Mitochondrial Protector: AMPK

so today i'm going to teach you a new word all right it's a very long word and then i'm going to describe what it is but this way you can go to a party and sound very smart so what is this word the word is ampk what does that stand for five prime adenosine monophosphate

activated protein kinase okay so just memorize that word and you can use it at a party so what is this thing well it's the mitochondria protector they call it the guardian of your metabolism now in this sense metabolism isn't necessarily just about weight loss it's about producing energy and this energy is produced in the mitochondria so basically it's the central regulator of energy

homeostasis so homeostasis is the ability to adapt the internal part of your body to the external part the environment so we can maintain survival so if it's cold outside our body starts to shiver to increase temperature that's homeostasis if you were to run up stairs your pulse rate would go up to adjust for the need for oxygen to your brain so you wouldn't pass out that's homeostasis so ampk

basically is an enzyme that adapts to things that deplete your cellular energy so it senses this drop in energy in the atp which is like the energy currency of the body within the mitochondria and then it adapts the mitochondria and other things to be more efficient so it can survive so it's going to increase more atp and decrease the consumption of atp so basically it rewires

your metabolism to make it more efficient so any time we're talking about efficiency in the cells we have to talk about autophagy an autophagy is the condition in your body where you're recycling old worn out cell parts and turning them into new cells so ampk triggers autophagy mitophagy now what is mitophagy that's a condition where you're recycling damaged mitochondria into