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Ms. Mitochondria

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Magnesium, Vitamin D, Small Plate/Big Fork

Mitochondria are those teensy engines - tens of hundreds of millions of them throughout every cell in our body - that conduct our genetic orchestra and regulate how every cell divides, ages and ultimately dies. I don't know about you, but sometimes I feel as if my mitochondria are about ready to cry uncle or "enough already."

Mitochondria do get exhausted and more so as we age. I am sure those of you of an indeterminate age have experienced how your exercise is harder, how you can't do the length or the quality of exercise that you did even 10 years ago. How do we reconstitute them and make them feisty again?

Glutathione is the best way to do this but it is really difficult to absorb it in pill form. The best way to do glutathione is with injections, but short of this inconvenience, you can increase your glutathione levels by doing a combination of two things: 1) Glutathione powder (Designs for Health) sublingually with agave as a carrier and 2) by a product I carry called Glutathione Recycler (Apex Energetics) which contains all of the raw material from which glutathione is produced: N-acetyl-cysteine, L-glutamine, alpha lipoic, and it also contains cordyceps extract, gotu kola and milk thistle. Altogether a good product. Other supplements to wake up your mitochondria would be CoQ10, Acetyl L-Carnitine, vitamin B3, Phos Serine and Creatine.

Speaking of Creatine, this is a wonderful supplement to take before exercise as it gives you muscle energy through stimulation of and nutrition for the muscle mitochondria. The brand I use is a hi-energy serum from Muscle Marketing USA, called Femme which is the women's formula. I take 5 squirts under my tongue before a hike and I can hike longer, stronger and faster. I don't carry this product, but you can get it at Amazon.com.

What about helping your mitochondria recover after exercise? So you have taken your 5 squirts of creatine before your 4 mile hike which had you scampering up and down hills like a 25 year old. Now you are home and, uh oh, your legs are really tired and you are kind of achy and all you want to do is lie down and read the latest in the series of the J.R Ward vampire books. So, now you take D-Ribose, which is a type of sugar that apparently your mitochondria are quite fond of. Put two scoops in your post exercise smoothie for a total of 5 grams of D-Ribose (Progressive Labs' Bioenergy Ribose with Peak ATP). If you are really sore after exercise, pop a few quercitin and/or bromelain on an empty stomach.

There are a couple of other interesting things about mitochondria one of which gives a bit more credence to the power of women: Advantage, home team): Mitochondria are matrilineal which means that whether we are male or female, all of our mitochondria are inherited from our mothers and the source of energy that sustains all of us is exclusively derived from the women in our family tree. Follow the women in your family lineage: Were they long-lived? Any genetic diseases? Psychological stability?

The other interesting thing about mitochondria is that their DNA is arranged ring-like, which is identical to that of bacteria. So, are mitochondria bacteria? According to biologist, Lynn Margulis, that's entirely possible. It's complicated, but billions and billions of years ago, they evolved from aerobic bacteria which then entered into endosymbiosis with anaerobic bacteria and so became one organism, allowing the anaerobic bacteria to live in an oxygen rich environment. They did the endosymbiosis dance with each other for eons and became one, then they became many ones, then they expanded and expanded and over the course of billions of years, became... us.

The one sort of-but not really negative side of mitochondria is that during their cellular respiration with oxygen they create Reactive Oxygen Species or ROS for short, or as you may better know them, Free Radicals. Free radicals in moderate amounts are not a bad thing as they allow what's called "apoptosis ("A" as in A-frame, "Pop" as in your Dad, then "Tosis".) or programmed cell death. In addition to being the organelles which create and convert our fuel into energy, mitochondria also wield the power to decide which ailing cells should die in order to make room for newer healthier cells. The ailing cells include of course, a multitude of cancer cells which don't know how to take no for an answer  no apoptosis for me! - were it not for the Goddess of the Mitochondria and her Sword of Damocles.

For healthy mitochondria and to reduce an excess of ROS, just eat lots of vegetables and fruits and take an extra antioxidant or two in pill or liquid form.

Magnesium is the mineral that is required to sustain healthy blood vessels, generate cellular energy and maintain healthy nerve and muscle function. Magnesium is used in over 300 biochemical reactions throughout the body and is especially important to heart health. A study (Am Jour Clin Nut) using 88,000 women over a period of 30 years revealed that those with the highest magnesium levels had the highest degree of protection from sudden cardiac death. Well, sudden death doesn't sound so appealing to me, so I choke down enough magnesium per day just to the brink of diarrhea or to "bowel tolerance" and you should, too. I try to get about 400 + mgs per day and since it's impossible to get enough magnesium from your diet, get a good supplemental form from me or from the store. I use Perque's Magnesium Plus Guard.

Vitamin D Levels: I am still surprised/chagrined at how many MD's are still resistant to raising D levels beyond the current norms - a low of 30 is deemed "normal" - which are way too low. Not all docs are behind the times, mind you, some are really on board, but others are hopelessly out of date and think that vitamin 25 (OH) D levels of 30-40 are just fine, thank you. My credo and that of other researchers is that you don't stop with the supplementation until your levels are between 65-80 and that's conservative. But only at those higher levels do you get protection from cancer and a tremendous boost in your immunity, especially for cold and flu season.

William B. Grant, a researcher of vitamin D wrote a recent paper on D levels in the European Jour Clin Nut and hypothesized that if we could raise D levels globally to between 54 and 110, we could reduce global mortality rates and increase life expectancy by two years. Now, that's powerful stuff. Some vitamin D sensitive diseases that we suffer from globally include colorectal cancer, cardiovascular disease, respiratory infections, colds and flues, TB and diabetes.

We in Northern Colorado live at a latitude quite north of the equator, enough so that we cannot rely on sunshine to fill our vitamin D tanks. Even though our bodies manufacture vitamin D on exposure to sunshine, the levels in some northern countries (that's us) are so weak during the winter months that our body makes no vitamin D at all, meaning that dietary supplements are necessary. Even in the summer the sun's rays in NoCol are slanted so as to thwart the full absorption of the Sun's D. Maybe a trip to Cancun in winter will help a bit, but not enough to maintain the high levels mentioned above. I take vitamin D levels very seriously, so get yours measured before the cold and flu season in order to boost your immunity.

Small Plate-Big Fork: This is the latest ruse in controlling the amount of food that goes in your mouth. And it's a good one. I have been using a Small Plate (8-9inches in diameter, like a salad plate) lately for a dinner plate and it seems to work. My plate is appealingly full and my gullible eyes are stupidly happy at the amount of food on my plate: I have successfully deceived myself into thinking that I am about to eat a dinnersized portion, a lot of food. Yippee. But, con game or not, I think that over-all, I am eating less. The very newest is the Big Fork. After I stopped laughing, I realized that this is probably a good thing, too because when you are using a normal sized fork, you get the idea that you are not making much progress in "cleaning your plate" so there is some anxiety and fast eating and unconscious behavior and your appestat goes psycho. The larger fork gives the illusion of more food and less hurry. Maybe I will try my small plate with a children's size beach sand shovel. And what a pretty sight that will be.

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