In part three of our mini-series on gut health we’re going to look at Mitochondria, what these are, and the importance of understanding these mini superpowers on your pet’s health.
As a quick simple science lesson, Mitochondria have a whole host of functions such as responsibility for growth from infancy, help cleansing the liver, metabolism of cholesterol and neurotransmitters, the balance of estrogen and testosterone, etc.
Their main function is creating energy for an individual cell to work within the body. The chemical reactions they have, process details to convert food and water into energy the body can use, whether this is for walking, running, sitting, thinking, etc.
To get a better visual understanding, think of your sim card – basically, it has a tonne of information and connecting parts that your phone needs to access for it to work properly, depending on what you’re using your phone for at any moment, e.g. surfing the net, taking photos, accessing apps, etc. If the sim is faulty in any way the phone has issues in some form or another. The same goes for your mitochondria if they are healthy, you’re in good health. If they are faulty in any way, they can be the catalysis for some life-changing illnesses and diseases.
On average each individual cell can contain around 2500 mitochondria, depending on what the body may need a cell for. For example, muscular cells need a lot of mitochondria to function compared to nerve cells that don’t need any. Now imagine your sim card is representative of just one tiny microscopic mitochondrion within a cell in the body, each cell would have the equivalent of around 2500 sim cards just to function.
To try to get an idea of the actual number of mitochondria working within the body at any one time, Scientists estimate that a healthy liver alone has around 240 billion cells. If we take the average number of mitochondria in each one of these cells as 2500, that’s trillions of mitochondria working just within the liver, let alone the entire body.
Why are they important to health?
Their importance to overall health really comes into play when you consider that they’re the energy creators for the body. 90% of the energy they create is for organ function. (1) They create this energy from converting air your pet breathes, the food and water consumed, into nutrients for the body.
However, where they become fundamental to health is when we consider that Mitochondria can be split into two major teams. They are DNA Mitochondria that contain genetic information (separate from nucleus DNA) and bacterial mitochondria.
When the mitochondria begin to fail in either of these areas their chemical reactions start to create mutations that over time negatively impact the body, to the point that they physically change the health of organs.
If Mitochondria struggle to regenerate and deform as they malfunction, sickness sets in, and organs start to fail. Think cancer, scientists know that these cells have deformed mitochondria with an inability to work properly.
Remember, Mitochondria provide all the power and energy for the body through using both the air and food, so it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to understand that poor diet acts as kryptonite – remember the Superman movies?
If mitochondria can’t source the nutrients they need to help the body fully function, not only do they speed up the aging process in your pet but they also start to form disease.
What are some of the common illnesses linked to Mitochondria?
Some of the most common known areas that have issues linked to damaged mitochondria are the brain, heart, liver, bones, muscles, lungs, kidneys, and hormones.
It can be difficult to determine if your pet has mitochondrial disease as it depends on how the cells are mutating over time as mutations can present themselves differently within pets.
For example, it is known that within dogs that have inherited mitochondria disease it’s carried within the females and often presents in puppies through the loss of muscle coordination – Ataxia. But one litter can have a combination of puppies that show no effects to those that have a severe muscle disorder.
For non-inherited mitochondria disease, it’s normally triggered by the onset of damaged mitochondria over time and can present in the form of some heart diseases, seizures, strokes, skeletal issues, developmental issues, diabetes, dementia, and cancer, to name but a few.
Mitochondria are present in so many cells throughout your pet’s body that their malfunction can cause symptoms to manifest in different ways, organs, and intensities across different pets, but as their damage continues it’s more likely that health issues will be visible.
One of the first signs that there may be an issue with the mitochondria is recurring gut problems and appetite issues, lethargy, intolerance to exercise, high levels of inflammation and susceptibility to infections, leaky gut, liver/kidney inflammation, or skin issues.
What can I do to help my pet or prevent this from occurring?
If you suspect your pet has any issues then we suggest you speak with your vet but one of the ways to help keep the mitochondria healthy is by feeding your pet a raw diet and providing regular exercise.
Raw feeding for your pet is “species-appropriate”. Not only does it help prevent inflammation which is one of the triggers to illness, it also provides your pet’s body with the right food to convert into the right energy, for cell regeneration and organ support. It builds a strong immune system within your pet to stop infection fast.
You could also try intermittent fasting, whereby your pet isn’t allowed access to food all day long, every day, that they have either one regular feeding time or two in the day. Fasting helps with mitochondria performance in that it activates them to use the fat in the body for energy rather than always converting food for energy.
Also, look to reduce any high-stress situations that put your pet in fight or flight mode and reduce their exposure to environmental toxins.
Conclusion
If we bring this mini-series together from the pre-and probiotics, digestive enzymes, and mitochondria, the bigger picture looks something like this…Healthy friendly bacteria need to flourish in the gut. These friendlies then let the digestive enzymes have access to good proteins that are needed to kick start the mitochondria to work. The mitochondria then produce the energy the body needs to support organs and the everyday activities of your pet.
Taking these important primaries into account, health, happiness, and longevity of life come down to one common factor. Food.
We’re talking here about real whole food, not kibble. Whole food that has macro and micronutrients the body needs to function at optimal levels. Scientists are discovering that whole foods have a level of intelligence, balance, and components we still don’t fully understand or have identified yet, but they know they’re crucial in providing the body with nutrients to support the immune system and combat illness.
One of the very first things you could do if your pet starts to get ill, have allergies, skin disorders, ear infections, etc. before anything else, is look at his diet and work out how much real food you’re feeding your pet compared to processed food, that enables him to really take in live nutrients and metabolize these nutrients for use within the body.
When looking at symptoms you shouldn’t ignore the fact that diet is generally the trigger for 80% of all illnesses that present, so feed your pet back to good health with raw food. – Feed it, seed it, grow it for optimum health.
