As we enter a new year, many people are setting goals for better health. In the flood of advice, supplements, and strategies, it’s easy to get lost in the noise and lose the signal.
Despite the flurry of diagnostic labels, most modern chronic illnesses — including those involving fatigue, brain fog, metabolic dysfunction, immune imbalance, and accelerated aging — share a common root cause: impaired mitochondrial function.
If you understand how mitochondria work — and what they respond to — you begin to understand how health is created, sustained, or lost.
Our symbiotic life partners:
Nearly every cell in the human body (with the exception of mature red blood cells) contains hundreds to thousands of mitochondria — the organelles responsible for producing cellular energy.
Mitochondria are believed to have evolved from free-living bacteria that were engulfed by early eukaryotic cells. Rather than being destroyed, they formed a symbiotic relationship that made complex multicellular life possible.
Importantly, mitochondria retain their own DNA (mtDNA), separate from nuclear DNA. This means that health cannot be understood solely through the lens of human nuclear genetics. It must also be understood through the health and function of the mitochondria themselves.
How mitochondria make energy:
At their core, mitochondria are electrical machines. They generate energy through oxidative phosphorylation. Negatively charged electrons move through the Electron Transport Chain (ETC), a series of protein complexes embedded in the inner mitochondrial membrane.
As electrons flow through the ETC, protons are pumped across the membrane, creating an electrical gradient. This gradient drives protons back through ATP synthase — a microscopic spinning nanomotor that produces adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the cell’s usable energy currency.
Life, at its foundation, is powered by charge separation and electron flow.
Mitochondria as electromagnetic sensors:
Electron flow through the ETC generates not only chemical energy, but also an electric current and a corresponding magnetic field. This matters because oxygen is paramagnetic — it is attracted to magnetic fields.
Mitochondria produce carbon dioxide, which helps release oxygen from hemoglobin in red blood cells. Their electromagnetic properties then help draw oxygen toward Complex IV of the Electron Transport Chain, where it serves as the terminal electron acceptor.
This process converts oxygen into metabolic water — an essential and often overlooked output of mitochondrial function.
Mitochondrial water production:
At Complex IV, mitochondria combine electrons, protons, and oxygen to produce deuterium-depleted metabolic water. For decades, this water was treated as a byproduct of ATP production. Increasingly, it is understood as a central feature of cellular energy.
When metabolic water contacts hydrophilic surfaces inside the cell, it can organize into Exclusion Zone (EZ) water — a structured, charge-separated phase of water. This separation stores potential energy, supports intracellular flow, and enhances detoxification processes.
EZ water also acts as a reservoir for electrons. Through the body’s continuous fascial network, these electrons can help buffer oxidative stress system-wide. In practical terms, the more structured water mitochondria produce, the greater the system’s redox capacity — and resilience.
Mitochondria as hormone generators:
Mitochondria do not only produce energy. They also initiate hormone synthesis.
Inside the inner mitochondrial membrane, cholesterol is converted into pregnenolone — the precursor to all steroid hormones, including cortisol, DHEA, progesterone, testosterone, and estrogen. This means hormone production begins inside mitochondria.
Low energy, poor stress tolerance, mood changes, and hormonal imbalances are often not isolated endocrine problems. They are frequently upstream mitochondrial issues, commonly compounded by circadian disruption — a signal mitochondria are exquisitely sensitive to.
Reactive oxygen species and biophoton emissions:
A small percentage of electrons naturally leak from the Electron Transport Chain and interact with oxygen, forming reactive oxygen species (ROS).
ROS are often framed solely as damaging agents. In reality, they play essential roles as signaling molecules — informing cells when to adapt, repair, or self-eliminate. Healthy physiology depends on appropriate ROS production and regulation, not their complete elimination.
These reactions also produce ultra-weak light emissions, referred to as biophotons, which appear to participate in cellular communication and signaling. The field of quantum biology is currently seeking to understand how biophotons may be transmitting both energy and information for system regulation.
What this means is not the absence of oxidative processes or inflammation. It is the ability to achieve balanced regulation.
Heat generation and cold resilience:
Mitochondria are also responsible for non-shivering thermogenesis — the production of heat.
When exposed to cold, uncoupling proteins in brown fat shift mitochondria away from ATP production toward heat generation, releasing energy as infrared radiation. Cold exposure increases glucose uptake and fat oxidation, while stimulating mitochondrial biogenesis, enhancing metabolic efficiency and environmental resilience.
This pathway — once a routine part of human life and seasonal patterns— is now rarely engaged in modern climate controlled environments and as evidenced by adults' low concentration of mitochondria-packed brown adipose tissue.
When mitochondrial dysfunction becomes disease:
When a critical proportion of a cell’s mitochondria become dysfunctional, that cell can no longer perform its role effectively.
When this occurs across enough cells within a tissue, tissue-level dysfunction emerges — and disease becomes visible.
This helps explain why seemingly unrelated chronic conditions often share a common biological foundation, involving energy loss at the mitochondrial level.
Mitochondria respond to environmental inputs:
Mitochondria are not just passive power plants. They are environmental sensors that direct energy and information flow.
Light exposure, circadian timing, temperature, movement, and contact with the natural world all influence mitochondrial behavior. Conversely, circadian disruption, artificial lighting, and chronic environmental stressors can impair mitochondrial efficiency over time.
The good news is that by focusing on mitochondrial health, it becomes possible to address root causes rather than endlessly chasing symptoms. When mitochondrial function improves, many downstream processes — energy regulation, hormone balance, mood, and resilience — often follow naturally.
References for further exploration
1. Lane, N. The Vital Question: Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex Life. Norton, 2015.
2. Wallace, D.C. “Mitochondria and cancer.” Nature Reviews Cancer, 2012.
3. Mitchell, P. “Coupling of phosphorylation to electron and hydrogen transfer.” Nature, 1961.
4. Nicholls, D.G., & Ferguson, S.J. Bioenergetics 4. Academic Press, 2013.
5. Al-Khalili, J., & McFadden, J. Life on the Edge. Crown, 2014.
6. Weibel, E.R. The Pathway for Oxygen. Harvard University Press, 1984.
7. Pollack, G.H. The Fourth Phase of Water. Ebner & Sons, 2013.
8. Sommer, A.P., & Zhu, D. “Water structure and bioenergetics.” Photochemistry and Photobiology, 2016.
9. Miller, W.L. “Steroid hormone synthesis in mitochondria.” Endocrine Reviews, 2017.
10. Stocco, D.M. “StAR protein and the regulation of steroid hormone biosynthesis.” Endocrine Reviews, 2001.
11. Sena, L.A., & Chandel, N.S. “Physiological roles of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species.” Molecular Cell, 2012.
12. Cannon, B., & Nedergaard, J. “Brown adipose tissue.” Physiological Reviews, 2004.
13. Nunnari, J., & Suomalainen, A. “Mitochondria: In sickness and in health.” Cell, 2012.
14. Panda, S. The Circadian Code. Rodale, 2018.
Interested in supporting mitochondrial health through thoughtful lifestyle and environmental design? I offer consultations and coaching for those looking to apply these principles in a practical, grounded way. You can learn more at www.regenerint.com.