Mitochondria are affected by gut microbiome dysbiosis which can be caused by a high fat diet. Pomegranate would help though.

Opening lecture of a Symposium by Microbiome Labs; speaker Lacey Hall, RD.

Lacey Hall’s talk is titled Harmony within - Orchestrating Balanced Microbiota Crosstalk. There is a paywall to view the recorded lectures of the Symposium - Microbiome Keynotes Symposium 2023, $99, microbiomelabs.com. Purchases of their products could be made as a client of mine, I registered. Otherwise it is a wholesale site for health practitioners to order from. The site has a lot of free webinars though: (microbiomelabs.com/home/education/).

Benefits mitochondria perform for us in addition to energy production:

• Calcium homeostasis - Modulate intracellular Ca2+ levels important for muscle contraction, neuron excitability.

• Stem cell regulation - Influence success of stem cell transplants through DNA and protein modification. [This suggests that mitochondria naturally would be helping our own Primo Vascular System make our own stem cells as needed - We weren’t born with medical system stem cell transplants as part of nature’s plan for us.]

• Apoptosis - Release proteins that activate proteases to dismantle cells.

• Circadian rhythms - Regulate circadian clock through NAD+ production and SIRT1 and SIRT3 activation.

• Immune health - Pivotal role in cytokine response related to inflammation and immune signaling.

• Metabolic health - Produce 95% of a cell’s ATP to drive metabolic pathways and cellular metabolism.

• ROS balance - Unhealthy mitochondria lead to excessive ROS production, while healthy mitochondria keep ROS balanced.

• Detoxification - Helps detoxify ammonia from hepatocytes.

• Regulate aging - Toxic burden can damage mtDNA that causes fast cell turn over and accelerated aging.

• Epigenetic modulation - mtDNA can influence nuclear DNA coding through HDAC and methylation.

• Microbiome health - Influence microbiome composition, barrier function, and enterochromaffin cell function.

Lacey Hall, RD, Harmony Within - Orchestrating Balanced Microbiota Crosstalk, Microbiome Keynotes Symposium, 2023, microbiomelabs.com

I took notes worth transferring from my handwriting

Threats to Mitochondria

• Heavy metals, lead, arsenic

• Pesticides; Chlorpyrifos (CPF), DDT, Paraquat (PQ)

• Cyanide (including cyanocobalamin)

• Carbon monoxide

• Statin drugs

• NSAIDs

• Anti-diabetic drugs

• Oxidative stress

• Insomnia

• Mycotoxins

• Gut Dysbiosis

There is a Gut-Mitochondrial Axis.

Secondary bile acids activate TGR5 signaling which helps promote GLP-1, promotes conversion of T4 to T3, and helps prevent leaky gut membranes via Farensoid X Receptor (FXR) signaling. More information: (Larabi, et al., 2023; Ridlon, et al., 2014)

GLP-1 is a hot trend in weight loss medications currently with the medication Ozempic which can have some bad side effects. We can promote our own GLP-1 naturally instead of needing a bottled product with adverse risks.

Too high fat a diet causes too much bile acid and too much leads to gut dysbiosis and mitochondrial death. Some gut microbe species love to eat bile and will grow in excess then Bilophila Wadsworthia is a bile loving pathogen.

While avoiding a too high fat diet balance that leads to the bile eating pathogen overgrowth, we can enhance GLP-1 signaling naturally by promoting species that make bile acids for us. That would help with the beneficial TGR5 signaling, conversion of thyroid hormone in peripheral tissues and reduce leaky membrane risk in the gut. Those species include:

• Rumminococcaceae families and Lactinospiraceae families

• Parabacteroides merdae

• Parabacteroides goldsteinii

• Clostridium scindens [and other Clostridium species, (Ridlon, et al., 2014)]

Urolithin A production helps which means that eating pomegranate fruit and peel would help provide the precurser ellagitannins. And adequate zinc and other resistant starches besides the inner pith of pomegranates would be needed to help support the butyrate producing species which also can make urolithin A and B from the pomegranate ellagitannins. Other resistant starch foods include: artichokes, leeks, onions, cold pasta or rice or potato salad, polenta, tapioca or arrowroot starch, taro root, yucca root, celeriac (celery root), burdock root (Japanese gobo). Pomegranate peel products also can promote AmpK (Park, et al., 2014) which would help promote mitochondrial fusion. A fermented pomegranate vinegar or wine would have the double benefit of likely containing urolithin A from the fermentation process.

Good News Day:

Pomegranate vinegar beverage reduces visceral fat accumulation in association with AMPK activation in overweight women: A double-blind, randomized, and placebo-controlled trial, (Park, et al., 2014)

Corn starch and polenta might count as resistant starches, but corn contains a chemical (zonulin) that can cause intestinal cell tight junctions to open. (Fasano, 2020) This is a similar issue as gluten, either can add to leaky gut risks of allergy or autoimmune conditions developing by affecting tight junctions and intestinal wall permeability. Undigested proteins normally would be too large to squeeze between cells lining our intestines because gooey tight junctions fill the crack, like mortar between bricks.

Leaky gut wall facsimile. Photo by SIBY on Unsplash

Urolithin Producing Microbiome Species

• Bifodobacterium pseudoeatenulatum NIA P815

• Eggerthellaceae family

  • Godonibacter and Ellagibacter genera

• Lachnopiraeceae family

  • Enterocloster spp

• Clostridiales

• Ruminococcaceae

• Akkermansia mucinophilia

• plus having higher alpha diversity and Shannon’s Index

Vitamin K2 is also important for mitochondrial function as it is used in Complexs I, II and III for the Carbolic Acid Cycle/Kreb’s Cycle. Green veggies give us vitamin K1 and organ meats or natto fermented soybeans are a dietary source of vitamin K2.

Disclaimer: This information is being provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of Fair Use and is not intended to provide invidual health care guidance.

Reference List

(Fasano, 2020) Fasano A. All disease begins in the (leaky) gut: role of zonulin-mediated gut permeability in the pathogenesis of some chronic inflammatory diseases. F1000Res. 2020 Jan 31;9:F1000 Faculty Rev-69. doi: 10.12688/f1000research.20510.1. PMID: 32051759; PMCID: PMC6996528. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6996528/

(Larabi, et al., 2023) Larabi AB, Masson HLP, Bäumler AJ. Bile acids as modulators of gut microbiota composition and function. Gut Microbes. 2023 Jan-Dec;15(1):2172671. doi: 10.1080/19490976.2023.2172671. PMID: 36740850; PMCID: PMC9904317. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9904317/

(Park, et al., 2014) Park, J.E., Kim, J.Y., Kim, J., Kim, Y.J., Kim, M.J., Kwon, S.W., Kwon, O., Pomegranate vinegar beverage reduces visceral fat accumulation in association with AMPK activation in overweight women: A double-blind, randomized, and placebo-controlled trial, J of Functional Foods, 2014, 8;274-281, ISSN 1756-4646, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jff.2014.03.028. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1756464614001273

(Ridlon, et al., 2014) Ridlon JM, Kang DJ, Hylemon PB, Bajaj JS. Bile acids and the gut microbiome. Curr Opin Gastroenterol. 2014 May;30(3):332-8. doi: 10.1097/MOG.0000000000000057. PMID: 24625896; PMCID: PMC4215539. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4215539/