What Is Mitochondrial Health & How to Maintain It

Whole-body wellness involves a number of factors, from exercise to nutrition to stress management and more — but all these elements come down to one key driver: cellular health. Understanding the role of mitochondria and how to prioritize mitochondrial health is crucial to promoting your wellness journey in the long run.

Below, we provide key insights into cellular health that can guide your wellness decisions, from a Kaneka Ubiquinol^® supplement to movement to nutrition and more.

What Are Mitochondria?

To truly unlock the secrets of your overall wellness, you first need to meet the mitochondria. While you might remember them as the famous “powerhouse of the cell,” there’s more to the story. Think of mitochondria as the “CEO of the cell” — not only generating energy, but also driving processes that keep your body running smoothly and efficiently.

But you might be wondering: what exactly are mitochondria? They are organized structures, or organelles, in nearly every cell in the body. Mitochondria have a variety of functions and are critical for supporting the body’s systems and overall health.¹ They regulate complex cellular systems, along with performing other roles, making mitochondrial health foundational to your overall well-being.

Understanding what mitochondria are is the first step in comprehending what mitochondrial health means. Below, we break down how to protect the well-being of your cells and the “CEOs” that fuel them.

Mitochondrial Health: Explained

When it comes to your health, it’s not about one element working alone. The reality is, the body’s systems are connected, and research demonstrates that mitochondrial health is directly associated with overall health and the general health of the body (especially as one ages). As the “CEO of the cell,” the mitochondria’s role goes beyond just converting food into energy, or ATP, as historically understood — although that is still an essential element. To prioritize your cellular wellness, you should have a good understanding of key mitochondrial functions that encompass overall mitochondrial health, such as producing cellular energy, maintaining cellular integrity and homeostasis, and defending against free radicals.

Producing Cellular Energy

Mitochondria play a vital role in powering your body by generating the energy your cells need. This process centers around the electron transport chain (ETC), a series of molecular events housed within the mitochondria. Here, energy extracted from the food you eat is transferred through a flow of electrons, ultimately producing ATP — the main energy currency your cells use.² Several key steps and components are involved in making ATP within the ETC, including the conversion of ubiquinone to ubiquinol, which we’ll explore in more detail later. While mitochondria’s role in producing cellular energy is not the whole picture of cellular well-being, this process is crucial for everyday wellness as well as healthy aging and longevity.

Read More: Curious to Learn More About Ubiquinol’s Cellular Energy Role? Review These 5 Facts

Maintaining Cellular Homeostasis

As the “CEO of the cell,” you can also think of the mitochondria as the “clean-up crew” for cells, ensuring they remain healthy, clean, and efficient. Mitochondria are foundational for driving natural cellular maintenance processes such as dividing, merging, reusing materials, and removing unusable or damaged cells. Their role as “clean-up crew” not only helps maintain cells’ overall health: it also means they promote healthy bodily function and wellness as a whole, especially when under metabolic or environmental stress.^3,4

Defending Against Free Radicals

The mitochondria don’t just support energy production and cellular maintenance: they also protect cells from natural and environmental stressors. One key way they do this is by keeping the body’s levels of free radicals (molecules seeking electrons) and antioxidants (molecules that can share electrons without being damaged) in balance. When these are imbalanced, “oxidative stress” occurs, where cells can become damaged, contributing to premature aging.^5,6

Many factors can disrupt the balance between free radicals and antioxidants in your body, such as aging, menopause, intense exercise, pollution, cigarette smoke, and more. However, protecting mitochondria and cells from free radical damage is an important way to support their integrity and promote healthy aging.⁷ One way to do this is by making sure your body has enough ubiquinol, which we’ll discuss in more detail later.

Factors That Impact Mitochondrial Health

Cellular aging and inefficiencies are a normal part of getting older, but you still can control a variety of lifestyle and environmental factors to promote your cellular and overall health. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach that works for everybody, but the following are great places to start:

• Focus on what you eat: A nutritious diet fuels your cellular energy processes
• Move often: Regular movement helps cells stay healthy, supports the function of muscles and joints, and promotes healthy aging and mobility.
• Recharge after intense workouts: Rigorous exercise causes an increase in free radicals (oxidative stress), which is normal, but be sure you are resting and replenishing your body for cellular health. To support healthy mitochondrial function, an antioxidant like ubiquinol helps your body adapt to and maintain a healthy oxidative balance during rigorous exercise and during rest.^8,9
• Get good quality sleep and manage stress: Don’t overlook the value of sleep hygiene and stress management, as both of these play an important role in helping your body function properly.
• Consider your environment: External factors like pollution and cigarette smoke can increase free radicals in your body. While you can’t always control these, being mindful of them helps so you can take steps to avoid exposure.
• Get outside each day: Enjoying the fresh air and sunshine can go a long way in helping you feel healthier and happier.
• Connect with your community: Building social connections and relationships not only helps your brain and body but also means you can prioritize your wellness journey alongside others.
• Consider adding a supplement to your routine: A supplement, like Kaneka Ubiquinol^®, supports mitochondrial health and provides you with a nutrient your body can use to maintain cellular wellness.

Protecting your cells doesn’t have to mean major life changes. When you strike a balance of all the above elements, you can promote cellular wellness and full-body health one day at a time.

Read More: Want to Browse Supplement Options? Start Shopping

Ubiquinol and Mitochondrial Health

Your mitochondria are impressive at what they do, but they need support from cells and nutrients — including ubiquinol. A naturally-occurring nutrient in your body, ubiquinol is the active antioxidant form of CoQ10. During the creation of ATP, the fully oxidized form of CoQ10 (ubiquinone) is converted into ubiquinol, and this process helps produce cellular energy. Because of this, ubiquinol and the mitochondria work together to promote overall wellness, and the following are some key ways they do so:

• Ubiquinol as an antioxidant: The mitochondria are the greatest source of free radicals in the body, and ubiquinol’s antioxidant properties make it key in balancing the body’s level of free radicals to protect from oxidative stress.^10,11
• Cellular homeostasis: The mitochondria regulate complex metabolic networks and cellular processes to maintain whole-body health. Ubiquinol supports cellular maintenance, including processes like fission and fusion, cell senescence, and protecting the integrity of the mitochondrial membrane.¹ You can learn more about these processes on our blog: Mitochondria Explained: Definitions to Know About the CEO of the Cell.
• Cellular support as we age: The conversion of ubiquinone to ubiquinol becomes less efficient with age, and levels of ubiquinol in the blood also decrease as the body gets older. A Kaneka Ubiquinol^® supplement can help replenish levels of this nutrient.
• A form ready for absorption: Naturally occurring ubiquinol is already concentrated in the mitochondria, and its lipid-soluble form helps Kaneka Ubiquinol^®, bioidentical to naturally occurring ubiquinol, get through the blood and into the mitochondria. There, it acts as an antioxidant to neutralize free radicals created by the ETC.¹²

The mitochondria play a number of roles in maintaining your health, and ubiquinol plays a key part in many of these. A Kaneka Ubiquinol^® supplement helps promote mitochondrial health and the healthy functioning of your body’s biological systems and organs (like your heart and muscles.

Read More: Dive Deeper Into How Ubiquinol Is Your Lifestyle Ally

Your Health Starts at the Cellular Level

The mitochondria are more than just the “powerhouse of the cell”: they are the CEO, responsible for managing and maintaining critical functions of the cell so the body’s systems can operate efficiently. Promoting mitochondrial health through healthy lifestyle choices is a great way to promote overall health. In fact, when you pair healthy lifestyle habits with a Kaneka Ubiquinol^® supplement, you take an extra step to promote your mitochondrial health and protect your cells from the inside out.