Sep 15, 2026 · 1 hr 2 min · 15 segments
Today's Guest Dr. Terry Wahls is a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine in Iowa City, Iowa, U.S.A., where she teaches internal medicine residents in…
Ryan Mitchell BrownHostYou know, i- if we go back to the evolutionary history that we all share, about four billion years ago was the first inkling that biochemical processes were happening.
And then, you know, we continue to evolve, and about two billion years ago, we have mitochondria.
Uh, and these ancient mitochondria are really bacteria that were engulfed by larger bacteria, and these, uh, early mitochondria could use oxygen more effectively to create ATP, or adenosine triphosphate, which, uh, all the listeners, I want you to know, that's the currency of life.
That's what most of our cells are using to nudge the biochemistry that we need to have, have happen to sustain life.
And so if your mitochondria are working well, your cells could do all the work assigned to it.
But if your s- mitochondria begin to get sluggish and they can't produce ATP as well, then that cell can't do the work assigned to it nearly as well.
And for most of us, the cells that have to do the most work are the cells in the brain, the cells in the retina, uh, because that's basically, uh, a, a camcorder, a video recorder, and the cells in the heart.
And so when people have neurologic or psychiatric symptoms, I'm thinking mitochondria not working very well.
If they're having difficulty with their vision, I'm thinking the mitochondria not working well.
I... and so a- and that's the people that I see have neurologic and psychiatric symptoms.
And I focus on helping them understand that we have to take care of the mitochondria.
And I think that's... it's such a profound thing because I remember when I read your book the first time, which was sort of just like o- really cracking the door open to all of this stuff and the nuances and complexities.
I was thinking about just how many modern-day, like the top modern-day illnesses that affect people.
And if you think about mitochondria, we have most of our mitochondria buried in here and in here.
And it's incredible because when you learn about the principle fundamentals around what create healthy mitochondria, you really have the power given back to you as to what you can do about it to a certain degree.
You know, i- if we go back to the evolutionary history that we all share, about four billion years ago was the first inkling that biochemical processes were happening.
And then, you know, we continue to evolve, and about two billion years ago, we have mitochondria.
Uh, and these ancient mitochondria are really bacteria that were engulfed by larger bacteria, and these, uh, early mitochondria could use oxygen more effectively to create ATP, or adenosine triphosphate, which, uh, all the listeners, I want you to know, that's the currency of life.
That's what most of our cells are using to nudge the biochemistry that we need to have, have happen to sustain life.
And so if your mitochondria are working well, your cells could do all the work assigned to it.
But if your s- mitochondria begin to get sluggish and they can't produce ATP as well, then that cell can't do the work assigned to it nearly as well.
And for most of us, the cells that have to do the most work are the cells in the brain, the cells in the retina, uh, because that's basically, uh, a, a camcorder, a video recorder, and the cells in the heart.
And so when people have neurologic or psychiatric symptoms, I'm thinking mitochondria not working very well.
If they're having difficulty with their vision, I'm thinking the mitochondria not working well.
I... and so a- and that's the people that I see have neurologic and psychiatric symptoms.
And I focus on helping them understand that we have to take care of the mitochondria.
And I think that's... it's such a profound thing because I remember when I read your book the first time, which was sort of just like o- really cracking the door open to all of this stuff and the nuances and complexities.
I was thinking about just how many modern-day, like the top modern-day illnesses that affect people.
And if you think about mitochondria, we have most of our mitochondria buried in here and in here.
And it's incredible because when you learn about the principle fundamentals around what create healthy mitochondria, you really have the power given back to you as to what you can do about it to a certain degree.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.