Is Mitochondrial Transplantation The Longevity Intervention Of The Future (OLD Mice Climbing Up Walls Like YOUNG Mice!) With Tom Benson of Mitrix

**Ben Greenfield** (0:00)
My name is Ben Greenfield, and on this episode of the Boundless Life Podcast, you've actually, from what I understand, created something that sounds like it's out of a science fiction novel, bioreactor-grown mitochondria. Tell me about this.

**Tom Benson** (0:16)
Mitochondria are about 10% of our body by weight, which most people don't realize. If they were to shut down tomorrow, you literally would collapse into a sh**.

**Ben Greenfield** (0:27)
My guest on this show is the CEO and founder of Mitrix, and they do mitochondrial transplantation. They literally grow new mitochondria in bioreactors, which is crazy. And we're going to talk about that and the future of mitochondrial transplantation.

**Tom Benson** (0:45)
So what we do is we grow your stem cells, and we also make the mitochondria younger during that growth process. I can't talk about how we do that. That's our ****.

**Ben Greenfield** (0:57)
The show notes are at bengreenfieldlife.com/mitrix, M-I-T-R-I-X.
We had a connectivity issue, which is why halfway through I changed my wardrobe. But that is a total aside. bengreenfieldlife.com/mitrix. Let's dive in and talk with Tom. Welcome to the Boundless Life with me, your host, Ben Greenfield. I'm a personal trainer, exercise physiologist, and nutritionist. And I'm passionate about helping you discover unparalleled levels of health, fitness, longevity, and beyond.
I spent 20 years measuring and optimizing everything about my body. Deep performance metrics, cold stress, heat stress, sleep scores, blood panels, peptide protocols, testosterone, telomeres, VO2 max, you name it. And somewhere in the middle of building what looked like perfect life, I almost lost the lives that I was building it for. Boundless. The Man Who Became Human is a brand new feature documentary that follows what happened when the optimization framework that I spent two decades constructing ran headlong into the things that metrics could never measure. My marriage, my sons, my face. The private archive footage in this documentary has never been seen publicly. Some of it I debated even including at all. It shows basically the worst of what happens when longevity becomes the ultimate goal. And how you and I can turn that around to become fulfilled by what's truly important in life. Now, this is not just another biohacking film. It's an honest look at what it costs to chase the ceiling on human performance told through real footage of one family, my family finding that out. And I'm giving you the chance to join me for the brand new live premier tour of this new film In A City Near You. Here's what the night looks like. You watch the film, me and my family in a theater, and then you experience a live episode of the Boundless Life podcast on stage with open Q&A. Real questions, no filters. My wife, Jessa, and my sons, River and Taryn, will be there with us as well. VIP ticket holders get to join for an exclusive after party with upgraded food and drinks. This Boundless Life tour kicks off in LA on July 24th, Austin on August 20th, New York City on August 6th, Miami coming down the pipeline, London coming down the pipeline, more cities to be announced. Tickets are on sale now. Grab them now before they're gone at boundlessdoc.com. That's boundlessdoc.com, and I hope to see you there.
All right. Mitochondria.
They're not really like new in terms of them being talked about all of a sudden in the health industry, but it does seem like there is.

**Tom Benson** (4:19)
Yeah, right, right. They're kind of in style now.

**Ben Greenfield** (4:22)
Yeah, they're in style. Seems like they've been in style.
I mean, it's such an odd word when we're talking about a key aspect of cellular biology. But I took biology classes and anatomy and physiology and everything back in college 24 years ago. And of course, we were talking about Mitochondria. We still are, but as you and I will talk about later, Tom, there's a lot of new science about Mitochondria. But before we even get into any of that, even though I'm sure a lot of people listening have heard of Mitochondria and what they do, I want to hear in your words why Mitochondria are so important.

**Tom Benson** (5:01)
Well, yes, great question. So Mitochondria are about 10% of our body by weight, which most people don't realize.
They are these tiny little blobs of stuff that float around inside our cells. We have about maybe, I don't know, 100 to 500 Mitochondria per cell, depending on whether it's a muscle cell or a fat cell, right? Muscle cells are pretty much just all Mitochondria. And what you want to think of is the Mitochondria is the part of the cell where all of the energy generation is done.