Where does our energy come from?

Find out, how the mitochondria plays a detrimental part in energy production needed for performance!

November 20, 2023

💡 Today in a sentence:

Find out, where we take most of our energy from, by understanding how the mitochondria work, also having a look at how to optimize them and what role the presence of oxygen plays in its functioning.

📖 4-minute Read

Where does our energy come from? Most of it, we get from a nucleotide called ATP (adenosine triphosphate), and that is produced in tiny, tiny cells called mitochondria. Before we move on, let’s have a quick look at what they are and how the mitochondria function.

The mitochondria are actually pretty wild. To try to put into perspective, how small these cells are, is a little difficult. They’re 0.5 to 1 micron in diameter, which is an 8000th to 4000th of a millimeter! Yet they make up around TEN percent of your total body weight or A THIRD of your skeletal and cardiac muscle cell volume! Now to understand its function think of the mitochondria as a motor, that is fueled by oxygen and carbohydrates (sugar). And with each rotation, it produces energy in the form of ATP, the product of the two substrates (oxygen + carbohydrates). More on the role of oxygen in a second! All of this happens in the so-called Krebs cycle (which depicts one revolution in this motor)!
Now, ATP is the energy source that then powers all of your muscles, your heart, etc., or stores energy at a cellular level. It delivers that energy, by splitting off one of its three phosphates, going from ATP to ADP (adenosine diphosphate). The stand-alone phosphate containing the energy is now ready to be used!

By now it should be obvious, that the mitochondria play a detrimental role in the body’s energy household. But how can you optimize for their production? For that, consider the following, these are just some options, I’ll leave you some articles about that topic down below in the references!

  1. Intermittent Fasting: Restricting calories and practicing intermittent fasting is hypothesized to increase NAD+ levels which may enhance mitochondrial function, leading to improved ATP production.

  2. Exercise: Continuous exercise also boosts the number of mitochondria in muscle cells, ensuring sufficient ATP levels. Studies, including one on high-intensity interval training (HIIT), suggest a significant improvement in mitochondrial function.

  3. Cold Exposure: Cold exposure is linked to an elevated protein responsible for initiating mitochondrial synthesis (PGC-1alpha).

As promised, let’s have a look at the importance of oxygen for mitochondrial function to round this off. To quickly answer this, oxygen is VERY important, as the whole process of ATP production is solely dependent on it! Also, the mitochondria need A LOT of it! Now, they actually produce ATP whether or not they’re supplied with oxygen. When not receiving, the mitochondria produce 2 ATP every cycle (think the motor analogy from before), but in case they do receive, they produce 36 ATP! It is needless to say, that is a pretty significant increase! And the only difference between 2 and 36 ATP is the presence of oxygen!

References

Here are some articles to read on:

Further references:

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