The Secret To Recovering And Protecting Mitochondria

Catharine Arnston

Thank you for having me, Laura. Very excited to be here talking about mitochondria health.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

I know. That is your wheelhouse. You have dedicated so much time to this. You are actually an expert in algae nutrition and you are a Board-Certified Health Coach. And you have spent the last 13 years researching algae, writing papers, giving presentations, lecturing at conferences, and speaking on podcasts. And you talk all about the benefits of algae. And really, this also led to you being the Founder, CEO, and Chief Scientific Officer of Energy Bits. We will get into that and talk about what this is but I think it is really important that we are having a discussion about algae because it does give us some really incredible solutions to some of the health problems and low-energy issues that we are dealing with. An algae, I mean, it has been on the planet forever. It is a four billion-year-old secret. Tell us why should we be talking about algae and thinking about this to support mitochondria health. Let us start with that. Why algae?

Catharine Arnston

As you are going to find out that algae is more than just a superfood that you put in your smoothie. So here is the situation, 60% of adult Americans, 60%, that means you who are sitting here or the person beside you have a chronic disease and when you hit 65 that jumps to 80%. And what are those chronic diseases? Well, heart disease and cancer are the two big ones but Alzheimer’s, just the list is endless. So why are we all getting so sick? Well, it comes down to two main things, one is our bodies no longer are getting the nutrients they need to perform optimally or even to maintain our health, and the second one is we have too many toxins. The average adult now has 700 toxins in their body and algae, spirulina, and chlorella address both of those issues. Let us talk about the first one. Why are we all getting so sick and what? If you already listen to some of these sessions you are learning already that mitochondria health is where everything starts and stops. With your mitochondria the little organelles in your cells that

generate cellular energy called ATP. And that cellular energy does everything for you. It allows you to have the energy to walk, to talk, to think for your lymphatic system, and for your heart to beat. And when you do not have ATP energy you are struggling, and you will get brain fog, a chronic disease. It is just a slippery slope. And I tell people ATP, Cellular energy is like money. When you have more money you can do more things and you can have more choices. You have more cellular energy you can do more things and you can have more choices. But why is it that 60% of adults over the age of 40 have a chronic disease? They are clearly suffering from ATP shortage. So here is what is happening, your little mitochondria are inside where the ATP is produced and they are exactly where the, when the ATP is produced you also get free radicals as a byproduct. Nobody has probably talked to you about that but here is a picture of a cell. Here is your cell and inside your cell are different things like your nucleus. This is the mitochondria, by the way, there are 2 million mitochondria per cell in your brain. Your brain has the highest concentration of mitochondria. That is why Alzheimer’s, mental disorders, anxiety are really mitochondria diseases. 

In your mitochondria which are inside your cell is where the ATP is produced but it is also where free radicals are produced. And your mitochondria have their own DNA and they are located exactly where the free radicals are produced. It is just like when you sit by a bonfire or you get by a fireplace and sparks fly you can get burned. Well, that is exactly what is happening to your mitochondria DNA. They are exactly where the ATP and the free radicals are produced, they are getting fried every nanosecond. And here is the problem, your mitochondria’s DNA control your regular DNA, they control cellular communication, they control everything, and when they are damaged they either die or they send wrong signals and this is what leads to disease because they become inflamed. The communications suffer, and your health suffers as a result.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Catharine, I always say that there is a word for advanced mitochondrial decline and that word is cancer, that word is heart disease, that word is Parkinson’s, that word is Alzheimer’s. That is advanced mitochondrial decline and disease. And this is exactly what you are illustrating here. 

Catharine Arnston

Let me show you what damaged mitochondria or what healthy and damaged mitochondria look like. Here is a healthy mitochondria and here is a damaged mitochondria. See all that space in the middle? That is been caused by free radical damage and oxidative stress. And just to give you another little illustration. In your mitochondria, the ATP is generated through something called the electron transport chain. It is a series of molecules located on the exterior of the membrane. Electrons have to go from one of these molecules to the next there are four of them before ATP is produced. Now it is like a relay race. If your mitochondria are damaged those stations become farther and farther apart from one another which makes it more and more difficult for the electrons to be transported from one to the next. It is like asking Tom Brady to throw a pass in a stadium that is five times the size of a regular stadium.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

I love your analogies and how simple you are making this. I know our audience really appreciates this.

Catharine Arnston

Okay. Here is a healthy Mitochondria with all the different stations. And see how tightly close, how tight they are but when they get damaged the mitochondria itself start to expand and eventually explode, it is called necrosis. But in the process it gets, the stations get further and further apart. It is like a relay race. Someone dropping the baton except the baton in this case are electrons and the damage is not just that you did not lose, that did not win the race, the damages that you caused reactive oxygen species, you created more free radical damage. And that free radical damage slows down or stops the ability of your body to generate ATP. And when you have less ATP you have less cellular currency to protect yourself, you have less cellular currency for your immune system to work, and less cellular energy to detect cancer. And we will talk about cancer and brain disorders in a bit more detail in a minute.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Okay. What I really want to talk about now is what we started with here is algae. Algae obviously is going to be a solution to some of the problems here. What is algae? Where does it come from? And what are the different types that we can use to heal our mitochondria? You have established very clearly. And I wish you could have been my biology teacher in high school. That was a beautiful illustration. Now tell us where, what is this algae, and why?

Catharine Arnston

Well, a couple of reasons why you need algae is because all this damage is going on in the mitochondria. There are two ways to stop the damage; One is to reduce the free radicals and the other is to remove them. The first way is to reduce them which is to change your diet. Carbs generate the most free radicals. Now you can go on to keto or a low-carb diet that is fewer free radicals.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

That is like exhaust coming out of a car. Showing here is that carbs make more exhaust.

Catharine Arnston

Exhaust basically exhausts your mitochondria which causes damage. But intermittent fasting and algae have the least free radicals. The number one thing that you can do is reduce your carbs and take algae or do intermittent fasting because now you will have fewer free radicals to deal with.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

To clean up.

Catharine Arnston

The second thing is to remove them, but here is, to remove the free radicals. Now, we all know that blueberries and vitamin C have lots of antioxidants but none of those can get into the mitochondria because the mitochondria is the only cell in your body that has an inner membrane. It has two membranes, the regular fat one and the inner one. And the only antioxidants that can get in there are three that your body makes, glutathione, melatonin, and superoxide dismutase, and a fourth one called chlorophyll. Now, that is fine. You are protected because it can remove the free radicals.

Here is the problem, your body makes all of those great antioxidants until the age of 30 and then it stops and this is exactly when free radicals damage, this is when disease occurs, this is heart disease, this is cancer, this is inflammation and it just gets worse and worse. And why does your body stop making them? Because we only lived until 30 until a couple of hundred years ago. Your body thinks you are going to die at 30. It stops making those protective antioxidants, and one of them is called superoxide dismutase. But they all do the same thing. They turn the free radicals into water. It is like having a fireman in there putting out the fire. The problem is, when your body stops making those, your mitochondria are no longer protected. But the good news is algae has the highest concentration of all four glutathione, melatonin, superoxide dismutase, and chlorophyll.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

There you have it. Algae has all four.

Catharine Arnston

Especially spirulina which has the highest superoxide dismutase so you can flatline all that inflammation and chlorella which also pulls out toxins. It stops the damage from the toxins. Spirulina, which is a blue-green algae, it has the highest concentration of superoxide dismutase which stops the free radical damage and it also has something called phycocyanin. I want to show you a picture, these are the two algae. We call, our spirulina is called Energy Bits and our chlorella is called Recovery Bits, but what I want you to see.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

I have it here. Energy bits. I love it because Energy Bits is blue and Recovery Bits is green.

Catharine Arnston

Because spirulina is a blue-green algae I put it in a blue package and chlorella is a green algae. So here is the thing spirulina has two pigments in it. One is called phycocyanin that is spelled PHYCOCYANIN and chlorella only has one pigment called chlorophyll. But I want to address this blue phycocyanin because it is very important and it does not come in any other food. What is so important about phycocyanine?

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Wait, wait. Catharine, there is no other food where you can get this. Literally, the only place you can get it is from blue algae.

Catharine Arnston

Blue-green, not just even blue-green algae, just spirulina. And so here is what phycocyanin does. You can google phycocyanin and there is how to spell it. Phycocyanin and cancer treatments. These are pictures of cancer in a petri dish and they dyed it so you can see how concentrated it is. After 24 hours of giving, putting phycocyanin into the petri dish, here is the time-lapse, they are gone. Phycocyanin kills cancer cells, it is gone, and you can google this. The pharmaceutical industry knows this. They use phycocyanin in their treatments, but they do not want you to know about that.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

No, it does not sell drugs.

Catharine Arnston

What does Phycocyanin do? It triggers something called Cytochrome C which triggers apoptosis and autophagy of cancer cells. It leaves all the other healthy cells alone. You know how bubble wrap, you know how we all like to poke those bubbles on the bubble wrap. So phycocyanin is the equivalent of poking and killing the cancer cell. Just like if you poke a bubble but it leaves the rest of the cells alone. It only detects cancer, sentient cells, and sick cells. Phycocyanin, ladies and gentlemen, is mother nature’s equivalent of chemotherapy except it comes in food. By the way, spirulina also has the highest protein in the world, 40 vitamins, and minerals. And it nourishes your body, it nourishes your brain but guess what, it also kills. The nutrient called phycocyanin has been proven to also kill cancer cells. Go online and do that. But I want to tell you one more amazing about.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Real quick. What is coming up for me is we hear the word superfood food. I am using air quotes thrown around all the time. And if there is any food that could be in the category of superfood I would say we just learned what it is because there is really nothing like it.

Catharine Arnston

Well, the problem is that algae are so well known in Asia. It is a multibillion-dollar agricultural crop. It is grown in freshwater. It does not, we grow it in freshwater. Algae does exist in the ocean, but we grow it in freshwater. It is not from the ocean. And we call our tablets bits because they are bits of food, that is chlorella and spirulina. Number one, it is a huge crop in Asia. Number two, the Japanese have been taking it for 70 years every single day. Number three, there are over 100,000 studies scientific studies documenting things like what I have just told you. The problem is none of the science has been communicated to consumers outside of Asia. The science has been there in some cases for 100 years. 

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

There is a good reason not to communicate it because it would destroy the pharmaceutical industry. 

Catharine Arnston

Yeah. Well, let me show you another cool thing about spirulina. Remember I mentioned that superoxide dismutase which is an antioxidant that can get into the inner membrane of the mitochondria to stop free radical damage. Well, a couple of things you need to know. Superoxide dismutase, also known as SOD is an enzyme. And we are the only company, I am aware of, that does not use high heat to dry our algae, almost everybody else does. You can go to Whole Foods or Costco and I can promise you that they use high heat because they are lower-price, high-volume companies, so they had to get to market quickly but it kills the superoxide dismutase. So you are shooting blanks, and you are not getting the full value. And what does superoxide dismutase? Well, it protects your mitochondria which reduces free radical damage, reduces inflammation so you get more ATP and better longevity. And here is an example, we just did a clinical trial about this but I want to show you first. This is a picture of someone’s brain. A lot of athletes who are in high-impact sports, football, and boxing, they would have concussions. Now if you had a healthy brain this is what it would look like because red indicates activity, blue indicates inflammation. Then they would have a concussion and the brain would go blue, no brain activity. So only, after an EEG was done and the brain showed activity again, would the athlete be allowed to continue going back into sport.

Okay. We just did a clinical trial with a group called the Gray Team there in Florida. And what they do is they try to help reduce the suicide rate of veterans which by the way, is 35%. Here is a picture of one of the participants before and all we did was give them a pouch of our little spirulina tablets. There are 30 tablets in here a day. They did nothing else. This is for a month. Here is a picture of one of the participant’s brains. All the data is the same. Their brain is blue, no activity. This is the frontal lobe. This is the parietal lobe. This is the back lobe. A high inflammation after 30 days the inflammation is receded almost completely and you start to see brain activity again. This is incredible. This is just 30 tablets of spirulina a day for protective that brings back the life of your brain. And this is a book you need to read called “Brain Energy”. Dr. Chris Palmer just released it a couple of months ago. He talks about how all brain issues, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, Alzheimer’s are a mitochondria dysfunction because the brain has so many mitochondria. There are two million per cell. When they are not working you get inflammation but just adding spirulina which we call Energy Bits, reduces the inflammation in 30 days, no drugs, no other interactions, nothing. That is pretty powerful.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

It is very powerful. And I have a lot more questions for you. And I know our audience is going to want to know, how do I get this? Because we are unpacking here how critical this is. Do not worry everybody. There is going to be a link for Energy Bits on this summit on every page. You just click the link and it will take you right to the Energy Bits site. And you have a coupon code for viewers of this summit.

Catharine Arnston

Yes. If you type in MES which of course, stands for Mitochondria Energy Summit you will get 20% off anything that you buy. And we do have large bags of a thousand tablets. If you took 10 tablets a day a bag would last you three months. And each bag has so much nutrition. Because we have a quote from NASA that says, one gram of algae has the same nutrition as a thousand grams of fruits and vegetables, one to a thousand. And if you do not like vegetables or maybe you are a paleo or a carnivore and you are not eating vegetables you are still missing some really critical nutrients like chlorophyll. Algae is the highest constituent of chlorophyll. Here is the chemical composition of your hemoglobin, and here is the chemical composition of chlorophyll.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

For our audience, she is talking about blood. Hemoglobin in blood. Okay.

Catharine Arnston

The only difference is your blood has iron in the middle and Chlorophyll has magnesium. But algae has 500 times more chlorophyll than arugula. It has 25 times more chlorophyll than liquid chlorophyll. There is nothing in the world with more chlorophyll than algae. And in fact, the best one is chlorella which we call Recovery Bits because it is a green algae, and it also pulls out toxins.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Let us talk about this. First off, I love your passion around this. I mean, we bring on every type of speaker to this summit. We have got the high-level academics in the academia world. And then we have got people like you who are just so passionate that you went out there and created something to solve problems, and it is just so fun to talk to you. Let us talk about this. In my world, what I do in my programs and with my patients is I help people detoxify their bodies and get all the toxins out so that they can have high-functioning gut microbiome, high functioning mitochondria, so they can get their energy back, their brain back online, so they can get rid of their autoimmune conditions and prevent ultimately chronic disease. This product here, Recovery Bits is really impactful for helping detoxify. Can you tell us more about that?

Catharine Arnston

Yes. Well, that is because chlorella belongs to the plant kingdom and it does have a cellulose wall. And it is in fact the hardest cellulose wall in the plant kingdom and it attaches to toxins lead, mercury, radiation, aluminum, mercury, lactic acid, by the way, as well as alcohol. So it will attach to the toxins and chelate them, pulling them out of your body and it does not naturally. Chlorella also, which we call Recovery Bits because it helps you recover your health. It also has the highest concentration, as I mentioned of chlorophyll and glutathione. Glutathione is also a detoxing antioxidant. The highest concentration of it is in your liver. And it is very important for detoxing. It is got the highest chlorophyll which is cleansing, the hard cell wall that attaches to toxins, the high glutathione, and the fiber which feeds your gut biome so that it can generate those short-chain fatty acids which will help you with your gut. Generally, people take the chlorella at night because that is when your body goes into a detox repair cycle. You may not know, but your brain has its own glymphatic system. It is like a lymphatic system. When you are in deep sleep it shrinks a little bit. 

If you have aluminum in your brain this will help pull it out. By the way, the super oxidizing taste and that blue pigment that I talked about from the spirulina it also removes amyloid plaques from your brain. It protects your telomeres from shortening when your telomeres shorten. That means the DNA gets exposed and then it starts to unravel and then your cells replicate in a damaged form. This is the most powerful thing to protect your brain for your life. And so I tell people if you need to remember which algae to take. This is the spirulina which is so good for your brain. Think about it working from the top down. And this has all the gut biome issues, the hard cell wall that removes toxins, the chlorophyll is very cleansing, the fiber that feeds your gut, your microbiome. This is kind of a gut bottom-up. This is top-down, bottoms-up,  and another way is to remember both of them, by the way, are ketogenic. They have zero carbs. But you want energy and focus in the morning, spirulina gives you energy. That is why both are immediate. It is not a jolt of energy because it is not from a stimulus, it is from nutrition but it gives you energy nonetheless, mentally and physically, that is when you want that in the morning. 

And then this one, because it pulls out toxins when you are sleeping. This is what we recommend you take at night. Think of it as an AMLG and a PMLG. Energy for your morning, chlorella for your evening. And they are great for kids, pets, grandparents, whoever is listening, please get your entire family on this if you had to make a choice. Well, it depends on what your situation is, because if you are trying to prevent cancer, this is the one. If you have it, you definitely need this because it also has what is called anti-angiogenesis properties which means it stops the growth of blood vessels to cancers. And chlorella pulls out toxins that are constantly damaging the mitochondria and can lead to cancer. The two of them are very, and that is why they are kind of your power couple, they make it happen for you. But by the way, spirulina is a bacteria does not have a cellulose wall at all. It gets absorbed very quickly that is why athletes use it, NHL teams, and Olympic teams, It is very rapidly absorbed. And when it is absorbed it is pulling all that superoxide dismutase and all those other nutrients into the mitochondria where they can be used effectively. And I want to.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Real quick. What is the ideal dosing? We have people, there are people who are elite athletes who watch these summits. There are people who are moms and raising young kids who are watching it. We have people who are retired, whose families are grown, and they are looking at preventing chronic illness and slowing down aging, and living their best life. Does the dose matter depending on what age group you are in and what you are trying to achieve?What is the ideal dose for both of them?

Catharine Arnston

Terrific. The dose does matter. You just get better results from more. For a maintenance perspective, ten tablets seem to be what we recommend for energy and for prevention of this of the spirulina, and also for wellness benefits from the chlorella. And by the way, for children, I give them the number of tablets half of their age. If they are four, give them two a day, if they are six, give them three a day until they reach their teenage years. But they can be so much more than that. Ten is a pretty good base level for wellness and for the nourishment of the mitochondria. But if you have an illness of any kind, cancer, diabetes, or heart disease, you need to double or triple what you are taking until you get to a base level of- 

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Of 20 to 30 a day?

Catharine Arnston

Yes. Well, I take about 100 just so you know. There is no upper limit because it is food. It is just like some people have one egg and they are satisfied, some athletes maybe they have six for breakfast. If you had the full pouch of 30 tablets this is a meal replacement. 30 calories, 64% protein. It has the highest protein in the world, more collagen than collagen powder. Also, build your skin and hair. This could be a meal replacement for 30 calories, zero carbs, no sugar, no gluten, no chemicals. We do third-party lab tests. Because we sell through doctor’s offices nationwide. It can be whatever you want it to be. And remember it is cellular energy. If you took 30 tablets before a run you should have the best run of your life, you will run further and faster and you would not even notice it or you will.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

How much time before that run should they take it? What.

Catharine Arnston

10 minutes. And if you chew it instantly. Chlorella has a hard cell wall so it does take a longer time to get into your bloodstream.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

You could throw that in a smoothie. 

Catharine Arnston

Absolutely. If you are doing red light therapy or cryotherapy takes these before because it nourishes your cells while you are either getting the therapy. And it is also a vasodilator. It opens up the blood vessels. And then chlorella is like the clean up crew, goes around after the cryotherapy or the red light therapy, or after you are sleeping, or after your workout and cleans up all the toxins or all the dead cancer cells that this has killed. You want to get rid of them because you do not want dead cells sitting around because they become toxic as well. Work really well together. And by the way, when you take this every day this can replace your multivitamin, your fish oil, CoQ10, and so many other nutrients. And this can replace your vegetables, sports fuel, and recovery fuel. Honestly, these are a lifeline for your health and your longevity. And anybody can take it. We all have parents and aging grandparents, please, if nothing else, get them on this. They should take five at least ten a day. I promise you, we have had people tell us their Alzheimer’s got into remission, and their cancer went to remission, I mean, those stories are endless. 

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Catharine, I want to. I just had an idea. I want to invite everybody watching right now. Because I know people are interested and they want this. I want to invite you to try this and email me after 30 days. Send an e-mail to [email protected] and let me know what you experienced. I would love to collect that information and give it to Catharine, and I will do that. What I will do is I will collect that information. I will let you know how this impacted you, where you started, and 30 days later how you felt. I will hand that all over to Catharine because this is so fun.

Catharine Arnston

It is very game-changing. And I want to tell you one last thing. Remember when I showed you that picture of the mitochondria with the two cells and why most of the antioxidants can not get in there? Here is a picture. There are two cells on the cell membranes of the mitochondria. The only cell in your entire body that has two membranes. And here is why. I did not mention it, but algae were the first life on earth 4 billion years ago. Started as an anaerobic cell called cyanobacteria like spirulina. And there was no oxygen on earth when the cells started growing here is why it was an anaerobic cell, but it generated ATP and after a billion years there was enough oxygen for larger cells that were aerobic able to grow. Now, by then there is so much oxygen that the first cell was struggling. I can imagine the conversation between the big cell in the little cell. Big cell says to the little cell, “Hey, little guy, I see you are struggling there and we are not doing so well generating the ATP, why do not you come and join us? We will protect you from the oxygen and you can generate ATP for us,” and that is exactly what happened. This is all documented in the NIH Library. It is called endosymbiotic theory. An original cell as cyanobacteria like spirulina was growing, then it got engulfed by the bigger cell, but it did not digest it, it co-existed and became mitochondria. Cyanobacteria became mitochondria. And that is why there are two cells on your mitochondria because there is the original inner cell from when it was by itself before a second membrane was put around it when it got absorbed by the big cell. It makes complete sense to me. That is why algae feed everything that your mitochondria need because they are from the same family.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

And I guarantee nobody on our summit is making that connection. Thank you so much. Well, Catharine, this has been so enlightening and amazing and exciting and high energy. And I love the high energy of this talk.

Catharine Arnston

I use it all. I could not live without it myself.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

What I am experiencing is hope for people and a solution that is non-pharmaceutical. Yeah. Thank you so much for the work that you have done in the world and the invention of this product.

Catharine Arnston

I did not invent it. I do not want to take any credit. Mother Nature created it for us. It is around for a billion years, it is been used safely for 70 years in Asia it is just that no one’s explained it to you here. I tell people, algae is not new it is just new to you. And just like you did not know about chia, matcha quinoa until somebody explained it to you. Please go to our Website. Learn about it. Go online. Our website again is energybits.com. We write a big blog. There is so much science, it is crazy that this stuff is not being shared to you. And this is the most noninvasive, natural, healthy way to support and protect your health, your mitochondria, and your family. You want to be around for your family. Do not delay, honestly. Every day you do not have this in your is one more day your mitochondria are suffering.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

And one more time. What was that coupon code to?

Catharine Arnston

It is MES for mitochondria energy summit, get 20% off. If you need to you can go to Amazon, we sell them in little pouches for six dollars. I just want people to be as healthy as they are in Asia. The Japanese have the best longevity and so why should they be the only ones on the inside knowing about this great secret?

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Well, thanks for bringing it to the U.S. and the Western world. And you have created when I say you have invented this, you invented a way to package it and bring it to us that makes sense. You have created the education around it. You have created sensible. I love this because it can just go in your handbag and you could take it with you. It is so convenient.

Catharine Arnston

It is effortless longevity. I call it your health insurance. It is not just your nutrition insurance it is your health insurance. And Lord knows we need some good news. You do not have to do anything just open your mouth and swallow them, you are done.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Thank you so much, Catharine. You take care now. 

Catharine Arnston

Thank you too.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Bye.