Why are mitochondria called the powerhouse of the cell

Ep8 – What Is Mitochondria, and Why Does It Matter?

Read full details below, transcribed. Therefore the wording often appears as it is spoken by our hosts. Please, listen to above podcast for full value.

Table of Contents

You’ve taught me a few things about mitochondria, but I’m definitely not the one to tell you what it is.

Yeah, it’s a word that we hear very often, and mostly in biology and advanced research on DNA, etc. But people have a very simplistic idea of what it is. So what I would like to do is to try to give an overview.

What are mitochondria?

Why is the mitochondria important?

Many people don’t understand how important it is to understand the role of mitochondria in our health.

The mitochondria are the power generation of our cells. Our cells have evolved. So if we understand the evolution of life on this planet, under the guidance of God, we understand that He has devised a certain process for life through our cells. Each cell is an enclosed organism that needs the energy to make chemical reactions happen, right?

 

Chemical reactions in any living organisms, whether they be plants or animals, need what we call the currency energy of the cell. The currency energy or chemical reactions are molecules called ATP, adenosine triphosphate.

 

Let’s not go into nerdy words. But each time you need energy for cell function, you need this molecule of ATP which provides the energy that helps the cell’s healthy reaction. Okay, it’s like basically finding a plug of electricity in a wall, because this molecule of ATP is needed to release electrons, this is the electricity.

So what are mitochondria?

In order for living organisms to live, you need this ATP. There are two ways a cell can produce ATP. Historically, until 1.5 billion years ago, all cells were living on fermentation of glucose of sugar. This is called glycolysis, getting 2 ATP from glucose.

 

Ok, 1.5 billion years ago, it is hypothesized that one cell has been integrated within the other cells, and this cell is a mitochondria. But these mitochondria are very efficient in producing energy. Because with one glucose, they can produce 36 ATPs. So it’s much more efficient in producing energy for ourselves.

Dangerous role that glucose plays

Optimal energy is the key to feeling so alive! So here’s how you get it.

The glucose we’re talking about is the natural glucose that our body produces, not the sugary stuff that everybody loves. That is bad for you and ideally must not be consumed. Because our liver is producing glucose on demand of its own, we don’t need any external influx of any external glucose through eating anything sweet or even eating carbs.

 

It’s because of the healthy process of our system perfectly functioning our mitochondria in the cells, that we should avoid eating even fructose, which comes from fruit and plants.

The fact that our whole vascular system contains only five grams of sugar, a piece of bread that contain up to 20 grams of carbs/sugar, can overwhelm our system. So our body is abused by the external sugar and the glucose itself. This causes glycation of the cells, which is creating havoc and destruction within our body. It’s a toxin that is used as a poor fuel. But it has to be controlled and that’s done through insulin.

 

So what’s happening is that our bodies can work on two fuels:

1. the first is called ketones, these fat bodies,
2. the second is glucose.

The mitochondria can use both. And the glucose is burned preferably very quickly because it is so dangerous for the body that the body wants to get rid of it as soon as possible to get the level of sugar back to an acceptable level. Hence why it burns it as a poor fuel.

When mitochondria are at their peak healthy state, it’s the optimal energy and we feel our best. We must understand that it is critical to our well-being.

Research reflects the idea that our cells are governed by a nucleus, and within this nucleus, there is our DNA. But we now understand that this is not the case.

That the real conductor of the activity of ourselves and of our processes is the mitochondria. The mitochondria is determining cell division and is providing all the energy needed for anything that happens in one cell.

So why are we hearing the narrative that the DNA is performing this role when actually the mitochondria are more critical to this narrative?

Well, when DNA was discovered in medicine, there was a hypothesis that it was driving everything. And we know today in medical school, when you learn the role of DNA, they call it the central dogma, right?

 

They say that you have DNA within the nucleus of the cell, this nucleus is within the enclosure of the cell, and various RNA messengers that would take information from the DNA, go out of the nucleus into some factory production to produce the proteins you need.

Right?

This is a central dogma.

When DNA gets the credit for Mitochondria’s work

What science will turn its back on, and why.

And there’s a very interesting anecdote because it was said until the beginning of the 70s, that there was absolutely no information that could go from outside the DNA and be inscribed into the DNA.

In other words, the DNA was received from your parents and it could never be changed except through replication errors, or mutations, right?

 

That happened randomly. This was the basic understanding. But at the beginning of the 70s, people have been discovering what is called reverse transcription. Which is that some information, RNA information, can be inscribed within the DNA.

That happened randomly. This was the basic understanding. But at the beginning of the 70s, people have been discovering what is called reverse transcription. Which is that some information, RNA information, can be inscribed within the DNA.

 

So you have this double movement. And the chief of the Pasteur Institute at the time, when he was reading the paper of one researcher of the Pasteur Institute, Mirko Beljansky, who discovered the inverse transcriptase, he said: “as long as I am the director of the Pasteur Institute, reverse transcriptase will not exist”. And this is the way things work.

It was an inconvenient truth that they just didn’t want to bother with because it was the shattering of the whole view. Of course, it shatters their whole narrative on the DNA proposal up until then. They discovered something that would mean what they know has to be changed.

That is how science and research work. Inconvenient findings and facts are not welcome.

Mitochondria and health – Every healthy activity has a link to your mitochondria

And what Grandma has to do with all this?

So good breathing would mean when you’re going on a rigorous walk, let’s say, a brisk walk. And you’re made to breathe as you walk. So you’re breathing deep in and out like in a light jog or a hike or something. So that’s why staying active alongside eating well is critical. Absolutely healthy mitochondria. Absolutely.

In fact, all the healthy things we are told, like exercise, breathing correctly, and sleeping correctly, all have a link to the health of the mitochondria. Now, we may be lucky or unlucky in our mitochondria. Because contrary to the nucleus DNA that comes from both the mother and the father, and if there is any problem in one chain of the DNA, there is a duplicate chain from the other parent, the mitochondria only come from the mother.

Really?

 

Yes, it only comes from the mother and it has its own DNA, which is called mitochondrial DNA, and it’s only coming from the mother. And the mitochondria you have in each of your cells are the copies of mitochondria that existed in your grandmother’s body. Because when a female human being is born, this baby already contains in her body all the eggs that she’s going to use in her fertile years. Yeah. And these eggs have been, in fact, produced by the grandmother.

Right?

Wow.

During the cell division, when the baby is produced, the DNA is replicated and you have half from the mother and half from the father, but all the organelles within the cells are duplicated from the ovule from the egg of the mother. This egg contains the history of the mother. And when the egg divides you have half of the mitochondria either go one way, and half go the other way.

 

If your mother had, let’s say, 50% of the mitochondria in bad health, it could be that you inherit it, and it goes to 90% of bad mitochondria, badly functioning mitochondria. In this case, the baby will be very unhealthy.

 

So the grandmother has to make sure that she keeps herself optimal in her health in order for even her grandchildren to benefit from her healthy lifestyle. So it’s not just always about what the mother is eating during the pregnancy, or even prior to the pregnancy, it really goes back another generation.

Yes, absolutely.

It is important for the mother to be healthy, and to provide nutrition so that the baby can grow. But from a genetic perspective, from a seed, the quality of the seed really depends on the grandmother.

And so that’s why it’s very important to be aware of what’s actually really good for you, and what isn’t, because whatever, you consume, it’s going to affect the next two generations of your family.

 

Absolutely.

And I think today, children who in their 20s, are probably the first generation that is born out of a generation that has been eating these incredibly processed foods. Their parents, the baby boomers, were raised on very healthy diets. So damaging stuff like seed oils was not so prevalent.

They constructed their body when they were young, in a period where all of this was not as available as their children. You mean seed oils and all these unhealthy things weren’t as available. So, therefore, they, just by default, were healthier.

 

Generally speaking, their structures were built on food that was not that processed, and tampered with. Then their children are the first generation to have been building bodies on crap on very human-made food. That is destructive.

Foods for mitochondrial health – What eating crap will do to you

But when we say crap, we mean not only the junk food, like

• sodas
• cakes
• cookies
• candy

and all that we’re talking about, even the seed oils, but we’re also talking about manmade agriculture, right?

How to improve mitochondrial function naturally?

We know that fruits and vegetables have changed over time. And so even in current agriculture, no matter how clean the soil is, how clean the air is, you have complete control over the way that plants are grown. It’s still not good for us. This is the point that most people don’t get. Because they were brainwashed from a young age that they must eat plant-based foods, which is not true.

It will hurt you if you eat plant-based.

Animal-based is superior and healthy.

That’s correct. The problem was compounded over the years, because the soils are getting poorer and poorer, in minerals. But even if you boost up the soil, plants are not only not nutritious, but they contain an even increased number of toxins.

 

And because we can see the impact on the body by reading the mitochondria. It can be measured and reads into all chronic disease. The common factor, when they get unhealthy, is that mitochondria are not providing enough energy for the body to defend itself and to clean itself to resist and to fight off toxins.

 

• So how do we up the game for mitochondria?
• How do we make it so that we get maximum benefits out of it?

Well, it’s proper nutrition. Which means more fatty meats and no plants, ideally. Plants have oxalic acid, which makes oxalates when it binds with potassium or magnesium, and these can create havoc in the mitochondria and other cells.

Minding your mitochondria

What does the levels of deuterium found in your food mean?

There’s also something that is seldom talked about, which is heavy hydrogen. It’s called deuterium. The concentration of a molecule is measured in millimoles. So if you say that the concentration of calcium in your body, in your blood streams, etc, is like two millimoles, magnesium is maybe one minimum.

 

Nobody will say that calcium and magnesium are not important for the functioning of the body, right?

It’s important because if you lack those things, you just die.

Yeah.

Now deuterium, which is a very specific kind of hydrogen, it’s a hydrogen. But it’s a hydrogen which is two times heavier than regular hydrogen, that is needed for the functioning of the mitochondria.

Right?

This deuterium is as a concentration of 12 millimoles. So it’s like four times more than magnesium. And nobody talks about it.

• Why?
• Why don’t they talk about it?

Because it’s a recent discovery. What is called ATP synthase is the way mitochondria produce this marvelous molecule. The ATP that we discussed at the beginning, provides energy to all cellular reactions in your body. We will keep it simple because microbiology is a fascinating world, yet very, very complicated. It’s like a rabbit hole.

We are just starting to scratch the surface. But what was discovered, measured, and observed is how an ATP molecule is produced. It is produced by the mitochondria that has on the surface, what is called Nano motors. Yeah, these are proteins that turn on themselves at the speed of 6000 turns per minute. It’s more than the motor of a Porsche.

 

This molecule that makes them turn is hydrogen. Hydrogen is just a proton with an electron to make it stable. So, the reaction is that when you eat the hydrogen in your food goes into your cell, then there is a Krebs cycle. There is a very complicated biochemical reaction that strips this hydrogen of its electron and proton and is used to make these wheels turn. They turn very fast and each time they turn they produce ATP.

Mitochondrial health diet – what about the water we drink

So the deuterium needs to be low?

Yes, because if one of the hydrogen that goes into these wheels is a deuterium it creates havoc. But the goal is not to eliminate deuterium. We need some. There’s advanced research in the production of ATP, it’s an impairment. You have in all these biological reactions, many steps in the biology to make sure that less deuteurium as possible are entering these nanometers.

 

However, a level of deuterium is needed for the cells. Because deuterium concentration in the cell is one of the way the cells is signaled that it can replicate, for example. So if you have no deuterium you have basically no duplication of the cell. So no growth. And you can see that if you if you plant seeds of the same plant in different pots, and you just water the seed with low deuterium water and hydrogen water, you will see the plant with high deuterium, it dies but the one watered with low deuterium water will grow much better.

So our food and our water should not be loaded with deuterium.

I remember one of the first things that you gifted me when we met was low deuterium water and I think you got it from Hungary. I remember I eventually drank all the bottles and it really impacted me positively with my energy levels and the clarity of mind.

So that is what we should be feeling when we have low deuterium in our system or adequate deuterium?

 

We are meant to maintain a certain level of deuterium, which can be set to 120 parts per million. Meaning that if you have 1 million hydrogen, you should have no more than 120 deuterium atoms. The water we consume is generally a one on with 150 but if you drink water with 180, you die.

Wow.

Okay.

So how does one know what kind of water they’re drinking?

We don’t know. But we have an idea of certain regions where we get water from would have higher deuterium.

Yes, we know that the more North you go, the the less deuterium you have in your environment. We are talking about 155 parts per million when you got to the equator, in the north of the oceans in general, we have 150 parts per million. Our bodies are meant to operate around 120.

 

So which region should we be trying to get our water from?

We find the lower deuterium water in Iceland and in Greenland. So if we can find bottled water that comes from Iceland, for example.

Good idea?

 

Yes, it’s a good idea. But it’s very expensive. And they come at 140, we still have to bridge this gap of 20 parts per million. And our bodies are equipped to do that. We have our microbiome.

 

It is hypothesized, and I think is very convincing that a lot of activities of a microbiome is a way for a body to discriminate deuterium. So if we drank water, say from Iceland, and it’s not really optimal, our body will do the rest of the job.

Yes, so it determines for us?

Yes.

Mitochondrial health diet -Food can be your biggest hero, understand that!

What is it that we aren’t meant to eat, but we do?

But it’s important to note that the main intervention we can do is our food. Because the plants in particular have the same problem as we do, which is that they need to reduce the deuterium level. It is believed that deuterium content in the atmosphere has increased over the past few 100 years. So we are consuming it all the time. Hydrogen probably is 70% of all existing particules.

Of all the atoms in this universe, it’s hydrogen that’s most. Yeah, we cannot escape it. It’s not toxic in itself, as we said, it is needed. But it must be controlled. There are clinics in in Hungary that are using deuterium depletion, which is lowering the deuterium levels in people to cure cancer and metabolic diseases.

 

I find that fascinating. I remember you, you sent me a report a while ago on that. There was a researcher, who was talking about how they managed to cure cancer with just lowering the deuterium in people. Yes. I don’t know why this is not picked up on on a larger scale by the medical industry.

I have no doubt that this will lead to a Nobel Prize at some point. But as we said, science advances one generation at a time. You have people who have built their careers on the hypotheses that diseases like cancer is a DNA problem. Yeah, and not a metabolic problem.

 

And so when that gets challenged, then their entire their work is dismissed.

So you need a generation to replace people who have less self interest in defending a certain position. Those that can look at things objectively like cancer as a metabolic disease, because once again, cancer is really a non functioning of the mitochondria.

 

So how do we reduce deuterium excess that one has in their body, the mitochondria are functioning very low, they are not producing enough energy so that you can use efficiently fight off toxins. So you’re body is overwhelmed. So the main intervention you can do is to consume food that contains the lower possible deuterium contents.

Okay, so fruits have very high deuterium content. We should not be eating plants, and definitely not fruits. If we have metabolic problems, it’s a very bad idea. We talked about glycation of the cells and the problems that sugar is creating in the body. But we change to real food that contains low deuterium like fatty red meat, and wow.

Everything changes.

So wait, okay, you said fruits are out of the question.

• Even all the vegetables?
• What about green leafy vegetables and other vegetables that we are told is good for us?

Well, cellulose is still a sugar that we cannot digest, but it’s still a sugar. It’s a chain of glucose. And vegetables contain cellulose in a problematic manner, as I said before. Yes, and they do much more than any animal product. And the water from the oceans is more concentrated in deuterium. Also the water of the rivers and under the ground water.

So the fruits and vegetables we were eating until probably 70 years ago, were mostly irrigated through water coming from the rain. Since deuterium is a hydrogen that is more heavy than the regular hydrogen.

When evaporation happens, let’s say the rain is deuterium depleted a bit. So it’s lower in deuterium than the water that remains in the rivers or in the soil irrigation and the general practice of taking water from rivers or underground and putting in on your crops, has increased. So the deuterium level of all plants have increased.

 

So plants are out of the question.

Fruits are out of the question.

Now you’re coming to what?

Animal, animal products, in general. So fatty meats.

• And does it have to be fatty meat?
• Can it be other types of meat that doesn’t contain so much fat?

Well, if you want to avoid any non necessary increase of deuterium, get rid of all sugars because they are heavy in deuterium. But you need fuel for your body. So fat is the fuel, right? So you need fat. Okay, so fatty meats and of course, then full fat milk, full fat butter, full fat, exactly.

All the animal products.

How to improve mitochondrial function

Mitochondrial protein import

Okay, so there’s a shift in the mindset because a lot of cancer patients believe that they should be eating a lot of plant based food. That’s how they’ve been programmed. This is mind blowing because we know for a fact that cancer cells are unable to strive if there’s no sugar available, which comes from plants, even the vegetables, not just the fruit.

Absolutely.

• Where did this mentality come from?
• Where were we taught to have plants, especially in cases of cancer?

I know a couple of friends and even some relatives which, you know, that have trained themselves because they’re cancer patients, to eat a lot more greens.

So why I mean, this is the power of hypotheses that became truth because they were repeated often enough, like saturated fats a bad for us. Not true. No. Saturated fat are not dangerous for health, for example.

 

It’s something that has been clear that it was the fat hypothesis related to coronary diseases. It was just an hypothesis, but it was repeated. It was never proven. It wasn’t evidence based. Absolutely not. Because saturated fats, the fat on our meat and the fatty milk and dairy has such a robust, positive impact on our health that it’s a shame that people aren’t pointed in that direction. Absolutely. But there’s a lot of conflicts of interests, and the sugar industry, which is basically most of the processed food companies, have a vested interest in trying to divert the attention of the problems, created by sugar. It affects their bottom line.

Right.

Yeah.

• Why would they want to tell you anything other than that? Wow.
• How do you know all this? It’s just driven by interest.
• What makes a metabolism healthy? Yeah.
• Are you really curious about that?
• How did you even know that you should be thinking about that?

Well, when you are faced with a friend who is suffering from a metabolic disease, and this friend is the most intelligent person you know, and you watch him really struggle against a disease for years and years with the best doctors trying to do something for him.

Alternative doctors, classical doctors. All the best people coming over and trying to fix something and couldn’t. But he knows much more than all of them combined. And then he dies. I got revolted, and I was trying to understand what happened.

Yeah.

And I really regret it happened probably now six years ago. I really regret of not knowing everything I know now that’s the most painful thing is that we get our wake up call when something tragic happens to one of us or our loved ones.

 

And it’s so devastating that we finally wake up and decide that we’re going to want to learn the truth because otherwise none of this makes sense.

Yes.

So within this paradigm of evidence based medicine and with the evidence of biochemical reactions, metabolic pathways, there is really all answers converge towards food intervention as the main driver of metabolic health.