#1

I thought I would write a summary of my views currently on development and aging which is here:

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#2

@John_Hemming John, where does the generation of body heat mix into this discussion of mitochondrial efficiency. Is this simply another “feature vs bug” thing to bear in mind?…a limit to how “efficient” our mitochondria can become?

Have you ever looked into creatine citrate as a source of citrate?

#3

How the mitochondria function and how much ROS is generated will affect the rate of mtDNA mutation.

I haven’t looked at creatine citrate.

#4

Thanks @John_Hemming. Enjoyed your paper.

#5

Maybe this is where the “lower body temperature is better for longevity” comes from.

Higher body temp comes from less efficient mitochondria ……which causes more ROS ….which causes more mDNA mutation?

#6

Quite possibly. Given how much the mitochondria are involved in it is not surprising lots of things affect the aging process.

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#7

It depends on what is causing the mitochondria to be less efficient. If the mitochondria are less efficient because of mildly increased uncoupling, you get the opposite effect, that is, you actually get lower ROS production. Some animal studies show that this may even be beneficial for longevity.

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#8

@Olafurpall Is this trainable/environmental or genetic? People from cold climates have more uncoupling while people from hot climates have less? Or does my sauna and cold showers have an effect on my uncoupling that I could modulate to get a desirable outcome (higher energy production, less ROS, longer lifespan)?

#9

I think people in cold climates might have a little more uncoupling compared to people in warmer climates, but the difference is probably small. Note that humans have very little brown fat compared to rodents, so they don’t create nearly as much heat through uncoupling in their fat compared to rodents. This is probably trainable to some degree by cold exposure, but the effect in humans is likely to be small.

On a related note. I remember a news story of an Icelandic fisherman who was the only survivor in a shipwreck some decades ago. He swam in the sea to land for half an hour in freezing temperatures then when he reached land he walked on snow to a small town and survived. A normal person would die within a few minutes in that cold sea but he survived a half an hour. He was researched and they found out he for some reason had remarkably high amounts of brown adipose tissue in his body, which created a lot of heat. That saved his life.

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