the easy chair?” and “I don’t have energy like I used to.” One of the main reasons for this may be due to the fact that a five-year-old has much more mitochondria than an 80-year-old. Additionally, older adults average 20 percent fewer mitochondria, that are nearly 50 percent less efficient, compared to young adults.
Think about the amount of energy it takes for the heart to pump. There are approximately 5,000-8,000 mitochondria in a single heart muscle cell, and each individual mitochondria can have hundreds of football games going on at the same time, generating energy. We think of the sun as a powerful energy producer. And it is. In fact, the energy we produce largely comes from the sun’s energy stored in the plants we eat. But the human being is said to produce 10,000 times more energy per gram than the sun does every second!
Energy production is just one of the very valuable jobs of the mitochondria. It is also involved in hormone production—like insulin, testosterone, and cortisol; it regulates the life and death of a cell, which is really important if the cell is no longer health supporting; orchestrates immunity; helps build hemes, the central parts of the protein hemoglobin that carries oxygen in the blood; aids in detoxification; and more. Even though they possess their own genetic information, mitochondria communicate with and work very intimately with neighboring organelles. Cellular fitness and resiliency are dependent on mitochondrial function.
Every day our heart beats, we make decisions, we move, digest food, blink, produce new cells, and that all takes energy. When the mitochondria are purring as they should, things couldn’t be better. However, when they aren’t, the body starts collapsing. ALS, Alzheimer’s, atherosclerosis, autism, Parkinson’s Huntington’s, bipolar disorder, heart disease, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, obesity, digestive problems, musculoskeletal disorders, fibromyalgia, muscular atrophy, and cancer are some of the conditions that stem from poorly played quarters. Their function is not out of our control, though. Mitochondria are vulnerable to various lifestyle factors. They can be supported—and yes, even increase; or they can be weakened and decline. We will learn more about this next month.
