
Want to live longer and heathier? Combating cell stress is an important first step on your longevity journey.
It’s a fast-paced, busy world, and we’re all told to ‘de-stress’ to ensure we stay happy and healthy; normally this conjures visions of a long bath, or meditation, a good workout, or just some ‘me’ time, but your cells work just as hard, so how can you help your cells unwind after a long day?
Longevity.Technology sponsored content: Keeping 37 trillion cells in tip-top condition is a massive undertaking; cells are under continual pressure from aging, damage, toxins and pathogens, and they have to deal with this onslaught while carrying out vital tasks. It’s a no-brainer to want cells that make key hormones, store memories or keep your heart pumping to be as healthy as possible, and while diet, exercise and sleep are incredibly important, there are supplements available that can help put a little spring in your step on a cellular level.
Each cell is a community of organelles, each carrying out its own specific job; powering the cellular pathways and cranking out 90% of the energy that keeps you alive are the mitochondria. Often referred to as the powerhouses of the body, mitochondria aid your cell growth, survival and death, help generate hormones, assist in calcium storage for cell signaling and have their own unique DNA to help them perform their specialised functions.
So, look after your mitochondria and they will look after you. It’s not that straightforward, however. The respiration process (using glucose and oxygen to create energy) creates a by-product in the shape of free radicals. Free radicals are molecules with an unpaired electron that is like an itch that needs scratching – and they scratch it by pinching electrons from other molecules. These unpaired electrons are highly chemically reactive, so although free radicals play an important role in cellular signalling and activating protective pathways, and although cells have a normal base level of free radicals, if too many of them build up, cells become damaged and diseases are triggered.
This free radical build-up and damage is called oxidative stress and it’s the main driver of cell stress; when cells are in this unbalanced state, they spend precious energy that should be spent on repair and regeneration on trying to keep this damage under control.
Essentially, the cell is firefighting and squandering energy doing so.
This all sounds rather doom and gloom, but mitochondria self-manage free radical build-up by producing antioxidants which stabilise the free radicals, dial down the cellular stress and reduce the likelihood of damage.
This is where aging causes yet more trouble. Mitochondria performance declines with age and the body’s antioxidant levels also decrease, meaning the older you get, the more free radicals there are causing trouble. Additionally, our day-to-day lives expose us to even more free radicals through stressors such as pollution, UV radiation, poor diet, lack of exercise, too little sleep, smoking, life stress and drinking too much alcohol, making the battle against them even harder.
As our cells become increasingly stressed, we feel the effects, whether it’s increased fatigue, mid-afternoon energy slumps, trouble focussing, never feeling properly refreshed or slower recovery from illness and exercise. And it’s not an easy solution just to stock up on antioxidants to give the mitochondria the tools they need. Regular antioxidant supplements are too large to get through the mitochondria’s inner membrane, which is very selective about what it takes up.
To overcome this hurdle, scientists in New Zealand sought to address the key challenges of effective antioxidant absorption. The scientists, mitochondrial expert Professor Mike Murphy and molecular biologist Professor Robin Smith, altered the molecular structure of the antioxidant CoQ10, which the mitochondria naturally produces to create energy and control free radicals. The breakthrough cellular molecule they created is small enough to be able to pass through the mitochondrial wall and has a positive charge that’s magnetically attracted into the mitochondria, where it accumulates at very high concentration [1].
On the market as MitoQ, this human health breakthrough helps to balance free radicals, reducing cell stress and helping you to fire on all cylinders. Although some people notice results sooner, MitoQ are confident that after 90 days of taking the supplement, a sufficient number of cells will have been recharged that you reach a tipping point where your body feels re-energised, rebalanced and refreshed.
MitoQ aims to work in harmony with your body’s natural pathways, supercharging the antioxidant clear-up process and helping cells stay in optimum health and energy production today, tomorrow and into the future. When life’s busy pace pulls you from pillar to post, it’s good to know that when it comes to taking care of yourself on a cellular level, MitoQ has your back.
Longevity.Technology readers can benefit from 20% off MitoQ – use code LT20 at checkout.
[1] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232299277_Selective_Targeting_of_a_Redox-active_Ubiquinone_to_Mitochondria_within_Cells
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