TL;DR

• Mitochondria aren’t just “powerhouses”—they’re social organelles and information processors that shape stress responses, aging, cognition, and emotions.
• Through fusion–fission dynamics, nanotunnels, and synchronized cristae, they act like a networked “motherboard”; their energetic coherence matters.
• MIPS (Mitochondrial Information Processing System) casts mitochondria as decision hubs that sense signals, tune their voltage, and influence gene expression.
• When this network falters, risk rises across chronic diseases—from metabolic disorders and cancer to neurodegeneration and mental health conditions.
• Emotions and mitochondria are bidirectional: acute stress releases cf-mtDNA and “energy-stress” hormones, while support, laughter, music, and hugs boost mitochondrial voltage and ATP.
• Quantum-scale effects (e.g., tunneling, microfields) may underlie this coherence: better alignment → more usable energy, fewer free radicals.
• Bottom line: energy is communication; mind and metabolism move together. Natural inputs—exercise, heat, sunlight, sleep, and social connection—nourish mitochondrial “sociability.”

(This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Lithium can interact with medications and is not appropriate for everyone. Do not start, stop, or change any treatment without talking to your healthcare professional.)

***

If this helped you, collect this post on Paragraph to support my work. Thank you!

***

If I mention the word “mitochondrion,” you’ll probably recall the stock definition that’s been drummed into us since the 1960s: “the powerhouse of the cell.” It’s true, but with the scientific advances of the last five years, it falls short—very short. These tiny structures are revolutionizing everything we thought we knew about our health, our mind, and even our emotions.

In May 2025 (article), neuroimmunologist Martín Picard, who holds a PhD in mitochondrial biology at Columbia University, said something revealing about them: “they’re actually the motherboard that connects energy, information, and health.” This conceptual leap is like moving from thinking about simple batteries to seeing them as sophisticated microprocessors.

In this article I’ll explain why mitochondria have gone from being mere “cellular batteries” to being understood as genuine social communities that constantly talk and cooperate with one another and with your body. You’ll discover how they coordinate your stress response, shape how you age, and influence how you think and feel. You’ll see how these structures act as “motherboards” that process information about your environment, take part in quantum processes we still don’t understand, and regulate the multisystem responses that determine your resilience and your risk of disease. I’ll also show how mitochondria connect and integrate systems as diverse as the neuroendocrine, immune, metabolic, cardiovascular, cognitive, and emotional.

But above all, you’ll learn how to put this knowledge to work to care for your health from the deepest level of your cells.

Let’s start at the beginning.

About 2 billion years ago, something happened that changed life on Earth forever. In a world populated only by very simple organisms, a primitive cell engulfed a small bacterium capable of using oxygen to produce energy. But instead of digesting it, the cell did something even smarter: it kept it inside. A decisive alliance was born: the larger cell gained extra energy, and the bacterium received protection and nutrients. That simple act of cooperation sparked the evolution of complex life (study).

In 1967 (study), evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis called this curious collaboration “endosymbiosis” (“endo” means within, and “symbiosis” is collaboration between species). Over time, that internal bacterium evolved into what we now know as the mitochondrion.

Mitochondria still retain clear traces of their past as independent organisms. For example, they have their own DNA, different from the DNA in our cells. Yes, you read that right: we carry within us organelles with their own DNA, which we inherit solely from our mother. This mitochondrial DNA even lets us trace our ancestors thousands of years back. It’s like carrying a constant genetic record of our evolution inside us.

This ancient union reveals something essential about our biology: cooperation is key to survival. We are the product of an ancestral collaboration, and mitochondria should remind us that, at least in biological terms, we are never truly alone.

Understanding that we are a genuine cellular consortium with bacterial roots helps explain two important things:

• When mitochondrial communication fails, problems like chronic fatigue, diabetes, dementias, or depression appear.

• Habits that strengthen “mitochondrial sociability”—such as exercise, heat exposure (heat therapy), sunlight, rest, and social connection—reactivate that ancestral alliance and keep us healthy.

To understand why mitochondria matter so much for our health and well-being, it helps to recall the basics: how these small “thinking batteries” turn oxygen into energy, and how that process lays the groundwork for their surprising social life.

Every time we breathe, we bring fuel into our cells. Inside them, mitochondria function like tiny factories that take the oxygen from the air and the nutrients from our food (fats, glucose, proteins) and convert them into energy. That energy is stored in a molecule called ATP and distributed to every cell in the body. This process, known as oxidative metabolism, uses oxygen to produce energy—hence the need to keep breathing.

ATP is often called the “energy currency” because our cells “pay” with ATP for the essential tasks that keep us alive. This includes moving our muscles, making the heart beat, keeping the brain running (which consumes a striking 20% of our total energy), building proteins, repairing damage, sending nerve signals, or synthesizing DNA, among many other activities (study). That’s why ATP is truly “the molecule of life,” produced mainly by our mitochondria.

To picture this process, think of a campfire. The oxygen we breathe is the air that fans the flames, and nutrients are the wood. Mitochondria precisely manage that fire so it doesn’t get out of control, producing exactly the energy we need. If we burned glucose directly, we’d get an instant explosion. Mitochondria do it gradually, in small steps, like candles lighting one after another. This lets us harness energy without “burning up,” even though some “smoke” is inevitably produced (free radicals or ROS), which works as a warning signal inside our cells (study).

Here’s the truly fascinating part: we now know mitochondria do far more than produce ATP. In doing so, they also send chemical and electrical signals that influence all our cells and, by extension, our overall health. Mitochondria aren’t just “energy factories”; they form genuine cellular communities that talk to one another. The quantity and quality of your mitochondria directly affect how you age, how you respond to stress, how you think and feel, and even how you manage your emotions.

In the sections that follow, we’ll dig deeper into these fascinating discoveries.

Hundreds or even thousands of mitochondria coexist in each cell, but they don’t operate like isolated batteries. They’re more like a hyperconnected neighborhood. Martín Picard and his team call them “social organelles” because they cluster, touch, help one another, and—when necessary—decide as a group whether the cell should live, divide, or sacrifice itself for the common good. This is a true paradigm shift: mitochondria cease to be mere “power plants” and become genuinely interconnected processors that regulate our health.

Mitochondria are in constant motion. They can fuse to repair damage, share resources, or strengthen each other, and they can also split to isolate damaged parts and keep them from contaminating the rest. This dynamic process unfolds in a matter of seconds.

In 2023, 3-D microscopy captured mitochondrial nanotunnels in human cells for the first time. These nanotunnels—tiny conduits barely 100 nanometers thick—function like an internal fiber-optic network connecting distant mitochondria. Essential substances move through them rapidly, such as calcium, fragments of DNA, or distress signals when something goes wrong (study).
Each mitochondrion generates a small electrical potential (about 150–200 millivolts [mV], like a tiny AA battery). The fascinating part comes when multiple mitochondria come together: their inner membranes (cristae) align like perfectly meshed gears (study), synchronizing their individual electrical fields.

What if biology weren’t just chemistry in a molecular soup? What if life were also organized by invisible fields, much like our most modern technologies?
Recent research suggests mitochondria may communicate with each other through electromagnetic fields. If confirmed, this would upend our view of life—not as a chaos of molecules colliding at random, but as a process guided by information patterns transmitted via waves, light, or fields, just as we do with Bluetooth or fiber optics. This approach aligns with emerging quantum biology and, most intriguingly, could explain phenomena that currently lack a clear answer, such as coordination among the inner membranes of different mitochondria. No purely molecular explanation achieves this—but an organizing field—such as an electromagnetic one—just might.

Martín Picard hypothesizes a mitochondrial “energetic coherence,” akin to a perfectly conducted orchestra. When all mitochondria act in sync, energy flows freely and the cell performs at peak efficiency. But when this synchronization breaks down, problems arise: the cell tires quickly (fatigue), becomes inflamed, and may even die.
This concept of energetic coherence opens a fascinating door: mitochondria may be involved in bioelectrical and biophysical phenomena far more complex—and important—than we imagined.

Every tissue in the body has specific types of mitochondria tailored to its particular needs. Recent studies (2025) reveal that brain areas involved in complex cognitive tasks have denser, more powerful mitochondrial networks, whereas emotional regions operate with more modest energy budgets. Even within a single neuron, for instance, we find long, stable mitochondria in the dendrites (receiving zones) and smaller, mobile ones in the axons (sending zones).

This highly effective system fails if mitochondrial fusion is blocked or their nanotunnels are interrupted. Once isolated, they lose the ability to communicate and cooperate. In mouse experiments, merely disrupting this communication is enough to trigger anxiety and neurodegenerative disease. In humans, mutations that impair mitochondrial fusion are linked to conditions such as diabetes, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or depression (study).

In short, mitochondria don’t just produce energy, nor are they static structures. They are a swarm in constant reconfiguration that actively manages the health of our cells, coordinates our response to the environment, and even influences our emotional and mental stability. Understanding them as “social organelles” opens the door to a new way of caring for our health from within.

Imagine that inside every cell there’s a “motherboard” like the one in a computer—one that receives information from the environment, processes it, and decides what to do with it: repair damage, activate defenses, or even change the cell’s behavior. That’s exactly what mitochondria do, according to the model proposed by Martín Picard, called MIPS (Mitochondrial Information Processing System).

This system turns mitochondria into true biological information-processing centers (study). But how does it work, exactly?

1. First, they listen: they receive signals from the outside, such as nutrients, hormones, toxins, stress, or inflammation.

2. Then, they translate those external signals into internal bioelectrical changes. It’s as if they turned an internal dial to tune their voltage to the situation.

3. Finally, they respond by sending chemical signals to the cell nucleus, which turn genes on or off according to what the cell needs at that moment.

This capacity makes mitochondria genuine cellular decision-making hubs. We can no longer see them as passive executors of DNA’s orders. Often, they’re the ones that decide which genes should be expressed and which should not (epigenetics). That’s why some researchers outright call them the cell’s “CEO,” the executive organ that governs much of the cell’s fate. Mitochondria not only provide energy; they determine how that energy is used and define the organism’s overall adaptive strategy (study).

When your mitochondria are working properly, you feel it: you have energy, mental clarity, good mood, and the ability to bounce back from effort and stress. But when they begin to fail, the effects are felt at every level. In fact, there’s growing scientific evidence that mitochondrial dysfunction is present in virtually all known chronic diseases.

This doesn’t mean mitochondria are always “the cause,” but they are an essential part of the problem. As Martín Picard notes, in many cases we still don’t know whether mitochondrial failures are the origin or the consequence of disease. But one thing is clear: if your mitochondria aren’t doing well, neither is your health.

Let’s look at a few examples:

• Aging: Mitochondrial dysfunction is one of the so-called hallmarks of aging, proposed by Carlos López-Otín and other researchers (study). As mitochondrial damage accumulates, your cells lose energy efficiency, fragment, stop communicating, become more easily inflamed, and lose the ability to repair or renew themselves. All of this accelerates your biological aging.

• Diabetes and metabolic diseases: When there’s a chronic excess of sugars and fats in your diet, your mitochondria are overloaded. This triggers a phenomenon called glucolipotoxicity, which fragments and deteriorates mitochondria, causing dysfunction and premature aging. Preventing this fragmentation can markedly improve cellular health and increase insulin sensitivity (study).

• Cancer: Some tumor cells even go so far as to hijack mitochondria from healthy cells to speed up their own growth (study).

• Neurodegenerative diseases: The brain consumes a striking 20% of your total energy, even though it accounts for only 2% of body weight. That’s why it’s especially vulnerable when mitochondria fail. Diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are closely linked to mitochondrial alterations (study).

• Mental health: Surprisingly, mitochondrial dysfunction is also linked to disorders such as depression, anxiety, or bipolar disorder. In people with these conditions, mitochondria produce less energy and release more inflammatory signals (study).

You can think of mitochondria as an energy-and-information network that sustains the balance of the entire body. When this system breaks down—because of poor diet, excessive stress, sedentary behavior, insufficient sunlight exposure, or inadequate sleep—what was once a harmonious machine starts to fall out of tune. Under those conditions, disease finds fertile ground.

The idea that our emotions affect our mitochondria—and vice versa—is not a metaphor. It’s the core of what Martín Picard calls mitochondrial psychobiology (article). There’s a constant dialogue: what we feel directly affects our cells, and the state of our mitochondria shapes how we think, feel, and act.

In situations of intense stress—like a breakup or a difficult exam—some mitochondria release fragments of their DNA into the bloodstream (study). These fragments, known as cf-mtDNA, act like a chemical flare, alerting the body, activating inflammation, and consuming energy. The more circulating cf-mtDNA, the greater the risk of fatigue and depressive symptoms (study).

Mitochondria also produce other “energetic stress hormones,” such as GDF15 or FGF21, which tell the body it’s under an energy overload: they call for reducing glucose use or mobilizing fats. Strikingly, as little as five minutes of intense social pressure can double these blood markers (study).

The quality of our relationships also leaves a mark on our mitochondria. A recent study analyzed human brains alongside data on social life and found that people with greater emotional support showed up to 25% more mitochondrial activity in brain areas linked to motivation. Loneliness, by contrast, generated “energetic noise” that fosters anxiety and cellular dysfunction (study).

Fortunately, it’s not all threats. Positive experiences like laughter, music, or a simple hug increase mitochondrial membrane potential—like pressing the accelerator in an electric car. In animals, enriched environments with positive stimulation produce more fused mitochondrial networks, greater ATP output, and better memory.

Your vital energy and emotional health are inseparable. Caring for your mitochondria with physical exercise, adequate rest, good nutrition, and positive human relationships can reduce this “inflation of stress,” keeping your mind clear and your mood resilient.

Throughout this article we’ve seen how the latest science confirms something we long suspected: body and mind are one, joined by a mitochondrial network that links bioenergy and information. We can distinguish them, but never separate them. And the story doesn’t end there.

Mitochondria don’t operate only at the chemical level; they also work on the subatomic (quantum) scale. Although it may sound strange, there is already solid scientific evidence supporting these processes. To simplify a complex idea, picture three scenes:

1. Bullet trains shooting through invisible tunnels
   Inside your mitochondria, electrons don’t move like tiny balls rolling through a tube. They move via a process called quantum tunneling: they literally jump barriers without passing through them, billions of times per second. A recent study captured this phenomenon directly in the protein cytochrome c, which ferries electrons to generate ATP inside the mitochondrion. This process allows your mitochondria to run with near-perfect efficiency, like engines that don’t overheat or waste fuel.

2. An orchestra tuned by tiny fields
   Mitochondrial membranes generate micro–electric fields that organize electron flow like the instruments of a perfectly synchronized orchestra. Very weak magnetic fields—even weaker than those of a hair dryer—can synchronize these rhythms, helping regulate cellular circadian clocks (study). This phenomenon facilitates communication with the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), possibly through quantum entanglement, turning the central nervous system into a kind of quantum hub. But if those fields become chaotic because of insomnia, electromagnetic pollution, or chronic stress, the orchestra loses its tempo and energy production turns inefficient.

3. Quantum sensors that gauge cellular stress
   Recently, using fluorescent nanodiamonds the size of a virus, researchers observed in real time how the production of free radicals changes on the surface of cardiac mitochondria as they move from hypoxia (lack of oxygen) to reoxygenation (study). An excess of free radicals coincides with a fragmented mitochondrial network and lower ATP output—like an orchestra whose music is distorted by external noise.

Because the greater this internal energetic coherence—meaning the more synchronized the electrons and the better aligned the mitochondrial membranes—the more usable energy our cells produce. As a result, they generate less “oxidative smoke” (free radicals) and fewer toxic by-products, improving our overall health and reducing inflammation.

Now that we have a better grasp of what’s happening inside our cells, it’s hard not to feel awe at our biology. Billions of mitochondria work silently within us, organized into living networks, tuned like an orchestra, making decisions that affect every cell, organ, and tissue. They also shape how we think, how we feel, and how we age.

Throughout this article, we’ve traveled from an ancient bacterial alliance—sealed more than 1.5 billion years ago—to the realization that mitochondria are far more than simple energy generators (ATP). They function like neighborhood communities that cooperate, make collective decisions, send distress signals, synchronize internal rhythms, and determine whether a cell lives, divides, or dies. They are, quite literally, the motherboard of our biology.

This new perspective doesn’t just transform science; it changes how we see ourselves. If emotions directly affect mitochondria—and mitochondria determine how we think and feel—then caring for our cellular energy is also caring for our mental, emotional, and physical health.

As we’ll see in the second part of the article, the best news is that this self-care doesn’t require expensive drugs or complex technology: it’s enough to give our mitochondria the natural stimuli they evolved with.

Keep at least these two essential ideas in mind:

1. Energy is communication:
   When mitochondria fuse, extend nanotunnels, and synchronize their voltage, the cell runs like a city with smooth traffic. But if communication breaks down, inflammation, fatigue, accelerated aging, and disease appear.

2. Mind and metabolism go together:
   Chronic stress, loneliness, or lack of sleep weakens the cellular battery. By contrast, laughter, short, intense exercise, dancing to music, or a simple hug recharge that vital energy.

We are made of cells, and those cells function, live, and derive their energy thanks to mitochondria.

To close, let’s reflect on these words from Martín Picard:
“The reason we have a heart and lungs is the supply of oxygen. And who needs oxygen? Mitochondria. We could argue that, over millions of years, mitochondria built an infrastructure—the human body—solely to feed themselves.”

***

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***

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TL;DR

• Mitochondria aren’t just “powerhouses”—they’re social organelles and information processors that shape stress responses, aging, cognition, and emotions.
• Through fusion–fission dynamics, nanotunnels, and synchronized cristae, they act like a networked “motherboard”; their energetic coherence matters.
• MIPS (Mitochondrial Information Processing System) casts mitochondria as decision hubs that sense signals, tune their voltage, and influence gene expression.
• When this network falters, risk rises across chronic diseases—from metabolic disorders and cancer to neurodegeneration and mental health conditions.
• Emotions and mitochondria are bidirectional: acute stress releases cf-mtDNA and “energy-stress” hormones, while support, laughter, music, and hugs boost mitochondrial voltage and ATP.
• Quantum-scale effects (e.g., tunneling, microfields) may underlie this coherence: better alignment → more usable energy, fewer free radicals.
• Bottom line: energy is communication; mind and metabolism move together. Natural inputs—exercise, heat, sunlight, sleep, and social connection—nourish mitochondrial “sociability.”

(This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Lithium can interact with medications and is not appropriate for everyone. Do not start, stop, or change any treatment without talking to your healthcare professional.)

***

If this helped you, collect this post on Paragraph to support my work. Thank you!

***

If I mention the word “mitochondrion,” you’ll probably recall the stock definition that’s been drummed into us since the 1960s: “the powerhouse of the cell.” It’s true, but with the scientific advances of the last five years, it falls short—very short. These tiny structures are revolutionizing everything we thought we knew about our health, our mind, and even our emotions.

In May 2025 (article), neuroimmunologist Martín Picard, who holds a PhD in mitochondrial biology at Columbia University, said something revealing about them: “they’re actually the motherboard that connects energy, information, and health.” This conceptual leap is like moving from thinking about simple batteries to seeing them as sophisticated microprocessors.

In this article I’ll explain why mitochondria have gone from being mere “cellular batteries” to being understood as genuine social communities that constantly talk and cooperate with one another and with your body. You’ll discover how they coordinate your stress response, shape how you age, and influence how you think and feel. You’ll see how these structures act as “motherboards” that process information about your environment, take part in quantum processes we still don’t understand, and regulate the multisystem responses that determine your resilience and your risk of disease. I’ll also show how mitochondria connect and integrate systems as diverse as the neuroendocrine, immune, metabolic, cardiovascular, cognitive, and emotional.

But above all, you’ll learn how to put this knowledge to work to care for your health from the deepest level of your cells.

Let’s start at the beginning.

About 2 billion years ago, something happened that changed life on Earth forever. In a world populated only by very simple organisms, a primitive cell engulfed a small bacterium capable of using oxygen to produce energy. But instead of digesting it, the cell did something even smarter: it kept it inside. A decisive alliance was born: the larger cell gained extra energy, and the bacterium received protection and nutrients. That simple act of cooperation sparked the evolution of complex life (study).

In 1967 (study), evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis called this curious collaboration “endosymbiosis” (“endo” means within, and “symbiosis” is collaboration between species). Over time, that internal bacterium evolved into what we now know as the mitochondrion.

Mitochondria still retain clear traces of their past as independent organisms. For example, they have their own DNA, different from the DNA in our cells. Yes, you read that right: we carry within us organelles with their own DNA, which we inherit solely from our mother. This mitochondrial DNA even lets us trace our ancestors thousands of years back. It’s like carrying a constant genetic record of our evolution inside us.

This ancient union reveals something essential about our biology: cooperation is key to survival. We are the product of an ancestral collaboration, and mitochondria should remind us that, at least in biological terms, we are never truly alone.

Understanding that we are a genuine cellular consortium with bacterial roots helps explain two important things:

• When mitochondrial communication fails, problems like chronic fatigue, diabetes, dementias, or depression appear.

• Habits that strengthen “mitochondrial sociability”—such as exercise, heat exposure (heat therapy), sunlight, rest, and social connection—reactivate that ancestral alliance and keep us healthy.

To understand why mitochondria matter so much for our health and well-being, it helps to recall the basics: how these small “thinking batteries” turn oxygen into energy, and how that process lays the groundwork for their surprising social life.

Every time we breathe, we bring fuel into our cells. Inside them, mitochondria function like tiny factories that take the oxygen from the air and the nutrients from our food (fats, glucose, proteins) and convert them into energy. That energy is stored in a molecule called ATP and distributed to every cell in the body. This process, known as oxidative metabolism, uses oxygen to produce energy—hence the need to keep breathing.

ATP is often called the “energy currency” because our cells “pay” with ATP for the essential tasks that keep us alive. This includes moving our muscles, making the heart beat, keeping the brain running (which consumes a striking 20% of our total energy), building proteins, repairing damage, sending nerve signals, or synthesizing DNA, among many other activities (study). That’s why ATP is truly “the molecule of life,” produced mainly by our mitochondria.

To picture this process, think of a campfire. The oxygen we breathe is the air that fans the flames, and nutrients are the wood. Mitochondria precisely manage that fire so it doesn’t get out of control, producing exactly the energy we need. If we burned glucose directly, we’d get an instant explosion. Mitochondria do it gradually, in small steps, like candles lighting one after another. This lets us harness energy without “burning up,” even though some “smoke” is inevitably produced (free radicals or ROS), which works as a warning signal inside our cells (study).

Here’s the truly fascinating part: we now know mitochondria do far more than produce ATP. In doing so, they also send chemical and electrical signals that influence all our cells and, by extension, our overall health. Mitochondria aren’t just “energy factories”; they form genuine cellular communities that talk to one another. The quantity and quality of your mitochondria directly affect how you age, how you respond to stress, how you think and feel, and even how you manage your emotions.

In the sections that follow, we’ll dig deeper into these fascinating discoveries.

Hundreds or even thousands of mitochondria coexist in each cell, but they don’t operate like isolated batteries. They’re more like a hyperconnected neighborhood. Martín Picard and his team call them “social organelles” because they cluster, touch, help one another, and—when necessary—decide as a group whether the cell should live, divide, or sacrifice itself for the common good. This is a true paradigm shift: mitochondria cease to be mere “power plants” and become genuinely interconnected processors that regulate our health.

Mitochondria are in constant motion. They can fuse to repair damage, share resources, or strengthen each other, and they can also split to isolate damaged parts and keep them from contaminating the rest. This dynamic process unfolds in a matter of seconds.

In 2023, 3-D microscopy captured mitochondrial nanotunnels in human cells for the first time. These nanotunnels—tiny conduits barely 100 nanometers thick—function like an internal fiber-optic network connecting distant mitochondria. Essential substances move through them rapidly, such as calcium, fragments of DNA, or distress signals when something goes wrong (study).
Each mitochondrion generates a small electrical potential (about 150–200 millivolts [mV], like a tiny AA battery). The fascinating part comes when multiple mitochondria come together: their inner membranes (cristae) align like perfectly meshed gears (study), synchronizing their individual electrical fields.

What if biology weren’t just chemistry in a molecular soup? What if life were also organized by invisible fields, much like our most modern technologies?
Recent research suggests mitochondria may communicate with each other through electromagnetic fields. If confirmed, this would upend our view of life—not as a chaos of molecules colliding at random, but as a process guided by information patterns transmitted via waves, light, or fields, just as we do with Bluetooth or fiber optics. This approach aligns with emerging quantum biology and, most intriguingly, could explain phenomena that currently lack a clear answer, such as coordination among the inner membranes of different mitochondria. No purely molecular explanation achieves this—but an organizing field—such as an electromagnetic one—just might.

Martín Picard hypothesizes a mitochondrial “energetic coherence,” akin to a perfectly conducted orchestra. When all mitochondria act in sync, energy flows freely and the cell performs at peak efficiency. But when this synchronization breaks down, problems arise: the cell tires quickly (fatigue), becomes inflamed, and may even die.
This concept of energetic coherence opens a fascinating door: mitochondria may be involved in bioelectrical and biophysical phenomena far more complex—and important—than we imagined.

Every tissue in the body has specific types of mitochondria tailored to its particular needs. Recent studies (2025) reveal that brain areas involved in complex cognitive tasks have denser, more powerful mitochondrial networks, whereas emotional regions operate with more modest energy budgets. Even within a single neuron, for instance, we find long, stable mitochondria in the dendrites (receiving zones) and smaller, mobile ones in the axons (sending zones).

This highly effective system fails if mitochondrial fusion is blocked or their nanotunnels are interrupted. Once isolated, they lose the ability to communicate and cooperate. In mouse experiments, merely disrupting this communication is enough to trigger anxiety and neurodegenerative disease. In humans, mutations that impair mitochondrial fusion are linked to conditions such as diabetes, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or depression (study).

In short, mitochondria don’t just produce energy, nor are they static structures. They are a swarm in constant reconfiguration that actively manages the health of our cells, coordinates our response to the environment, and even influences our emotional and mental stability. Understanding them as “social organelles” opens the door to a new way of caring for our health from within.

Imagine that inside every cell there’s a “motherboard” like the one in a computer—one that receives information from the environment, processes it, and decides what to do with it: repair damage, activate defenses, or even change the cell’s behavior. That’s exactly what mitochondria do, according to the model proposed by Martín Picard, called MIPS (Mitochondrial Information Processing System).

This system turns mitochondria into true biological information-processing centers (study). But how does it work, exactly?

1. First, they listen: they receive signals from the outside, such as nutrients, hormones, toxins, stress, or inflammation.

2. Then, they translate those external signals into internal bioelectrical changes. It’s as if they turned an internal dial to tune their voltage to the situation.

3. Finally, they respond by sending chemical signals to the cell nucleus, which turn genes on or off according to what the cell needs at that moment.

This capacity makes mitochondria genuine cellular decision-making hubs. We can no longer see them as passive executors of DNA’s orders. Often, they’re the ones that decide which genes should be expressed and which should not (epigenetics). That’s why some researchers outright call them the cell’s “CEO,” the executive organ that governs much of the cell’s fate. Mitochondria not only provide energy; they determine how that energy is used and define the organism’s overall adaptive strategy (study).

When your mitochondria are working properly, you feel it: you have energy, mental clarity, good mood, and the ability to bounce back from effort and stress. But when they begin to fail, the effects are felt at every level. In fact, there’s growing scientific evidence that mitochondrial dysfunction is present in virtually all known chronic diseases.

This doesn’t mean mitochondria are always “the cause,” but they are an essential part of the problem. As Martín Picard notes, in many cases we still don’t know whether mitochondrial failures are the origin or the consequence of disease. But one thing is clear: if your mitochondria aren’t doing well, neither is your health.

Let’s look at a few examples:

• Aging: Mitochondrial dysfunction is one of the so-called hallmarks of aging, proposed by Carlos López-Otín and other researchers (study). As mitochondrial damage accumulates, your cells lose energy efficiency, fragment, stop communicating, become more easily inflamed, and lose the ability to repair or renew themselves. All of this accelerates your biological aging.

• Diabetes and metabolic diseases: When there’s a chronic excess of sugars and fats in your diet, your mitochondria are overloaded. This triggers a phenomenon called glucolipotoxicity, which fragments and deteriorates mitochondria, causing dysfunction and premature aging. Preventing this fragmentation can markedly improve cellular health and increase insulin sensitivity (study).

• Cancer: Some tumor cells even go so far as to hijack mitochondria from healthy cells to speed up their own growth (study).

• Neurodegenerative diseases: The brain consumes a striking 20% of your total energy, even though it accounts for only 2% of body weight. That’s why it’s especially vulnerable when mitochondria fail. Diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are closely linked to mitochondrial alterations (study).

• Mental health: Surprisingly, mitochondrial dysfunction is also linked to disorders such as depression, anxiety, or bipolar disorder. In people with these conditions, mitochondria produce less energy and release more inflammatory signals (study).

You can think of mitochondria as an energy-and-information network that sustains the balance of the entire body. When this system breaks down—because of poor diet, excessive stress, sedentary behavior, insufficient sunlight exposure, or inadequate sleep—what was once a harmonious machine starts to fall out of tune. Under those conditions, disease finds fertile ground.

The idea that our emotions affect our mitochondria—and vice versa—is not a metaphor. It’s the core of what Martín Picard calls mitochondrial psychobiology (article). There’s a constant dialogue: what we feel directly affects our cells, and the state of our mitochondria shapes how we think, feel, and act.

In situations of intense stress—like a breakup or a difficult exam—some mitochondria release fragments of their DNA into the bloodstream (study). These fragments, known as cf-mtDNA, act like a chemical flare, alerting the body, activating inflammation, and consuming energy. The more circulating cf-mtDNA, the greater the risk of fatigue and depressive symptoms (study).

Mitochondria also produce other “energetic stress hormones,” such as GDF15 or FGF21, which tell the body it’s under an energy overload: they call for reducing glucose use or mobilizing fats. Strikingly, as little as five minutes of intense social pressure can double these blood markers (study).

The quality of our relationships also leaves a mark on our mitochondria. A recent study analyzed human brains alongside data on social life and found that people with greater emotional support showed up to 25% more mitochondrial activity in brain areas linked to motivation. Loneliness, by contrast, generated “energetic noise” that fosters anxiety and cellular dysfunction (study).

Fortunately, it’s not all threats. Positive experiences like laughter, music, or a simple hug increase mitochondrial membrane potential—like pressing the accelerator in an electric car. In animals, enriched environments with positive stimulation produce more fused mitochondrial networks, greater ATP output, and better memory.

Your vital energy and emotional health are inseparable. Caring for your mitochondria with physical exercise, adequate rest, good nutrition, and positive human relationships can reduce this “inflation of stress,” keeping your mind clear and your mood resilient.

Throughout this article we’ve seen how the latest science confirms something we long suspected: body and mind are one, joined by a mitochondrial network that links bioenergy and information. We can distinguish them, but never separate them. And the story doesn’t end there.

Mitochondria don’t operate only at the chemical level; they also work on the subatomic (quantum) scale. Although it may sound strange, there is already solid scientific evidence supporting these processes. To simplify a complex idea, picture three scenes:

1. Bullet trains shooting through invisible tunnels
   Inside your mitochondria, electrons don’t move like tiny balls rolling through a tube. They move via a process called quantum tunneling: they literally jump barriers without passing through them, billions of times per second. A recent study captured this phenomenon directly in the protein cytochrome c, which ferries electrons to generate ATP inside the mitochondrion. This process allows your mitochondria to run with near-perfect efficiency, like engines that don’t overheat or waste fuel.

2. An orchestra tuned by tiny fields
   Mitochondrial membranes generate micro–electric fields that organize electron flow like the instruments of a perfectly synchronized orchestra. Very weak magnetic fields—even weaker than those of a hair dryer—can synchronize these rhythms, helping regulate cellular circadian clocks (study). This phenomenon facilitates communication with the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), possibly through quantum entanglement, turning the central nervous system into a kind of quantum hub. But if those fields become chaotic because of insomnia, electromagnetic pollution, or chronic stress, the orchestra loses its tempo and energy production turns inefficient.

3. Quantum sensors that gauge cellular stress
   Recently, using fluorescent nanodiamonds the size of a virus, researchers observed in real time how the production of free radicals changes on the surface of cardiac mitochondria as they move from hypoxia (lack of oxygen) to reoxygenation (study). An excess of free radicals coincides with a fragmented mitochondrial network and lower ATP output—like an orchestra whose music is distorted by external noise.

Because the greater this internal energetic coherence—meaning the more synchronized the electrons and the better aligned the mitochondrial membranes—the more usable energy our cells produce. As a result, they generate less “oxidative smoke” (free radicals) and fewer toxic by-products, improving our overall health and reducing inflammation.

Now that we have a better grasp of what’s happening inside our cells, it’s hard not to feel awe at our biology. Billions of mitochondria work silently within us, organized into living networks, tuned like an orchestra, making decisions that affect every cell, organ, and tissue. They also shape how we think, how we feel, and how we age.

Throughout this article, we’ve traveled from an ancient bacterial alliance—sealed more than 1.5 billion years ago—to the realization that mitochondria are far more than simple energy generators (ATP). They function like neighborhood communities that cooperate, make collective decisions, send distress signals, synchronize internal rhythms, and determine whether a cell lives, divides, or dies. They are, quite literally, the motherboard of our biology.

This new perspective doesn’t just transform science; it changes how we see ourselves. If emotions directly affect mitochondria—and mitochondria determine how we think and feel—then caring for our cellular energy is also caring for our mental, emotional, and physical health.

As we’ll see in the second part of the article, the best news is that this self-care doesn’t require expensive drugs or complex technology: it’s enough to give our mitochondria the natural stimuli they evolved with.

Keep at least these two essential ideas in mind:

1. Energy is communication:
   When mitochondria fuse, extend nanotunnels, and synchronize their voltage, the cell runs like a city with smooth traffic. But if communication breaks down, inflammation, fatigue, accelerated aging, and disease appear.

2. Mind and metabolism go together:
   Chronic stress, loneliness, or lack of sleep weakens the cellular battery. By contrast, laughter, short, intense exercise, dancing to music, or a simple hug recharge that vital energy.

We are made of cells, and those cells function, live, and derive their energy thanks to mitochondria.

To close, let’s reflect on these words from Martín Picard:
“The reason we have a heart and lungs is the supply of oxygen. And who needs oxygen? Mitochondria. We could argue that, over millions of years, mitochondria built an infrastructure—the human body—solely to feed themselves.”

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