The Five Laws of Mitochondrial Health
Living in accordance with these laws keeps us on the path to vibrant health.
We defined health.
We’ve put our sights on the North Star.
We know how to know when we’re healthy.
But what do we do to get there?
If we have arrived at the promised land, how do we stay there?
How do we explore it more deeply to discover the riches of its treasures?
What Everyone Should Be Doing For Their Health is a collection of “the basics” that everyone should check in on from time to time to make sure they aren’t missing any of the foundational health strategies.
But what if you’re missing many of the basics? Where should you start? How should you narrow in your focus?
Or what if you’re hitting them all and you need a more advanced health strategy? How do you guide your search?
The Five Laws of Mitochondrial Health
The Five Laws of Mitochondrial Health are the compass you need to keep you following your North Star.
They are the lenses with which you should view the basics.
They are the guardrails that keep you on solid footing as you search for your next advanced strategy.
These are the Five Laws of Mitochondrial Health:
The First Law: Always start with your mitochondria.
The Second Law: Put food first and pharma last.
The Third Law: Never put tech before nature.
The Fourth Law: Remember your needs are your own.
The Fifth Law: Observe your needs as they change with time.
Applying these five laws will require specific mitochondrial strategies and a plethora of mitochondrial tactics.
Our purpose in this article, however, is to understand the laws so that when we seek to apply them using strategies and tactics we do so from a position of wisdom and understanding.
This is educational in nature and not medical or dietetic advice. See terms for additional and more complete disclaimers.
This is a fundamentally philosophical article, so it focuses on articulating the philosophy rather than on substantiating claims with evidence from scientific literature.
The 1st Law: Always Start With Your Mitochondria
Mitochondria extract usable energy from the food you eat so you can use it to fuel the production, maintenance, repair, and distribution of everything in your body.
The amount of cellular energy your mitochondria produce drives the dial of health and disease.
As you produce more energy, the dial drives to the right and points to health.
As you produce less energy, it falls back to the left and points toward disease.
Within each range, the amount of cellular energy drives how ill we are or how healthy we are.
There are thousands of genetic variants and uncountable experiences and exposures that can drive what disease or health looks like for each one of us.
For one person, disease is diabetes. For another, it’s heart disease. For another, it’s cancer. For yet another, it’s a neurological disease. And for yet another, it’s chronic fatigue.
For one person, peak health is athletic achievements. For another, it’s business. For yet another, it’s leadership and the formation of harmony within a community. And for yet another, it’s contemplation of eternal truths and their articulation in art or writing or speech.
But whether we experience health or disease and how much of each we experience comes down to how much usable energy we can extract from food and to what extent we can use the top layer of abundant energy to fuel the commitment of the bulk of the energy toward our health and highest purpose.
Living in accordance with the first law can be achieved at many levels: one level applies to how we manage our own health; another applies to how a physician may manage the health of others; yet another applies to the scientists who study how the many things we could be exposed to impact our health.
For example, using or prescribing mitochondrially toxic antibiotics for acne before giving the skin enough vitamin B5 to allow its mitochondria to clear away the fatty acids that are fueling the growth of those bacteria violates the first law.
Consider high cholesterol.
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The Five Laws of Mitochondrial Health
Living in accordance with these laws keeps us on the path to vibrant health.
April 30, 2026 291 4
