How Mitochondria Control Your Metabolism | Dr. Jared Rutter

Jared Rutter (0:00)

There's a widely accepted hypothesis that mitochondria with excess energy leads to problems. Many people that are listening have probably heard of reactive oxygen species. This is forms of oxygen that become reactive and end up spinning out and damaging proteins and nucleic acids.

And I think it is widely accepted that one of the contributors to that is mitochondria that have too much energy. Basically, the form that energy takes when it's extracted from the food we eat and before it's converted to ATP is powering the mitochondria. And when that mitochondria is overpowered, that leads to a state that is very susceptible to generation of these reactive species that end up damaging our genome, creating mutations and damaging proteins and creating many of the problems that we see.

Andrew Huberman (0:51)

Welcome to the Huberman Lab Podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life.

I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine.

My guest today is Dr. Jared Rutter. Dr. Jared Rutter is a professor of biochemistry at University of Utah and an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He is one of the world's top experts in the biology of mitochondria and metabolism. Mitochondria are known as the powerhouse of the cell.

But as you'll learn today, they do far more than just power our cells. They also determine how much energy goes into making new cells, to making sure that cells stay healthy and to fighting off disease. Today's conversation explains how mitochondria do that and clarifies what your metabolism really is. And in doing so, you will learn that you don't have one metabolism. Your metabolism, as it's called, is actually a reflection of the constellation of all the metabolisms of all the cells in your body. So today's conversation will teach you the real biology of mitochondria. And it will provide a framework for you to make better decisions on the behalf of your health. So what follows is a conversation about mitochondria and metabolism, unlike any that you heard from one of the world's premier experts in this topic. Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford. It is, however, part of my desire and effort to bring zero cost to consumer information about science and science-related tools to the general public. In keeping with that theme, today's episode does include sponsors. And now for my discussion with Dr. Jared Rutter. Dr. Jared Rutter, welcome.

Jared Rutter (2:31)

Thank you. Thanks for having me on.

Andrew Huberman (2:32)

I have many questions about metabolism, mitochondria, and I know many people do as well.

Most people hear the word metabolism, and they think calories in, calories out. They hear the word mitochondria, and they probably think the powerhouse of the cell. And that's all great. People are becoming more educated about cells and their bits and pieces and what they do. You have a very different perspective that is very important, I believe, for people to understand. Maybe we could start off by talking about how the metabolism of any one cell in our body relates to what we call our metabolism, the collective metabolism of all those cells. And as you go, if you could take any liberties you want to tell us what we probably don't know about the quote unquote powerhouses of the cell.

Jared Rutter (3:20)

You know, when we think about metabolism, as you say, I think all of us think about metabolism in terms of our body's metabolism, our metabolic rate, as you say, calories in, calories out. What that is, really, our body's metabolism is basically the sum total of what we ingest, you know, what we eat, what we drink, what we breathe, that enters our body and gets processed. And the results of that processing are individual molecules, amino acids and sugars and so forth, that then distribute throughout the body, go into individual cells and enter this process that we call metabolism, what we call cellular metabolism.

And I think it's reasonable to think of cellular metabolism as almost like a map. There's an entry point, a molecule of glucose, a sugar comes into a cell, and that sugar can be chemically modified in a variety of ways to fulfill the needs of that cell. And then that cell does whatever it needs to do with the molecules it takes in to fulfill its particular functions. And then that leads to the release of waste products that we eliminate from our body. And that is sort of the organismal metabolism, the metabolism of our body.

And as you allude to, I think something that maybe many people don't understand is that cellular piece of it. The metabolism of our body is really the sum total of the metabolism of each one of our 30 trillion cells or so. That's really where my passions lie are those individual cells and how they choose to take up certain nutrients, how they choose how to process them, turn them into other things, how they use them to fulfill their particular functions and how that's regulated. The masterful coordination of each of those cells working together to allow us to be sitting here talking to one another and go out and run or whatever we do. It's a beautiful orchestration, but that happens at the level of individual cells. I think that's one of the fascinating things that is maybe a little bit less understood.