Growing young (and not old) is one of the fantasies most of us have
It’s not about refusing the passage of time, but more about retaining the ability to do what we love in life regardless of age.
Imagine being able to travel the world, hike mountains, swim in lakes, ski, laugh hard, and be sharp all while in your 80s and 90s. That is what we are after 😉
Mindset is obviously a big component to achieve this…
But there is one other secret that helps stay young and that most don’t know about …
It doesn’t involve a cream… nor does it involve a supplement (although some might help in specific situations) …
It’s your mitochondria!
Of course aging is a complex process, but more research is now pointing to mitochondria as being the single point of failure when it comes to aging and diseases
I speak a lot about mitochondrial dysfunction being at the root of cardiovascular disease, metabolic disease and neurodegeneration which make up the majority of “old age” disease (that we see in younger people now unfortunately)
That is because mitochondria are
- Critical for cellular health (they produce energy, cellular water, pregnenolone which is the precursor to all our steroid hormones..)
- Fragile as they are the site where huge amounts of free radicals are produced from the simple process of electron transport chain to make ATP and water
- Lack the resilience of our cells because their DNA is small with just 37 genes so doesn’t have advanced regeneration that our cells have
This means tending to our mitochondria and specifically keeping mitochondria away from excess free radical damage is critical to staying young.
How do you do that? Lots of things are involved, but two major components:
1) Cold exposure:
mitochondria pushes electrons down the electron transport chain (ETC) to make ATP – it needs to keep a balance between electrons tunnelled and ATP made.
When ATP accumulates and is not used, the process is clogged, and electrons start leaving the ETC and making free radicals. An excess of this creates disease.
Our mitochondria has a buffer called uncoupling proteins which help divert energy from ATP production into heat production to avoid this.
Practising cold exposure makes our mitochondria much more capable of using this buffer system, lowering free radical production in the first place!
2) Protecting from non-native EMFs and excess blue light:
Non native electromagnetic fields (nn-EMFs) and excess blue light dehydrate the mitochondria and lead to fast loss of electrons which exposes our mitochondria to the type of free radicals that we can’t easily deal with with enzymes.
This means mitochondria that will age faster, and drive degeneration in our body as a result.
While nn-EMFs are ubiquitous today, distance, grounding, and sensibly turning off your devices when not needed constitute a good first line of defence.
PS: Check my Frontiers of Vitality masterclass, where I cover the drivers of true health, and share simple protocols to boost energy, prevent diseases including cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, gain performance and much more.