Mitochondria are organelles that act like a digestive system inside your cells. They sit next door to the nucleus in each cell and act as good neighbours should, being very helpful in making the cell function well. They take in nutrients, break them down, and create energy for the cell in the form of ATP energy. They have their own DNA structure, meaning that there is significant interplay between your nuclear genome and you mitochondrial genome. Just so that we are clear, your nuclear genome is your entire DNA inheritance from your biological parents whereas your mitochondrial genome is a single chromosome passed onto you by your mother. It is the interface between the two of these is where we are going to focus to determine your mitochondrial health and how you can prevent diseases associated with mitochondrial dysfunction.
It is also good to know that as many mitochondria that your mom had when she gave birth to you, is the number of mitochondria you would have inherited. However, you can increase the number of mitochondria by exercising and feeding them the correct nutrients. This is incredible!
We believe that there is a mitochondrial genotype. Read our blog post HERE to learn more.
