What is the Mitochondria?

The mitochondria is considered the power house of the cells, or the energy generators. They actually came from ancient bacteria and evolved in to mitochondria. We have thousands of mitochondria per cell, depending on the type of tissue. They generate ATP, which is your bodies energy currency, and make up about 1/3 of your body weight. We also get all out mitochondria from our mother.

How to Improve the Mitochondria

Think of you body as a battery, and the mitochondria are involved in everything that you do. Disease at the cellular level begins in the mitochondria.

What Damages the Mitochondria?

Sugar-

Sugar damages the mitochondria because it damages the metabolism. Also, it damages cellular respiration. Sugar also causes reactive oxygen species (ROS), which creates inflammation.

Deuterium-

Deuterium is a stable isotope of hydrogen. It is also twice as heavy as hydrogen. In water there is about 150 PPM of deuterium. When we have too much deuterium, it clogs the nanomotors in our mitochondria. You can deplete your deuterium levels naturally via fasting, or ketosis. You can also drink deuterium depleted water to lower your levels. This is a very effective way, but it’s not always necessary. A great brand is litewater.

Six Practices to Improve Mitochondria

1. Water

Roles that Water Plays

• In charge of the maintenance of DNA.
• Facilitates the reactions within the mitochondria, like the generation of ATP.
• The blood is about 90% water, and is required to remove waste.
• Required to move the lymphatic system. This is the foundation of the immune system, transporting waste, and immune cells throughout the body.
• Synovial fluid requires water to function properly.
• Water acts as a super highway to transport hormones, and neurotransmitters throughout the entire body.

How to get high quality water-

Springs-

This is the most optimal form of water, bar none. This is the cleanest, and vibrant water that exists, and has gone through the hydrological cycle. You can go to findaspring.com to find a spring near you.

Reverse osmosis-

Reverse osmosis is by far the best method for filtering tap water. This works to simulate the earths natural hydrological cycle by putting water through a semipermeable membrane that filters out everything down to .001 microns. Bacteria is .4 microns. This leaves you with very clean water, but there’s a problem. This leaves you with pure H2O, which doesn’t exist in nature. In nature water always has minerals in it, it’s alive. Drinking water without minerals can take minerals from your own body because it requires minerals to process water. Also, many under the counter tanks can fill with bacteria over time if they’re not cleaned, which many people don’t know about. So the solution to this would be to add minerals back to the water via a good quality sea salt, or liquid mineral drops. This will liven up the water. Also, a counter top reverse osmosis filter will be much easier to clean, so you don’t have the bacteria issue. Aquatru makes a great one, also they have an under the sink version with a novel cleaning solution.

2. Minerals

This coincides with water itself because it’s very conductive do to the mineral content. Pure H2O doesn’t exist anywhere in nature, water always has minerals dissolved into it.

Benefits of Salt

There is a difference between salt, and sodium, even know they are often lumped together. Salt, among many things, contains electrolytes, such as magnesium, sodium and potassium. These are responsible for signal transduction, or sending messages throughout your brain. Sodium is required to maintain proper fluid balance in the brain. Research done at Mcgill university showed that sodium functions an an on/off switch in the brain for neurotransmitters. This is very protective for the brain. It’s also important for muscle contractions. About 80% of the sodium that people are taking in is through processed foods. There is often access sodium in these foods, and it comes along with sugar, and other processed ingredients. When we see research on people, and sodium, they often don’t take into account the other things in the food. Sodium also helps regulate blood pressure. When people have high blood pressure, the force of that blood is damaging the blood vessels, and the cardio vascular system overall. Researchers at Harvard concluded that low salt intake is linked to insulin resistance in test subjects. Salt supports healthy hormone function because they are dependent on minerals.

What To Look For in Salt

Celtic sea salt-

This is harvested in the Brittany region of France. They use solar evaporation for the salt. There are three different types of Celtic sea salt. Light gray, fine ground, and flower of the sea. Light gray is a  coarse, moist salt. It gets it’s color from the clay lining of the salt pans. Fine ground is dried at a low temperature, then ground. Flower of the ocean is when they skim the crystals of the brine, so they are smaller, and more delicate. The flavor, and mineral profile are enhanced. This particular salt has over 80 minerals, and trace elements. All Celtic sea salt has an exquisite flavor.

Redmond’s Real Salt-

This salt is mined in Redmond Utah. Their use to be a sea called Sundance sea, after it dried up, it left a huge pristine underground salt deposit. There are no micro plastics in the salt because it comes from an ancient sea bed, long before plastic existed. It is also very mineral rich.

Himalayan Sea salt-

This salt is actually mined in Pakistan. It comes from eminence of ancient sea beds. The salt is made into big salt rocks, and then further processed. This salty is very mineral rich as well. It’s particularly high in iron. Himalayan salt  has an earthy taste. I do not recommend it as much anymore because a lot of them are contaminated with micro plastics.

3. Sunlight

Sunlight has largely been vilified by the media. People are afraid of the sun. The reality is that people who rarely go out in the sun are at greatest risk for skin cancer. People who gradually build their exposure have very low rates of skin cancer. The benefits of sunlight are enormous. It’s responsible for the synthesis of vitamin D, lowers blood pressure, increases nitric oxide, efficiency of the heart, regulates cholesterol, generates ATP, and influences countless other hormones and neurotransmitters.

How to Optimize Light

• Get as much light in the morning as possible. This helps set your circadian rhythm, and increase serotonin.
• Don’t overuse sunglasses, and sunscreen. Sunglasses block out much of the sun, thus blocking out the beneficial effects. Sunlight through the eyes actually stimulates the skin to produce melanin. Wear sunglasses only when it’s necessary, or at a party on occasion. Sunscreen often contains carcinogenic compounds ironically. It has it’s place in spot instances, but look for a natural version containing zinc oxide.
• Avoid artificial light at night, and during the day. They often contain light that is not full spectrum, and has an abnormal amount of blue light. Blue light at night especially disrupts the circadian rhythm.
• Use incandescent bulbs instead of LEDs, and fluorescents. Look for a high CRI (color rendering index), this is the ability to reflect natural light accurately. Look for a CRI of 97, or higher, incandescent bulbs have 100. The other thing to look for is degrees K. The sun has 5500 K generally, many LEDs have higher degrees than that. Look for bulbs below 3000 K. The other thing to consider is flicker rate. LEDs operate digitally using PWM (pulse width modulation), or the lights switching from full intensity, to switching off, over, and over again. This is called flicker. Even know you can’t perceive this happening consciously, your retina does. Research shows that this causes retina damage, and cell death. Incandescent bulbs don’t have these issues.
• Use photobiomodulation when necessary. PBM is the use of light therapy devices. Many of us, especially in the winter months do not get enough light. Infrared, and red light has been heavily researched for, nitric oxide, blood flow, stem cells, endocrine function, kidney function, and skin health. These light frequencies are between 750-1200NM of light. I use the Joovv light, as many other health experts recommend.
• Use light dims, and Iristech software. Light dims are dark stickers you can put over artificial light sources in your home. For example, the lights on the dishwasher, or other appliances. You can get these at light dims, or trudark.com. Iristech software is a software for the computer that takes out the blue light from the screen. It also modulates the flicker rate of the screen. This will make the screen much easier on your eyes, and overall health. Some people talk about F.lux software. This has benefits, but Iris has way more features.

4. Earthing

Earthing is the practice of being connected to the earth. It involves being connected via the skin, usually the feet. Standing in conductive sources like grass, sand, water, snow, and asphalt can have a tremendous amount of health benefits. Up until recent times, our ancestors were connected the the earth 24/7. Now, we are pretty much disconnected from the earth 24/7. Humans are conductive beings because of our mineral content. This is why we can be shocked, and why doctors use EKGs (electrocardiogram) and EEGs (electroencephalogram), which measures the electric energy the heart and brain puts out. The earth itself is very conductive, and is brimming with free electrons. A free radical essentially is an unpaired electron, and for it to be neutralized, it needs a free electron. This is what the earth is brimming with, and because were both conductive, it’s been shown that we can absorb these free electrons through the earth. We always talk about getting antioxidants through food, yes do that, but that doesn’t compare to the actual source of where it comes from, the earth.

How to Start Earthing

It is a good idea to ground at least 20-30 minutes per day in order to get the benefits. The term earthing usually refers to going on the earth, while grounding refers to using technology to accomplish this. Earthing is always better, but technology has its place. There is a variety of technologies out there from sleep mats, patches, and standing mats. A lot of the ones on the market are not very effective, and sometimes not safe. Low quality materials will off gas, causing other health issues. The one company that I know does a good job is ultimate longevity. They make great mats with high quality materials, and actually come with a way to see of the mat id grounded. There are also grounded straps that connect to shoes, as well as grounded shoes themselves.

5. Cold therapy

Cold therapy is know as a hormetic stressor. A hormetic stressor is something that you do in the short term that causes a bout of stress, but makes you more resilient in the long term. There are many hormetic stressors, but today I’m going to focus on cold therapy. Cold therapy is the process of using showers, ice baths, and cold plunges to train your nervous system to be more resilient to stress. This does just not relate to cold temperatures, but this will carry over in other areas of life.

6. Heat therapy

Sauna is a great way to engage in heat therapy.

Sauna Benefits

• Detoxification and skin health

Saunas are a great way to detox do to the promotion of sweat. Many toxins that you are exposed to are stored in fat cells, or adipose tissue. When your body heats up with a sauna, these toxins are readily available to eliminate.

• Muscular maintenance

Heat exposure has been shown to increase muscle hypertrophy, or the gain of muscle strength, and mass. It also helps you to keep muscle better when not exercising. Sauna exposure causes thermal stress in the body, which causes the body to release heat shock proteins to increase cellular antioxidant capacity, and enhance mitochondrial function.

• Insulin sensitivity

Saunas have been shown to increase insulin sensitivity. Insulin is the bodies main energy storing hormone. Having cells that are insulin sensitive means having a healthy blood glucose response. The way it works is actually by increasing blood glucose in the short term, but long term you have a more stable response.

• Immune system health

Saunas cause hyperthermia in the body, which simulates a fever to activate the immune system. Also, I mentioned that it activates heat shock proteins, which stimulates the innate, and adaptive immune system. Saunas boost nitric oxide as well This molecule is great for defending against infectious disease.

• Brain health

Saunas cause the release of beta endorphins, and opioid like peptides. You also will produce dynorphins, which are the opposite of endorphins. This is to say that feeling discomfort in the short term will lead you to be more sensitive to please in the long term. Dynorphins also help you to adapt to heat. The heat shock proteins help you produce brain derived neurotropic factor, which is known to enhance mood. BDNF also is neuroprotective, and stimulates neurogenesis, which is the creation of new neurons.

• Cardiovascular health

Saunas have similar benefits for the heart as exercise. Some of the benefits are improved endothelial function, improved blood pressure, and increased circulation. They also have been shown to dramatically reduce the risk of heart disease.