UP, UP, UP goes the price of Middle-Eastern oil! Up, up, up goes the price of gas, electricity, and coal. Obviously the Western world is in a tremendous energy crisis. But there is another energy problem, closer home than we may have realized. Western man has an internal energy crisis. Almost everyone, it seems, runs low on push before the day is over, and the bottom seems to drop out of his energy reserves.
What is this energy? Where does it come from? Can it be stored, like ancient Egypt's plentiful grain reserves, against times of future need?
The "oil" that fuels our bodies is called ATP (for adenosine triphosphate). Every thought we think, every move we make, every beat of the heart, requires ATP for its energy. It is produced in incredibly minute factories called mitochondria, found in all body cells (fig. 1). The more active the cell, the more mitochondria it has; some liver cells may contain as many as 1,000.
These tiny powerhouses come in all shapes—round, cylindrical, football-shaped, and threadlike. Some are stationary, some move. Some can even change their shape and size, depending on the cell's need for energy at the moment. Frequently they collect near structures that need their ATP or near the supply of their materials. In muscles they are lined up just where they are needed the most to shorten the distance the ATP must travel.
But whatever their shape, size, or lo cation, mitochondria have three essential parts: an outer wall, an inner wall folded upon itself into partitions (cristae), and a gelatinlike material (matrix) that fills the spaces (fig. 2). Each part has a special work to do, which we will consider later.
Fuel for the Powerhouse
Just here is a fascinating bit of creative marvel. Whether corn oil, potatoes, beans—or other foodstuffs—provide the raw materials, mitochondria can convert their fats, carbohydrates, and on occasion, protein leftovers, into a single product called acetyl-CoA.
Then, no matter where it comes from, each acetyl-CoA particle contributes to energy production. It swings onto a one way energy merry-go-round called the "citric acid cycle" that has ten stations. At each of these the CoA is transformed into a different substance, the last of which gives the next particle of acetyl-CoA the necessary push for its spin around the wheel. (See figure 3.)
Now, hold your breath! Every spin of the citric acid wheel makes lots of energy for us—for example, each molecule of glucose (from carbohydrate) produces 40 molecules of ATP. And don't forget the ATP coming from the acetyl-CoA from fat and protein.
When we realize that most of our energy comes from ATP we begin to understand the tremendous significance of these wonderful processes. "It appears today that the whole business of the metabolic breakdown of food materials is so designed and directed as to produce the richest possible harvest of ATP to replace that used up in energy-consuming operations."1
ATP Recycled
But this is only the beginning of the energy story. As ATP releases some of its energy it becomes ADP (adenosine diphosphate) in a process that can be represented very simply as ATP > ADP+energy. This process is reversible the addition of phosphate and outside energy to ADP regenerates ATP. Mind-bending! Reminds one of the wheels within wheels seen by Ezekiel in his vision, all sustained by the Hand underneath the wheels.
And so the mitochondria, the power house of the cell and thus of the body, is the place where the internal energy crisis is solved. (See figure 4.) Its outer wall receives the essential raw materials. Its inner wall and partitions contain some enzymes that make ATP and others that remove byproducts. The internal jellylike substance contains the enzymes of the energy wheel. It is here that phosphate is added to ADP to generate the precious ATP.
Where, then, does energy come from? Largely from the breakdown of glucose with the subsequent formation of in credibly large amounts of ATP, our prime energy source. But where does glucose come from? From foods such as fruits and grains. And how do the plants make food?
Here is another fascinating and thrilling story. Mitochondria have, in green plants, twin sisters called chloroplasts. These are mostly located in the leaves. From air the plants absorb carbon dioxide; from the soil, water and minerals; from sunshine they absorb photons, which are tiny bits of light energy. Through the miracle of their energy-capturing chlorophyll, chloroplasts add carbon dioxide to a "starter" already present in the plant and fashion, by a series of marvelous reactions, the foods needed by man and God's other creatures. These processes also use ATP energy to spin their wheels and create the products, as do those of the mitochondria.
But where do the photons and molecules of "starter" in the green plants come from? When we push back our deepest inquiry as far as we can we come, like the genealogical records of Scripture, to the Creator Himself. For, ultimately, beyond the sun, all energy is His gift, used not only to create but to sustain and maintain His works.
Good news! Dr. Kiessling, of the University of Uppsala, Sweden, and his associates, actually measured the mitochondria in some men's leg muscles.2 After 14 weeks of training, sedentary young men increased their mitochondrial volume 50 percent; after 28 weeks, it doubled—they had twice as much mitochondrial material in the same muscles. But crack volunteer Swedish athletes had more than three times as much as the sedentary men. (See figure 5.)
Dr. King, of Washington State University, forced some laboratory rats to run in motor-driven work wheels 40 minutes a day. They also developed nearly twice as many mitochondria as did animals that were not exercised in this way.3
On the other hand, during the first two days of total inactivity, muscle tissue loses as much as one-tenth of its mitochondria.4 It all adds up to one conclusion—regular, vigorous exercise increases mitochondria. And this means more energy.
Can We Store Energy?
Really, in a sense, we store potential energy in glycogen and fat. However, this energy is largely unavailable if mitochondria are few and far between owing to inactivity, sedentary living, deficient exercise and physical work—because not much of it can get out of storage.
There is another, more available, power cache called phosphocreatine in muscles. This provides power for instant intense work when energy is used faster than it can be recycled from ADP in the usual way, and this continues until the metabolic machinery catches up. During periods of rest and relaxation the stock pile of glycogen and phosphocreatine is replenished. Perhaps this, among other things, is involved in the counsel "The work of building up the body takes place during the hours of rest." 5
Some Warnings
Cyanide, present in tobacco smoke, poisons the mitochondria and blocks the formation of ATP.
Carbon monoxide, also in tobacco smoke, fills up the oxygen-carrying seats in the hemoglobin of blood, and this decreases the oxygen available to mitochondria. Could this decrease ATP formation?
In heart failure there is not enough "squeeze" in the heart muscle to maintain normal circulation of the blood, so there is less oxygen available. If circulation is restricted by narrowing or even obstruction of some segment(s) of the blood vessels, or blood-vessel hardening, or even by constrictive clothing, then some parts of the body are deprived of adequate oxygen. Could these conditions contribute to energy lack?
Of course, food supplying carbohydrate, fat, and protein is vital. But beyond that a number of vitamins and minerals are essential in the enzyme factory of the energy wheel. All can be provided in the diet the Lord recommended in Genesis 1:29, 30; 2:15-17. (Fruits, grains, nuts, and vegetables.)
And even hormones play a part. Thyroid hormone, for example, in creases the production of many enzymes, including one that is important to the exchange of energy phosphate. Many drugs sabotage the energy equipment.
Along with health and life itself, energy is one of the very most valuable assets we can have. Would you like to have more of it? Try a balanced routine of regular total body exercise, good food, rest, avoidance of drugs, the best air you can get, along with good breathing habits to get it into your body, and absolute freedom from worry. There is nothing like confidence and trust in God to keep the mitochondria spinning out the ATP.
Above and beyond these partially known-and-understood mechanisms is the Creator, our great Source of all life and energy. He who created the sun, chloroplasts, mitochondria, ATP, and all the rest, can impart renewed supplies of energy through channels unknown and unperceived to us, but as real as that imparted to the dying paralytic let down through the roof of Peter's house, when, at the fiat of the Creator he rose, took up his bed, and walked.
"In him we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28).
