It's impossible to overstate the importance of your mitochondria, whether for managing autoimmunity, avoiding chronic degenerative disease, aging gracefully, or just functioning at your highest level everyday. Mitochondria turn your food into energy in the same way that your motor turns your gasoline into energy. This cellular energy powers everything you do - not just getting out of bed in the morning, but thinking, healing, detoxifying, and forming memories and pathways in your brain. Simply put, if the motor doesn't work, nothing works. When your mitochondria don't function properly, your body will not function properly, and disease will ensue. Dysfunctional mitochondria are associated with autoimmunity, Alzheimer's, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, autism, and just general fatigue, pain, inflammation, brain fog, and nearly every other disease or symptom under the sun. Excessive sugar, chemical additives, inflammatory fats, environmental toxins, artificial blue light, electromagnetic radiation, and a sedentary lifestyle can all damage mitochondria. Many supplements like B vitamins, magnesium, CoQ10, and antioxidants help support or protect the mitochondria. The benefits of red light therapy (low-level laser therapy, or LLLT)  come from effects on the mitochondria. Cold thermogenesis works on the mitochondria. Ketogenic diets work on the mitochondria and are often considered more of a "mitochondrial therapy" than a "diet". Sunlight helps the mitochondria function properly. Exercise is the best thing for the mitochondria! None of these things are that shocking, these are the lifestyle factors that make people sick and the healing strategies that can help people regain their health - but  the mitochondria is the HOW. In this episode, I discuss this in more detail, and I give an overview of the importance of mitochondria, from a 30,000 ft view of how they function and can become dysfunctional. In the next several episodes I'm going to dive deeper into the specific functions of the mitochondria (glycolysis, Krebs cycle, beta-oxidation, electron transport chain), expected symptoms or testing for each of these specific functions, how you can support these specific functions, and how it all works. When you begin to understand these mechanisms, your solutions for health become obvious!