Science has made a new discovery. MitoQ is the result of ongoing studies into the impact of mitochondria on the body—especially on health. Using scientific breakthroughs, MitoQ supplements have been developed to help boost the body's natural processes, helping to keep you healthier, younger and more energetic. The science behind MitoQ has produced products designed to boost your health from the inside and the outside, with a line of skincare products and supplements. Greg Macpherson, CEO, explains the science of mitochondria to JustLuxe, as well as the prestigious National Institute of Aging’s (NIA) Interventions Testing Program that has chosen MitoQ as a research subject.
What exactly are mitochondria?
Not many people realize that we run on batteries but we do!
Mitochondria, also known as our "cellular batteries", are tiny organelles in almost all of our cells. Their main function is to generate the power we need to run our cells.
Cells that have high energy requirements like the heart, brain, liver, kidneys and muscles can have thousands of mitochondria inside making up over half of the total cell contents.
Mitochondria are fascinating dynamic organelles that increase in numbers when we need more energy and shrink in numbers when we don’t. They can also move around the cell to deliver energy to the site in the cell it is needed most.
It turns out that it having lots of healthy functioning mitochondria is really important for our overall health. Researchers have now linked over 200 health conditions to mitochondrial dysfunction and this includes some of the big issues affecting hundreds of millions of people around the world like diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, cardiovascular disease and more.
How do they work in the body?
Mitochondria are like little factories that take the food we eat and the air we breathe and convert it into a compound called ATP that carries energy around the cell to enable all the activities our cells do, like making proteins, replicating, moving waste out of the cell and so much more.
We all know about free radicals but not many people know that mitochondria are responsible for producing 90-95% of the free radicals in our cells. Free radicals are actually the “exhaust” from the ATP energy production process.
As a result the inside of mitochondria experience 10 times the oxidative stress compared to the rest of the cell and because of this they are literally teaming with antioxidants to protect themselves from free radical damage.
How are mitochondria linked to the aging process?
As we age the levels of antioxidants in our mitochondria deplete reducing their ability to fend damage caused by these free radicals. Due to this damage our mitochondria decline in function at a rate of around 10% a decade from our early thirties.
As our mitochondria begin to deliver less energy to our cells then our cells experience an energy deficit making it increasingly hard for them to get all their jobs done. To add insult to injury, as antioxidant levels deplete and mitochondria-dysfunction progresses, more and more free radicals leak into our cells damaging vital cell components and our DNA.
This process is intricately linked to the aging process and gets progressively worse as we get older. We start to notice the reduction in mitochondrial energy in our forties as our skin cells are affected and we see the effects of less collagen and elastin production. We begin to visibly age and we start to feel a sense of energy loss. This is happening on our inside to our organs as well.
How did you get involved in studying mitochondria?
I am a pharmacist by trade and have been fascinated with mitochondria and their link to our health for years. When the opportunity came up to work in a role that focused on assisting mitochondrial function I jumped at it.
What is MitoQ?
MitoQ is a brand new type of antioxidant called a mitochondria-targeted antioxidant. It was discovered at Otago University in Dunedin, New Zealand and was the result of two leading scientists looking to understand how mitochondria are involved with a large number of the common health conditions we experience as we age. They recognized that if they could find a way to get antioxidants into the mitochondria, something that is very difficult due to the complex structure of the mitochondrial membrane, they might be able to improve their function and re-energize our cells.
The most important antioxidant in mitochondria is CoQ10 but it is almost impossible to get CoQ10 across the mitochondrial membrane. For this reason mitochondria actually make it themselves inside the mitochondrial membrane. When you take CoQ10 supplements almost none of it gets to where it needs to get to - inside the mitochondria. MitoQ is special version of CoQ10 and is the result of our research. MitoQ is able to get across the mitochondrial membrane 847 times more than CoQ10 to deliver a meaningful increase in antioxidant capacity and effectively tune up your mitochondria so they can deliver more energy to your cells.
How was it developed?
MitoQ was developed by finding out a way to get the mitochondria’s antioxidant CoQ10 into the mitochondria. It was a vey complex problem to solve but like many things it was quite simple in the end. Using the well known scientific principal of "opposites attract” the scientists put a positive charge on CoQ10 and that caused it to literally flood the negatively charged mitochondria to restore its antioxidant capacity.
How does it work?
MitoQ has two significant effects. It goes into the mitochondria and protects the mitochondrial membrane. This tunes up the mitochondria and restores their energy generating capacity. MitoQ also creates a barrier to reduce free radical leakage into the cell and this slows down damage to the cell contents, DNA and slow telomere shortening.
MitoQ has been tested extensively around the world and in the last 15 years over 50 million dollars and over 200 published papers have shown its potential to significantly assist a range of health conditions. In most cases the results have been amazing.
MitoQ, the world’s first mitochondrial-targeted antioxidant formula, has been selected for the USA’s National Institute of Aging’s (NIA) Interventions Testing Program? What does that entail?
We are very honored to have been selected for the ITP research. The Interventions Testing Program is a multi centre, multi-year, multi-million dollar research program that is completely independent and whose goal is to evaluate compounds that have a strong likelihood of impacting positively on aging. Over the past decade their work has changed the thinking that the aging process cannot be reversed or slowed. We now know, through their work, that the aging process can be altered. MitoQ will be evaluated over the next 3 to 4 years to understand its effect on both longevity but also its impact on health-span, how long we age in good health.
How does the NIA choose which formulas it tests?
The NIA has two boards of world leading scientists who carefully evaluate the compounds they select for their ability to reverse or decelerate the aging process. It is a very difficult program to be accepted in to because of their requirement for high standards of evidence of effect and clarity around the mechanism of action.
Where do you see this type of research going in the future?
Once MitoQ has been through this anti-aging research program we expect that more work will be done to evaluate its affects across a range of conditions associated with aging and mitochondrial dysfunction. The great thing about MitoQ is that it is available right now so that people can get a head start whilst the trial progresses. We are at an incredible period of knowledge accumulation on how we age and the result of that will be a step change in how long we live and how well we live. It is a stepping-stone towards our understanding of the aging process that will ultimately end up with most people being able to be younger for longer. A bright future indeed.
You can try MitoQ for yourself at http://www.mitoq.com.
