Your Mighty Mitochondria and Why they are so Vitally Important to your Health, Well-being, and Function!

Continuation of Cancer Series and Sleep (Part IV), as well as better Understanding of and Support & Protection for, your Body from the effects of Chemotherapy and Radiation: A Holistic Approach.

Okay, I am going to try and keep this as science light, interesting, applicable, and in bite size format as I can, but I did choose the pen-name HolisticNERD for a reason lol so 🐻 (bear) with me 😆😇🤣

With a show of highlights, how many of you remember learning about cells and their organelles in science class?

Do you also happen to remember the Mitochondria? What comes to mind for you, anything? Does ATP ring a bell? How about how science explains that the mitochondria isn’t believed to be a part of our ‘natural existence’ within our human cells, but rather a synergistic relationship — much like our gut flora (in fact, very much like that considering it is believed that mitochondria are like a bacteria that has become ‘part of us’)?

Interestingly though…

“The mitochondria of living cells have been supposed by some investigators to be symbiotic bacteria… However, microchemical and physical differences between bacteria and such structures render such a supposition unlikely.” (1, page 38)

This beautiful textbook I found at a used bookstore was originally published in 1908 and reprinted in April 1942, soooooo why did I still learn many times over in the 2000’s that bacteria are a part of the evolutionary process…??? A great question for perhaps another time my friend, but interesting none-the-less — at least, to me that is lol 😇.

Anyway, regardless of agreement or distention about where it comes from and how/why it is a part of many various Eukaryote cell types, the mitochondria is termed ‘the powerhouse’ because it is what breaks down food into cellular and biological energy for the cells, various metabolic processes, and the overall organism of which it is a part of (so in this instance, humans). It is a part of the aerobic energy cycle, and without it, out lives would be completely different!

Before continuing on, let’s slow down for a second. Do you remember the key differences between the aerobic and anaerobic cycles of energy?

Anaerobic is without oxygen and aerobic is with oxygen. No, we aren’t going to also get into that in this article, but perhaps another time ;p

If not for our incredible mitochondria, we would rely on anaerobic created energy supply whiiiiich would only give us about 2–3 minutes worth at a time, aerobic energy is what allows us to sustain activities for extended periods of time.

What is truly crazy to me is how incredibly important the mitochondria is and how little information there is about it in aaaaallll the science, medical, anatomy, and various other books I have, as well as how little is taught!

“Mitochondria are also involved in other tasks, such as signaling between cells and cell death, otherwise known as apoptosis…

…Cell death, also called apoptosis, is an essential part of life. As cells become old or broken, they are cleared away and destroyed. Mitochondria help decide which cells are destroyed.

Mitochondria release cytochrome C, which activates caspase, one of the chief enzymes involved in destroying cells during apoptosis.

Because certain diseases, such as cancer, involve a breakdown in normal apoptosis, mitochondria are thought to play a role in the disease.”

From MedicalNewsToday, What are mitochondria?

Major takeaway from this is that, although the mitochondria plays many vitally imperative roles, cell death is of particular importance and significance. For the purpose of this article, we are going to focus on apoptosis, also known as cell-death.

To start, we have many different kinds/types of cells in our bodies and in various places within our bodies, each of which have their own personalized shelf-life. Our cells are constantly regenerating and also dying. Our bodies are very efficient at taking care of this whole process as well as the dead cells.

Our bodies are also incredible recyclers whenever and however possible — seriously, they are wicked cool! More on that in another article perhaps.

Now, this is hard to explain briefly but as best I can, our cells have their own individualized estimated life-span that is particular to each type of cell within each part of the body. It is important that our cells regenerate and then die when appropriate; however, sometimes our cells die too quickly ooooor not when they should — both can create problems.

Cancer exists in our bodies and our cells on a regular basis. Once again, our bodies are amazing at recognizing and eliminating unhealthy cancer cells regularly. It becomes a problem when our bodies are not able to do this process well, or keep up with the amount of cancer cells within the body.

For this reason, ‘proper’ cell-death is of the essence to maintain the health of our mitochondria since they are a major part of this process!

So, I know there is a lot of information coming at you and I promise to do my best to break it down for you, as much of this is surprisingly by memory and what I have already learned in my life, I am double-checking myself, relearning, and also learning new information as I go.

Stay with me here, it’s important.

Before continuing, something essential to note, is that as the mitochondria do their job of creating energy for the cells (ATP — Adenosine TriPhosphate), they are subject to high amounts of oxidative stress through the breaking of bonds. Idk how many of you remember, but the breaking of bonds and the creation of bonds takes energy and also can create energy — very confusing, I know. In this scenario (and many others in the body), the breaking of these bonds both takes energy to break it and also ‘releases’ energy with a higher output of energy made (basically).

That is, the SUM of the energy used to break the bond and the energy ‘made/created/released’ from breaking the bond is positive (it takes -5 measurement of energy to break and creates 6 measurements of energy from the break, you have a total or sum of 1 — so more energy is made than required).

Simply put, it is an energy exchange. Think about when you buy something with cash. Likely you will make an exchange and be given back your change — think of that as the ‘extra’ energy that is produced from your transaction. If however, you give the exact amount, you break even. Or, if you do not have enough, you have ‘lost’ energy — perhaps whatever you bought was more expensive than you expected, and at least as far as payment goes in our human world, you need to go back for more cash or pay by a different method, aka it takes more energy.

Now, when these bonds break there is high amounts of oxidative stress produced that can damage the mitochondria — the key is in protective agents liiiiiiiike anti-oxidants that can penetrate the cell membrane and protect the mitochondria!

“Melatonin protects mitochondria by scavenging reactive oxygen species (ROS), inhibiting the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (MPTP), and activating uncoupling proteins (UCPs). Thus, melatonin maintains the optimal mitochondrial membrane potential and preserves mitochondrial functions.” (2)

“Vitamin E. Not surprising to find extensive cell and animal research showing that the antioxidant vitamin E protects mitochondria from oxidative stress.” (3)

“ In addition to its role in regulating seasonal physiology and influencing the circadian system and sleep patterns, melatonin is involved in cell protection, neuroprotection, and the reproductive system, among other possible functions.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK550972/

“The mitochondria are especially susceptible to nutrient deficiencies, environmental toxins, and oxidative damage…

Research now shows that the primary source of oxidative stress in cells is leakage of oxygen and high-energy electrons from the mitochondria. This leakage increases when key nutrients/protective molecules are missing, such as the dose-dependent depletion of CoQ10 in patients taking statin drugs — a problem that has been known for a long time. Note in Figure 3 that the high-energy electrons are transported between the various mitochondrial complexes by CoQ10…

Mitochondrial reactive oxygen leakage is a strong predictor across species for longevity — the better a species does protecting its mitochondria, the longer a species lives…” (3)

Back to cell death, if our mitochondria are not healthy enough to do their many jobs, including cell-death, then those functions start to suffer as well. This changes everything, because by supporting and protecting our mitochondria through our diet and lifestyle, we better protect ourselves from various diseases and dysfunctions like cancer!

I wish I was writing this article much closer to having taken College Biology and Chemistry as I think I would be doing a better job, but hopefully that all made sense and was helpful. More to come soon, I promise.

This article is a building block and will make much more sense as to its relevance with sleep in the next article to come…

Don’t worry, I will also write-up an article about how to best support and protect your wonderful mitochondria ;p

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Hopefully coming soon:

Essential Oils and Pet Safety
More personal stories about Life, Trauma and Recovery, Emotional Abuse, Mental Health, Self-awareness and improvement, etc.
Coffee, Tea, Self-care, God, Health & Wellness, Fitness, Humanity, Philosophy, Kindness, and so much more :)
More about Cancer and Holistic additions to consider.

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