126:Boost Your Energy & Longevity: How to Optimize Your Mitochondria Naturally!

The episode dives into the often-overlooked topic of mitochondrial health and its impact on energy and vitality. We discuss my personal story of chronic fatigue and the mistaken beliefs surrounding conventional treatments. By understanding the vital role mitochondria play, listeners will gain actionable knowledge to reclaim their energy.

• Exploration of chronic fatigue and its causes 
• Personal journey from exhaustion to vitality 
• Action plan for optimizing mitochondrial function 

Your health is your responsibility—take the first step toward vitality by reclaiming your energy today!

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Energy Challenges
• 38:59 My Personal Journey with Mitochondrial Health
• 58:44 Action Plan to Optimize Mitochondrial Function

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:20

Have you ever felt like, no matter how much you rest, you're still exhausted, like your body's running on empty, and no amount of caffeine, naps or motivation can fix it? I know that feeling all too well, because I lived it for nearly two decades. What I didn't realize at the time was that my mitochondria, the tiny little power plants inside of every cell, were breaking down, and the worst part, the very things that I thought were helping, the quick fixes from my medical doctor that I'll share in this episode were actually making it worse. But here's the good news you can rebuild your energy, reverse the damage and reclaim your vitality, and in today's episode, you're about to discover exactly how. Stay tuned Hello, I'm Jeffrey Mort.

Speaker 1: 2:13

If you're like most entrepreneurs, you're busy taking care of business, yet who's taking care of you? If you're ready to take your energy and performance to the next level in your life and your business, then this podcast is for you, because today you're going to start breaking boundaries of your mind, body and business with integrative health, and when you do that, your possibilities are limitless. I'm grateful you're here. Yes, I'm always grateful for you joining me here. Welcome back to Breaking Boundaries for Entrepreneurs. I'm your host and personal high me here.

Speaker 1: 2:43

Welcome back to Breaking Boundaries for Entrepreneurs. I'm your host and personal high-performance health coach, jeffrey Mort, and today we are diving into a topic that impacts every single person listening your energy, your longevity and the tiny little powerhouses that control them your mitochondria. Here's the reality one in three women and one in two men will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. Chronic illness, fatigue and inflammation are skyrocketing. But why? Why is this happening? Modern life is draining our mitochondria, the very organelles responsible for producing energy, repairing cells and actually, yes, keeping us alive. Processed foods, mitochondrial killers, chronic stress, mitochondrial destroyers, toxins in our environment they weaken your body's defenses at the cellular level. But here's the good news you have the personal power to fix it, and today I'll share my personal story of battling years of exhaustion and sickness and the science behind mitochondrial health, and I'm also going to give you an action plan to reclaim your energy and vitality. You're ready to break some boundaries, all right?

Speaker 1: 4:10

Well, as promised, let me share a little bit of my story here, about the years that I actually felt trapped in my own body for nearly two decades of my life. So, going back from ages 23 to 40 years old, I lived in this cycle of sickness, pain and exhaustion, and it, you know, it didn't come on like a freight train. It started small, getting sick more often, fatigue that never really went away, pain that became part of daily life for me, and then it started to get worse. I seemed to catch every cold, every flu and infection. Recovery started to take weeks, not just days. My body ached constantly. I had zero energy and zero drive.

Speaker 1: 4:59

And, of course, the conventional solution and I say solution in air quotes if you're watching on video more medications. So NSAIDs, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, every single day for pain, and I'm talking, they started me at 2400 milligrams, so that's an 800 milligram ibuprofen. These are heavy hitters here three times a day. And you know, keep in mind, I'm not a very big individual at five foot six, and at this time actually I was kind of overweight back then. So I was north of 150 pounds, we'll say, but I think at my heaviest I was like 180, actually, which was probably 30 to 40 pounds overweight. But then, when the 2,400 milligrams a day were not touching the pain, my medical doctor simply said we'll just take an extra one during the day. So four 800s, so that's 3,200 milligrams of ibuprofen every single day and this just wasn't short term. This was for years, probably a decade, that I was taking this prescription, and then antibiotics Every time I got sick.

Speaker 1: 6:11

I call antibiotics the hammer, because from medical doctor's perspective, when the only tool in the toolbox is antibiotics or a hammer, then everything begins to look like a nail. So every time I got a cold that wouldn't go away or a flu that wouldn't go away, they'd put me on antibiotics. Anytime I got bitten by a tick, they would put me on antibiotics. No discussion about the root causes of what's go. You know what could be potentially the problem because and you know, no disrespect to my medical doctor she was a sweetheart, I loved her, um, she, um was. She ended up retiring and I ended up getting a new doctor at some point. But you know I can't say no discussion because the one thing she did say is Jeff, you might want to cut back on your alcohol consumption, which was true. I'll give her that that was definitely something I needed to do back then, but I didn't listen. But it certainly wasn't the number one, you know, cause of all of my issues.

Speaker 1: 7:10

And the pharmaceuticals, the NSAIDs and the antibiotics certainly were not the answer for sure. And I mean, if those medications didn't get results after three to six months or maximum 12 months, then she should have changed it up. She should have done something different. But here's what nobody told me that these medications were wrecking my mitochondria. You might be wondering how medications were actually wrecking my health, these non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and antibiotics. So let's break that down.

Speaker 1: 7:46

The NSAIDs and mitochondrial damage. Nsaids like ibuprofen, naproxen those are in the NSAID category. They damage your gut lining and when the gut lining gets damaged, that triggers inflammation. Now they also overwork your liver and that makes detoxification even more difficult for the liver to do. And then they disrupt mitochondria. They shut down energy production.

Speaker 1: 8:14

Now let's talk about the antibiotics. These are the hidden mitochondrial killers, and what most people don't realize is that the mitochondria are actually ancient bacteria that evolved to power our cells. That's right. So when we take antibiotics, they don't just wipe out the bad guys, the bad bacteria, the viral infections, they also harm our own mitochondria and this can lead to things like chronic fatigue, brain fog and pain. That is mitochondrial dysfunction. How about a weaker immune system? You know I said that I got sick more often and I stayed sick longer. That's gut bacteria destruction and then mood issues that I dealt with the anxiety, the depression not so much the anxiety, but the depression was a was a major deal for me back throughout that, those two decades for sure. And that's got. That's the gut brain connection, so very, very, very important. And I was, like I said, I was stuck in this cycle, I was suppressing symptoms instead of solving the problem.

Speaker 1: 9:22

And if you've been there too, well, first of all, if you've been there too, drop a message. In the show notes. There's a send us a message feature and if you want me to respond to you, I mean I can certainly read your question on the next future podcast episode, or even do a podcast episode on your comments, but if you want me to respond to you in that send us a message feature, just you know, drop a way for me to get back in touch with you, because it doesn't. That message feature doesn't collect that data and I'd love to listen to your story, I really would. And I want you to know two things One, it's not your fault, but two, it is your responsibility to take control.

Speaker 1: 10:01

And let me ask you something Are you being responsible with your health? That's foundational. Owning your own responsibility is foundational, especially when it comes to health. I mean you need to be responsible, for you know your family, your business, your life, your finances, your career, all those things. But you know, if you don't have your health, what do you have? So are you being responsible with your health?

Speaker 1: 10:26

So let's get into a mitochondria optimization action plan and naturally you want to know how do we restore and optimize our mitochondria for energy and for longevity? So first I want to give a disclaimer that I'm not a medical doctor. I don't provide medical advice. I don't claim to treat, diagnose or cure any diseases, but what we do is we get to the root cause of the problem. And how do I know? Because I've been there and I've done it and I fixed the problem and I went back to school to get this education so that I could help other people do the same thing. So here is your four-step action plan to fix mitochondrial dysfunction and unlock boundless energy. So, number one save yourself time and money by testing Using advanced at-home functional health tests. And I'm sure you knew I was going to go there first, because that's really the number one.

Speaker 1: 11:16

Step is running a couple of at-home functional lab tests to be able to pinpoint those underlying root causes of what's going on and you don't have to do the full gamut Like, yes, if you could do five lab tests, that would be amazing. You can find those five lab tests over on our shop page at Love Energy Wellness. But there are also two lab tests that you could do specifically for energy issues when we're talking about mitochondria, and one is the hair tissue mineral analysis. It's also known as the minerals and metals test. This is nothing new. This has been around since the 1970s or maybe even earlier. And then another one is called the organic acids test. We call that the candida metabolic and vitamins test, and this, the minerals and metals test, is a simple hair sample about the size of a teaspoon of hair for a sample, and then the organic acids test is a urine sample. So we bundle these two lab tests together in something a package that's called the vitamin tox test. So we're looking at not just minerals and heavy metals, but we're also looking at vitamins. We're looking at gut function, yeast bacterial, fungal overgrowth, we're looking at mitochondrial function which is the point of today's podcast and so many more markers just in these two lab tests.

Speaker 1: 12:31

So by far the best combination that money can buy. It's really not that expensive. It's really not. And if you enroll in one of our health coaching programs, then you actually get those two lab tests as part of the program. You're basically getting them for zero cost when you enroll in a program with us. So that's step number one. Number two fuel your mitochondria with the right nutrients. So your mitochondria thrive on clean water. Well, our bodies thrive on clean water, clean air, clean food, but our bodies are mostly bacteria. I mentioned that our mitochondria are ancient bacteria, so they it makes sense that they thrive on clean water and clean whole food.

Speaker 1: 13:17

Nutrition and targeted supplementation. Yes, it's not all about just taking supplements. It's a synergy and supplementation is part of that. So you want to increase healthy fats. Fats are not the enemy. Fats won't make you fat. We're talking about mitochondria. Love ketones from sources like avocados, high quality olive oil, fatty fish like wild salmon, or even coconut oil is great too.

Speaker 1: 13:44

We want to boost key micronutrients, things like magnesium, and you need to know the right type of magnesium and the right ratio of magnesium. Other things like coenzyme Q10, very, very important for mitochondrial micronutrients, especially activated B vitamins. B vitamins give you energy and mitochondria are the energy producers. So it just makes sense that they would thrive on that type of fuel for energy production. Now we also want to support cellular detoxification. So sulfur-rich foods like garlic and onion are sulfur-rich, but they're not my first go-to. I'd really like to go to cruciferous vegetables first, but garlic and onion if and this is the reason why you want to run that organic acids test to see if you have an overgrowth of gut bacteria, because garlic and onions are great prebiotics and they will feed the already overgrown gut bacteria and bloating you might want to cut those out and go along a different line with cruciferous vegetables to help eliminate mitochondrial toxins.

Speaker 1: 14:52

Now number three you want to eliminate hidden mitochondrial stressors. Most people don't know that they're sabotaging their own energy. You want to cut out inflammatory foods, processed carbs, energy. You want to cut out inflammatory foods, processed carbs, seed oils, excess sugar. They drain mitochondrial function. You want to reduce alcohol intake or cut it out completely if you can.

Speaker 1: 15:13

You know, honestly, there's plenty of data that goes against that. You know. One to two drinks per day, or one drink a day for women in one to two drinks per day per month, like, throw that out the window. Alcohol is a poison. It honestly is. Yes, you might get some polyphenols from the red wine and other things like that, but it disrupts cellular metabolism and it increases oxidative stress and it increases heart rate variability. Like you can see the data, it's not that hard to see that one or two drinks will disrupt your sleep for that night if you're tracking sleep, because your heart rate variability is through the roof.

Speaker 1: 15:49

So you also want to lower toxic load, so environmental toxins. They overwhelm your mitochondria. So you want to try perhaps a functional medicine detox to be able to clear that out. Clear that out and if you want to learn more about that, loveenergywellnesscom. Slash transform is our functional medicine detox page. You can learn all about that over there. And then, last but not least, you want to master mitochondrial recovery and regeneration.

Speaker 1: 16:17

Mitochondria need rest, they need movement and you might be surprised here they need light explosions, light exposure. So you want to prioritize things like deep sleep, growth hormone and melatonin repair mitochondria overnight and sleep helps to produce that. And if you need help, yes, you can take a little bit of liquid melatonin micronized liquid melatonin before bed. I have a great podcast on the benefits of melatonin for longevity. We also have a podcast on growth hormone. You can go to our podcast page and just type in the search box to listen to those.

Speaker 1: 16:53

You want to move every day. You want to move that body. Exercise stimulates mitochondrial biogenesis, your body's ability to make more mitochondria. And if you're not moving, your mitochondria are going to die through apoptosis, programmed cellular death, right. The cells are going to die. The mitochondria are in the cells and if you're not doing things to create that biogenesis, that ability to make more mitochondria through exercise, then you're going to lose energy because you're losing your mitochondria.

Speaker 1: 17:24

And then next, sunlight and cold exposure. So morning sunlight and, for that matter, watching sunsets as well, but getting that morning sunlight is super important to build that mitochondria up for the day and for your life. And then cold therapy actually activates mitochondrial function. Now you don't have to go spending thousands of dollars on a cold immersion system, like I would love to have in my home. I just don't have it yet. But you can simply do cold therapy in the shower At the end of your hot shower, turn the water down as low as it'll go, for as long as you can stand it, and then, if you need to, you can do contrast and then contrast that cold with warm, so you're not getting out with a chill, but that's a great way to begin cold therapy. Now, sauna is another great way to do that and create those heat shock proteins which will regenerate your mitochondria. So you can check out the sauna on our resource page over at Love Energy Wellness, the sauna that I recommend and that I have personally.

Speaker 1: 18:20

So I just want to clarify this isn't a quick fix. It's a long-term strategy for energy, for longevity and for vibrant health. And, of course, if you're feeling stuck in exhaustion, brain fog, chronic illness, you don't have to figure this one out alone. I created the Optimize program to help you to break free from things like fatigue and brain fog and to reclaim your vitality. It includes at-home functional lab testing, so no more guessing what's wrong. It includes mitochondrial and gut health protocols to fix these root causes and, of course, the one-on-one coaching for accountability, so that you stay on track. And then you know, as always, I'm offering complimentary health consultations so we can map out a personalized plan for you. Just go to loveenergywellnesscom slash complimentary-consultation, or you just click on the free consult button there. It's really that easy, my friends.

Speaker 1: 19:15

So you know, I just want to wrap up here by saying that your future. It starts today. You don't have to accept fatigue as normal. It's not part of aging. You don't have to live in survival mode and you don't have to go through this alone. The choice is yours and it starts right now. So hit subscribe, share the episode with someone who needs it and let's start optimizing your health together today, with gratitude. We'll see you soon. Bye-bye.