ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURAL FAILURE #6: THE MITOCHONDRIAL Rx

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HOW DO MITOCHONDRIA REALLY WORK?

The funny thing about mitochondria is that everyone seems to know they are not working well in most modern diseases, but only a few know how mitochondria really work.  When most allopathic and alternative health practitioners talk about food, they talk about calories, carbohydrates, proteins, or lipids.  You know what is ironic about these discussions?  Open up any biochemistry book and see if there is carbohydrate, protein, or lipid transporter on the inner mitochondrial membrane.  There is not.  But there is this thing called the “electron transport chain“.  Why is it that nobody in allopathic medicine or alternative medicine talks about electrons? All foods are broken down into electrons. This means that the input to our mitochondria are electrons.

Gary Taubes quoted Hans Krebs in Good Calories Bad Calories by saying, ‘All three major constituents of food supply carbon atoms’.  Most biochemists, clinicians, and scientists believe that metabolism is all about the carbon cycle.  I think most of you realize by now that I do not agree with this.  It is all about electrons.  This is why input to the mitochondrion is called ETC.  The second reason is that Gilbert Ling’s work showed us it is not about the amount of ATP made or about carbon recycling, but about the charges added or subtracted to the backbone of the proteins.  Ling showed us 60 years ago that electrons and electrostatic charges change the superstructure around carbon atoms.  The superstructure is what we call proteins.  These charges can elastically deform and compliantly redesign carbon back bones to lead to innovative changes.  We call these changes evolution.

When you have this fundamental insight of how electrons can alter proteins and mitochondria, your perspective has to change.  It is not what happens to you that matters most, rather it is how you respond to the stressor.  Adding electrons to your proteins makes them more elastic to life’s stressors.  Protons stiffen your response to environmental pressures.  This leads to a less compliant design in our proteins’ conformations.  We become less adaptable to our environment which leads to cellular chaos.  Medical schools and PhD programs are full of students who are good at adopting the given “wisdom” of their teacher, but not necessarily good at free thinking and questioning. This is because they have learned to follow precepts handed to them from presumed authorities.  This is why so few really understand how a mitochondria works at a fundamental level.  There are  many misconceptions about mitochondria and ETC.   What many allopathic and alternative practioners often call detox/herxheimer reactions are actually the movements to a more healthy template from an illness platform. The alternative health movement often causes those misconceptions.  Recent findings indicate that apoptosis does not even require mitochondrial ATP synthesis, but it does need a functional electron transport chain (Jia et al., 1997a).  ATP is not a main driver for mitophagy based upon the public literature, but few seem to realize it.  Here is a bigger shocker.  The release of cytochrome c from the mitochondrial intermembrane space, which is a key step of apoptosis, is not accompanied by m∆ψ ( delta psi) changes (Kluck et al., 1997).  This opens us up to a new understanding of how mitochondria might really function.  If it is not electrons that alter mitochondrial function,  could it be light that does?  After all, electrons do carry the energy in photons to our mitochondrion via ETC.  Let us consider the key working membrane in a mitochondrion.

The inner mitochondrial membrane is where the action of life happens.  It is covered by some unusual proteins.  Mitofilin proteins are crucial organizers of mitochondrial architecture. They are located in the inner mitochondrial membrane and interact with several protein complexes of the outer membrane, thereby generating contact sites between the two membrane systems of mitochondria. Here you can see how proteins undergo elastic changes as electrons are added and subtracted to its structure.  When electrons are abundant, the mitofilin works to maintain ETC.  When it is not, the result is autophagy or apoptosis.  Within the inner membrane, mitofilins are part of hetero-oligomeric protein complexes that have been termed as the mitochondrial inner membrane organizing system (MINOS). MINOS integrity is required for the maintenance of the characteristic morphology of the inner mitochondrial membrane where ETC occurs. The inner boundary region is closely apposed to the outer membrane and cristae membranes, which form large tubular invaginations that protrude into the mitochondrial matrix and harbor the enzyme complexes of the oxidative phosphorylation machinery. MINOS deficiency comes along with a loss of crista junction structures and the detachment of cristae from the inner boundary membrane. MINOS has been conserved in evolution from unicellular eukaryotes to humans.  Alterations of MINOS subunits are associated with multiple pathological conditions.

Humans are designed to eat an electron dense diet because they have a shortened gut and an expanded brain that steepens their energy needs while restricting their sleep needs to 7.5- 8.5 hours. All of these features are tied to how well we can access autophagy.  This implies that humans must have evolved around an environment providing a constant source of electron density from their environment. Humans who eat like Gazelle’s do, or lose electrons to their environment faster than they collect them, are now known as people with diabetics,fibromyalgia, MS, sleep apnea, and chronic pain.  Let us see why.

It turns out that how water interacts with MINOS  is hugely important and not well known.  Water is an energy converter, or a liquid nano-machine that takes all radiant energy and changes it to other forms of energy that a mitochondria can use and distribute over a cell.   Water surrounds MINOS wherever it is found in us.  Photosynthesis and oxidative phosphorylation in mitochondrion have some major things in common.  Water is one of them.  To you detriment, modern science still fails to realize the importance of water in photosynthesis and in mitochondria. Plants are capable of taking sunlight and using non living pigments and chemicals to make simple chemical compounds and elements needed to power life. Here we have an example of how “an EMF” brings life to life.  Mitochondrion use the Vitamin A and D cycle in your brain to do the same thing using light.

EZ charge separation is the generic first step of both pathways.  In fact, the goal of both energy generation pathways is to split water.  In photosynthesis, this happens due to light absorbing chromophores that lie adjacent to water. To synthesize one molecule of glucose by photosynthesis, 24 electrons must be removed from water molecules. These electrons are held by the redox potential of oxygen (+0.82V). They are pumped uphill to carbon atoms that are partially reduced to a carbohydrate with a redox potential of -0.42V. The potential energy difference is 1.24 Volts. This change in free energy is in the positive direction. The result of this energy transfer creates 2870.2 kJoules of energy. This is an astounding amount of energy capture when you understand the quantum dance of the sun on water.

A mitochondria’s outer membrane is hydrophilic and lies next to a water hydration shell.  In both cases, light induces water-molecule splitting.  You learned about chromophores in the brain in OSF 4 and OSF 5.  You should also recall that the brain has more mitochondria in it per unit mass than any other tissue in your body.  This tells you light is ultimately tied to mitochondrial function at a fundamental level.   This is a radical idea today.  This blog will show you why it should be obvious to anyone who understands the physics of the water and the photoelectric effect.  Chromophores are all hydrophilic in both animals and plants.  This should invoke you to think about Gerald Pollack’s work.  Water’s EZ has the classic 270 nm absorption peak for light. Plant chromophores also have a large 280nm absorption peak.  These are both in the UV range.  Infra red radiation is the power used to charge separate water into a negative and positive zone.  The EZ is the negative part.  The hydronium layers (protons) are the positive part.  The negative EZ acts very much like a n type semiconductor.   Recall that the EZ is how water is split naturally into its charges when water abuts a hydrophilic substance.  Proteins are make hydrophilic by the addition of electrons.

The input to mitochondria are through electrons via ETC.  There is no other way to get into the mitochondrial matrix.  The output or the signaling parts of mitochondria are all protons.  When we are missing one electron from the process of ox/phos, we get production of the superoxide ROS ion. This is a signaling molecule that increases the mass of mitochondria by making it more leaky at its cell membrane.  Here is where the MINOS system is elastically deformed to begin mitochondrial recycling or suicide (autophagy or apoptosis, respectively).  This increase in mass stimulates the two change programs in mitochondria called autophagy and apoptosis.   Mitochondria swell when calcium is effluxed from a cell and phosphate builds up outside the mitochondria.  In the swollen mitochondria, shrinkage may be induced by adding Mg²⁺ ions in the absence of exogenous ATP.   Mg²⁺ does not work well in the absence of water.  Dehydration is critical to mitochondrial function.  I covered this in the EMF Rx blog.   I cannot emphasize this enough.  Metabolic rates decline tremendously when people are dehydrated for any reason.  In our modern world, the two most common reasons for dehydration are non native EMF and fluoridation/bromination of our water.  This shrinkage due to water and Mg²⁺  has been determined by spectrophotometric, as well as by water, content and packed volume measurements.  Insulin resistance eventually lowers the number of mitochondria we have as a protective function and this drops NAD+ at cytochrome 1.  When this occurs is means mitochondria no longer have a good handle on normal circadian cycles.

The output of mitochondria is a solid stream of protons that carry a positive charge.   You should recall that all inflammation is also positively charged in life.  The redox levels in mitochondrion are like a scales of justice.  When protons are more prominent, the redox potential is poor.  When we have more electrons in the system, the redox potential is excellent.  The more electrons we have, the more potential and kinetic energy is stored in our proteins and water hydration shell to allow us to deal with the stressors of the environment.  The human species is designed to collect electrons in excess.  Think of the redox potential as a giant sink of electrons and protons.  We need more negatively charged electrons to run our mitochondria and proteins well.  This is our redox sink or bank account.

When mitochondria lose electrons to the environment for any reason at all, mitochondrial signaling to the nucleus is altered.  You may not know this, but mitochondrial density is greatest in the subcellular region within 8 − 10 Angstroms of the nucleus.  Moreover, not all mitochondrion are created equally.  Mitochondrion closer to the nucleus have far different functions than ones located closer to the cell membrane.  This means that these mitochondria act as a main sensory organ for the nucleus and cell membrane.  It translates signals from the environment in this way via integrins and two key proteins called  YAP/TAZ.   When they swell, they change the epigenetic expression of the cell.  When they do not swell, they also change the epigenetic expression within the cell.  This is the first “knob” in how mitochondria affect nuclear expression of RNA and DNA.  There is a gradient system in mitochondria to tell the nucleus how many or how few electrons are present.

A loss of one electron is very normal for the mitochondria and nucleus.  It results in superoxide production.  If we lose two electrons in our mitochondria, we develop more swelling  and the signaling molecule is hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂₎.  In order to control these two positively charged signaling molecules,  we evolved an enzyme to counter act and control their effect.  This enzyme is called superoxide dismutase 1.  This enzyme uses manganese as its transition metal to control the positively charges molecules.  The problem for this system arises with the technology of our modern world.  We have created 2.5 billion times the amount of electromagnetic radiation in our atmosphere than we had at the genesis of our species.  This causes us to lose a lot of electrons to the environment, producing a lot more positively charged protons.

Our modern world is making a ton of non native EMF in our ionosphere.  The analogy I would give you is to think of a big flower pot with a flower in it.  Today, most healthcare practitioners push supplements to offset the loss of nutrient density in modern foods.  But when you consider that the modern ionosphere has so much EMF energy, it is akin to placing 19 holes in the bottom your flower pot and allowing the water to drain freely.  If the water cannot be contained around your roots, it becomes clear that, no matter what you put into your flower pot, you are losing way more to your environment.  When this happens, your flower won’t and can’t grow.  You need light and water to make carbohydrates if you are plant.  We have the same problem in our mitochondrion.  This is exactly what we are facing today.

When electrons are being stolen at higher rates, a new type of ROS is formed.  When we lose 3 or more elctrons from our mitochondria, we make the hydroxyl free radical.  This is called a Fenton reaction.  Why is this a problem for us?  We have no enzyme that can contain this reaction. The hydroxyl free radical irreversibly damages membranes, organelles, mitochondria, and DNA in a cell.  This means we have to constantly recycle these cellular parts to maintain our cells’ integrity or limit its entropy.  This means we have to use more energy to remain metastable.  This also steals electrons from the brain and immune system when it goes on chronically because both systems are loaded with electron starving mitochondrion.  The hydroxyl free radical causes a dramatic rise in entropy and increases the thermodynamic cost of life.

It has been known that oxidative DNA damage also compromises telomere integrity. Remember that telomeres are on the caps of chromosomes in our nucleus.  Here you can see why epigenetic expression is altered.  All DNA and RNA is also surrounded by water hydration shells.  When protons rise, positive charges predominate and temperatures in water rise.  Warmer water has a higher mass which means it can carry fewer electrons and less energy as a result.  This has massive implications for our cells and our nucleic acids.  Thermal tolerances are costly to life.  The reason for this is that thermal tolerance costs us electrons in our mitochondria.  It also causes protons to build up rapidly, increasing the thermodynamic costs of life because we are losing electrons to our environment.  The thermodynamic cost is in a loss of complexity because we lose electrons.  Mitochondria are designed to make massive EZ’s from the charge separation of water.  That is really how they generate energy of life.  

In OSF 1, I showed you these results in the loss of diversity in the human gut microbiome.  When this happens, the human gut loses its diversity and number of species.  The gut microbiome is designed to consume protons and reserve electrons to our eukaryotic system that uses mitochondria.  The gut microbiome is designed to work in an environment where no oxygen is present.  This is why they use protons for energy generation, not electrons.  Oxygen and electrons are coupled in nature and build complexity because of mass equivalence.  Today, this relationship in the human gut is rarely maintained because of the formation of massive amounts of hydroxyl ion free radicals that ionize zonulin to make it more leaky, exposing the GALT to foods in the gut.  People forget that these cells turn over every 2-3 days, making them exquisitely sensitive to daily electromagnetic signals.  Every cell in our body has circadian clock genes in their nucleic acids.  When your mitochondrion are lacking electrons, you can no longer tell proper circadian time in your cells which causes your mitochondrion to act differently, changing its epigenetic expression. Circadian Clock Gene regulators (CCGs) respond very quickly to electron steal syndrome.  This is what alters our genome and our epigenetic expression.  This happens in the gut fastest because these cells turnover the fastest. This implies that the most electron dense, chemically reduced pathway for life would allow for maximal mitochondrion function.

What increases electron flow?