“Longevity science” is on the come up — and “mitochondria” appears to be its newest mascot.
The cell’s energy-producing center is the talk of TikTok, wellness clinics and newsletters focused on longevity. Influencers peddle NAD⁺ supplements, which are marketed as a mitochondria-focused must‑take daily elixir to boost metabolism and slow aging.
Anti‑aging experts tout mitochondrial revitalization retreats as a way to “restore youth at the cellular level.” There are also cold plunges, high-intensity workouts and even specialized IV drips. Seemingly everywhere in health and wellness circles, mitochondria is hailed as the secret to keeping the ailments of Father Time at bay.
It’s not just TikTok influencers and longevity gurus who are pushing mitochondria into common parlance. Speaking during a public event last summer in Texas, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed he could identify children “overburdened with mitochondrial challenges” and “inflammation” at a glance.
“You can tell it from their faces, from their body movement and from their lack of social connection,” Kennedy said; but there is no clinical evidence that mitochondrial health can be reliably assessed from outward appearance alone.
While mitochondria have become the latest poster child for the longevity movement, the hard science behind these claims hasn’t quite caught up with the hype, said Konstantin Khrapko, a professor of pharmaceutical sciences at Northeastern, who studies mitochondrial mutations, the biology of aging and related subjects.
As many might remember from high school biology, mitochondria are the cell’s “powerhouses.” These tiny structures, part of a group of cellular machinery known as organelles, sit inside nearly every human cell and convert the food we eat and the oxygen we breathe into adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, the chemical energy that powers almost everything your body does.
Beyond energy production, mitochondria play a role in metabolism, cell death and inflammation, which is partially why they’ve become so central to conversations about aging and disease, Khrapko said.
One of the things the influencers and gurus are emphasizing is the idea that you can increase the number and efficiency of your mitochondria, a process called mitochondrial biogenesis. Wellness and fitness circles, even some popular magazines, promote “vigorous,” or high-intensity, exercise as a way to stimulate mitochondrial biogenesis and reduce or delay the breakdown of cellular processes as we age.
Khrapko acknowledges that exercise and muscle building stimulate mitochondrial biogenesis. But he cautions against what he called “leaps of faith,” that boosting mitochondria through exercise will extend lifespan. While mitochondrial dysfunction and aging tend to occur together, he said, that overlap does not prove that increasing mitochondrial production can slow aging — only that the processes are intertwined in ways scientists are still working to untangle.
“The simplest thing is muscle building, that’s the most effective way of mitochondrial biogenesis,” Khrapko said.
Claims about mitochondria-focused workouts and other so-called longevity interventions don’t capture the full complexity of human biology, Khrapko said. Genetics plays a central role in how individuals respond to exercise, metabolic stress and disease risk — a fact that often goes unstated in longevity research, he said.
What’s more, too much exercise can be just as harmful as not enough exercise, he said — a claim backed up by research. “Is it good for you? Taken to the extreme, I don’t think anybody will tell you that bodybuilders represent the healthiest lifestyle.”
But that doesn’t mean that people should stop working out and become couch potatoes. Physical activity remains one of the most powerful ways to improve healthspan and resilience, even if it can’t by itself overcome the predominance of genetics, Khrapko said.
So far, studies have shown that exercise’s effects on mitochondria are linked to better metabolic health and improved muscle performance. One 2015 study found that both endurance training and high-intensity interval training can increase mitochondrial content in skeletal muscle and enhance oxidative capacity, even in older adults.
“One of the things to say about aging is that it’s probably a heterogeneous phenomenon, meaning different people age differently,” Khrapko said. “Some people die from cancer, some people never get cancer but die from Alzheimer’s. Some people who are otherwise healthy die young of cardiovascular disease. How much control we have over those processes remains an area of intense research.”
But until scientists can better understand the way the human genome interacts with the environment, Khrapko said the true picture of healthy living remains out of reach.
In the meantime, his practical advice is less glamorous: avoid being sedentary, eat in moderation and know your family history as it pertains to certain diseases, such as cancer and cardiovascular disease.
Tanner Stening is an assistant news editor at Northeastern Global News. Email him at t.stening@northeastern.edu. Follow him on X/Twitter @tstening90.
