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So mitochondria are the powerhouse of
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the cell as Tim just told us, educated
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us, right? So every cell has hundreds of
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mitochondria and mitochondria are what
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are called organels. They have their own
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DNA. In fact, evolutionarily
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mitochondria were bacteria that
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basically ended up in the symbiotic
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relationship with what became our cells.
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So we each have mitochondria, hundreds
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of them in each one of our cells. Each
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mitochondria has its own nucleus and has
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its own DNA. And the mitochondria make
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the energy that the rest of the cell
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uses. That energy is called ATP. And it
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eats up glucose or it eats up ketones if
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you're in ketosis. And it uses that to
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make the ATP. So every cell in our body
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gets its energy, which is what it uses
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to function from the mitochondria. And
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so there's been a lot of research into
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the relationship between mitochondria
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and aging and that dysfunctional
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mitochondria as they start to break down
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and stop working and have damage may
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actually be a key driver for many
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diseases that we experience as humans
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including many cancers, Alzheimer's,
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Parkinson's, ALS, features of autism,
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muscle tissues being weak, etc. So as
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the cells get older and the mitochondria
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stop working, we make new mitochondria.
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But over time, the DNA degrades and the
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mitochondria become less effective and
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there are fewer functional mitochondria
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per cell. The cell stops working right
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and eventually the organism stops
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working, right? Have you have you
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learned anything about the connection of
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creatine to mitochondrial health? It's
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part of um some of the processes, but
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there's some separate research on this,
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but it's definitely worth spending time
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on. People are crazy about hitting five
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grams or 10 grams of becoming like a
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trend. Yeah, I think it's Oh, yeah. I
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know. Five grams. Yeah, something like
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that. It's trending on Twitter. I think
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it's kind of like a meme or a joke in
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addition to being I don't I don't think
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it's a joke. Is it is it But it does it
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is there any science that backs that up
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or not really for mitochondria? There
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are questions on this like do you want
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to focus on things that are increasing
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biogenesis which is creation of new
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mitochondria? Does that create a better
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benefit on the creatine work? I've read
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some of these papers. I actually tried
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it for a while. I personally had a
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allergy to it which is kind of rare but
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happens but anyway we can talk about it
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further. So so one of the key things was
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um there were three papers that I wanted
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to just highlight that kind of follow an
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interesting theme. The first one was
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from 2023 from WashU in St. Louis and
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this paper, Nick, if you could just pull
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up that image
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of mitochondria being transferred. These
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folks identified and demonstrated that
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mitochondria can actually transfer from
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one cell to another. So, if you've got a
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cell that's got damaged or dysfunctional
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mitochondria, they've identified three
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mechanisms by which mitochondria can
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move into a cell that needs more
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mitochondria that are working and are
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more functional. That's something that's
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been theorized for a long time. People
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have said, "Oh, well, we think
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mitochondria transfer." But there wasn't
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really evidence of this. So, as of two
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years ago, these guys provided very good
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evidence of mitochondria that we can now
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put into cells. If it's floating around,
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it can make its way into another cell
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and as a result, it can rejuvenate or
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provide energy to a dysfunctional cell
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which might improve dysfunctional tissue
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or improve disease. The second paper was
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done um last month out of Columbia
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University. And this was the first
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mapping of the mitochondria in the human
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brain. And so these folks created 703
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tiny cubes of brain from a person that
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passed away, a 54 year old donor. And
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then they analyzed the mitochondria in
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each of those cubes. And they used that
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to make a map of mitochondria in the
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brain. And what it showed was that
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different parts of the brain, different
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cells had different amounts of
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mitochondria and different mitochondrial
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function, which actually starts to
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highlight how that difference in energy
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production in different cells in
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different parts of the brain may
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actually cause some of the things like
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memory loss or speech impairment or um
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as we age, the fact that we end up
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being, you know, kind of forgetful or
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start to lose some of our capacity. that
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the mitochondrial dysfunction in the
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brain might actually be the key driver
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of that aging um
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symptomology. The third paper which just
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came out came out of a team at Sha Jang
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University in China. So what these guys
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did which was really incredible is they
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took stem cells. So stem cells that they
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got out of human blood and they took
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those stem cells and they figured out a
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way to treat the stem cells that those
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stem cells would start to make an excess
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amount of mitochondria than they
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normally would make. In fact they were
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able to get those stem cells to make
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854 times the number of mitochondria
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that those cells would normally make.
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And those mitochondria were on average
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5.7 times more efficient at making
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energy, ATP. So they created highly
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energetic mitochondria and they made a
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lot of them. And the idea that we can
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put mitochondria into our body or into
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tissue in our body to heal it or repair
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it has been something that folks have
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been trying to do research around for a
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long time. But the limiting factor is
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access to enough mitochondria. So this
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mechanism that they developed where they
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could take stem cells, make copies of
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the stem cells, make lots of
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mitochondria and then they isolate that
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mitochondria and use it as a therapeutic
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tool and they did it in cartilage that
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was damaged and they were able to heal
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that cartilage. So um this is a group
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that does bone and and tissue repair
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studies, but they applied the
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mitochondria directly into the area
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where there was damage to the bone and
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the bone grew back and it actually
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improved the healing in an incredible
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way. So this this opens up the door to
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this whole new therapeutic modality, a
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new type of therapy called midotherapy
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or mitochondrial therapy that based on
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the series of papers that we're seeing
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coming out recently, I believe could end
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up becoming a really incredible um new
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therapy that may ultimately lead to the
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treatment for many diseases that we're
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kind of dealing with right now. So, I
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just wanted to kind of like this be uh
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immediately applicable to say people
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with sports injuries, you know,
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meniscus, knees, ankles. You start to
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think about those bones, spurs, chips
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that basketball players, football
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players go through. Would that this be
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like the lowhanging fruit for this
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technology? Yeah. I mean, what they did
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this in and I think this was published
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in a research magazine called Bone or
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something. Bone and tissue or something.
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Yeah. But they did I'll let my
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subscription lapse. I got to thank for
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reminding me. They did it in a in a
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model a mouse model of osteoarthritis um
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and it repaired this osteoarthritis. But
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that's exactly right. And so that's
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tissue where you can using a microscope
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you can actually see the healing
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happening. But you could see this being
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applied for example uh to cerebral
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spinal fluid where you can basically
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increase the mitochondrial the energetic
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mitochondrial production uh that finds
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its way into maybe neuronal cells into
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neurons in your brain and improves um uh
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your brain function. or you could put it
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into damaged hearts after heart attacks
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and improve heart function. So there's
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all these theories about how you could
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use mootherapy as this becomes possible
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to now produce lots of mitochondria and
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use it as a therapy that can then be
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applied to lots of disease states. So I
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I I I think there's going to be a bit of
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a blossoming of research in this area of
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mitotherapy.