Your mitochondria are responsible for creating your cellular energy, known as ATP (adenosine triphosphate). Mitochondria are found all over your body except in your red blood cells. They are in your muscles, nerves, heart, neurons, ovaries, thyroid, skin, and white blood cells. If your mitochondria are not regenerating optimally, many cellular functions slow down, including creating energy, cognition, and the ability to burn body fat. (The mitochondria utilize body fat as a fuel source to make ATP).
The mitochondria need four things to function:
1. Substrates – protein, fats, carbohydrates, and oxygen
2. Cofactors for making ATP, like minerals, iron, carnitine, CoQ10, and alpha-lipoic acid.
3. Sufficient antioxidants, like glutathione, help the mitochondria to protect itself.
4. Mitophagy, fission, and fusion. This is where damaged parts of the mitochondria are removed while the functioning parts fuse with other mitochondria.
Hormones like estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, and thyroxine impact mitochondrial proliferation, fission, and fusion. Declining mitochondria may be one of the reasons why you can feel fatigued and lose vitality as you age.
Fortunately, the mitochondria have many other ways to enhance their proliferation. The message is that it’s not all downhill when hormones decline. When you understand how hormones influence physiologic processes, you can add other inputs, like movement, sleep, and glutathione, to counter their decline.
