This series of blogs on Mitochondria is from the notes that accompany a presentation at the Vancouver Island Herb Gather June 11, 2022.

In our first 2 blogs in this series (Blog 1, Blog 2), we looked at the basic function of the mitochondria and how they affect our body if they become dysfunctional.

There is emerging evidence that many of these side effects are caused by drug-induced impairment of mitochondrial function and eventual mitochondrial dysfunction.

In an aging population, age-associated drug toxicity is another key area of focus as most patients on medication are older. 

This is a growing area, with research to repurpose current medications affecting mitochondrial function being assessed in cancer, the immune system and neurodegenerative disorders including Parkinson’s disease.

• Statins are a particular dislike of mine. They inhibit the body’s own production of coenzyme Q10, the most important antioxidant (the ‘oil of the engine’) in mitochondria. 
• Antibiotics may inhibit mitochondrial function because, from an evolutionary perspective, mitochondria are bacteria. As with all drugs, they must be used with care. 
• General anesthetics may trigger MD and surrounding such are other stresses (worry about the hospital admission, etc.) which obviously are contributory straws that may break the camel’s back. 
• Major and minor tranquillizers, antidepressants and antipsychotics may all cause fatigue.
• Bisphosphonates, such as algedonic acid to treat osteoporosis, inhibit mitochondria.

The Road Map 

There are some powerful analogies which help us to understand why we suffer the symptom of fatigue and where we are on the recovery path. 

Fatigue is the symptom we experience when energy demand exceeds energy delivery: 

Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery. 

Mr. Micawber in David Copperfield (Charles Dickens) 

. . . and so, it is with energy. This gives us the overall strategy: look at how energy is being delivered in the body and at how it is being spent. It is attention to both sides of the equation that gets the result.

Energy delivery in the body

Thinking of the body as a car: 

Engine                                                                 mitochondria

Fuel                                                                     diet and gut function 

Oxygen                                                                lungs

Fuel and oxygen delivery                                heart and circulation 

Accelerator pedal                                               thyroid gland 

Gear box                                                             adrenal glands 

Service and repair                                             sleep

Tool kit                                                                methylation cycle 

Cleaning – oil                                                      antioxidants

Catalytic converter                                            detoxification

A driver                                                               the brain in a fit state! 

Energy expenditure in the body 

Two thirds of all energy spent goes into staying alive – the so – called basic metabolic rate (BMR). This means we are left with one third of our energy to spend physically, mentally and reproduction.

To use yet another helpful metaphor, the two potential holes in what can be called ‘the energy bucket’ are the emotional hole and the immunological hole. The latter is a major problem – many cases of MD have an infectious trigger. At the same time, be aware that the immunological hole embraces not just chronic infection but also allergy and autoimmunity. This helps us with the naming of the disease since names should reflect the underlying causes: 

We must ask the two questions: 

• Is our energy pot, or ‘bucket’, too small? 
• Are there wasteful holes in it?

We can maximize the delivery of energy by looking at factors such as: 

• mitochondria 
• diet and gut function 
• thyroid gland 
• adrenal gland 
• sleep 
• methylation cycle 
• antioxidants 
• detoxification 

We can minimize wasteful energy expenditure by looking at such factors as: 

• the ‘emotional hole’ – stress and worry 
• the ‘immunological hole’ – infection, allergy, autoimmunity, inflammation 

Susceptible people with predisposing Issues

Diet: Our modern Standard American Diet (SAD) is rich in calories but quite deficient in micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, etc.). High carbohydrate diet helps create metabolic syndrome, which is clearly a precursor to diabetes, central obesity, cardiovascular issues, cancer, and dementia. This often creates a viscous cycle as the suffers do not have enough energy to cook. This results in convenience foods as they need little preparation. The diet is high in breads, cereals, biscuits, chips, fruit, sweets, chocolate, and dairy products. These foods unfortunately also provide a very short-term addictive buzz of energy. That edges us deeper into metabolic syndrome, fermented gut, allergies, and lower micronutrients. This of course deplete the energy more. This often drives the person to self-medicate with caffeine, nicotine and other substances that can deplete them even more. 

Chronic lack of Sleep: All life forms need a window of time to shut down so that the internal biochemistry can heal and repair itself. 

Sleep is often disturbed, not only because of pain or discomfort, but just because we wake up. In our modern lifestyle most feel that they need an uninterrupted stretch of sleep. But when you look at historical records that was seldom the case. Many people sleep in 2 – 3 stages. The first sleep: late evening through to after midnight (3-4 am). Second sleep: after being up for 30 to 120 minute doing mundane things let say 4 – 7 am. Third sleep: a possible afternoon snooze (catnap) of 15 – 60 min to top the tanks up to do the chores in the late afternoon though evening. Often this is a common cycle relate to poor fuel delivery. This can also be called ‘hypoglycemia’ – that is, a lack of sugar (glucose) in the bloodstream – but we cannot take such a simplistic view anymore because there are at least three other fuels that the body can use. 

Other ways to get energy are:

• short – chain fatty acids from the fermentation of fiber in the lower gut
• new glucose derived from protein, 
• fuel from fat 

It seems to be a feature of MD sufferers that they do not easily switch into burning fat as a fuel. This lack of energy delivery often manifests with vivid dreams or sweating or waking in the night. 

Personality: The people in whom MD often takes a hold are those driven, workaholic, goal driven, perfectionist, ‘never say die’ characters. This is because these people ignore the normal cues that make us stop striving – they continue despite symptoms of fatigue and pain to achieve. The achievement is at the expense of their health. These same people are more likely to turn to addiction to mask symptoms in order that they can keep on going.

Aging

Youth is wasted on the young.

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

There are many things a person can do to ensure longevity but sooner or later it take more and more energy to create enough power our organs. After a while, we are going to reach the limit and the energy gap narrow until we just have enough energy to say goodbye.

Increasing Stressful event or lifestyle

Many people seem to thrive on stress but in the long run it appears to be a downward vicious spiral, being propped up by addiction, compromises and just trying to put one’s body through it. These stresses often come to a tipping point that is very hard to come back from. I like to say that the energy put out in these situations is like borrowing money on high interest credit cards. Sooner or later, it must be paid back, which is hard as the payment just seem to be going to interest charges. 

Solar Flares: radiation from solar flares has shown to have a strong negative effect on mitochondria function responsible for a large range of health issues for astronauts. This has even started a robust debate if humans can travel, or spend long time in space, like a journey to mar. This ‘space weather’ does not affect most human on earth due to the ionosphere but has been shown to effect mitochondrial health of some sensitive people on earth. 

Chemical Triggers

Many prescription drugs inhibit mitochondria directly – the best example would be beta blockers. Nearly all my MD patients are made worse by these. In addition, we have:

• Statins are a particular dislike of mine. They inhibit the body’s own production of coenzyme Q10, the most important antioxidant (the ‘oil of the engine’) in mitochondria. 
• Antibiotics may inhibit mitochondrial function because, from an evolutionary perspective, mitochondria are bacteria. As with all drugs, they must be used with care. 
• General anesthetics may trigger MD and surrounding such are other stresses (worry about the hospital admission, etc.) which obviously are contributory straws that may break the camel’s back. 
• Major and minor tranquillizers, antidepressants and antipsychotics may all cause fatigue.
• Bisphosphonates, such as algedonic acid to treat osteoporosis, inhibit mitochondria.

Silicone 

Silicone is in a league of its own. With silicone I am not just looking for the obvious breast implant or silicone injections – many other prostheses contain biologically active materials.

• Physical Trigger
• Emotional triggers
• PTSD
• Electrical Intolerance
• Symptoms of severe MD 
• Light intolerance
• Noise intolerance 
• Heat intolerance 
• Solar Flares
• Cold intolerance 

In Part 4 of this blog series, we are going to look at the role of Mitochondria in various health concerns.