← ASCP Esty Talk
ASCP Esty Talk
Ep 356 – The Rogue Pharmacist: Mitochondria
00:10:29
We’ve all heard mitochondria called the “powerhouse of the cell,” but what does that mean for skin? In this episode of The Rogue Pharmacist, Ben Fuchs breaks down how mitochondria fuel cell repair, collagen production, and overall skin vitality....
Loading summary
Transcript6 lines
- [00:00]
A
Foreign.
- [00:04]
B
Welcome to ASCP and the Rogue Pharmacist with Benjamin knightfoods. In each episode, we'll explore how internal and external factors can impact the skin. I'm Maggie Stasik, ASCP's program director. And joining me is Ben Fuchs, skincare formulator and pharmacist. Hi, Ben.
- [00:19]
A
Hi, Maggie.
- [00:20]
B
We've all heard mitochondria called the powerhouse of the cell. But what does that really mean when it comes to skin?
- [00:28]
A
It means a lot because the skin is dividing rapidly. Skin is a very active organ. Skin, the digestive tract, the immune system, the nervous system, the heart, these organs and systems are moving rapidly. So they're using energy very rapidly. And as you said, the mitochondria are the power centers of the cell. But what exactly does that mean? They're the power center of the cell. Right. That's kind of a weird concept when you think of a power center. What do you think? Generating power. But how's that all happen? Well, it happens in probably, you know, there's so many incredible things about the body, it's hard to say what the most incredible thing is. But arguably what the mitochondria do is the most incredible thing, not only in the body, but in the universe. It's just mind blowing how they operate. So going back in evolution, you had cells that were very primitive and very basic. We've talked about these before. They're called pro, meaning primitive. Karyotes. Karyote is Greek for cell. So prokaryotes are these primitive cells. They came off, came onto the scene like three and a half billion years ago. Earth is supposedly around 4 billion years. So 500,000 years into the process, these primitive cells came, came around and these primitive cells, they couldn't do much. They couldn't, they had like, didn't have a lot of distinct working parts. Their DNA was kind of spread out and they were just kind of a mess. They're primitive cells. Then something happened about maybe a billion years after the first primitive cells came on the scene. And this is like this incredible evolutionary phenomena where there was a type of cell that had an ability to utilize oxygen. Oxygen, very high energy. Primitive cells couldn't use oxygen. And that's one of the reasons why they were kind of disorganized and couldn't do much. But there was one type of cell that could use oxygen. And this cell that could use oxygen, could use merged in this seminal evolutionary event with the protocells or the prokaryotes. And this merger of these cells that could utilize oxygen with the prokaryotes created a new super type of cell that could now utilize oxygen, which is an incredibly powerful energy source. I mean, for good or for bad. You know, oxygen will make things burn, but oxygen can be used for energy. And so these cells figured out how to use oxygen for energy, and they merged with the prokaryotes and they created this supercell, which we refer to as a U. EU means good eukaryote. And that's the advanced cells. Those are the two basic kinds of cells on the planet, prokaryotes and eukaryotes. So what, what was this merger of this, this bizarre cell that could use oxygen with prokaryotes? Well, those bizarre cells were. Ended up becoming the mitochondria. And the mitochondria to this day have their own DNA. They're separate from the cells from a genetic standpoint. They're like their own organisms. If you ever watch that show CSI or one of those cop shows, they'll talk about mitochondrial DNA, which is a very specific kind of DNA that's distinct from the cell's DNA. So it's almost like they're a separate organism still to this day inside of the cell. But there's a symbiosis where they help the cell function and allow the cell to utilize oxygen. And that's the key. That was the key event in evolutionary history that allowed life to evolve. The development of the eukaryotic cell by merger of these separate organisms, which ended up becoming the mitochondria. So what exactly did the mitochondria do? Well, when you eat a food, food gets broken down into its basic components, specifically glucose and fats. And these glucose and fats enter into the mitochondria, and this incur at the. And when I say they enter into the mitochondria, I'm talking about the. At the quantum level, at the electron and proton level, the subatomic particle level, they actually enter into the mitochondria and through a whole bunch of incredible transformations, which is generally referred to as electron transportation. I don't know if you ever heard that term electron transport, where there's a whole bunch of steps that end up with something called ATP being produced. So electrical energy in the form of subatomic particles get fed in from food, ultimately from the foods we eat, get fed into the mitochondria. The mitochondria do this magical stuff via electron transport, and they spit out ATP. And that's. That's why they're called the powerhouse of the cell. However, there's some problems Here. First of all, there's a lot of steps that turn that subatomic particle into ATP. And those steps require nutrients, particularly vitamin B3 and vitamin B2. And you may have heard of something called NAD and NADP and NADH. Have you heard of it? It's kind of a buzz in the biohacking world. Those are the molecules that help carry the electrons through this electron transport chain for ATP to be produced. So niacin, vitamin B3, and riboflavin, vitamin B2, are very important for this process. And deficiencies in these nutrients, which are not uncommon, especially niacin, can impair the movement of these electrons through this electron transport chain, they call it, for ATP to come out. And this is one of the reasons why you want to be supplementing and you want to make sure that you're getting your B vitamins in foods or through supplementation. Nowadays you can actually get NAD or NADH injections or intravenous IV supplements. And you can also, I think you can get them in oral supplements, probably wouldn't work as effectively. There's another supplement called nmn, which is a little bit more bioavailable orally, and that also facilitates electron transport. A big problem with our, the way we, our food supply today is it has so much energy in it that we're frying out our mitochondria. And this is considered to be a really big health issue when it comes to skin health and heart health and brain health and immune health is mitochondrial burnout. And obviously, if the mitochondria are where the ATP is coming from, that can lead to problems, because if you're not making enough ATP, you can't run your cells and your cells die. So mitochondrial health is becoming a really big element of the biohacking world and also the medical world. And using nutrients to facilitate electron transport is one way that you can support mitochondrial health and slowing down the input of energy into the cells, another strategy. This is why fasting is so beneficial. Fasting kind of gives the mitochondria a break so that the mitochondria don't burn out as readily. And that's why you want to not only fast, but also calorie restrict. Calorie restriction calories represent energy. And this is one of the reasons why mitochondria are burning out because we're all getting too many calories. So fasting can really help this process. By the way, alpha hydroxy acids also turn on the mitochondria. All stimulating procedures which are great, need to have nutrients associated with them because you don't want to create energy or upregulate energy without having the balancing nutrients. So. Yes, indeed. And that's why in my protocols, I always have nutrients to follow our stimulating products. So when you're using alpha hydroxy acid peels, which I absolutely love, the alpha hydroxy acid peels, you always want to follow it up with vitamin C, ionic minerals, retinol, Maybe not retinol. Retinol's a little aggressive, but retinol still contributes electronic energy, antioxidants, vitamin E, fullerenes. I don't think we've ever talked about fullerenes. Maybe we'll put that on the list of things to talk about. Things that are protective for the mitochondria should always be used following stimulating ingredients. And there are also a whole slew of nutrients that you can use to protect your mitochondria. For example, melatonin protects mitochondria. That's one of the reasons why melatonin can be so beneficial. A lot of people are kind of negative on melatonin. Sometimes you hear people say, don't take melatonin. What they realize is in addition to helping you sleep, melatonin helps balance things out. And so melatonin can have a beneficial effect on mitochondria. I mentioned niacin, ionic minerals, also vitamin E. What else? There's some other nutrients. Coenzyme Q10 can help with mitochondrial support, mitochondrial energy. There's something called. Well, you heard of resveratrol, I'm sure resveratrol. There's something called pqq, and I forget what that stands for, actually, but that's a supplement that you use, that you can use to protect mitochondria. One of the hottest supplements now that's out on the market that protects mitochondria is methylene blue, which you may have heard of, right? Yeah. Methylene blue is getting a lot of buzz in the, in the biohacking world. And its main mechanism of action is to help protect mitochondria. Alpha lipoic acid. And alpha lipoic acid has had a long tradition of being used for diabetics who suffer from things like peripheral neuropathies. And this is, this is one of the places where mitochondrial burnout can show up, is in the pathologies that diabetics suffer from. A lot of them are caused by mitochondrial burnout, because when you have diabetes, you don't handle sugar well. The sugar goes up and you can end up frying out your mitochondria. And so peripheral neuropathies, dry skin and skin problems, hyperpigmentation all of these can be the end result of disturbances at the level of the mitochondria. The. So you're not gonna really target the mitochondria, but really, all the things that we know we're supposed to do to stay healthy, they work by supporting mitochondrial health. So things like fasting, as I mentioned, nutritional supplementation, exercise, that's a great way to help strengthen your mitochondria. Oxygenation, breathing correctly, that's another important strategy for helping your mitochondria. And then sleep, getting enough rest is another strategy for helping your mitochondria. So you're not going to necessarily say, oh, this is going to. I'm going to do this for my mitochondria. But when you do things that are good for your health, the mechanism of action of the. Of the benefits of sleep and exercise and supplementation are their ability to support mitochondrial function.
- [10:10]
B
That concludes our show for today, and we thank you for listening. But if you just can't get enough of Ben Fuchs, the ASCP's rogue pharmacist, you can find him@truthtreatments.com for more information on this episode or for ways to connect with Ben Fuchs or to learn more about ascp, check out the show notes.