Anemia and Sub-Clinical Anemia

Physiology of a Cell – The Basics 

Mitochondria are the primary producers of energy in our body. They create something called Adenosine TriPhosphate (ATP), which is the main fuel source for much of our body’s machinery. Mitochondria are so important that if enough of them are not working properly, nothing in your body will be including: organs, glands, muscles, our brain, etc… In fact, dysfunctional mitochondria are a hallmark of aging and many chronic diseases. 

There are two things mitochondria need to produce ATP, oxygen and glucose. Without either of these two compounds in sufficient amounts, the mitochondria will not produce optimal amounts of ATP to fuel our body’s processes. This can directly impact our tolerance to exercise, or our ability to lose weight, our athletic performance and our overall health. 

Physiology of a Red Blood Cell – The Basics 

One of the primary functions of a red blood cell is to transport oxygen around our body. As a red blood cell passes by our lungs, it grabs oxygen molecules and then drops them off wherever the body needs it. The red blood cell then goes back up to the lungs to repeat the cycle. 

If for some reason our red blood cells are not functioning properly, they will not be able to carry, or deliver, oxygen to our cells. And again, without oxygen mitochondria cannot function optimally. 

To use an analogy, picture a high performance sports car – a Ferrari for example. These cars require the highest quality gasoline available to achieve top performance. Anything less and they will still run, but their performance will suffer dramatically. 

The same is true of our body. If your blood is delivering sub-optimal amounts of oxygen, the cells of your body will still work, but not as well as if they had optimal amounts of oxygen. 

You can take all the fancy supplements, optimize your post-workout nutrition shake, and follow the latest exercise program, but if your cells are not getting oxygen, none of that really matters.