Mitochondria and our energy and health

[LynneG]

Mitochondria 1,000,s in every cell (except blood cells) many more 1,000s in every cell in high energy requiring organs - Brain, Heart, Eye. Mitochondria produce ATP our energy

Last decade they discovered that mitochondria not only feed on the nutrients we provide (our food) so diet crucial for mitochondrial health. but they now know they feed on light - an amazing breakthrough in understanding. Kind of important for those of us who do not have optimun energy. Thyroid issues, which is why I am posting. Remember everything is connected to everything else, we have one whole body when it comes to function

Feeding/nourishing our own mitochondria with light is also crucial. The sun obviously provides the full spectrum of light, so becareful re sunscreen use/ covering up when you feel you have had enough sun exposure is the best sun screen. Also becareful about over use of sun glasses. Your mitochondria in your eye cells need light too.

The spectrum of red and near infrared light - specific wavelength frequencies can improve numbers of mitochondria and quality of their function, amount of ATP produced. I bought a Redlight combi, combination of Redlight and Near Infrared light to shine on my thyroid daily. I did get an improvement in my TSH blood test which had been steadily climbing over years. Not had my next annual blood tests since

I listened to the Mitochondrial summit, a large number of interviews of mitochondrial experts. I was blown away by the interview of British research expert Nicki Gratrix whose interview was entitled 'the Cell Danger Response' which is a bit like fight or flight but at the cellular level affecting the mitochondria.

Simply, our Vagus Nerve - the nervous system connection from the brain stem to the rest of the organs in the body is likely to have 2 parts within the parasympathetic (rest heal,digest functions). The Dorsal and the Ventral halves.

If the body is attacked by an insult/enemy - eg chemical, viral, bacterial etc the Vagus Nerve is switched to the dorsal side in order to divert resources to protection pathways. The body has a finite number of resources - she quoted similar to London in the Blitz in WW11. Defence mode and rationing. In Dorsal mode - normal healing / repair is suspended until the attack is over so production of ATP is very limited. Which is why for instance when we have flu/illness we have little energy and know we have to rest. The trouble is that even when the original threat/insullt has long been eradicated, the mitochondria can still be stuck in dorsal mode when they need to be inflenced by the Ventral half of the Vagus Nerve messaging. Hence limited energy, healing impact (note this is not fight or flight that is at the physical level , this is cellular impact). So the whole body is going to be affected, including all organ function.

Therefore it is really important to nourish the mitochondria in cells with nutrients and light and switch them back into Ventral side. They may have been stuck there in the dorsal state all your life or for many years. So prevalence of lack of energy conditions eg Fibromyalgia, Autoimmune, Thyroid , Methylation , basically anything as cells are unable to function and heal in an optimum state.

Mitochondria are goint to respond to a source of good nutrients and light environment, so a caring environment where they feel the body is safe, fully resourced and normal activity can resume.. Nicki gratrix did not mention in this interview, the role of redlight/NIR but does have a link on her website for. But many of the other experts spoke of the role of Red/NIR light in the health of mitochondria. Ari Whitten who was interviewed also, has writen a book purely on the effiacacy of Red/NIR light (amazon) you can 'look inside' on Amazon and glean a lot of info

Gives us something to work on re energy production and how our total health is dependant on our mitochondria.

You can buy the interview download on the Health Means website for about 2 dollars if anybody is interested

Admin note: there also appear to be free lectures etc out there on You Tube if people are interested in the topic. Niki Gartrix is also acknowledged for her part in enabling this piece of research on ME/CFS and fatigue

bmjopen.bmj.com/content/2/6...