>> Dr. Terry Simpson: There's been a lot of talk about mitochondria

lately. You had RFK Jr claiming as he walked

through an airport he can see kids who are

mitochondrial challenged. Now, RFK Jr. Unless he's

developed a superpower to see inside living cells

at 40 yards past TSA, no, you can't diagnose that.

On the other end of the spectrum, you have Peter

Attia, the current longevity guru of billionaires,

doing three hour podcasts on mitochondrial decline

and longevity, all while hawking some AG1. And in

between, there's an entire wellness universe

selling mitochondrial detox powers, peptides,

resets, cleanses, and basically everything except

mitochondrial reality. So why are we talking about

them? Because it turns out mitochondria are, are

the reason we age, get old and lose our health

span. So today we are going to talk mitochondria

reality and why mitochondria matter, what they do,

how we age, and what you can do to keep them

really healthy without buying powdered unicorn

horn from the Internet. And, uh, please don't be

like RFK Jr. Let's stick with the science. Today

we're making sense of the madness of mitochondria.

I'm Dr. Hi, I'm Terry Simpson, your chief medical

explanationist. And this is Forku Fork University,

where we bust myths, make sense of the madness,

um, and explain that complicated world of food and

medicine without the woo m. Inside every single

cell of your body, except for red blood cells,

live tiny structures called mitochondria. They're

like their own little organ, and they behave like

a mini cell inside your own body. They have their

own set of DNA separate from the cell's DNA. They

divide independently and they act independently.

But what they are really important for is they run

the energy production of your cell and your life.

By the way, you inherit mitochondria from your

mother, which is why mitochondrial DNA is so

useful for tracing ancestry. And, and because the

mitochondrial DNA is pretty hardy, we can actually

get mitochondrial DNA almost from fossils. About a

billion and a half years ago, a, uh, primitive

cell swallowed a bacteria and instead of ingesting

it, they became symbiotic. One saying, you make

energy and I'll keep you safe. And that swallowed

bacteria and became the forerunner of what we call

mitochondria today. But more important, that

ancient merger between a single celled organism

swallowing another that became symbiotic was the

start of complex life, making all of us possible.

Now, what do mitochondria m do without the

biochemistry? Here's a version that won't give you

flashbacks to college Biochem Mitochondria take

glucose from your food, from your body and turn it

into ATP, the energy molecule your cells use to

lift your weights, pump your heart, fire a neuron,

whether it be in your brain or in your toe, and

heal tissue. Now, ATP supplements exist and they

don't work. If ATP worked orally, TikTok would be

full of glowing people. The only way you can

really get ATP usefully is by having your

mitochondria make it from the universal currency

of metabolism, glucose. Now there are, ah, young

mitochondria and there are old mitochondria. And

here's the difference. Young mitochondria are like

my teenage son. He's energetic, he's fast, he's

resilient, annoyingly efficient. And old

mitochondria, they kind of remind me of that 14

year PhD student who knows where every coffee shop

on campus is, drinks too much caffeine, has

written absolutely nothing on his dissertation

since 2011, but likes to flirt with the co eds and

wants to have that fatherly figure too. Well, you

know, old mitochondria are slow, but they leak

oxidative waste, lots of inflammatory tissues,

they cause mutations, they become unreliable. And

here's the kicker. Mitochondria constantly fuse

with one another and they divide. And if a damaged

mitochondria fuses with a healthy one, it's like

pouring spilled milk into a fresh gallon of milk.

You don't get half fresh milk, you don't get all

fresh milk. You get one giant ruined bit of milk.

That's why mitochondrial aging accelerates

cellular aging. Your body has a way to clean up

old mitochondria. It's called mitophagy. Sounds

like autophagy, but it's specific to mitochondria.

And it's a process where our cells have this great

recycling process where they clean out old damaged

mitochondria, replacing them with new one. But as

we age, the ability to clean out those old

mitochondria become older, the cleanup trough

becomes kind of tired. Broken mitochondria stay in

the system, dysfunction spreads, and the decline

is one of the fundamental drivers of aging. Now,

aging mitochondria don't just underperform, they

cause mischief. They leak oxidative stress

molecules. They confuse normal cell signaling,

triggering retrograde signaling, which is

distressed messages back to the nucleus of the

cell, changing gene expression and in dangerous

ways. Meaning that can actually promote pathways

that cancer cells use. Increased resistance to

chemotherapies and other therapies. It supports

metastasis and it drives Chronic inflammation. So

when the balance of fission and fusion fall apart,

mitochondrial chaos becomes cellular chaos. Aging

mitochondria aren't innocent. They actively

sabotage tissue. Let me give you an example. In

the brain. Now, your brain depends on mitochondria

more than almost any other organ. The neurons use

a massive amount of energy. So when mitochondria

slow down, thinking slows down, memory fades,

synapses weakens, inflammation rises. You move

more slowly, you move more hesitantly. In

Alzheimer's disease, for example, mitochondrial

dysfunction shows up early, even before major

amyloid buildup. Damaged mitochondria worsen the

inflammation in the brain, disrupt neuronal

communication and accelerate decline. And even

blood tests can show this. Older adults with

weaker mitochondrial function often perform worse

on memory tests, while stronger mitochondrial

performance predicts a, uh, lower dementia risk.

Put it simply, healthier mitochondria, healthier

brain. So why do we age? We age because our

mitochondria age. Now, we've talked in the last

two episodes about Nadia. People wanted to top off

the nad tank and sounds clever, but it just

doesn't reverse aging. And we talked about

urolithin A, which is an interesting molecule

because it improves endurance a little bit, but it

doesn't restore youth. What actively people are

looking for is a mitochondrial reset switch, which

we don't have yet. We want to have young

mitochondria. Well, there are things we can do

that actually improves mitochondrial health. Let's

start with resistance training. When you lift

weights or, uh, push resistance in any form, your

mitochondria literally are upgrading themselves.

Not only do you make better mitochondria, they

remodel. They have a stronger respiratory

capacity, they make ATP more efficiently, they're

more resilient, they are better with all of those

oxidative stress molecules. And that happens in

either young people or adult people. And what's

more, resistance training for builds new

myonuclei, which are control centers that stick

around for life and help you adapt faster next

time you train. Yes, muscle memory is real, and

mitochondria is part of the reason you need

examples of resistance training. Dumbbells,

resistance band, bodyweight, squats, wall sits,

push ups, pilates, kettlebells, chair based

resistance for older adults. If you push against

force, you're building mitochondria. Now, before

anyone asks, no, Vinyasa, yoga is not resistance

training. I know it's my favorite exercise. And

yes, I've tried to convince myself that holding

downward dog for 30 seconds counts as hypertrophy.

But my yogi swan does the power yogi interval

thing where Suddenly, you're doing planks, lunges,

and warrior poses at Mach 3. And by the end, I'm

sweating like I'm defending my PhD thesis. So,

technically, I get some strengthwear. But let's be

honest, if you ever hear me brag about yoga being

my resistance training, just pat me on the head

and hand the dumbbell a dumbbell. How about Zone

two exercise? That's good. So what is Zone two

exercise? Now, you can get some wearables, like a

whoop or a, uh, Withings, and you can see it. But

basically, if you can talk but you can't sing and

you're doing some exercise, that's great. For

mitochondria, sleep is a mitochondria's

powerhouse.

That's when mitochondria become repaired. Clean

out the old mitochondria. Sleep is your

superpower. We're going to have an entire episode

about sleep later on. Mediterranean diet. Wow.

Yep. Once again, it's protective. It's anti

inflammatory. It's proven. Now, there are other

things you can do. Here's what makes things worse.

High blood sugars, high blood pressure, high ldl,

they all destroy mitochondria at a record speed.

Take high glucose in patients who have

uncontrolled diabetes. Think of them as

caramelizing proteins. Think of hypertension or

high blood pressure as blasting organs like a fire

hose hitting a garden. Think of the high

cholesterol that oxidized LDL inflames arteries.

Now, we've known about high blood pressure since

fdr. Unchecked, high blood pressure destroys

longevity. And now we have better medications.

Aging is chemistry. It's not mystery. Okay, you're

going to hear some influencers insist insulin

resistance is the root of everything. And that

keto or carnivore solves aging, depression,

autoimmune disease, and probably your taxes. Peter

Attia and Taubes championed this model years ago.

They funded rigorous studies, and the model

failed. There's no metabolic advantage to low carb

eating. There's no magical fat burning, no insulin

trick. And mitochondria actually age a little

faster with low carb diets. But the coaches that

you'll find on TikTok, uh, Instagram and

everywhere else didn't change their program. They

just changed their affiliate links. What about

alcohol? Alcohol generates oxidative stress that

hits mitochondria like a wrecking ball. It damages

mitochondrial DNA, disrupts the fission and fusion

process of mitochondria, slowing recycling. You

know that hangover? It's your mitochondria saying,

please don't do that again. Now, this has been

kind of a graduate level mitochondria stuff, but

you probably figured out that some people use

mitochondria and mitochondrial disease the way

Deepak Chopra uses the word quantum as some

mystical placeholder for whatever they can't

explain. It's a God of the gaps thing again. But

mitochondria are real. They drive inflammation,

metabolism, cancer risk, cognitive function and

energy. Understanding them and keeping them

healthy helps us age better. Your mitochondria are

trying help them out. Research and writing for

this episode were done by me, Dr. Terri Simpson.

While I'm a board certified physician, I am not

your physician. If you're going to change your

diet, please see a doctor and a registered

dietitian. And for God's sake, if you're

undergoing surgery or seeing your doctor, tell

them m about every single supplement you take. All

things audio come from my friends at Simpler Media

and the chief mitochondrion himself, Mr. Evo

Terra. As always, Producer Girl Productions turned

what started out as a graduate level biochemistry

rant into something hopefully you can actually

use. Please subscribe and rate the show and follow

me on Substack, where you'll find the full

breakdown and references and your doctor's orders

and4q.com whichever one you like. Have a great

week. Take care of your mitochondria. They're

working hard even when you're resting. Hey, Evo,

how are your mitochondria doing? Well, after this

episode, I've got a whole new plan. Sleep more and

get my mitochondria to quit drinking. Right. Okay,

let's go with that.