We humans are powerful energy producers and I'm not talking 00:00:01.36\00:00:03.93 about the energy we produce in the sun from water 00:00:03.97\00:00:06.70 or nuclear fission, I'm talking about the energy we produce 00:00:06.74\00:00:09.97 inside of us 24/7. 00:00:10.01\00:00:12.11 Today we're going to be talking about our very own power plants. 00:00:12.14\00:00:15.61 I'm Rise Rafferty your host and I'll be going through this 00:00:15.64\00:00:18.31 series with you, a journey that I hope you'll take with me 00:00:18.35\00:00:21.28 all the way to the end, it's going to be great. 00:00:21.32\00:00:24.15 My goal is that you will be enlightened with information 00:00:24.19\00:00:26.62 and inspired by practical insights to help you flourish 00:00:26.65\00:00:29.99 because that's what you were made for. 00:00:30.03\00:00:32.13 You know I've always had questions about energy. 00:00:50.75\00:00:53.52 Is it one of those things that you either got or you don't. 00:00:53.58\00:00:57.02 You hear that people say they have run out of energy, 00:00:57.05\00:00:59.69 why is that? 00:00:59.72\00:01:01.06 Do we use it all up and there is no more left? 00:01:01.09\00:01:02.96 I'm talking about the energy we need to survive and function, 00:01:02.99\00:01:07.46 feel alive and vibrant and it turns out that energy has 00:01:07.50\00:01:10.43 a source. The food we eat, the air we breathe, 00:01:10.47\00:01:12.90 it's used to produce energy down deep inside ourselves. 00:01:12.93\00:01:17.17 If you haven't heard of them before, you are going to 00:01:17.21\00:01:20.58 be introduced to your mitochondria today, 00:01:20.61\00:01:23.68 the key player in energy production. 00:01:23.71\00:01:25.85 If we want to understand where energy comes from, 00:01:25.88\00:01:28.18 or why we don't have as much energy as we used to, 00:01:28.22\00:01:30.92 we got to start here. 00:01:30.95\00:01:32.39 You can't have health and you can't address disease 00:01:32.42\00:01:35.79 unless you have energy to do that and the only place in the 00:01:35.82\00:01:38.83 body that creates energy that the other tissues, organelles 00:01:38.86\00:01:44.80 or cells the body can use is mitochondria. 00:01:44.83\00:01:48.67 So mitochondria are the generators of the cell. 00:01:48.70\00:01:51.34 Just like counties will pipe in gasoline in order to generate 00:01:51.37\00:01:57.65 electricity, you have no electricity without gasoline. 00:01:57.68\00:02:00.95 Likewise in our body you have no electrical energy, 00:02:00.98\00:02:05.09 no nervous energy, no energy at all without functioning 00:02:05.12\00:02:09.59 mitochondria. And so in order to have even minimal health 00:02:09.62\00:02:13.83 you have to have adequate mitochondrial function 00:02:13.86\00:02:17.40 and production of that currency of energy in the body called ATP 00:02:17.43\00:02:21.57 but in order to have optimal health you have to have abundant 00:02:21.60\00:02:25.91 amounts of ATP but used in the right way. 00:02:25.94\00:02:30.58 In any part of the body, every cell needs ATP, 00:02:30.61\00:02:33.31 in fact, we produce our weight in ATP every day. 00:02:33.35\00:02:38.45 Cars use gasoline, jets use you know jet fuel, 00:02:38.49\00:02:43.83 and our bodies use ATP. 00:02:43.86\00:02:46.90 Well, mitochondria are centrally generators for the cell. 00:02:46.93\00:02:50.20 I liken it to the car engine, without a car engine 00:02:50.23\00:02:55.27 you can't drive a car and the car engine will take gas, 00:02:55.30\00:03:00.94 take fuel and convert it into energy that can be used by 00:03:00.98\00:03:04.95 the car, so likewise a mitochondria will take 00:03:04.98\00:03:08.78 food energy like fats and carbohydrates and will convert 00:03:08.82\00:03:15.19 those directly only into the only energy that the rest of the 00:03:15.22\00:03:18.46 body can use and that's ATP so without Mitochondria 00:03:18.49\00:03:23.23 you don't have any ATP and without any ATP which is the 00:03:23.26\00:03:27.44 currency of energy for the body you can't be alive. 00:03:27.47\00:03:31.64 You can't heal, you can't be healthy, so mitochondria 00:03:31.67\00:03:35.81 are critical for the body to work in the end. 00:03:35.84\00:03:39.21 I want you to see what we are talking about. 00:03:39.25\00:03:42.95 This is a mitochondria and we've got a lot of them 00:03:42.98\00:03:46.39 It's because there are up to 10s of thousands of a single neuron 00:03:52.39\00:03:55.56 that keeps the sparks flying in your brain. 00:03:55.60\00:03:58.00 Interestingly enough even though the brain is only about 2% 00:03:58.03\00:04:03.27 of our body weight, it actually consumes 20 to 25% or our energy 00:04:03.30\00:04:08.71 and as many people probably know mitochondria are 00:04:08.74\00:04:13.68 the energy powerhouses for the cell and for the body. 00:04:13.72\00:04:18.95 And so what that means is that the mitochondria have a 00:04:18.99\00:04:23.32 huge role in making sure that our brain has sufficient energy 00:04:23.36\00:04:26.36 to do the work that it needs to do. 00:04:26.39\00:04:28.80 So one example of how much energy our brain really 00:04:28.83\00:04:33.23 burns is when we look at elite chess players. 00:04:33.27\00:04:36.64 Back in 1984 during the world chess championship 00:04:36.67\00:04:40.14 Anatoly Karpov actually lost 22 pounds over the course 00:04:40.18\00:04:45.48 of several months because he was thinking so hard 00:04:45.51\00:04:49.18 you could almost see the smoke coming out of his ears. 00:04:49.22\00:04:51.75 But it's actually estimated that elite chess players 00:04:51.79\00:04:56.89 can burn 6,000 calories a day without even moving out of their 00:04:56.93\00:05:01.76 seats, that's how many calories we can burn, so in that case 00:05:01.80\00:05:05.77 they actually called off the whole championship 00:05:05.80\00:05:08.84 because they were so concerned about his health because 00:05:08.87\00:05:11.07 he was losing so much weight just from thinking so hard. 00:05:11.11\00:05:14.18 And the brain is the organ in our body that actually utilizes 00:05:14.21\00:05:19.45 the most energy. 00:05:19.48\00:05:20.92 Your brain is who you are, the very organ of survival 00:05:20.95\00:05:24.95 and what determines in you are going to survive from 00:05:24.99\00:05:26.96 minute to minute, it expects to be challenged by the environment 00:05:26.99\00:05:31.49 it assesses the environment on a constant basis even when 00:05:31.53\00:05:34.63 we're not thinking, even when we are sleeping it's working. 00:05:34.66\00:05:38.20 In fact, it's not some of it's best work during sleep. 00:05:38.23\00:05:40.80 So, those 87 billion neurons and by the way ten times 00:05:40.84\00:05:45.71 glial cells, these supporting structures we'll talk about 00:05:45.74\00:05:48.54 and all the vasculature, in fact it's the most vascular organ 00:05:48.58\00:05:52.38 in the body requires energy, it requires energy constantly 00:05:52.41\00:05:56.22 and it requires clean energy and if that wasn't enough, 00:05:56.25\00:05:59.55 it's also encased in this closed in environment by what's called 00:05:59.59\00:06:04.43 blood-brain barrier where not much can get in and out 00:06:04.46\00:06:08.93 without being surveilled so it is an incredibly 00:06:08.96\00:06:12.43 overwhelmed organ and we have to be aware of that. 00:06:12.47\00:06:15.80 Because every time, every single time we give it food, 00:06:15.84\00:06:19.47 it either does good or it does damage. 00:06:19.51\00:06:23.21 Every single meal that we have has consequences, 00:06:23.24\00:06:26.61 now that doesn't mean that we have to be so cognizant 00:06:26.65\00:06:28.92 that we have to make it difficult on ourselves and 00:06:28.95\00:06:31.35 create stress, that in itself is damaging. 00:06:31.39\00:06:33.25 But we have to be aware that the food that we eat 00:06:33.29\00:06:36.73 is going to not just give us energy, it creates byproducts, 00:06:36.76\00:06:41.53 it creates waste, more waste in the brain than any other 00:06:41.56\00:06:45.03 organ and it has to be eliminated and that's a problem 00:06:45.07\00:06:48.64 in itself, that's where sleep comes in. 00:06:48.67\00:06:50.41 So that's why the brain is so important and what we 00:06:50.44\00:06:54.54 give the brain is so important from minute to minute. 00:06:54.58\00:06:57.55 It's an incredible system that requires constant energy making 00:06:57.58\00:07:02.35 it creates the energy in the body, you give it glucose 00:07:02.38\00:07:05.85 it gives you what's called ATP which in the energy 00:07:05.89\00:07:08.89 in the body and different things can actually go into the 00:07:08.92\00:07:12.19 mitochondria like ketones and all this noise that we've 00:07:12.23\00:07:15.36 been hearing but glucose is it's preferred energy source 00:07:15.40\00:07:19.47 and when you give it glucose, it gives you energy 00:07:19.50\00:07:22.30 And if you give it clean energy, glucose, it give you energy 00:07:22.34\00:07:26.37 but without waste products but if you don't give it 00:07:26.41\00:07:29.04 clean energy it will actually create a lot of waste. 00:07:29.08\00:07:31.58 In fact, it can create actually what is called free radicals 00:07:31.61\00:07:34.58 which will destroy the cell, the DNA and so you have to be 00:07:34.62\00:07:38.62 aware of that kind of a system in every single one of our 00:07:38.65\00:07:43.02 87 billion Neurons and it's kind of daunting but 00:07:43.06\00:07:47.50 it's also kind of empowering because with a simple choice 00:07:47.53\00:07:51.57 of movement, of eating, not some kind of bio-hacking. 00:07:51.60\00:07:56.60 Simple clean living and I'm over simplifying but it's not 00:07:56.67\00:08:01.54 when the numbers, when we speak about numbers that are just 00:08:01.58\00:08:04.38 overwhelming every single time that mitochondria can be 00:08:04.41\00:08:08.48 regenerated and given more energy and longevity or aged 00:08:08.52\00:08:13.46 that's the significance. 00:08:13.49\00:08:15.19 Not only is energy produced but a lot of damage 00:08:15.22\00:08:17.53 can actually start here because the cascade of energy production 00:08:17.56\00:08:20.90 can also create free-radicals and start the damage process. 00:08:20.93\00:08:24.33 So mitochondria is definitely involved in almost all 00:08:24.37\00:08:27.74 nerve degenerative processes, we don't know how much 00:08:27.77\00:08:31.17 and to what extent or what initiates the process 00:08:31.21\00:08:33.51 but it goes without saying that is probably one of the most 00:08:33.54\00:08:36.38 critical elements in the pathway of neuro-degeneration. 00:08:36.41\00:08:39.85 You know if our mitochondria aren't functioning well, 00:08:39.88\00:08:42.32 then we are going to have a whole host of problems. 00:08:42.35\00:08:44.62 So mitochondria is processing all of our energy it uses and 00:08:44.65\00:08:48.99 processes our oxygen and so with this amazing part of our cell 00:08:49.02\00:08:56.56 it really allows us to function and like I said if we don't 00:08:56.60\00:08:59.83 have that working well, then we're going to struggle 00:08:59.87\00:09:02.27 in so many different ways. 00:09:02.30\00:09:03.64 So, when mitochondria make energy they also produce 00:09:03.67\00:09:08.88 byproducts that can become damaging. 00:09:08.91\00:09:10.68 These byproducts have a name, free-radicals. 00:09:10.71\00:09:13.65 You can also call them reactive oxygen species 00:09:13.68\00:09:16.82 but who wants to say that? 00:09:16.85\00:09:18.35 So we're going to call these free radicals ROS 00:09:18.39\00:09:21.02 and if you haven't met ROS before let me give you a quick 00:09:21.06\00:09:24.09 surface level heads up, ROS is a bit of a unstable guy who 00:09:24.13\00:09:29.30 can impulsively fly off the handle, be uncontrollable, 00:09:29.33\00:09:32.73 and behave erratically only thinking about himself 00:09:32.77\00:09:35.60 rather than what's good for the other. 00:09:35.64\00:09:38.07 Now you may think I'm describing someone you know 00:09:38.11\00:09:40.41 but remember we're describing ROS. 00:09:40.44\00:09:42.41 ROS can actually wreak a lot of damage inside the cells 00:09:42.44\00:09:46.21 causing stress and distress when he shows up unless he's 00:09:46.25\00:09:50.39 kept in check. When kept under control he actually can 00:09:50.42\00:09:53.72 accomplish some good destroying disease-causing agents 00:09:53.76\00:09:56.96 like viruses or taking out damaged cells, 00:09:56.99\00:09:59.29 he's also involved in detoxification and wound 00:09:59.33\00:10:02.90 healing. What keeps ROS on the straight and narrow though 00:10:02.93\00:10:06.33 is if there are not too many of him and if he has a 00:10:06.37\00:10:09.47 good woman by his side to keep him simmered down and balanced. 00:10:09.50\00:10:13.51 That woman's name is antioxidant, when ROS and 00:10:13.58\00:10:17.58 antioxidant connect all is well. 00:10:17.61\00:10:20.18 Next, you'll be hearing from Dr Annabelle Facemire 00:10:20.22\00:10:22.75 she's a cardiologist who's going to be talking about 00:10:22.78\00:10:25.39 how poor mitochondrial function can result in heart disease. 00:10:25.42\00:10:28.86 hardening of the arteries, hypertension and heart failure, 00:10:28.89\00:10:31.43 true to who she is, Dr. Facemire packs a lot 00:10:31.46\00:10:35.13 in a small package and she's going to be telling us 00:10:35.16\00:10:37.23 more about ROS. 00:10:37.27\00:10:38.60 So, there is a growing evidence on our traditional risk factors 00:10:38.63\00:10:43.54 and so I just mention a few. 00:10:43.57\00:10:45.37 You know smoking, high cholesterol, diabetes, 00:10:45.41\00:10:49.04 sedentary lifestyle, obesity, those traditional risk factors 00:10:49.08\00:10:54.95 we thought okay that was just kind of the big micro picture 00:10:54.98\00:10:58.55 okay, this is the cause. 00:10:58.59\00:11:00.06 But all of this caused something called oxidative stress 00:11:00.09\00:11:05.36 at the level of the mitochondria and that contributes to 00:11:05.39\00:11:09.36 atherosclerosis, so during this reaction that occurs in the 00:11:09.40\00:11:15.87 mitochondria there is a balance, the mitochondria is the... 00:11:15.90\00:11:19.97 we call it the powerhouse and it causes ATP energy. 00:11:20.01\00:11:24.41 But right now it just involves so many other functions 00:11:24.45\00:11:30.59 but just to go to the first one which was produce energy 00:11:30.62\00:11:34.16 in ATP, so you produce energy in ATP and then you have 00:11:34.19\00:11:37.79 a reactive molecule a reaction oxygen species so you produce 00:11:37.83\00:11:44.57 ATP and that's kind of the leftover is reactive oxygen 00:11:44.60\00:11:48.24 species and then the mitochondria have some 00:11:48.27\00:11:51.51 antioxidants that balance that reactive oxygen species 00:11:51.54\00:11:55.31 and make things really neutral. So that oxygen species does not 00:11:55.34\00:12:03.12 damage your epithelium so all that is balanced but when we 00:12:03.15\00:12:08.42 have triggers like we mentioned before, the factors of obesity 00:12:08.46\00:12:12.53 and sedentary lifestyle and cortisol and high glucose 00:12:12.56\00:12:17.40 you know, high sugar and high cholesterol all that imbalance 00:12:17.43\00:12:21.27 the reactive oxygen species cannot get rid of it 00:12:21.30\00:12:25.17 because the antioxidants are the cells are trying to balance the 00:12:25.21\00:12:29.21 other ones so this reactive oxygen species are starting to 00:12:29.24\00:12:33.08 build-up and that really causes the oxidation and damage 00:12:33.11\00:12:38.49 and the term is that that cell actually is going to 00:12:38.52\00:12:42.49 early death, we call it Aptosis which is a cell problem 00:12:42.52\00:12:46.46 death but it occurs early 00:12:46.49\00:12:48.56 And when something is dead in our body there is some 00:12:48.60\00:12:51.87 macrophages are ready to attack and said okay, 00:12:51.90\00:12:54.60 you're not supposed to be here, I'm going to eat you up and then 00:12:54.64\00:12:57.44 break you down. And so that reaction, that inflammation 00:12:57.47\00:13:02.38 is part of the plaque formation. 00:13:02.41\00:13:04.28 We know that one-third of every myocardial cell, it has these 00:13:04.31\00:13:14.19 mitochondrial DNA and there are mutations that occur 00:13:14.22\00:13:19.66 in the DNA, in the mitochondrial DNA is responsible for the 00:13:19.69\00:13:24.50 oxidative stress this function of the mitochondria deficient 00:13:24.53\00:13:27.84 of energy production and as a result cell dysfunction and 00:13:27.87\00:13:32.31 death and so heart failure has been associated. 00:13:32.34\00:13:36.41 When the heart becomes weak, has associated with this 00:13:36.44\00:13:39.71 oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction. 00:13:39.75\00:13:42.28 Okay, so remember ROS causes stress, oxidative stress, 00:13:42.32\00:13:46.55 when he does not have antioxidant by his side 00:13:46.59\00:13:49.42 if the damage becomes too much, we got problems 00:13:49.46\00:13:52.23 plaque builds up in the arteries, we experience 00:13:52.26\00:13:54.13 blood vessel blockages, hypertension and that's just 00:13:54.16\00:13:56.56 looking what happens is a cardiovascular system. 00:13:56.60\00:13:59.30 The mitochondria perform several different roles in our health 00:13:59.33\00:14:06.71 of course, everybody knows about how mitochondria 00:14:06.74\00:14:09.28 are the powerhouses of the cell and ATP is produced and 00:14:09.31\00:14:15.05 that's a big one. But it also plays a role in calcium, 00:14:15.08\00:14:19.09 homeostasis, it regulates stem cells, it regulates 00:14:19.12\00:14:23.49 whether cells live or die and of course that... 00:14:23.53\00:14:26.19 if we can't whether cells live or die then we're more prone to 00:14:26.23\00:14:31.43 cancer, you know, but mitochondria play a huge role 00:14:31.47\00:14:38.17 with ATP right, with energy and when we don't have that 00:14:38.21\00:14:41.04 energy, things start going downhill. 00:14:41.08\00:14:43.55 You know we all learned in high-school that the 00:14:43.58\00:14:45.98 mitochondria supplies the cell with the energy currency 00:14:46.01\00:14:49.55 so the mitochondria as we've learned produces this molecule 00:14:49.58\00:14:55.16 called ATP and ATP is then serves as an energy source 00:14:55.19\00:14:58.83 throughout the cell for it funds, let's say FUNDS, funds 00:14:58.86\00:15:02.83 physiology that needs to take place in other parts 00:15:02.86\00:15:05.50 of the cell comes from the mitochondria. 00:15:05.53\00:15:07.30 It turns out that mitochondria is involved in quite a number 00:15:07.34\00:15:11.94 of things besides just turning out energy. 00:15:11.97\00:15:14.18 Evidently the mitochondria as I understand it anyway 00:15:14.21\00:15:18.11 is so important to supporting the function of whatever that 00:15:18.15\00:15:21.22 specialized cell is supposed to do and all of our cells are 00:15:21.25\00:15:24.39 specialized, they all do something that other cells 00:15:24.42\00:15:26.62 can't do. They're all dependent on the functioning mitochondria, 00:15:26.65\00:15:31.76 you might ask what happens during the day 00:15:31.79\00:15:34.23 when we are not asleep and our melatonin levels in our blood 00:15:34.26\00:15:37.57 are very low, our pineal gland isn't making melatonin. 00:15:37.60\00:15:41.00 It turns out the mitochondria themselves can produce melatonin 00:15:41.04\00:15:45.07 for their own use and that happens during the day 00:15:45.11\00:15:47.31 and do you know what the stimulus is? 00:15:47.34\00:15:49.84 No. It's sunlight. It's not ultraviolet, 00:15:49.88\00:15:53.01 turns out its infrared light from sunlight gets through 00:15:53.05\00:15:58.92 our clothing penetrates our clothing and our skin and 00:15:58.95\00:16:01.22 gets into our system in a way that ultraviolet light doesn't. 00:16:01.26\00:16:04.96 And apparently, it's infrared light that stimulates 00:16:04.99\00:16:07.50 mitochondria to make melatonin within them that helps them 00:16:07.53\00:16:11.07 to clear out the dangerous reactive oxidant species. 00:16:11.10\00:16:14.64 That is fantastic, so basically melatonin is behaving as a 00:16:14.67\00:16:18.74 antioxidant, an internal antioxidant. 00:16:18.77\00:16:20.81 Evidentially, who knew it, melatonin turns out to be a 00:16:20.84\00:16:23.78 powerful antioxidant. Ummu. 00:16:23.81\00:16:26.21 Neutralizing all those free radicals that could 00:16:26.25\00:16:29.68 potentially do damage. 00:16:29.72\00:16:31.05 Yeah, In the endocrine system some of the most famous 00:16:31.09\00:16:35.46 hormones, that is hormones that everyone knows about 00:16:35.49\00:16:37.96 are produced in glands in which it's the mitochondria 00:16:37.99\00:16:43.87 of the cells of those glands that are actually producing 00:16:43.90\00:16:46.77 those hormones so the steroid hormones are produced 00:16:46.80\00:16:50.11 within the mitochondria of the cells that produce them. 00:16:50.14\00:16:52.61 So those are the hormones like cortisol, and maybe we've heard 00:16:52.64\00:16:57.01 of aldosterone, but testosterone, and estrogen, 00:16:57.05\00:17:00.82 actually, Vitamin D is a steroid hormone, it is produced within 00:17:00.85\00:17:05.19 mitochondria. So the mitochondria are um, 00:17:05.22\00:17:10.43 what's the word I want? indispensable for the production 00:17:10.46\00:17:15.90 of these hormones. So we have to support our mitochondria 00:17:15.93\00:17:19.37 if we expect to have functioning healthy adrenal glands 00:17:19.40\00:17:22.37 or gonads, ovaries, or testes and placenta. 00:17:22.40\00:17:26.21 You know what's really interesting about the 00:17:26.51\00:17:28.01 mitochondria is that they are not only involved 00:17:28.04\00:17:30.51 in producing energy but they are also involved even in 00:17:30.55\00:17:34.98 synthesizing in producing the hormones, cortisol for example. 00:17:35.02\00:17:38.52 So stress hormones, all the steroid hormones even our 00:17:38.55\00:17:43.22 sex hormones like testosterone, and estrogen, 00:17:43.26\00:17:45.99 and that sort of thing are actually produced by 00:17:46.03\00:17:49.10 the mitochondria. 00:17:49.13\00:17:50.50 On top of that melatonin is even produced by the mitochondria 00:17:50.53\00:17:56.91 as well, and so all of these things that the mitochondria do 00:17:56.94\00:18:00.61 are actually very important to mental health. 00:18:00.64\00:18:04.81 Dr. Shirazi mentioned that the brain produces more waste 00:18:04.85\00:18:09.92 than any other organ and when is that waste eliminated? 00:18:09.95\00:18:13.42 When we sleep. Remember that? While we're sleeping 00:18:13.46\00:18:16.96 the mitochondria in the brain produce melatonin and melatonin 00:18:16.99\00:18:20.66 informs us that it's bedtime. 00:18:20.70\00:18:23.20 But it also happens to be a powerful antioxidant 00:18:23.23\00:18:26.37 for calming ROS down, preventing him from doing damage. 00:18:26.40\00:18:29.90 It's a strong woman to stand by ROS' side which can keep 00:18:29.97\00:18:33.48 the mitochondria healthy and as a result, protect the brain. 00:18:33.51\00:18:37.35 And so some of the things we know are beneficial to 00:18:37.38\00:18:40.08 mitochondria are kind of the usual things that support 00:18:40.12\00:18:45.25 good health so, we know quite a lot now about how exercise, 00:18:45.29\00:18:48.86 directly stimulates mitochondrial function 00:18:48.89\00:18:51.99 stresses them actually, causes them to increase their 00:18:52.03\00:18:55.56 own stress level by the production of what are called 00:18:55.60\00:18:57.80 reactive oxygen species forces the cells to sharpen up their 00:18:57.83\00:19:05.47 mitochondria and produce more mitochondria for the production 00:19:05.51\00:19:07.88 of more energy and that's a direct effect of exercise 00:19:07.91\00:19:10.75 of our muscles evidently, good sleep apparently supports 00:19:10.78\00:19:16.95 mitochondria in some really interesting ways that I've just 00:19:16.99\00:19:19.45 recently learned about. 00:19:19.49\00:19:20.82 We've all heard of melatonin and how melatonin comes from 00:19:20.86\00:19:24.93 our pineal gland when the sun goes down and the sky darkens 00:19:24.96\00:19:28.33 and we're designed to go to sleep after the darkening 00:19:28.36\00:19:32.27 and our environment, the pineal gland secretes melatonin 00:19:32.30\00:19:36.17 which has the sort of go to sleep effect on all of our 00:19:36.20\00:19:39.04 systems, all of ourselves. 00:19:39.07\00:19:40.54 One thing that melatonin also does evidently is affect the 00:19:40.58\00:19:46.58 mitochondria in such a way that it helps them to 00:19:46.61\00:19:48.58 clean up the waste and the reactive oxygen species 00:19:48.62\00:19:51.92 that they have built up during that day's activity 00:19:51.95\00:19:56.02 so this is one way in which good sleep at night is 00:19:56.06\00:20:00.40 vitally important for your daytime function. 00:20:00.43\00:20:02.83 We know that our glands, our mitochondria in our glands will 00:20:02.86\00:20:05.70 function better if we slept well at night. 00:20:05.73\00:20:07.64 And evidently, melatonin has an important function in that. 00:20:07.67\00:20:11.14 What causes aging is lack of hormones or lack of energy 00:20:11.17\00:20:18.81 okay, it's not chronological it's not age. 00:20:18.85\00:20:22.65 If you get the hormones back up where they used to be, 00:20:22.68\00:20:26.59 doesn't have to be at reproductive levels but 00:20:26.62\00:20:29.86 back up where they should be and that includes things like 00:20:29.89\00:20:34.63 thyroid, that includes the sex hormones, that includes the 00:20:34.66\00:20:39.13 adrenal glands, all those things. 00:20:39.17\00:20:40.97 For a lot of people, they are under such stress 00:20:41.00\00:20:45.71 that they start aging prematurely because they can't 00:20:45.74\00:20:52.41 handle the stress and especially as a person gets older 00:20:52.45\00:20:58.52 they come in and talk about energy problems. 00:20:58.55\00:21:01.32 And what I hear very classically is but what do you expect 00:21:01.36\00:21:06.83 for my age, and I always tell them, age has nothing to do 00:21:06.86\00:21:11.10 with this, and this is not acceptable to be saying it's 00:21:11.13\00:21:15.07 okay because of my age. 00:21:15.10\00:21:16.57 All of us should be feeling good, all of us should have 00:21:16.60\00:21:20.08 the energy we need and so we look at an energy factor 00:21:20.11\00:21:24.95 to figure what else is going on? 00:21:24.98\00:21:27.58 Are we dealing with the fact that they're not 00:21:27.62\00:21:30.25 eating properly? Is it that they are not sleeping well? 00:21:32.82\00:21:35.39 That goes back to those factors again and so it's important 00:21:35.42\00:21:39.29 to get at the bottom of what the problem is. 00:21:39.33\00:21:42.50 I can make a diagnosis but that doesn't necessarily 00:21:42.53\00:21:45.90 tell me why they have the problem going on. 00:21:45.93\00:21:48.70 And frequently in medicine, I was trained that's you know, 00:21:48.74\00:21:54.14 what we are doing, we are trying to make a diagnosis. 00:21:54.18\00:21:56.44 And the reason for that is so that we know what drug, 00:21:56.48\00:22:01.22 well you don't know but you look for a cause. 00:22:01.28\00:22:03.95 And so, you have to do deeper on some of these issues 00:22:03.99\00:22:07.39 otherwise, you're missing things completely. 00:22:07.42\00:22:09.42 Well, like any doctor when a patient comes in who's new 00:22:09.46\00:22:12.46 and you ask them, why are you here? 00:22:12.49\00:22:14.20 And they usually tell you a series of what brings them in. 00:22:14.23\00:22:19.53 What I try to do is I go over five different things that 00:22:19.57\00:22:24.77 they may not bring up, I want to know how is their energy, 00:22:24.81\00:22:27.28 do they sleep, how's their mood, do they have any problems 00:22:27.31\00:22:35.18 with pain so those things are important okay, 00:22:35.22\00:22:38.99 so you're going a little bit beyond to figure out 00:22:39.02\00:22:41.66 what you're looking for is, is there something else causing it? 00:22:41.69\00:22:45.46 Is it a simple problem or are we dealing with something deeper 00:22:45.49\00:22:49.26 that's the question. 00:22:49.30\00:22:51.07 If we expect to have healthy glands, we have to care 00:22:51.10\00:22:53.44 about them and that includes caring about our mitochondria. 00:22:53.47\00:22:56.07 You know if our mitochondria aren't functioning well, 00:22:56.10\00:22:58.97 then we're going to have a whole host of problems. 00:22:59.01\00:23:01.14 So mitochondria are processing all of our energy 00:23:01.18\00:23:04.41 it uses and processes our oxygen, and so with this 00:23:04.45\00:23:09.35 amazing part of our cells, it really allows us to function 00:23:09.38\00:23:14.79 and like I said if we don't have that working well, 00:23:14.82\00:23:17.93 then we're going to struggle in so many different ways. 00:23:17.96\00:23:20.16 Yeah, a couple of the different ways that we can struggle 00:23:20.20\00:23:23.67 is with pain and fatigue. 00:23:23.70\00:23:25.57 You know a lot of people are walking around fatigued, right? 00:23:25.60\00:23:29.54 And so one of the first things you have to think about is 00:23:29.57\00:23:32.54 what's happening to the mitochondria because they're 00:23:32.57\00:23:34.18 the powerhouse of our body. So this fatigue is really 00:23:34.21\00:23:39.11 one of the first things you go after is the mitochondria. 00:23:39.15\00:23:41.82 I mean that's one of the first things I think of 00:23:41.85\00:23:43.25 when I think of fatigue is what's with the mitochondria, 00:23:43.28\00:23:46.02 why are they being dysfunctional? and what can we 00:23:46.05\00:23:48.62 do to sort of unravel what those issues are and start addressing 00:23:48.66\00:23:52.19 them and so often medicine will want to say lets medicate 00:23:52.23\00:23:58.23 right and so that's one way to look at it. 00:23:58.27\00:24:02.64 The other way to look at it is to figure out what's causing 00:24:02.67\00:24:05.37 what's causing the fatigue, how could the mitochondria or 00:24:05.67\00:24:08.24 other factors be playing a role? 00:24:08.28\00:24:09.61 You know Rise, chronic pain is extremely prevalent 00:24:09.64\00:24:14.45 in fact the National Health Interview Survey that came 00:24:14.48\00:24:18.59 in 2019 by the CDC showed that over 50 million adults suffer 00:24:18.62\00:24:25.33 with chronic pain. The financial cost of chronic pain 00:24:25.36\00:24:29.66 is incredible also, in fact, the cost of chronic pain 00:24:29.70\00:24:32.73 in America is equal to or greater than that 00:24:32.77\00:24:37.31 of cardiovascular, diabetes, and a cancer combined 00:24:37.34\00:24:42.41 it's absolutely incredible. 00:24:42.44\00:24:43.85 Thank you so much for joining us today, I know that we started 00:24:43.88\00:24:49.82 this series by taking a deep dive into the topic of energy, 00:24:49.85\00:24:53.96 it's a heavy topic and I promise there's no test 00:24:53.99\00:24:57.06 or quizzes, it's purely for the joy and the blessing of 00:24:57.09\00:25:00.76 learning. When you think of getting more energy, what comes 00:25:00.80\00:25:04.60 to your mind? Maybe coffee, energy drinks, protein bar, they 00:25:04.63\00:25:09.14 can provide some umpf, but I know that it's not the real 00:25:09.17\00:25:12.94 thing. When we look deeper past stimulants and buzzes 00:25:12.97\00:25:16.51 and look deep inside of ourselves, past the skin, 00:25:16.54\00:25:19.61 the organs, the tissues, into the cells themselves 00:25:19.65\00:25:22.65 we find intricate machinery like the mitochondria. 00:25:22.68\00:25:26.65 We see ourselves in the new light as being these incredible 00:25:26.69\00:25:31.19 yes, even powerful energy producers. 00:25:31.23\00:25:34.36 Today you met some of the doctors who will be with us 00:25:34.40\00:25:38.10 through the rest of the series sharing on a wide variety 00:25:38.13\00:25:41.10 of topics from the lens of their professionaltese 00:25:41.14\00:25:44.57 We have Neurologists, we have cardiologists, pain specialists 00:25:44.61\00:25:49.71 and endocrinologists, and ear, nose, and throat doctors, 00:25:49.74\00:25:53.65 psychiatrists, researchers, and a physical therapist, 00:25:53.68\00:25:57.22 I really value the topics we're going to be addressing 00:25:57.25\00:26:00.52 as they are all at the root of our health. 00:26:00.56\00:26:03.63 I hope you'll stay with me and cover subjects like Gut Health. 00:26:03.66\00:26:07.36 Inflammation, and how various lifestyle information 00:26:07.40\00:26:10.03 factors impact our physiology on so many different levels 00:26:10.07\00:26:14.17 I'll be here with you hopefully making things a bit easier to 00:26:14.20\00:26:18.24 understand like my ROS Analogy. I hope that worked. 00:26:18.27\00:26:21.84 Knowing more about our- selves, how our mitochondria 00:26:21.88\00:26:25.25 plays such a pivotal role in health or disease 00:26:25.28\00:26:28.38 it's going to help us take better care of the most 00:26:28.42\00:26:32.49 amazing thing on the planet and that's you. 00:26:32.52\00:26:36.29 You were made for health. 00:26:36.32\00:26:38.56