Optimizing mitochondrial health is an important complementary strategy within the Practices of the Healthcare Athlete to promote health, wellbeing, and sustainable high performance.
Dr. Darin Davidson partners with Learner+, a CME/CE reflective learning platform for healthcare providers. For the opportunity to reflect on this article and earn CME/CE credits, Launch here. Check out all past articles which are also eligible for reflections and CME/CE credits.
For downloadable, actionable strategies and tactics to leverage biology in the pursuit of health, wellbeing, and sustainable high performance, visit the resource store, Launch here. Chapters are arranged by topic so those of interest can be selected and each are also eligible for reflections and CME/CE credits through Learner+.
Much of the discussion across this article series has described the psychological skills and somatic practices associated with the Practices of the Healthcare Athlete. When implemented in a complementary fashion, we are optimally positioned to leverage our biology in the pursuit of health, wellbeing, and sustainable high performance. There is an additional category of strategies, however, which must also be considered when seeking to fully optimize our biology.
In addition to developing psychological skills and training somatic practices, it is also important to consider the impact of cellular health, in particular related to the mitochondria, on our biology. Mitochondria are structures within our cells that are primarily responsible for the production of energy, amongst other functions. At the cellular level, these organelles use various substrates to produce energy which is then utilized for all cellular functions across all biological systems. From a simplistic perspective, mitochondria can be considered to be the energy supply system for our biology. There are two predominant fuel sources which our mitochondria utilize. One source is glucose and the other is fatty acids.
When our mitochondria are functioning efficiently and in a healthy way, they can flexibly and interchangeably utilize glucose and fatty acids in order to produce energy. When our mitochondria are unhealthy, however, they predominantly utilize glucose. It is important to further understand the biological impact which emerges from either the utilization of glucose or fatty acids.
When our mitochondria utilize glucose, a metabolic byproduct is lactate. This substance increases the acidity within our biological system. It is essential for biological processes that our homeostatic mechanisms maintain our blood acidity within a specific range. Increased lactate levels alter this balance. As a result, there are several systems present within our physiology which allow for the elimination of increased levels of acid, including lactate. Essentially what occurs in response to higher levels of lactate is that it is utilized in a chemical reaction to increase the amount of carbon dioxide in our blood, which can then be exhaled by our lungs by increasing our respiratory rate.
It is important to understand several simultaneously occurring processes which occur when our carbon dioxide levels increase. The presence of increased levels of carbon dioxide can result in sympathetic nervous system activation and the perception of higher amounts of stress and anxiety. In addition in order to rid the body of the excess amount of carbon dioxide, we increase our respiratory rate to exhale it. The increased respiratory rate is also associated with shifts towards increased sympathetic nervous system activation. Taken together, these processes can result in a biological state shift towards activated, attacking, anxious, overwhelmed, and shutdown states.
Another important consideration with respect to our mitochondria is that in response to chronic sympathetic nervous system activation, there will be a preference for utilization of glucose as the fuel source for production of energy. For the reasons discussed above, this ultimately leads to further sympathetic nervous system activation. Conversely, when there is less chronic stress and, as a result, decreased sympathetic nervous system activation, the mitochondria will preferentially use fatty acids for production and development of energy. Utilization of fatty acids for this purpose does not result in increased levels of lactate and therefore does not lead to higher levels of carbon dioxide. As such, the resulting impact on shifts in our biological state towards greater activation of the sympathetic nervous system will not occur.
Within the Practices of the Healthcare Athlete, there are two important strategies to help promote mitochondrial health and resulting increased utilization of fatty acids. The first relates to exercise. When we engage in aerobic exercise, the so-called zone two type, this promotes mitochondrial health and the ability to flexibly utilize fatty acids and glucose for energy production. In addition, when we are able to shift into anchored and grounded states the lack of sympathetic nervous system activation results in less utilization of glucose for mitochondrial production of energy, amongst other benefits. As such these two strategies can be utilized in a complementary fashion to promote mitochondrial health and the resulting increased utilization of fatty acids for energy production.
The above discussion should also inform the bidirectional relationship between mitochondrial health and function and the Practices of the Healthcare Athlete. In particular this pertains to biological state shifts. It should be noted that when our mitochondria are unhealthy or our biological state has shifted into activated, attacking, anxious, overwhelmed, and shutdown states that there will be a shift towards increased glucose utilization for energy production at the mitochondrial level. This will result in further deepening of sympathetic nervous system activation. This shifts our biological state away from anchored and grounded states thereby reducing our ability to optimally pursue health, wellbeing, and sustainable high performance.
The above discussion can be applied to understand the importance of not only developing and implementing the psychological skills and somatic practices within the framework of the Practices of the Healthcare Athlete, but also integrating strategies to promote mitochondrial health. In so doing, we are better able to utilize fatty acids for energy production at the cellular level, thereby reducing internal pathway cues towards activation of the sympathetic nervous system. In turn, this allows for energy production and biological states to more closely complement each other in the pursuit of health, wellbeing, and sustainable high performance.
The above mechanisms apply equally across all domains in life. As such, they are equally important in the pursuit of health and wellbeing as they are to the pursuit of sustainable high performance. As mitochondria are essential for all cellular and biological activities on account of being the primary energy producers for our biology, they have an important role within all aspects of our life.
To learn more, including about biologically complementary coaching for healthcare professionals and others in high demand domains, please visit www.darindavidson.com.
Dr. Darin Davidson partners with Learner+, a CME/CE reflective learning platform for healthcare providers. For the opportunity to reflect on this article and earn CME/CE credits, Launch here. Check out all past articles which are also eligible for reflections and CME/CE credits.
For downloadable, actionable strategies and tactics to leverage biology in the pursuit of health, wellbeing, and sustainable high performance, visit the resource store, Launch here. Chapters are arranged by topic so those of interest can be selected and each are also eligible for reflections and CME/CE credits through Learner+.