Episode 33 - Metabolism & Mitochondria: The Science Behind Thriving Health with Dawn Waldron
Healthily | 03/10/25
What if the key to a thriving metabolism lies deep inside your cells?
In this episode, I sit down with nutritional therapist Dawn Waldron, whose personal journey as a breast cancer survivor has led her to explore metabolism through the fascinating world of mitochondrial health. We dive into the real reasons why fasting, exercise, and gut health are so essential—not just for weight management, but for energy, longevity, and disease prevention.
Plus, we explore emerging research, including the intriguing concept of reverse Krebs and its potential role in chronic health conditions. Whether you're a health enthusiast or a professional, this conversation will change how you think about metabolism and what it really means to fuel your body for lifelong health.
TAKEAWAYs
✔️ Mitochondria aren’t just “power plants” — they’re master regulators
The host cites Nick Lane and his book Transformer, which argues that life is deeply shaped by metabolic flux — the continuous flow and transformation of energy and matter in cells — rather than just static “genetic programming.”
In other words: mitochondria don’t just produce energy (ATP via oxidative phosphorylation). They actively regulate cell function, signal to the nucleus, influence gene expression, metabolism, and even how our cells respond to stress.
This shifts the paradigm: DNA is important — but it’s not a rigid blueprint. Instead, energy flow and metabolic context help decide which genes get expressed (or silenced), and how cells behave.
✔️ What That Means for Health, Disease & Aging
- Mitochondrial Dysfunction as Root Cause, Not Just Symptom
When mitochondria lose efficiency — due to poor diet, metabolic overload, lack of exercise, etc. — it affects much more than energy supply. According to research, impaired mitochondrial function can contribute to metabolic diseases (like obesity, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes), age-related diseases, inflammation, even cancer and neurodegeneration.
Mitochondria engage in “retrograde signalling” — meaning stress in mitochondria can influence the nucleus and gene expression (like stress-response genes, antioxidant defenses, etc.) to attempt to restore balance.
- Metabolic Overload & Fuel Mismanagement Overwhelms the System
In modern lifestyle contexts — high-calorie diet, frequent sugar or processed food, sedentariness — you might be constantly supplying “fuel” (sugars, fats) to cells. But mitochondria have limited capacity to process that fuel efficiently. When overloaded, their functions degrade — leading to accumulation of fat, poor energy handling, insulin resistance. This helps explain rising rates of metabolic disorders. This mirrors findings in research: for example, obesity can disrupt mitochondrial structure/dynamics in fat tissue, reducing their ability to “burn energy.”
Detoxifying reactive byproducts (like ROS — reactive oxygen species) also becomes harder; if antioxidant systems (e.g. involving vitamins, proper nutrition, sleep) are weak, oxidative stress and inflammation accumulate, contributing to cellular damage, aging, and disease.
- Mitochondria & Metabolism Affect Cancer, Aging, and Regeneration — Not Just “Genes Gone Wrong”
The traditional “mutated-gene → cancer” model is being challenged. The idea presented: cancer might be better conceptualized as a metabolic and environmental issue: when metabolic flux, fuel overload, signalling disruptions and mitochondrial stress combine, cells may “reprogram” — shifting from energy production to biosynthesis, growth, proliferation.
That reprogramming can lead to a more “stem-like” cellular behavior (less differentiation, more capacity for rapid growth), which is a hallmark of cancer aggressiveness. The implication: if metabolism and mitochondrial health are restored, there may be hope to shift cells back, or prevent malignant transformation. This opens a paradigm where diseases (degenerative, metabolic, cancer) are often metabolic diseases — connected to how we live, eat, and fuel our bodies.
✔️ Practical & Lifestyle Implications (What the Podcast Suggests You Can Do)
Based on the metabolic framework the episode outlines, here are takeaways for real life:
Mind your fuel input vs energy output — eating excess (especially processed food, sugars) while being sedentary overburdens mitochondria. Balanced nutrition + physical activity helps keep metabolic flux optimal.
Support mitochondrial health through good nutrition (nutrients, antioxidants, fibre), regular movement, and avoiding overfeeding or chronic overconsumption.
Allow metabolic “rests” — fasting or intentional meal timing may give mitochondria a chance to reset, improve metabolic flexibility, clear excess, and avoid constant overload.
Be aware that external indicators (like body fat or BMI) don’t tell the full story — metabolic health, liver/pancreas fat, mitochondrial function, and internal metabolic stress matter more than outward appearance.
Understand that long-term disease risk is connected to metabolic balance, not just isolated ‘bad meals’ or genetics — lifestyle choices significantly influence cellular health over time.
✔️ Why This Perspective Matters — and How It Changes Things
This metabolic-centric paradigm (vs. a purely genetic or “calories in/out” view) has profound implications:
It explains how two individuals with similar diets or body weight can have very different health outcomes — depending on their mitochondrial efficiency, metabolic load, capacity for fat storage, and lifestyle.
It reframes chronic diseases (diabetes, metabolic syndrome, cancer, neurodegeneration) as lifestyle-linked, metabolic disorders, not just “bad luck” or genetic fate.
It empowers individual choices: by optimizing diet quality, metabolism, activity, and giving mitochondria “breathing room,” we might influence not only longevity, but the health of our cells at the deepest level.
It encourages preventive thinking: early metabolic maintenance — rather than late disease management — becomes the focus.
✔️ My Own Synthesized Takeaway (What I Find Most Important)
Our mitochondria — not just our genes — drive much of human health, longevity, and disease predisposition.
Chronic “fuel overload” (excess food, poor diet, inactivity) overwhelms mitochondria, leading to metabolic dysfunction, inflammation, and disease.
We have agency: what we eat, how we move, how often we feed ourselves can shape our cellular health deeply.
The old narratives (e.g. “thin = healthy,” “diet = willpower,” “genes = destiny”) are being rewritten. The new narrative is: “flux matters.”
Emphasizing balance, metabolic flexibility, and internal milieu may be more foundational to long-term health than chasing diets or aesthetic ideals.
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