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Series Code: MH
Program Code: MH230001S
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00:01 We humans are powerful energy producers and I'm not talking
00:03 about the energy we produce in the sun from water 00:06 or nuclear fission, I'm talking about the energy we produce 00:10 inside of us 24/7. 00:12 Today we're going to be talking about our very own power plants. 00:15 I'm Rise Rafferty your host and I'll be going through this 00:18 series with you, a journey that I hope you'll take with me 00:21 all the way to the end, it's going to be great. 00:24 My goal is that you will be enlightened with information 00:26 and inspired by practical insights to help you flourish 00:30 because that's what you were made for. 00:50 You know I've always had questions about energy. 00:53 Is it one of those things that you either got or you don't. 00:57 You hear that people say they have run out of energy, 00:59 why is that? 01:01 Do we use it all up and there is no more left? 01:02 I'm talking about the energy we need to survive and function, 01:07 feel alive and vibrant and it turns out that energy has 01:10 a source. The food we eat, the air we breathe, 01:12 it's used to produce energy down deep inside ourselves. 01:17 If you haven't heard of them before, you are going to 01:20 be introduced to your mitochondria today, 01:23 the key player in energy production. 01:25 If we want to understand where energy comes from, 01:28 or why we don't have as much energy as we used to, 01:30 we got to start here. 01:32 You can't have health and you can't address disease 01:35 unless you have energy to do that and the only place in the 01:38 body that creates energy that the other tissues, organelles 01:44 or cells the body can use is mitochondria. 01:48 So mitochondria are the generators of the cell. 01:51 Just like counties will pipe in gasoline in order to generate 01:57 electricity, you have no electricity without gasoline. 02:00 Likewise in our body you have no electrical energy, 02:05 no nervous energy, no energy at all without functioning 02:09 mitochondria. And so in order to have even minimal health 02:13 you have to have adequate mitochondrial function 02:17 and production of that currency of energy in the body called ATP 02:21 but in order to have optimal health you have to have abundant 02:25 amounts of ATP but used in the right way. 02:30 In any part of the body, every cell needs ATP, 02:33 in fact, we produce our weight in ATP every day. 02:38 Cars use gasoline, jets use you know jet fuel, 02:43 and our bodies use ATP. 02:46 Well, mitochondria are centrally generators for the cell. 02:50 I liken it to the car engine, without a car engine 02:55 you can't drive a car and the car engine will take gas, 03:00 take fuel and convert it into energy that can be used by 03:04 the car, so likewise a mitochondria will take 03:08 food energy like fats and carbohydrates and will convert 03:15 those directly only into the only energy that the rest of the 03:18 body can use and that's ATP so without Mitochondria 03:23 you don't have any ATP and without any ATP which is the 03:27 currency of energy for the body you can't be alive. 03:31 You can't heal, you can't be healthy, so mitochondria 03:35 are critical for the body to work in the end. 03:39 I want you to see what we are talking about. 03:42 This is a mitochondria and we've got a lot of them 03:52 It's because there are up to 10s of thousands of a single neuron 03:55 that keeps the sparks flying in your brain. 03:58 Interestingly enough even though the brain is only about 2% 04:03 of our body weight, it actually consumes 20 to 25% or our energy 04:08 and as many people probably know mitochondria are 04:13 the energy powerhouses for the cell and for the body. 04:18 And so what that means is that the mitochondria have a 04:23 huge role in making sure that our brain has sufficient energy 04:26 to do the work that it needs to do. 04:28 So one example of how much energy our brain really 04:33 burns is when we look at elite chess players. 04:36 Back in 1984 during the world chess championship 04:40 Anatoly Karpov actually lost 22 pounds over the course 04:45 of several months because he was thinking so hard 04:49 you could almost see the smoke coming out of his ears. 04:51 But it's actually estimated that elite chess players 04:56 can burn 6,000 calories a day without even moving out of their 05:01 seats, that's how many calories we can burn, so in that case 05:05 they actually called off the whole championship 05:08 because they were so concerned about his health because 05:11 he was losing so much weight just from thinking so hard. 05:14 And the brain is the organ in our body that actually utilizes 05:19 the most energy. 05:20 Your brain is who you are, the very organ of survival 05:24 and what determines in you are going to survive from 05:26 minute to minute, it expects to be challenged by the environment 05:31 it assesses the environment on a constant basis even when 05:34 we're not thinking, even when we are sleeping it's working. 05:38 In fact, it's not some of it's best work during sleep. 05:40 So, those 87 billion neurons and by the way ten times 05:45 glial cells, these supporting structures we'll talk about 05:48 and all the vasculature, in fact it's the most vascular organ 05:52 in the body requires energy, it requires energy constantly 05:56 and it requires clean energy and if that wasn't enough, 05:59 it's also encased in this closed in environment by what's called 06:04 blood-brain barrier where not much can get in and out 06:08 without being surveilled so it is an incredibly 06:12 overwhelmed organ and we have to be aware of that. 06:15 Because every time, every single time we give it food, 06:19 it either does good or it does damage. 06:23 Every single meal that we have has consequences, 06:26 now that doesn't mean that we have to be so cognizant 06:28 that we have to make it difficult on ourselves and 06:31 create stress, that in itself is damaging. 06:33 But we have to be aware that the food that we eat 06:36 is going to not just give us energy, it creates byproducts, 06:41 it creates waste, more waste in the brain than any other 06:45 organ and it has to be eliminated and that's a problem 06:48 in itself, that's where sleep comes in. 06:50 So that's why the brain is so important and what we 06:54 give the brain is so important from minute to minute. 06:57 It's an incredible system that requires constant energy making 07:02 it creates the energy in the body, you give it glucose 07:05 it gives you what's called ATP which in the energy 07:08 in the body and different things can actually go into the 07:12 mitochondria like ketones and all this noise that we've 07:15 been hearing but glucose is it's preferred energy source 07:19 and when you give it glucose, it gives you energy 07:22 And if you give it clean energy, glucose, it give you energy 07:26 but without waste products but if you don't give it 07:29 clean energy it will actually create a lot of waste. 07:31 In fact, it can create actually what is called free radicals 07:34 which will destroy the cell, the DNA and so you have to be 07:38 aware of that kind of a system in every single one of our 07:43 87 billion Neurons and it's kind of daunting but 07:47 it's also kind of empowering because with a simple choice 07:51 of movement, of eating, not some kind of bio-hacking. 07:56 Simple clean living and I'm over simplifying but it's not 08:01 when the numbers, when we speak about numbers that are just 08:04 overwhelming every single time that mitochondria can be 08:08 regenerated and given more energy and longevity or aged 08:13 that's the significance. 08:15 Not only is energy produced but a lot of damage 08:17 can actually start here because the cascade of energy production 08:20 can also create free-radicals and start the damage process. 08:24 So mitochondria is definitely involved in almost all 08:27 nerve degenerative processes, we don't know how much 08:31 and to what extent or what initiates the process 08:33 but it goes without saying that is probably one of the most 08:36 critical elements in the pathway of neuro-degeneration. 08:39 You know if our mitochondria aren't functioning well, 08:42 then we are going to have a whole host of problems. 08:44 So mitochondria is processing all of our energy it uses and 08:49 processes our oxygen and so with this amazing part of our cell 08:56 it really allows us to function and like I said if we don't 08:59 have that working well, then we're going to struggle 09:02 in so many different ways. 09:03 So, when mitochondria make energy they also produce 09:08 byproducts that can become damaging. 09:10 These byproducts have a name, free-radicals. 09:13 You can also call them reactive oxygen species 09:16 but who wants to say that? 09:18 So we're going to call these free radicals ROS 09:21 and if you haven't met ROS before let me give you a quick 09:24 surface level heads up, ROS is a bit of a unstable guy who 09:29 can impulsively fly off the handle, be uncontrollable, 09:32 and behave erratically only thinking about himself 09:35 rather than what's good for the other. 09:38 Now you may think I'm describing someone you know 09:40 but remember we're describing ROS. 09:42 ROS can actually wreak a lot of damage inside the cells 09:46 causing stress and distress when he shows up unless he's 09:50 kept in check. When kept under control he actually can 09:53 accomplish some good destroying disease-causing agents 09:56 like viruses or taking out damaged cells, 09:59 he's also involved in detoxification and wound healing. 10:02 What keeps ROS on the straight and narrow though 10:06 is if there are not too many of him and if he has a 10:09 good woman by his side to keep him simmered down and balanced. 10:13 That woman's name is antioxidant, when ROS and 10:17 antioxidant connect all is well. 10:20 Next, you'll be hearing from Dr Annabelle Facemire 10:22 she's a cardiologist who's going to be talking about 10:25 how poor mitochondrial function can result in heart disease. 10:28 hardening of the arteries, hypertension and heart failure, 10:31 true to who she is, Dr. Facemire packs a lot 10:35 in a small package and she's going to be telling us 10:37 more about ROS. 10:38 So, there is a growing evidence on our traditional risk factors 10:43 and so I just mention a few. 10:45 You know smoking, high cholesterol, diabetes, 10:49 sedentary lifestyle, obesity, those traditional risk factors 10:54 we thought okay that was just kind of the big micro picture 10:58 okay, this is the cause. 11:00 But all of this caused something called oxidative stress 11:05 at the level of the mitochondria and that contributes to 11:09 atherosclerosis, so during this reaction that occurs in the 11:15 mitochondria there is a balance, the mitochondria is the... 11:20 we call it the powerhouse and it causes ATP energy. 11:24 But right now it just involves so many other functions 11:30 but just to go to the first one which was produce energy 11:34 in ATP, so you produce energy in ATP and then you have 11:37 a reactive molecule a reaction oxygen species so you produce 11:44 ATP and that's kind of the leftover is reactive oxygen 11:48 species and then the mitochondria have some 11:51 antioxidants that balance that reactive oxygen species 11:55 and make things really neutral. So that oxygen species does not 12:03 damage your epithelium so all that is balanced but when we have 12:08 triggers like we mentioned before, the factors of obesity 12:12 and sedentary lifestyle and cortisol and high glucose 12:17 you know, high sugar and high cholesterol all that imbalance 12:21 the reactive oxygen species cannot get rid of it 12:25 because the antioxidants are the cells are trying to balance the 12:29 other ones so this reactive oxygen species are starting to 12:33 build-up and that really causes the oxidation and damage 12:38 and the term is that that cell actually is going to 12:42 early death, we call it Aptosis which is a cell problem 12:46 death but it occurs early 12:48 And when something is dead in our body there is some 12:51 macrophages are ready to attack and said okay, 12:54 you're not supposed to be here, I'm going to eat you up and then 12:57 break you down. And so that reaction, that inflammation 13:02 is part of the plaque formation. 13:04 We know that one-third of every myocardial cell, it has these 13:14 mitochondrial DNA and there are mutations that occur 13:19 in the DNA, in the mitochondrial DNA is responsible for the 13:24 oxidative stress this function of the mitochondria deficient 13:27 of energy production and as a result cell dysfunction and 13:32 death and so heart failure has been associated. 13:36 When the heart becomes weak, has associated with this 13:39 oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction. 13:42 Okay, so remember ROS causes stress, oxidative stress, 13:46 when he does not have antioxidant by his side 13:49 if the damage becomes too much, we got problems 13:52 plaque builds up in the arteries, we experience 13:54 blood vessel blockages, hypertension and that's just 13:56 looking what happens is a cardiovascular system. 13:59 The mitochondria perform several different roles in our health 14:06 of course, everybody knows about how mitochondria 14:09 are the powerhouses of the cell and ATP is produced and 14:15 that's a big one. But it also plays a role in calcium, 14:19 homeostasis, it regulates stem cells, it regulates 14:23 whether cells live or die and of course that... 14:26 if we can't whether cells live or die then we're more prone to 14:31 cancer, you know, but mitochondria play a huge role 14:38 with ATP right, with energy and when we don't have that 14:41 energy, things start going downhill. 14:43 You know we all learned in high-school that the 14:46 mitochondria supplies the cell with the energy currency 14:49 so the mitochondria as we've learned produces this molecule 14:55 called ATP and ATP is then serves as an energy source 14:58 throughout the cell for it funds, let's say FUNDS, funds 15:02 physiology that needs to take place in other parts 15:05 of the cell comes from the mitochondria. 15:07 It turns out that mitochondria is involved in quite a number 15:11 of things besides just turning out energy. 15:14 Evidently the mitochondria as I understand it anyway 15:18 is so important to supporting the function of whatever that 15:21 specialized cell is supposed to do and all of our cells are 15:24 specialized, they all do something that other cells 15:26 can't do. They're all dependent on the functioning mitochondria, 15:31 you might ask what happens during the day 15:34 when we are not asleep and our melatonin levels in our blood 15:37 are very low, our pineal gland isn't making melatonin. 15:41 It turns out the mitochondria themselves can produce melatonin 15:45 for their own use and that happens during the day 15:47 and do you know what the stimulus is? 15:49 No. It's sunlight. It's not ultraviolet, 15:53 turns out its infrared light from sunlight gets through 15:58 our clothing penetrates our clothing and our skin and 16:01 gets into our system in a way that ultraviolet light doesn't. 16:04 And apparently, it's infrared light that stimulates 16:07 mitochondria to make melatonin within them that helps them 16:11 to clear out the dangerous reactive oxidant species. 16:14 That is fantastic, so basically melatonin is behaving as a 16:18 antioxidant, an internal antioxidant. 16:20 Evidentially, who knew it, melatonin turns out to be a 16:23 powerful antioxidant. Ummu. 16:26 Neutralizing all those free radicals that could 16:29 potentially do damage. 16:31 Yeah, In the endocrine system some of the most famous 16:35 hormones, that is hormones that everyone knows about 16:37 are produced in glands in which it's the mitochondria 16:43 of the cells of those glands that are actually producing 16:46 those hormones so the steroid hormones are produced 16:50 within the mitochondria of the cells that produce them. 16:52 So those are the hormones like cortisol, and maybe we've heard 16:57 of aldosterone, but testosterone, and estrogen, 17:00 actually, Vitamin D is a steroid hormone, it is produced within 17:05 mitochondria. So the mitochondria are um, 17:10 what's the word I want? indispensable for the production 17:15 of these hormones. So we have to support our mitochondria 17:19 if we expect to have functioning healthy adrenal glands 17:22 or gonads, ovaries, or testes and placenta. 17:26 You know what's really interesting about the 17:28 mitochondria is that they are not only involved 17:30 in producing energy but they are also involved even in 17:35 synthesizing in producing the hormones, cortisol for example. 17:38 So stress hormones, all the steroid hormones even our 17:43 sex hormones like testosterone, and estrogen, 17:46 and that sort of thing are actually produced by 17:49 the mitochondria. 17:50 On top of that melatonin is even produced by the mitochondria 17:56 as well, and so all of these things that the mitochondria do 18:00 are actually very important to mental health. 18:04 Dr. Shirazi mentioned that the brain produces more waste 18:09 than any other organ and when is that waste eliminated? 18:13 When we sleep. Remember that? While we're sleeping 18:16 the mitochondria in the brain produce melatonin and melatonin 18:20 informs us that it's bedtime. 18:23 But it also happens to be a powerful antioxidant 18:26 for calming ROS down, preventing him from doing damage. 18:29 It's a strong woman to stand by ROS' side which can keep 18:33 the mitochondria healthy and as a result, protect the brain. 18:37 And so some of the things we know are beneficial to 18:40 mitochondria are kind of the usual things that support 18:45 good health so, we know quite a lot now about how exercise, 18:48 directly stimulates mitochondrial function 18:52 stresses them actually, causes them to increase their 18:55 own stress level by the production of what are called 18:57 reactive oxygen species forces the cells to sharpen up their 19:05 mitochondria and produce more mitochondria for the production 19:07 of more energy and that's a direct effect of exercise 19:10 of our muscles evidently, good sleep apparently supports 19:16 mitochondria in some really interesting ways that I've just 19:19 recently learned about. 19:20 We've all heard of melatonin and how melatonin comes from 19:24 our pineal gland when the sun goes down and the sky darkens 19:28 and we're designed to go to sleep after the darkening 19:32 and our environment, the pineal gland secretes melatonin 19:36 which has the sort of go to sleep effect on all of our 19:39 systems, all of ourselves. 19:40 One thing that melatonin also does evidently is affect the 19:46 mitochondria in such a way that it helps them to 19:48 clean up the waste and the reactive oxygen species 19:51 that they have built up during that day's activity 19:56 so this is one way in which good sleep at night is 20:00 vitally important for your daytime function. 20:02 We know that our glands, our mitochondria in our glands will 20:05 function better if we slept well at night. 20:07 And evidently, melatonin has an important function in that. 20:11 What causes aging is lack of hormones or lack of energy 20:18 okay, it's not chronological it's not age. 20:22 If you get the hormones back up where they used to be, 20:26 doesn't have to be at reproductive levels but 20:29 back up where they should be and that includes things like 20:34 thyroid, that includes the sex hormones, that includes the 20:39 adrenal glands, all those things. 20:41 For a lot of people, they are under such stress 20:45 that they start aging prematurely because they can't 20:52 handle the stress and especially as a person gets older 20:58 they come in and talk about energy problems. 21:01 And what I hear very classically is but what do you expect 21:06 for my age, and I always tell them, age has nothing to do 21:11 with this, and this is not acceptable to be saying it's 21:15 okay because of my age. 21:16 All of us should be feeling good, all of us should have 21:20 the energy we need and so we look at an energy factor 21:24 to figure what else is going on? 21:27 Are we dealing with the fact that they're not 21:32 eating properly? Is it that they are not sleeping well? 21:35 That goes back to those factors again and so it's important 21:39 to get at the bottom of what the problem is. 21:42 I can make a diagnosis but that doesn't necessarily 21:45 tell me why they have the problem going on. 21:48 And frequently in medicine, I was trained that's you know, 21:54 what we are doing, we are trying to make a diagnosis. 21:56 And the reason for that is so that we know what drug, 22:01 well you don't know but you look for a cause. 22:03 And so, you have to do deeper on some of these issues 22:07 otherwise, you're missing things completely. 22:09 Well, like any doctor when a patient comes in who's new 22:12 and you ask them, why are you here? 22:14 And they usually tell you a series of what brings them in. 22:19 What I try to do is I go over five different things that 22:24 they may not bring up, I want to know how is their energy, 22:27 do they sleep, how's their mood, do they have any problems 22:35 with pain so those things are important okay, 22:39 so you're going a little bit beyond to figure out 22:41 what you're looking for is, is there something else causing it? 22:45 Is it a simple problem or are we dealing with something deeper 22:49 that's the question. 22:51 If we expect to have healthy glands, we have to care 22:53 about them and that includes caring about our mitochondria. 22:56 You know if our mitochondria aren't functioning well, 22:59 then we're going to have a whole host of problems. 23:01 So mitochondria are processing all of our energy 23:04 it uses and processes our oxygen, and so with this 23:09 amazing part of our cells, it really allows us to function 23:14 and like I said if we don't have that working well, 23:17 then we're going to struggle in so many different ways. 23:20 Yeah, a couple of the different ways that we can struggle 23:23 is with pain and fatigue. 23:25 You know a lot of people are walking around fatigued, right? 23:29 And so one of the first things you have to think about is 23:32 what's happening to the mitochondria because they're 23:34 the powerhouse of our body. So this fatigue is really 23:39 one of the first things you go after is the mitochondria. 23:41 I mean that's one of the first things I think of 23:43 when I think of fatigue is what's with the mitochondria, 23:46 why are they being dysfunctional? and what can we do to 23:48 sort of unravel what those issues are and start addressing 23:52 them and so often medicine will want to say lets medicate 23:58 right and so that's one way to look at it. 24:02 The other way to look at it is to figure out what's causing 24:05 what's causing the fatigue, how could the mitochondria or 24:08 other factors be playing a role? 24:09 You know Rise, chronic pain is extremely prevalent 24:14 in fact the National Health Interview Survey that came 24:18 in 2019 by the CDC showed that over 50 million adults suffer 24:25 with chronic pain. The financial cost of chronic pain 24:29 is incredible also, in fact, the cost of chronic pain 24:32 in America is equal to or greater than that 24:37 of cardiovascular, diabetes, and a cancer combined 24:42 it's absolutely incredible. 24:43 Thank you so much for joining us today, I know that we started 24:49 this series by taking a deep dive into the topic of energy, 24:53 it's a heavy topic and I promise there's no test 24:57 or quizzes, it's purely for the joy and the blessing of learning. 25:00 When you think of getting more energy, what comes to your mind? 25:04 Maybe coffee, energy drinks, protein bar, they can 25:09 provide some umpf, but I know that it's not the real thing. 25:12 When we look deeper past stimulants and buzzes 25:16 and look deep inside of ourselves, past the skin, 25:19 the organs, the tissues, into the cells themselves 25:22 we find intricate machinery like the mitochondria. 25:26 We see ourselves in the new light as being these incredible 25:31 yes, even powerful energy producers. 25:34 Today you met some of the doctors who will be with us 25:38 through the rest of the series sharing on a wide variety 25:41 of topics from the lens of their professionaltese 25:44 We have Neurologists, we have cardiologists, pain specialists 25:49 and endocrinologists, and ear, nose, and throat doctors, 25:53 psychiatrists, researchers, and a physical therapist, 25:57 I really value the topics we're going to be addressing 26:00 as they are all at the root of our health. 26:03 I hope you'll stay with me and cover subjects like Gut Health. 26:07 Inflammation, and how various lifestyle information 26:10 factors impact our physiology on so many different levels 26:14 I'll be here with you hopefully making things a bit easier to 26:18 understand like my ROS Analogy. I hope that worked. 26:21 Knowing more about our- selves, how our mitochondria 26:25 plays such a pivotal role in health or disease 26:28 it's going to help us take better care of the most 26:32 amazing thing on the planet and that's you. 26:36 You were made for health. |
Revised 2025-03-12