Brain Energy: A Revolutionary Breakthrough in Understanding Mental Health—and Improving Treatment for Anxiety, Depression, OCD, PTSD, and More

by Christopher M. Palmer

mitochondria are right there to direct things. They immediately change shape. They elongate themselves, fuse with each other, and form long tubular networks.21 What ensues is a spring-cleaning, if you will. The cells identify old and defective proteins and cell parts. They are the first to go in a massive recycling campaign. These proteins and parts are shuttled to lysosomes for degradation. These nutrients are then recycled; some get used for energy, while others might be used for new, essential proteins and cell parts. The cells are looking for anything and everything that is expendable in a carefully orchestrated reboot. So, what about the cells’ mitochondria? Are they also getting destroyed? Well, the defective ones are, as mitophagy also gets activated during this process. But the healthy mitochondria are now working with each other in the long tubular networks. They keep up the pace of ATP production during this process,