What is cell stress & why it's important to your health?

Did you know that you are almost entirely made up of cells? In fact, you are made up of around 37 trillion of them – pretty mindblowing stuff! Cells are the smallest units of life, and hence are often referred to as the "building blocks of life". They are also the foundation of your health; if your cells are healthy, you're healthy.

However every day your cells are potentially being damaged by aging and living. Before we dig into what the heck that means, let us introduce you a bit more to these amazing components of your body.

Every day your cells are under stress. MitoQ is an advanced molecule that's proven to target your cells to combat CELLULAR stress, optimizing your body and mind.

What is a cell?

At the simplest level, a cell is a sac of fluid surrounded by a membrane. It doesn't sound fancy, but quite magically, inside this fluid, there are chemicals and organelles working to carry out special jobs relating to each cell's function, for example helping iris cells in your eye to control the flow of light.

Crucially, our cells also take in fuel, like the food we eat and the air we breathe, and convert it into energy. And rather impressively, cells function on their own, creating their own energy and self-replicating — in fact the cell is the smallest unit of life that can replicate. Therefore, cells not only make up living things; they are living things.

Cells that are in good health age, repair, and grow well, they produce ample levels of energy to function, and they manage your stress response to keep your body and mind running smoothly. So how do you keep cells in good health to ensure this work is all ticking over nicely?

How can I keep my cells healthy?

Since you are almost entirely made of cells, when we think of living “healthy”, we're actually talking about keeping our cells healthy. So the usual rules apply: eat a well-balanced diet, maintain good levels of exercise, don't smoke, make sure you get enough sleep daily and minimize life stress (to also minimize the need for cellular stress responses), alcohol intake, and exposure to environmental toxins. Textbook stuff.

But there are a couple of steps you might not be aware of, and this is where we need to dive even deeper into this wonderful world of cells. Because every day, stress can be happening inside your cells which can impact everything from your energy levels to cognition, how you age, the way you recover from exercise and illness, and your general levels of health.

Meet your cellular engines

As we said earlier, your cells generate their own energy, but what exactly is creating that energy? Inside your cells, you have tiny organelles called mitochondria. They are incredibly small (up to a 1000th of a millimeter), yet they are responsible for producing 90% of your body's energy. That's 90% of the energy you use every day, to get in a Monday workout, to remember to call your mom, to call your mom, to start writing that report you don't want to at 9pm, and to help your kids make it to bed without melting down (you or them!). The more energy a part of your body needs to function – for example, your heart, muscles, or brain – the more mitochondria its cells have, to meet those high energy demands.

As if that's not a big enough job, your mitochondria also aid your cell growth, survival, and cell death, help generate hormones, assist in calcium storage for cell signaling, and have their own unique DNA to help them perform their specialized functions.

Unfortunately, though, these are the tiny parts of your body where things can go a bit awry.

What is cell stress?

When your mitochondria generate energy for you to function, they also create a by-product called free radicals, a bit like exhaust from a car engine. Free radicals aren't all bad, they do have some important jobs, but if too many of them build up it can cause the cells to become damaged. This is the main cause of cell stress in the body (other causes include environmental stressors, some infections, and physical damage). Once this happens, your cells spend precious energy and time firefighting damage, or putting into action a cellular stress response, and less doing all those important jobs your body needs them to do.

Your mitochondria are clever though – it's not for nothing they're called the powerhouse of the cell! They self-manage free radical build-up by producing antioxidants, which stabilize those cheeky radicals and reduce the likelihood of this cell stress.

That all sounds great, except like sandwiches, a vase of flowers, and your dance skills – your mitochondria don't improve with age. Your body's antioxidant levels begin to naturally decline as you age, leaving free radicals uncontrolled. Additionally, our day-to-day lives expose us to even more free radicals through stressors such as pollution, UV radiation, poor diet, lack of exercise, too little sleep, smoking, life stress and drinking alcohol, making the battle against them that bit harder.

Basically, cell stress means that your cells are under attack – this is where the “aging and living” thing comes in. Every day your cells are potentially being damaged by the decline of antioxidants that comes with the territory of aging, and other damage that comes with the whole “living” thing.

Why should I care about cell stress?

This combination of internal and external factors diminishes the cell's ability to cope. Rather than acting optimally, our cells become increasingly stressed, meaning we are constantly in a firefighting mode to keep our bodies functioning. To us that means feeling more fatigued, those pesky afternoon energy slumps, trouble focussing at work, feeling slammed the day after intense exercise, slow recovery from illness, and feeling or seeing the effects of aging more prominently. In other words, feeling crap.

It then makes sense that if your cells are performing at their best, you are too. The trillions of cells within you form the foundations of your health. When your cells are healthy, a positive domino effect occurs, including stimulation of your innate immune responses, where the health of your whole body is supported and you can get on with really living.

How can MitoQ help combat cell stress?

MitoQ is an advanced cell health technology that was created at a university in New Zealand to address the very issue at the heart of cell stress, and it's a world-first human health breakthrough.

As we've established, your mitochondria need good levels of antioxidants to avoid an excess of free radicals and stress proteins building up and causing damage, but your body's natural levels can decline with age.

Just take antioxidant supplements then right? Unfortunately, many antioxidants are both poorly absorbed from the gut into the bloodstream and too large to get through the mitochondria's inner membrane, which is very selective about what it takes up.

Our scientists' mission was to overcome the challenge of effective antioxidant absorption. To do this they altered the molecular structure of the antioxidant CoQ10 (which is naturally produced in the mitochondria to create energy and control free radicals), by making it smaller and adding a positive charge that pulls it into the negatively-charged mitochondria. Once there, MitoQ gets to work effectively balancing free radicals and helping to reduce cell stress, so your cells – and you – feel supported. We like to think of it as nature made better.

When supported with MitoQ, your mitochondria and therefore your cells fire on all cylinders, and that can include more efficient natural production of crucial molecules such as NAD and ATP that help cells to stay in optimum health and energy today, tomorrow and into the future.

MitoQ begins to work reducing cell stress from the moment it's absorbed into your cells. Every day its benefits build as more and more of your cells are regenerated with better health and vitality. Although some people notice results sooner, after 90 days enough of your cells will have been recharged that you reach a tipping point where your body feels re-energized, rebalanced and refreshed.

Customer testimonials

“MitoQ served as a kick-starter to re-engaging a more active lifestyle, mitigating stress and getting me back to feeling my best. A chain reaction ensued. More energy means more physical activity. More physical activity means less stress. Less stress means a longer, happier, healthier life to enjoy with my kids. I’m sharper at work and generally feel better about myself.” - Gary Hall Jr, Olympic gold medallist & MitoQ ambassador

“I started taking some years ago on the recommendation of my doctor. I didn't notice any change in my health at first but when I ran out of the first bottle I noticed a slight lack of energy. When I started taking MitoQ again my energy was much better. I am 77 years old and a firm believer in MitoQ.” - David H., MitoQ customer

“I’m a huge fan of MitoQ, I’ve been taking it for a long time. It makes such a difference to my day. My cognition is better, I can deal with long days. My energy’s better. I don’t have any dips, so I don’t get that 3 o’clock low in the afternoon. And I notice dramatically when I don’t take it.” - Kaytee Boyd, Integrative Nutritionist & MitoQ ambassador

“I’ve been using MitoQ for several years after using coenzyme Q10 since I started taking statins about 12 yrs ago. I recently had my biological age measured using a blood test for methylation of my DNA. I’m 80 and my biological age came back as 67! I do have good exercise and diet programmes but do wonder if MitoQ may have had something to do with this amazing result.” - Anne S., New Zealand

“What I’ve noticed about my health and wellness since I’ve taken MitoQ is the fact that I’m able to keep going. You sort of take it for granted, then one day you look back and you go wow, I’ve been doing this for two months. I haven’t had a break, I haven’t had a day off, but you also notice that you haven’t been sick, you haven’t been irritable, you haven’t had weird fluctuations in your energy. And you think, I wonder if that’s the MitoQ. And it is.” - Gunnar Peterson, former LA Lakers director of strength & MitoQ ambassador

“I’ve been using MitoQ for four or five weeks & must say I certainly am getting loads more energy which at 73 yrs is fantastic doing stuff around my place that I haven’t had the energy to do for a long while. It’s so worth it so thanks MitoQ.” - Di K., New Zealand

Disclaimer: MitoQ supplement testimonials may not be typical and individual results may vary.

MitoQ’s clinical trials

MitoQ significantly fights cell stress

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A research team at the University of Colorado Boulder discovered MitoQ significantly supports heart health in older adults

“Our results provide initial support for the idea that MitoQ, and potentially other mitochondria-targeted antioxidants, may be an effective treatment for improving vascular function” - investigators at the University of Colorado Boulder

MitoQ reduces mitochondrial DNA damage after exercise

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MitoQ improves leg extension power in healthy middle-aged and older adults