Mitochondria

 Mitochondria provide power to our metaphorical city. Without them, we have no lights, no heat, and no fun. But any power plant that is LAX on precautions runs the risk of polluting the city.  And Just like older factories, as the mitochondria age, they tend to put more industrial waste into the environment, so we need more antioxidant regulators to clean up the mess.

Mitochondria are our energy factories and continually pump barrels of ATP, adenosine triphosphate into the cells as they travel through the circulatory system. They look like a maze with jagged edges called Cristae. Mitochondria are especially hardy to withstand the dangers of being near free radicals that can be generated with high-powered energy production.

Oxygen free radicals are created when a pair of electrons is separated while spinning around the nucleus of a cell. The odd man out becomes disruptive as it seeks another partner.

Oxidation & Inefficient Mitochondria-Keep the Energy Factories of Your Body Running Smoothly

The body gets its energy from mitochondria. Long ago, that's the time when mitochondria used to be independent single-celled organisms-essentially parasites that lived symbiotically with their host. But at some point, in our evolution, they were swallowed by our regular cells, thus becoming a part of every cell rather than existing on their own.

Mitochondria (you have hundreds of those per cell) convert nutrients from the food you eat into energy that your body uses to perform all of the functions it needs to. They are the fundamental drivers of metabolism. They make sure that what you eat fits into how you perform. Plus, their function (and dysfunction) serves as the backbone for one of the major theories of aging.

The problem is, when mitochondria turn your food into energy, they produce oxygen free radicals- molecules that cause dangerous inflammation in the mitochondria themselves as well as in the rest of the cell when they spill over. Think of them as the power plants of our bodily city. Just like an old factory, aging mitochondria spill more industrial waste into the environment. The damage this inflammation causes to your cells and to the mitochondria within your cells is responsible for many aging-related problems. This oxidation, for example, is what causes a "rusting" of your arteries, which is some of what ages your cardiovascular system. 

How mitochondria work. Mighty Mito: The Body's Power Plant

The mitochondria are something a bit like a labyrinth or maze. The jagged little edges are called cristae. There are hundreds of mitochondria per cell and dozens of strands of mitochondrial DNA per mitochondrion. That means that every cell contains thousands of strands of mitochondrial DNA.

Mitochondria are the body's nuclear power plants. They give off a lot of energy but also have the potential to cause a lot of damage. 

In the case of mitochondria, it's those inflammation-causing oxygen-free radicals, which also decrease the ability of your mitochondrial DNA to convert energy. Both forms of damage spin into a cycle of destruction to your body's cells: Inefficiencies in mitochondrial function cause increased production of free radicals. 

If your body can't produce energy efficiently, it means that mitochondria are not getting the most energy out of the oxygen and sugar that their furnaces are fed. So even if you have good nutrition in what you eat, lower levels of your body's energy currency, called ATP (adenosine triphosphate), are made.

We know that mitochondrial damage in the heart happens when your body no longer consumes oxygen and glucose efficiently. People older than sixty have a 40 percent lower mitochondrial efficiency than people younger than forty.