Author: Karline Jensen
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Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Type 2 Diabetes: Mechanisms, Markers, and Interventions
Type 2 diabetes can be assessed from the perspective of mitochondrial dysfunction as not just a side effect, but a factor in its progression. Symptoms like fatigue and difficulty concentrating can be a sign that mitochondria aren’t functioning properly, and that same underlying dysfunction may be feeding the disease process itself. When mitochondria are impaired,…
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Supporting Mitochondrial Health: Urolithin A and Light Therapy
Two very different interventions — a gut-microbiome-derived postbiotic and a light-based therapy — offer an interesting look at how mitochondrial function can be supported through different mechanisms: clearing out damaged mitochondria on one hand, and directly powering the electron transport chain on the other. Urolithin A Singh et al. (2022) ran a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled…
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Two Manifestations of Oxidative Stress: Cataracts and Steatotic Liver Disease
The following two examples — one on age-related cataracts, and one on Steatotic Liver Disease (SLD) — both illustrate how cells try to compensate for oxidative stress, and what happens when those compensatory systems eventually fail. Oxidative Stress and Cataract Formation Huang et al. (2022) investigated how biliverdin reductase A protects lens epithelial cells from…
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Mitochondrial Dysfunction
A Role in Schizophrenia Schizophrenia research has pointed toward mitochondrial dysfunction as a mechanism that could help explain some of the disorder’s underlying biology. Bartal et al. (2023) ran a systematic meta-analysis looking at genes responsible for building mitochondrial ribosomes — the Mitochondrial Ribosomal Proteins Large and Small (MRPL/MRPS) gene families — in people with…
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Antioxidants Aren’t Simply “More Is Better”
Supplements like quercetin, vitamin C, and vitamin E get a lot of attention as antioxidants, but the research makes a cautionary point: reactive oxygen species aren’t purely villains, and neutralizing them too well can have tradeoffs worth understanding before recommending a dose. Quercetin as a Protective Antioxidant Remigante et al. (2022) studied how quercetin can…
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What Happens in the Body When Alcohol Dehydrogenase Goes to Work
I’ve been digging into a few studies on alcohol dehydrogenase — the enzyme responsible for the first step of ethanol metabolism, oxidizing ethanol to acetaldehyde while reducing NAD+ to NADH. I found some genuinely strange toxicology, and some insight into hangovers. When It’s Not Ethanol: A Forensic Toxicology Case Ethanol is not the only substrate…
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Everyday Exposures Stacking Up: Oxidative Stress and Mitochondrial Dysfunction
Many conversations about oxidative stress focus on a single cause — perhaps too much sugar, not enough antioxidants, or too much sun. But in real life, oxidative stress accumulates from many sources. A person might be exposed to vehicle exhaust on their commute, spend hours around chemical fumes at work, and enjoy a drink or…
