Beat The Energy Crisis Affecting All Americans

Mitochondria are the most important thing I’m researching for my practice right now. 

These are the energy-producing organelles that are located in every cell in your body. They convert your food into fuel and power your organs.  

They act like batteries to provide the energy your cells need to function. 

These are the power plants that turn fuel into energy. At the same time, they filter the cellular “sludge” that leaves your cells bloated and ineffective. 

Every one of your cells has at least one of these power plants. The average cell has 200. 

And cells for “energy hungry” organs like your heart and brain can have over 10,000. 

But your mitochondria become weaker as you get older, and then they die off. You lose your capacity to make energy and your physical and mental performance declines with your aging.^1,2,3 

In addition, the more energy these little engines put out, the more waste products they produce. 

Oxidation breaks down mitochondria so they don’t run as well or produce as much power. In fact, they are the primary site for the production of free radicals that produce oxidation. And that means they damage their own DNA. 

That DNA damage causes the mitochondria to misfire. Your energy takes a dive. 

And research shows this malfunction is the root of many chronic diseases of aging, including:

If you keep your mitochondria healthy, your body will have all the energy it will ever need to stay strong and ward off the diseases of aging. 

But as you age you have fewer of these engines, and they are undersized and degraded. Unless you do something about it, you get all the energy-sapping consequences of aging. 

Feeling weak and having a lack of energy production from the degrading of your mitochondria is called “bioenergetic aging.” 

Bioenergetic aging brings about a constant decline in your body’s ability to generate the energy you need to do even simple things. 

Australian scientist Anthony Linnane observed this in a groundbreaking study. He looked at human mitochondria and compared the boundless energy of a child with that of an older person. 

When he looked at photographs of aging cells, he was shocked to find that less than 5% of the mitochondrial DNA from the muscle tissue of a 90-year-old subject was intact.^4,5 

Over 95% of the mitochondria had degraded — they got worse and lost power! In other words, degenerating mitochondria is an early sign of aging. 

The good news is we have now found a way to reverse this process of degrading mitochondria. 

You do it through mitochondrial biogenesis. 

What that means is that you help your body make new cellular power plants — new mitochondria — while you also renew the power of your existing ones.

This is very important because if you don’t replace and renew your mitochondria, you could lose your ability to generate any energy.

Our primal ancestors regularly tapped into the body’s ability to regenerate mitochondria. 

Because they were hunter-gatherers they couldn’t always predict when their next meal would be. 

Some days they had very little to eat. Other days they feasted. 

But that periodic hunger didn’t drain their energy. It increased their energy. Bouts of food shortages kicked up the energy production in their mitochondria. 

Research shows that high intensity exertion naturally creates more energy-producing mitochondria, especially in the brain and heart.⁶ That is why just one session of intense exercise can make you feel more energetic fast. 

In other words, the harsh life that our primal ancestors had — with periods of fasting and intense exertion — triggered energy bursts by boosting mitochondrial biogenesis. 

We lead a much easier life than our ancestors. We have access to abundant calories all the time. But in a way we have been robbed of our natural way of rebooting our energy.

At my clinic, I help my patients improve their health span and fight the diseases associated with aging by making sure they have plenty of healthy mitochondria with the power to produce robust energy. 

For more than a decade now, I’ve been boosting my patients’ mitochondria with two super-nutrients — CoQ10 and pyrroloquinoline quinone, or PQQ. 

I was one of the first to realize Coenzyme Q10 provides the “spark” your mitochondria need to function. It is one of the first things I recommend to my patients. CoQ10 was also the first super nutrient we identified to have an immediate connection to mitochondrial health. 

I noticed an immediate and startling change in my patients who took it. They had greater energy, stamina, and strength than ever before. 

CoQ10 is essential for your cells’ mitochondria. 

Energy production at the cellular level begins when the body turns the food we eat into nutrients (glucose, amino acids, and fatty acids) that mitochondria can use to produce energy. Within the cells, the mitochondria manufacture ATP (adenosine triphosphate). ATP is literally your body’s source of energy. ATP is the fuel cells burn to perform their tasks. 

To make energy, the mitochondria use plenty of CoQ10. This is essential to keep the powerhouses of the cells — the mitochondria — working efficiently. 

In this way, CoQ10 provides a virtual “Fountain of Youth” for your cells. 

When cells run out of CoQ10, the mitochondria simply cannot produce enough energy to meet the body’s demands. When the body is well stocked with CoQ10, it can operate efficiently. 

When stockpiles of CoQ10 run low, the mitochondria are less efficient and they may produce adenosine diphosphate (ADP), which is a less potent fuel. 

Over time, running your body on cheap fuel takes its toll, damaging the mitochondria and contributing to a growing sense of fatigue, weakness, and eventually, disease. 

When your body is young, your mitochondria work tirelessly to produce the abundant energy associated with youth. Over the years, however, your mitochondria age and show signs of wear and tear, just as the rest of the body does. And when this happens, your mitochondria can grow “hard” and less efficient at producing ATP. 

When your mitochondria break down, they produce less energy. If this happens long enough, you experience chronic fatigue. This systemic energy crisis can compromise the immune system as a whole, leaving your body more vulnerable 

to attack from bacteria, viruses, and additional pathogens.

A number of studies found that people who suffer from ailments associated with aging — including cardiovascular disease, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease — all tend to have abnormally low levels of CoQ10 and high levels of mitochondria failure. 

My clinic has measured hundreds, if not thousands, of CoQ10 levels with some surprising results: 

pressure, diabetes, or low HDL cholesterol. 

If you are in one of these categories, increasing CoQ10 can make a dramatic difference in your energy level and cardiovascular health. 

CoQ10 sparks your aging mitochondria to make more energy. It also acts as a potent free radical scavenger. It soaks up oxidized molecules before they can cause damage. 

But CoQ10 doesn’t quite finish the job. The key to staying young is having MORE mitochondria that are healthy enough to actually produce energy. That requires PQQ.

The good news is that not only can you turbocharge your existing mitochondria, but you can also make new mitochondria. 

Recent preclinical research reveals that a little-known super nutrient called pyrroloquinoline quinone, or PQQ, triggers your cells to build healthy new mitochondria.^7,8 

Researchers at the University of California at Davis fed mice a diet supplemented with PQQ, and they grew a staggering number of new mitochondria in just eight weeks.⁹

This allows your cells to produce more fuel, so your cell systems work more energetically and efficiently. 

PQQ is a remarkably strong antioxidant. It shields the mitochondria in your heart from the stress of making all that energy day in and day out. 

And that is a good thing because mitochondria are fragile. They don’t just degrade with the passing of the years. Mitochondria are especially vulnerable to our environment because they don’t have all the DNA protection and repair functions the rest of the cell does. 

This worsening of your mitochondrial performance is most evident in the heart cells (cardiomyocytes), brain cells (neurons) and muscle cells (myocytes). 

PQQ neutralizes free radicals that damage and kill off your mitochondria. That makes PQQ’s role as “protector” of mitochondria just as important as its ability to make new ones. 

In one study five men and five women took a single dose of around 10 to 15 milligrams of PQQ. Then researchers measured changes in their antioxidant capacity. 

Over the next two days, PQQ significantly reduced their markers for oxidative stress.¹¹ 

Even better, in the second part of the study, the people got daily PQQ for three days. All of them had increases in metabolites showing their mitochondria were working much more efficiently. They got more energy with less effort. Which means PQQ is like a whole-body energy tune-up. 

Plus, PQQ works harder and longer than any other antioxidant. It is so stable and strong it works for thousands of antioxidant cycles.¹² Other related antioxidants break down quickly. But PQQ keeps right on protecting you hundreds of times longer. 

Your mitochondria are vulnerable to the environment. But powerful antioxidants like PQQ can neutralize the damage caused by free radicals. 

That all adds up to more energy. This amazing nutrient can triple... even quadruple... your energy in just a few days. 

Supporting your mitochondria with CoQ10 and PQQ is easy. 

Here’s what I suggest: 

When it comes to PQQ, here’s what I recommend: 

In addition to being a great source for CoQ10 as discussed earlier, organ meats like liver and kidney provide the biggest amount of PQQ per serving — as much as 10 micrograms per 100g. 

To Your Good Health,

10 Wu JZ, et al. “Pyrroloquinoline quinone enhances the resistance to oxidative stress and extends lifespan upon DAF-16 and SKN-1 activities in C. elegans.” Exp Gerontol. 2016 Jul;80:43-50.