Mitochondria: The Tiny Powerhouses that Fuel Your Health and Vitality

How Mitochondrial Dysfunction Impacts Brain Fog, Multiple Sclerosis, and Cognitive Decline

Your mitochondria may be small, but they have an outsized impact on your health and vitality. In this blog, I'll explain how mitochondrial health affects your brain, your eyes, and your overall function. I'll also cover how to recognize when your mitochondria aren't working well, and what steps you can take to improve their efficiency.

Mitochondria: The Engine that Powers Your Cells

The food you eat is ultimately broken down into either glucose or fat in the form of ketone bodies, which are then fed to the mitochondria in your cells. Your mitochondria "burn" these fuels to generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the molecule your cells use to drive the chemistry of life.

The cells with the highest demand for ATP are the brain cells, retinal cells, and heart cells. When your mitochondria become inefficient at generating enough fuel, these cells (and their associated organs) are the first to suffer.

How Mitochondrial Strain Impacts the Brain and Eyes

Mitochondrial strain — and the insufficient ATP production that comes with it — is at the heart of neurodegeneration, cognitive decline in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, and the development of progressive disability in multiple sclerosis.^1-3 Mitochondrial dysfunction is also a key driver of age-related macular degeneration and retinal aging, both of which are leading causes of blindness.⁴

How Mitochondrial Strain Accelerates Aging

The mitochondria also play a major role in how quickly we age. Multiple sclerosis, diabetes, and other neuroimmune and neurodegenerative conditions all demonstrate accelerated aging — and mitochondrial dysfunction is a central reason why.

Mitochondria, in the face of nutritional inadequacy, will triage which functions to perform and which to ignore. This process favors immediate survival at the expense of long-term health, resulting in accelerated aging and neurodegenerative damage.^5-8

Bruce Ames, a pioneering nutrition scientist, was among the first to focus on restoring mitochondrial function as a strategy to delay aging and slow neurodegeneration. He focused on lipoic acid, creatine, carnitine, magnesium, zinc, and fat-soluble vitamins A, D, and K — and championed targeted supplementation with these nutrients to reduce neurodegeneration and prevent accelerated aging.^7,8

Mitochondria and Chronic Disease

When mitochondria don't function optimally, neither do our cells — and symptoms begin to accumulate, like brain fog, fatigue, mood problems, and cognitive decline. Chronic and/or degenerative conditions like Parkinson’s, rheumatoid arthritis, and other autoimmune conditions can also develop, as can other health concerns like elevated blood pressure, age-related macular degeneration, diabetes, and heart disease.

The longer mitochondrial nutrition remains suboptimal, the more chronic disease states tend to accumulate.

When my patients present with brain fog, mental health issues, neurological symptoms, cardiac problems, or vision problems, my first assumption is that the mitochondria are malfunctioning and need support.

This is my approach.

Step One: Stop Poisoning Your Mitochondria

Before you can meaningfully improve mitochondrial function, you need to remove whatever may be damaging it. A few key sources of mitochondrial harm:

Long-term antibiotic use can impact mitochondrial health; some people are particularly susceptible to certain classes of antibiotics (like fluoroquinolones). Smoking, air pollution, and poor water quality can expose your body to cadmium, arsenic, lead, and mercury, all of which damage key proteins in the mitochondria. Pesticides and insecticides are also mitochondrial poisons.

Practical steps: filter your water using a pitcher filter, reverse osmosis system, or whole-house filter. Filter your air with a HEPA filter for your bedroom or a whole-house air cleaning system.

Step Two: Nourish Your Mitochondria with Food First

Once you've reduced sources of harm, the next step is improving mitochondrial nutrition. Most people in Westernized societies eat fewer than two servings of vegetables per day and get most of their calories from added sugars and white flour. That means most people have been starving their mitochondria for years.

Some practical starting points to improve mitochondrial nutrition:

• Reduce or eliminate sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened beverages and treats
• Replace white flour and processed foods with non-starchy vegetables and berries
• Consume adequate protein and healthy fats
• Cook at home and plan your shopping — it reduces food waste and makes healthy eating more affordable

I also recommend finding cooking and meal planning classes to make these changes easier to implement as a family.

Step Three: Targeted Supplements for Mitochondrial Support

Your mitochondria rely on proteins embedded in an inner membrane to drive the electron transport chain (the series of reactions that generate ATP). To hold those proteins in the correct positions, the mitochondria need healthy cell membranes, which require adequate fats, particularly omega-3 (which most people get too little of) and omega-6 (which most people get too much of).

Mitochondrial function can also be supported by specific cofactors involved in these reactions. These include B vitamins — riboflavin, thiamine, niacin, folate, pyridoxine, and cobalamin — along with the minerals zinc and magnesium.⁹

One important note: single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs, or genetic variants) can reduce the efficiency of B vitamin metabolism and increase the risk of mitochondrial strain. Taking activated forms of B vitamins bypasses these variants and ensures better utilization.

Additional supplements that support mitochondrial efficiency include coenzyme Q (ubiquinone), lipoic acid, carnitine, berberine, broccoli sprout extract, and creatine.^9-12 A broad-spectrum blend can be especially helpful.

Closing Thoughts

Eat the best diet and drink the cleanest water you can afford. Reduce your toxic exposures where possible. And add targeted supplements to fill the gaps.

For my patients, I recommend MitoMulti Complete — a multivitamin and multimineral that includes key antioxidants like lipoic acid, N-acetylcysteine, resveratrol, milk thistle extract, acetyl-l-carnitine, green tea, huperzine A (HupA), shilajit, broccoli sprout extract, and Bacopa monnieri. I also suggest Better Brain Mag (a combination of magnesium threonate and magnesium glycinate) and vitamin D3K2 5000 IU.

Optimizing your mitochondria is one of the most important steps you can take toward achieving your health goals.

Citations

1. Barcelos IP, Troxell RM, Graves JS. Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Multiple Sclerosis. Biology (Basel). 2019;8(2).
2. Bueler H. Mitochondrial and Autophagic Regulation of Adult Neurogenesis in the Healthy and Diseased Brain. Int J Mol Sci. 2021;22(7).
3. Carvalho KS. Mitochondrial dysfunction in demyelinating diseases. Semin Pediatr Neurol. 2013;20(3):194-201.
4. Eells JT. Mitochondrial Dysfunction in the Aging Retina. Biology (Basel). 2019;8(2).
5. Ames BN. Delaying the mitochondrial decay of aging-a metabolic tune-up. Alzheimer Dis Assoc Disord. 2003;17 Suppl 2:S54-57.
6. Ames BN. Delaying the mitochondrial decay of aging. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2004;1019:406-411.
7. Ames BN. Low micronutrient intake may accelerate the degenerative diseases of aging through allocation of scarce micronutrients by triage. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006;103(47):17589-17594.
8. Ames BN, Liu J. Delaying the mitochondrial decay of aging with acetylcarnitine. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2004;1033:108-116.
9. Fila M, Chojnacki C, Chojnacki J, Blasiak J. Nutrients to Improve Mitochondrial Function to Reduce Brain Energy Deficit and Oxidative Stress in Migraine. Nutrients. 2021;13(12).
10. Lewis Lujan LM, McCarty MF, Di Nicolantonio JJ, et al. Nutraceuticals/Drugs Promoting Mitophagy and Mitochondrial Biogenesis May Combat the Mitochondrial Dysfunction Driving Progression of Dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration. Nutrients. 2022;14(9).
11. Testai L, Martelli A, Flori L, Cicero AFG, Colletti A. Coenzyme Q10: Clinical Applications beyond Cardiovascular Diseases. Nutrients. 2021;13(5).
12. Naoi M, Maruyama W, Shamoto-Nagai M. Disease-modifying treatment of Parkinson's disease by phytochemicals: targeting multiple pathogenic factors. J Neural Transm (Vienna). 2022;129(5-6):737-753.