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Mitochondria are the power source in all of your cells
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Where does your energy comes from?
Your body makes energy from the food you eat and the oxygen you breathe. But it’s not as simple as energy in = energy out. It’s up to your cells to convert that fuel into useful energy. That’s what your mitochondria do.
What Are Mitochondria?
Your mitochondria are like tiny power plants within your cells. They use oxygen and calories as fuel to create the energy your body runs on, known as ATP (adenosine-5’-triphosphate). You have mitochondria in almost all your body’s cells, but they’re especially concentrated in the parts of you that require the most energy, namely your brain, heart, and muscles.
How much energy you have really depends on how well your mitochondria are functioning. When we are young and our mitochondria are strong, we have plenty of power to keep our brains, hearts, muscles, and nerves working without flagging. As we get older, though, things change.
The Sad Truth About Mitochondria and Aging
You may have noticed that with age, our bodies produce energy less efficiently. Like an older car, we get less mileage from our fuel. This is because our mitochondria naturally tend to decline with age — both in number and activity. As a result, our cells have less energy to run on, making us feel more mentally and physically sluggish.
In fact, the decline of our mitochondria is closely linked with the aging process. As we age, our little power plants show the impact of oxidative stress, environmental toxins, and nutritional deficiencies that accumulate over time. Then, our battle-worn mitochondria become part of the problem and contribute to cellular aging.
Think about that old car again. An inefficient engine not only produces less energy, but it burns less “clean,” producing more waste byproducts. Once our mitochondria become impaired, they provide less energy for our cells, but they also create more oxidative stress as a byproduct. That increase in oxidative stress ages our cells faster, creating a vicious cycle.
Renewing Your Power
Step 1: Fuel
Supporting your mitochondria starts with making sure they have the right fuel to do their job. That’s where acetyl-L-carnitine and CoQ10 come in.
Acetyl-L-carnitine is an amino acid commonly found in muscle cells. Think of it like an energy taxi, helping transport fatty acids (the fuel) into the mitochondria (the power plants).* Once the fuel arrives, CoQ10 is part of the factory machinery that transforms it into ATP (the energy).*
Step 2: Protect
Keeping our mitochondria healthy as we age means protecting them against damage from oxidative stress (otherwise known as free radical damage).* Two of the most powerful antioxidants our bodies produce for this purpose are glutathione and superoxide dismutase.*
The good news is that there are things you can do to fuel and protect your mitochondria. According to Dr. Joseph Pizzorno, a highly respected functional medicine doctor, the most important things you can do are to: optimize nutrient status, decrease toxin exposure, build muscle mass, utilize nutrients that facilitate mitochondrial ATP production, and provide nutrients that protect the mitochondria from oxidative stress. The last two are exactly what Natural Factors’ new RegenerLife™ formula is designed to do. This breakthrough supplement is made with clinically studied nutritional compounds that optimize mitochondrial health and function to help you maintain your energy, heart health, and cognitive function as you age.*
Additional Supporting Nutrients
- Protein supplementation, 25 grams in the morning
- Ubiquinol CoQ10
- Quercetin
- Active B Complex
- Magnesium
- PEA – for pain, centralized syndromes, and gut permeability
- Pharma GABA to down regulate the stress response
- Enteric coated peppermint oil
- Probiotics
Dr. Gaetano Morello
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Dr. Gaetano Morello, is a Board Certified practicing Naturopathic Physician, author, spokesperson, and researcher based in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia. He received his Bachelor of Science in Cell Biology from the University of British Columbia and his doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine from the prestigious Bastyr University in Seattle, Washington. Dr. Morello is a contributing author to “A Textbook of Natural Medicine” the most definitive text on Naturopathic Medicine. He is also author of Whole Body Cleansing, and “Cleansing, an Inside Out Approach”. Dr. Morello was the host and founder of one of the first and most successful Integrative Medical radio shows in Canada, the Health Counsellor.
For the past 22 years he has been practicing Naturopathic medicine and is currently in private practice at the Complement HealthCare Center in West Vancouver. Dr. Morello has been a noted pain specialist for the last 2 decades
Natural Factors
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Today, Natural Factors is one of the largest manufacturers of nutritional products in North America. But our origins reach back to the 1950s, and right from day one, we’ve always been fully committed to making products right. We are not a public company with shareholders to impress. Instead, we care about impressing you.
Over the past 50 years, our customers have come to trust Natural Factors products. That trust is built on our dedication to formulating safe and effective products and manufacturing them to the highest quality standards, day in and day out.
One of the things that set Natural Factors apart from others in our industry is the breadth of knowledge represented by the scientific experts that work for us. Drawn from around the world and chosen for their unique training and background, our scientists and quality control specialists are recognized experts in their fields.
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