Balance Hormones & Energy

We all think of ourselves as individuals, however, we are actually a collection of around 40 trillion cells – that’s 40,000,000,000,000.

One of the most important aspects of being alive and healthy is the ability to maintain an electrical charge across the cell membrane, turning each of those 40 trillion cells into little batteries, so to speak.

Why is this so important? Cellular Respiration is the ability to transport fluid and nutrients into the cell and to transport metabolic waste out of the cell. If you cannot maintain an electrical charge across the cell membrane, the cell cannot breathe, digest and transport nutrients, or eliminate waste.

How long would you survive if you could not breathe, digest nutrients or go to the bathroom? Not long, right? Now, you see why the cellular respiration of your 40 trillion cells is so important.

For example, when a mom comes in to me exhausted, has no libido and literally cannot get out of bed, I tell her that she’s like a wrestler and her body is On The Mat and Totally Tapped Out. When your body is in that state, how in the world can it have the energy for Repair or Regeneration? Forget about interest in sex. Why would your body be interested in reproducing when it barely has the energy to survive?

In order for you to do any of the millions of things necessary to get through the day, you must first be able to turn food, nutrients and oxygen into energy. Understanding how you metabolize food, nutrients, oxygen and toxins is at the very foundation of health and healing.

In fact, right now scientists are busy mapping every detail of how our cells produce energy and metabolize nutrients in a field called Metabolomics. This field and others like it are making Personalized Medicine possible – allowing us to see how you, your genes, the bacteria in your gut, your environment, and your diet and lifestyle all contribute to your health.

Metabolomics is at the center stage of research into chronic diseases. For instance, we know that normal cells rely on a type of metabolism called oxidative phosphorylation to generate the energy needed for cells. In contrast, cancer cells shift their metabolism to a more primitive form know as “aerobic glycolysis.” Aerobic glycolysis is an inefficient way to generate energy, however, it seems that the advantage for cancer cells is that it increases the uptake of nutrients needed to rapidly reproduce and grow – two things you definitely do not want cancer cells to do.

Cancer cells also have far more glucose receptors than regular cells allowing them to suck up all the available blood sugar nearby, again allowing them to rapidly reproduce and grow. https://tinyurl.com/y8akvxpd

Understanding the difference between a normal cell and a cancer cell’s metabolism, and how it allows cancer cells to grow and spread like wildfire, gives us a big advantage – we know that anything that increases oxygen to the healthy cells, or starves cancer cells of sugar, can help stop cancer from growing and spreading.

There is much more to the cancer story that we’ll discuss later. Just know it’s critical to understand how cells metabolize nutrients and produce energy, and how it can all get twisted under the right conditions – like a lack of oxygen and excess sugar.

You don’t need a PhD in Biochemistry to understand how important it is to be able to produce cellular energy. And where is all that cellular energy produced? In one place: The Mitochondria.

Every single one of those 40 trillion cells that make up YOU has anywhere from hundreds to thousands of mitochondria.

Mitochondria – Turning on the Powerhouse

Mitochondria are known as the “powerhouses” of the cell. They are tiny little organs that act like a digestive system which takes in oxygen, food and nutrients and breaks them down to create energy for the cell. These biochemical processes of the cell are known as cellular respiration and most of it takes place inside the mitochondria.

This is where all those reactions like the Krebs cycle happen, producing chemicals and enzymes that ultimately create adenosine 5′-triphosphate (ATP), which is the form of energy in the cell.

Muscle cells need a lot of energy so they have loads of mitochondria. In cells where there is a high energy demand, large numbers of mitochondria are found.

In heart muscle cells, about 40% of the cell is taken up by mitochondria. In liver cells, about 25% of the cell is taken up by mitochondria, and there are up to 2000 mitochondria per cell. The brain and eye also have a high density of mitochondria.

Think of mitochondria like a highly efficient furnace converting (burning) food, nutrients and oxygen into pure energy. Like any furnace, this process produces waste products, and in the mitochondria these waste products are known as “free radicals.” These free radicals can damage the mitochondria and the mitochondrial DNA. Foods high in antioxidants like blueberries can be very helpful in eliminating these free radicals.
Organs with a high energy demand (such as the brain, muscles, central nervous system and the eyes) are very vulnerable to damage of the mitochondria. There is no drug that can reverse the damage to mitochondria (just ask anyone suffering from Peripheral Neuropathy, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s or liver disease).
People with these diseases have far more mitochondrial damage than do healthy people, and this mitochondrial damage severely affects their energy and ability to enjoy life, which is why understanding mitochondria and how they function and how to repair them, is so relevant to understanding the causes and potential cures of many chronic diseases.