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[Hara Estroff Marano+]

Hara Estroff Marano

Brainstorm

Metabolism

Stressed? Depressed? Anxious? Blame Your Mitochondria

When your energy-making machinery malfunctions, you suffer in your own unique way.

Posted May 3, 2024 | Reviewed by Tyler Woods

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[Source: RDNE Stock project / Pexels+]

Source: RDNE Stock project / Pexels

Your brain is a metabolically fierce organ, punching way above its weight of two pounds to consume 20 to 25 percent of the body’s fuel supply. The brain’s energy-making machinery, centered in mitochondria, is powering your ability to see this page, decode the symbols, take in the information, and maybe even store some of it in memory. Given the outsize energy demands of the brain, it is intensely populated with mitochondria, likely thousands of them per neuron. The evidence is accumulating that the many ways they function, and the many possibilities for dysfunction, are the common source of all mental health disorders.

Descendants of an ancient bacterium that made its way into an equally ancient single-cell organism and worked out a cooperative living agreement?an event that likely happened two billion years ago?mitochondria are essential for producing energy, although that is by no means all they do. The energy mitochondria produce not only sustains life but enables adaptation to challenges. Mitochondria respond very quickly to your needs: They’re there for your muscles when you climb a hill or ride a bike. You can’t make a decision, answer a question, or laugh at a punch line without a blast of energy in your brain. The sensitivity of mitochondria to environmental needs makes them a critical nexus for our adaptation to the ever-changing demands of the inner and outer environment.

That same sensitivity also may make them especially vulnerable to assault from an array of environmental perturbations. That vulnerability is what makes mitochondrial dysfunction a prime contender as the source of psychiatric disorders.

As the descendants of once-independent organisms, mitochondria retain some autonomy; for example, they have their own DNA, something that helps mitochondria respond quickly to local energy demands without having to first consult the nuclear DNA. It also allows mitochondria to multiply on their own.

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