If you want to support your metabolic health, you need to start thinking about your cellular health. The inverse of this is also true: if you’re not focusing on your cellular health, you’re likely neglecting your metabolic health.
Any conversation about cells and cellular structures can be complicated, but it’s not as intimidating as it sounds. Understanding the science can help you optimize your health and overcome barriers you didn’t know you were facing.
Let’s begin with a brief definition:
What is cellular health?
When I refer to metabolic health, I’m talking about how well your body converts food into energy. This happens at a physical, chemical, and hormonal level, particularly when it comes to your cells.
Certain types of cells in your muscles and bones convert the food you eat into energy for your body. Tiny organelles in each cell, known as mitochondria, transform the nutrients in your food into adenosine triphosphate, or ATP.
With ATP, your cells can tap into an efficient energy source that powers everything your body does in a day. This includes:
- Muscle contractions
- Nerve impulses
- DNA creation
- Powering the brain
The human body cannot store ATP for very long — only enough for a few seconds’ worth of exercise — so your cells must work constantly to convert nutrients into energy.
There are typically three pathways your body uses to do this:
- The phosphagen pathway: As your body uses up readily available ATP, the cells release a molecule called phosphocreatine to create energy for short bursts of exercise (think 15 seconds or less).
- The glycolytic pathway: Your cells turn the glucose in your muscles (also known as glycogen) into readily available ATP. Overuse of the glycolytic pathway is also what leads to lactic acid, which is the feeling of soreness you get after working out.
- The oxidative pathway: Your cells combine oxygen and fat molecules to create more ATP. This works to sustain longer-term exercises such as jogging, weightlifting, and more.
A single cell in the human body requires as much as 10 billion ATP per day. This means not consuming enough nutrients, or not having a healthy ATP conversion process, can lead to significant issues with your metabolic health.
When cellular health breaks down
Healthy cells lead to a healthy body. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true. Internal and external stressors can reduce the capacity of your cells to convert energy, which has an incredible cascade effect on your metabolic health.
For example, damaged cells can’t process nutrients effectively, which means the body must work harder to generate energy. Your cells will die without enough energy to sustain them, which ultimately leads to chronic disease.
What causes your cellular health to break down in the first place?
Let’s take a closer look at the most common culprits:
- Medications: As we know, medication isn’t always the best way to treat chronic disease. And many types of medications, including statins, aspirin, and antibiotics, can reduce ATP production by up to 90%.
- Processed food: Processed food is typically high in sugar and seed oil, both of which can impact your cellular health. Rats fed a diet of sunflower oil for four weeks showed evidence of mitochondrial dysfunction suggesting heart failure.
- Age: The act of ‘getting old’ doesn’t necessarily harm your cellular structure — it’s that damage builds up over a long period of time and becomes more obvious as you age. You can think of it like eating donuts for breakfast: you’re not going to get fat doing this once or twice a year, but you are going to see negative effects after 10+ years. One of the most common side effects of decreased cellular function is feeling tired and lethargic, which is common for people 55 and up.
You can’t necessarily stop the aging process, and you certainly can’t go back in time.
But the good news is, mitochondrial dysfunction is often reversible.
You just have to be willing to make permanent lifestyle changes.
5 ways to boost your cellular health
Many of the basics of metabolic health also apply to your cellular health.
I recommend that you:
Eat whole, real food
You need quality nutrients to create quality cellular energy. You’re not likely to get this with processed food, so I recommend eating whole, real food instead. This includes anything that comes from the ground or eats what grows on the ground.
Start with:
- Ruminant protein (such as beef and bison)
- Healthy fats like butter and tallow
- High-quality seafood, including salmon
You may want to purchase a continuous glucose monitor to keep an eye on your blood sugar and avoid harming your mitochondria.
Exercise often
Exercise doesn’t just build more muscle — it’s directly correlated to cellular health. Studies show individuals with markers of cellular damage can increase their ATP production after just 16 weeks of strength training.
Notice the qualifier ‘strength training’ here. Cardio isn’t completely worthless, especially if you’re just beginning your health journey, but I would highly advise focusing on resistance exercises such as weight training and bodyweight training.
I’ve written several guides to resistance exercises if you’re curious about where to start.
Fast regularly
Fasting is a simple practice that offers incredible benefits to your cellular health. Studies show that regular fasting may increase mitochondrial splitting, which can help you break down fatty acids better. Fasting also encourages mitochondrial biogenesis, which encourages the body to create new cells.
Keep in mind the process of fasting doesn’t have to last multiple days. Many of my patients practice intermittent fasting, which means they eat within twelve-, eight-, or six-hour windows.
Cut sugar
It’s widely known that excess sugar can damage your metabolic health. The same is true of your cellular health: it’s a major component of type 2 diabetes.
‘Cutting sugar’ means something different for everyone, so I encourage you to start small and work up from there. Maybe ‘cutting sugar’ to you means no more refined sugar, reducing your fruit intake, or trying sugar alternatives.
Sleep more
The concept of getting ‘enough’ sleep largely depends on the individual. However, not getting enough can lead to serious side effects, including damage to your cells that’s difficult for the body to repair.
Most studies investigating cellular health suggest aiming for:
- A minimum of seven hours
- At the same time every day
- With as little blue light as possible in the last two hours of the day
Additional resources for boosting metabolic/cellular health
Metabolic health is incredibly complex. And when it comes to cellular health, we’ve barely scratched the surface.
If you’re looking for more resources covering metabolic/cellular health, I’d recommend:
- Following me on X (@ifixhearts)
- Chatting with a metabolic health coach
- Joining my Heart Health Hub to discuss new research within a community
