emirates7 - With mitochondria at the forefront of health discussions, experts debate their role in ageing

Last summer, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he could tell that someone was having “mitochondrial challenges” just by looking at them. The nominee for surgeon general, Dr Casey Means, features mitochondria prominently in her book on metabolism and health. And several trendy supplements marketed for longevity, such as coenzyme Q10, urolithin A and those that boost NAD+, purportedly work by enhancing mitochondrial functioning.


Scientists who study mitochondria are somewhat baffled by the newfound attention. But they’re also excited to see their favourite organelle in the spotlight.


“I’m not going to complain about mitochondria being at the forefront of the discussion right now because I think it is important,” said Dr. Pinchas Cohen, the dean of the University of Southern California Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. “But I can’t really explain how it happened.”


What exactly are mitochondria, and is it really possible to make yours healthier — and increase your life span in the process?


Mitochondria 101


Let’s start with a quick biology refresher: Mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell. They convert the food we eat into adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, which is the primary form of cellular energy.


More and more, scientists are learning that mitochondria are involved in other fundamental bodily processes, too. Mitochondria support immune functioning, produce peptides that relay messages between organs and are integral to general cellular housekeeping. In other words, they’re really, seriously crucial for health.


The number of mitochondria in our cells and their functionality both decline as we age. That’s thought to be partly because, during the energy production process, mitochondria a toxic byproduct called reactive oxygen species, or ROS, which can injure the mitochondria and other parts of the cell. As we get older, the energy production process starts to malfunction, and more ROS are produced.


At the same time, the cell’s recycling system, which tidies up and disposes of damage caused by ROS, becomes less efficient. Broken parts pile up, resulting in more damage and potentially leading to cell death.


Mitochondria and ageing


Some experts believe that this decline in mitochondrial health drives some of the symptoms and diseases of aging, including Alzheimer’s and cancer.


“The mitochondria just give up earlier than other parts of the cell because of the wear and tear that they’re subjected to,” Dr. Cohen said.


“They’re the canary in the coal mine of cellular dysfunction,” he added.


Others point out that mitochondrial dysfunction may be the consequence of aging and disease, not the cause of it.


“The billion dollar question in the mitochondria aging field, in my opinion, is cause and effect,” said Dr. Vamsi Mootha, a professor of systems biology at Harvard Medical School. Is the decline precipitating aging, he continued, “or do you just have old tissue that’s sick, so you have sick mitochondria?”


Caring for your Mitochondria


While it’s an open question whether mitochondria are the key drivers of aging, it’s well-established that your behaviors affect their health, the experts said. And what’s good for some of the smallest parts of your cells is also good for the rest of your body.


Exercise has been consistently shown to improve mitochondrial function. In one of the most compelling studies, researchers took biopsies of people’s thigh muscles and found more, healthier mitochondria in the muscle cells after an eight-week training program. Both endurance and resistance training were effective, but doing the two in combination offered the biggest benefit.


“Exercise causes a little bit of use and tear of the mitochondria,” said Daria Mochly-Rosen, a professor of chemical and systems biology at Stanford University and an author of “The Life Machines: How Taking Care of Your Mitochondria Can Transform Your Health.” She added, “And so by exercising, you’re actually telling the whole body, OK, time to replenish your mitochondria and make them more pristine by making new parts for it.”


Diet likely also plays a role, since the food you eat gets turned into ATP. Mitochondria switch back and forth between metabolizing glucose (from carbohydrates) and fatty acids (from fat), so prioritize eating a mix of fiber-rich carbs and fat from high-quality sources. Those include foods like legumes, whole grains, avocados and fish.


Certain micronutrients, particularly B vitamins and antioxidants, are also important for mitochondrial health. “It doesn’t mean that you should take dietary supplements, but it means that you should have a balanced diet,” Dr Mochly-Rosen said.


And sleep — ideally seven to eight hours a night — is vital for the mitochondrial cleanup process. It’s while you sleep that your mitochondria are able to dispose of any parts that were damaged during the day.


The flashier interventions being studied (and sold) are less solid.


For example, research in mice suggests that supplements that increase levels of N.A.D.+, a molecule critical for cellular metabolism, could improve mitochondrial health. But most of the trials in people haven’t shown a clear clinical benefit. And some human studies testing whether antioxidant supplements like vitamins C and E could be beneficial actually resulted in worse outcomes for the participants.


Cold and heat exposure (primarily from ice baths and saunas) and red light therapy are also sometimes promoted as being good for your mitochondria. But the research supporting these claims has primarily been conducted on animals and cells in a petri dish, so whether they’d meaningfully improve people’s health is largely unknown.


This article originally appeared in The New York Times