Does Red Light Therapy stimulate Mitochondria? Not always...

Summary

This video explores the complex effects of red and near-red light therapy on mitochondrial function. It dives into scientific studies that show varying impacts on cellular energy production and mitochondrial activity, including potential benefits and detriments depending on light intensity and duration. The video explains how these therapies interact with mitochondrial complexes, influencing ATP generation and overall cellular function. It emphasizes the need for deeper understanding beyond the oversimplified explanations often found on social media, providing a detailed look at the mechanisms involved and highlighting ongoing research and debates in the field.

Takeaways

• 🔬 Red light and near-red light therapy can both improve and worsen mitochondrial function.
• 🧪 The speaker analyzed five studies to determine if red light therapy affects mitochondria.
• 🧠 The mitochondrion has two membranes, and the inner membrane is involved in energy production through the electron transport chain.
• ⚡ The electron transport chain is composed of complexes 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, which generate ATP, the cell's energy currency.
• 🐭 One study showed that red light therapy's effects on mitochondrial complexes varied, with inconsistent results across different durations and intensities.
• 💡 Another study found changes in mitochondrial protein concentrations and morphology in human samples after red light therapy.
• 🧬 Research on cow liver mitochondria indicated that near-red light therapy could reduce ATP production at low power but increase it at moderate power.
• 🐁 Studies in mice with cognitive deficits demonstrated that near-red light therapy improved memory and thinking abilities, as well as ATP levels.
• 🧩 The mechanisms of how red light therapy works involve energizing the electron transport chain complexes, increasing their activity, and affecting oxygen interactions.
• 🔍 Red light therapy also influences mitochondrial retrograde signaling, which affects gene expression and other cellular functions.

Q & A

What are the potential benefits and drawbacks of red light and near red light therapy on mitochondrial function?

Red light and near red light therapy can both improve and worsen mitochondrial function. The therapy can increase cellular energy and ATP production but can also have varying effects depending on intensity and exposure duration.

How do mitochondria produce cellular energy?

Mitochondria produce cellular energy by allowing positively charged protons to spin complex 5, also known as ATP synthase, which generates ATP molecules. This process involves maintaining a membrane potential through the electron transport chain.

What is the electron transport chain and what role does it play in mitochondria?

The electron transport chain is a series of protein complexes (complexes 1 to 5) in the inner mitochondrial membrane that exchange electrons to generate ATP, the main energy currency of the cell.

What were the findings of the study on photobiomodulation applied to muscle and brain cells of rats?

The study found that the effects of photobiomodulation on mitochondrial complexes were inconsistent, with some complexes showing no effect or varied effects depending on light intensity and exposure duration.

What does the study involving near red light therapy on cow liver mitochondria reveal?

The study showed that low power near red light therapy reduced ATP generation, moderate power normalized it, and higher power increased ATP production, but excessively high power decreased ATP synthesis again.

How did near red light therapy affect mice with cognitive deficits?

Near red light therapy improved the memory and thinking ability of mice with cognitive deficits, as evidenced by their improved performance in finding a specific hole in a test.

What are some proposed mechanisms by which red light therapy affects mitochondrial function?

Red light therapy is believed to increase the activity of the electron transport chain complexes, particularly complex 4, by energizing them and interacting with oxygen, thereby maintaining membrane potential and enhancing ATP production.

What is the significance of nitric oxide in the context of red light therapy?

Nitric oxide can block the interaction of oxygen with complex 4. Red light therapy can dislodge nitric oxide molecules, allowing oxygen to interact with complex 4 and thereby enhancing ATP generation and membrane potential maintenance.

How does mitochondrial retrograde signaling work?

Mitochondrial retrograde signaling involves changes in ATP concentration, calcium levels, and reactive oxygen species that affect other signaling molecules, which can enter the nucleus and alter gene expression.

Why is the explanation 'light do good mitochondria' considered insufficient?

The explanation 'light do good mitochondria' is considered insufficient because it oversimplifies the complex mechanisms involved in how red light therapy affects mitochondrial function, lacking detailed scientific context and understanding.

Outlines

00:00

🔬 Red Light Therapy's Paradoxical Effects on Mitochondria

The video opens by introducing the intriguing paradox of red light and near red light therapy, which can both improve and worsen mitochondrial function. The narrator reviews five studies to explore these effects, calling on their father, a PhD in physics with expertise in lasers, for additional insight. The narrator criticizes superficial explanations on social media and stresses the need for a deeper understanding of mitochondrial function. Mitochondria, described as the cell's powerhouse, have an inner and outer membrane with the electron transport chain of five complexes playing a crucial role in ATP production. The first study highlighted examines the effect of photobiomodulation on muscle and brain cells in rats, showing varied impacts on mitochondrial complexes. Further evidence from human samples undergoing surgery also suggests changes in mitochondrial proteins, though the exact implications remain unclear.

05:02

🧠 In Vivo Evidence and Cognitive Improvements in Mice

The second paragraph shifts focus to in vivo studies, specifically on mice with neurocognitive disorders, to verify the effects of near infrared therapy. The research reveals that infrared therapy improves cognitive function and memory in these mice. Data from the experiments show significant improvements in the mice's ability to find a target hole in a maze, with corresponding increases in ATP levels. This supports the hypothesis that photobiomodulation positively impacts mitochondrial function and overall cognitive performance in living tissue.

10:02

🔍 Mechanisms of Red Light's Impact on Mitochondria

The third paragraph delves into the proposed mechanisms by which red light and near red light interact with mitochondrial function. The narrator explains how red light energizes the electron transport chain, increasing proton pumping and ATP generation. Complex 4, acting as a photoreceptor, plays a crucial role, with red light dislodging nitric oxide to allow more oxygen interaction, thus enhancing membrane potential and ATP synthesis. Additionally, mitochondrial retrograde signaling, influenced by changes in ATP and other molecules, affects gene expression. The narrator critiques simplistic social media explanations and offers a more nuanced understanding of these processes, inviting viewers to explore further in another video.

Keywords

💡Red Light Therapy

Red Light Therapy refers to the use of specific wavelengths of red light to treat various medical conditions and improve cellular function. In the video, it is discussed how red light therapy can both improve and worsen mitochondrial function, depending on the intensity and duration of exposure.

💡Mitochondria

Mitochondria are the organelles within cells responsible for producing energy through the generation of ATP. The video explains their structure, particularly focusing on the electron transport chain and how red light therapy affects mitochondrial function and ATP production.

💡Electron Transport Chain

The Electron Transport Chain (ETC) is a series of protein complexes located in the inner mitochondrial membrane that transfer electrons and pump protons to generate a proton gradient for ATP synthesis. The video describes how red light therapy influences the activity of these complexes, particularly complexes I, II, III, and IV.

💡ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate)

ATP is the primary energy carrier in cells. The video discusses how ATP production is affected by red light therapy, showing both increases and decreases in ATP levels under different conditions of light exposure.

💡Photobiomodulation

Photobiomodulation is the scientific term for light therapy, encompassing treatments that use light to stimulate cellular processes. The video frequently uses this term to describe the mechanism through which red light impacts cellular and mitochondrial function.

💡Complex IV (Cytochrome c oxidase)

Complex IV, also known as cytochrome c oxidase, is a crucial component of the electron transport chain that facilitates the final electron transfer to oxygen. The video details how red light interacts with Complex IV, enhancing its activity and influencing overall mitochondrial function.

💡Nitric Oxide

Nitric Oxide (NO) is a molecule that can inhibit Complex IV by binding to it. The video explains how red light can dislodge NO from Complex IV, allowing the complex to function more efficiently and support ATP production.

💡Mitochondrial Membrane Potential

Mitochondrial Membrane Potential refers to the voltage difference across the inner mitochondrial membrane, essential for ATP production. The video discusses how red light therapy can affect this potential by influencing proton gradients and electron transport chain activity.

💡In Vivo

In Vivo refers to studies conducted in living organisms. The video highlights the importance of verifying red light therapy effects in vivo, as demonstrated by experiments on mice with cognitive deficits, showing improved memory and ATP levels after therapy.

💡Retrograde Signaling

Retrograde Signaling in the context of mitochondria involves communication from the mitochondria to the nucleus, affecting gene expression. The video briefly touches on this concept, suggesting that changes in mitochondrial function due to red light therapy could influence cellular behavior at the genetic level.

Highlights

Red and near-red light therapy can both improve and worsen mitochondrial function, depending on conditions.

The analysis is based on five studies investigating the effects of red light therapy on mitochondria.

The speaker's father, a physicist with a PhD and expertise in lasers, contributes to the investigation.

Mitochondria are the 'powerhouses' of the cell, producing ATP through an electron transport chain.

Photobiomodulation, a term for light therapy, was applied to rat muscle and brain cells to measure mitochondrial complex activity.

The effects of light therapy on mitochondrial complexes are inconsistent, with some showing no effect and others showing a loss of effect over time.

Studies also show changes in mitochondrial morphology proteins after red light therapy in humans.

One study indicates that near-red light therapy might be detrimental to mitochondrial function at low power levels.

In vivo studies on mice show that near-infrared therapy can improve cognitive function and ATP levels in cognitively impaired mice.

Red light therapy is suggested to interact with the electron transport chain, potentially increasing ATP generation.

Complex 4 in mitochondria may act as a photoreceptor, influenced by red light therapy.

Red light can dislodge nitric oxide molecules from complex 4, allowing for better oxygen interaction and ATP production.

Red light therapy may affect mitochondrial retrograde signaling, influencing gene expression in the cell nucleus.

The speaker expresses dissatisfaction with oversimplified explanations of red light therapy's effects on mitochondria found on social media.

A detailed discussion on the mechanisms of how red light therapy could influence mitochondrial function is provided.

The transcript offers a critical analysis of existing studies, highlighting the need for a deeper understanding of red light therapy's effects.

The speaker invites viewers to explore more about red light therapy in a dedicated video.

Transcripts

you know what's fascinating red light

and near red light therapy both improves

and worsens mitocondrial function but

you didn't expect that answer out of the

gate I'll explain why in a bit because I

analyzed five studies looking into if a

red light therapy actually affects

mitochondria or not I also called my dad

up for this investigation because this

topic required a bit of uh physics

understanding and he and his PhD and

physics and his dissertation was in

lasers I mean I've been extremely

dissatisfied by the explanations that

people have offered on social media as

to exactly how red light therapy affects

mitochondri all I ever hear is uh it

improves mitochondrial function or it

increases cellular energy but how

exactly anyway we'll we'll get into it

for us to understand anything on what

I'm about to show you it's important for

you to understand how mitochondria

function at at least a little here's a

mitochondria and we can see that it has

two membranes that separate the inside

of the mitochondrian from the inside of

the cell called the cytool the innermost

membrane the inner membrane is inundated

with different functional proteins and

one group of proteins is called the

electron transport chain made up of

depending on who you ask five complex

proteins they have sciency names given

to them at Birth by their mitochondria

parents like nadh ubiquinone oxido

reductase but let's go with their

simpler names complex one 2 3 four and

five continuing the simple theme these

first four complexes exchange something

called electrons in such a way that

allows complex five to generate cellular

energy known as ATP and yes this is why

my mondria are considered the PowerHouse

of the cell anyway that's a bit of

background which is important because

we're going to have to fill in some

details later and complexify it up in

one study researchers took a

photobiomodulation the fancy term for

light therapy to muscle cells and brain

cells of rats and measured the activity

of some of these mitochondrial complexes

now you can see why I introduced you to

them they didn't like you very much but

let's move on to the data

here we're looking at muscle cells

exposed to the light after 5 minutes and

after 60 Minutes on the left we have

complex one of the mitochondrian in the

middle is complex 2 and the right is

complex 4 the controls are cells not

exposed to the

photobiomodulation and the 10 30 and 60

are different intensities of light in

Jewels what you'll notice is that the

effects are a little all over the place

with no effect on complex 2 after 5

minutes and a loss of an effect in

complex one after 60 minutes and that

was there after 5 minutes I mean it's

pretty fascinating how all over the

place this all is these results were

mostly repeated in brain cells as well

now this might be a simple experiment

because we're applying the light

directly to the cells but what it also

removes is many confounding factors we

also don't need to rely on just that

study because there are others like this

one that took samples from people

undergoing surgery after red light

therapy and interestingly the

researchers also showed a number of

mitochondrial markers that were

different although they were more

focused on morphology proteins meaning

proteins that influence the size and

shape of

mitochondria I don't find this evidence

provided all that convincing of anything

except that these mitochondrial proteins

were changed in concentration from

exposure to red light therapy regardless

where we're building evidence that red

light therapy does affect mitochondria

this particular study was fascinating

because this is the one that showed near

red light therapy might be detrimental

to mitochondrial function as one example

here the researchers have isolated cow

liver mitochondrian and eradiated them

and then measured the amount of ATP

generated by complex 5 it's the fancy

name is ATP synthes as you'll see

relative to the control zero there the

therapy dramatically reduced

mitochondrial ATP generation when

applied at low power yet normalized at

moderate power and then increased at

higher power if you want a more granular

look across the Power Ranges here you go

again low power reduced ATP generation

higher power increase the production but

then even higher drops ATP synthesis

back down isn't that interesting I mean

it's just so conditional you know all

right I'll mention what that all means

in a bit but I also wanted to see if

this could be confirmed uh in Vivo

meaning in a living creature I actually

didn't watch humans for this but rather

a naive subject like mice the previous

research that we've gone over is in

tissue samples cells and isolated

mitochondria all very informative but

it's nice to check in living tissue as

well as potentially look at some

functional

outcomes the model used by the

researchers of this study doesn't matter

all too much but if you're curious they

used a neurocognitive disorder model of

mice so mice with cognitive deficits and

applied near infrared therapy to the

mice and measured functional outcomes

here we're looking at a measure of

memory and thinking ability the mice

were trained on a where a specific hole

was and then when tasked with finding

the hole again over multiple attempts

over days the time it took to find the

hole acted as the measure so the higher

the line the worse the result the black

line is the mice without cognitive

deficit the L tan line is the healthy

mice given the infrared therapy the blue

line is those mice with the cognitive

deficits and the Orange is the mice with

the cognitive deficits given near

infrared therapy first it's obious the

mice with cognitive deficiency struggled

no matter how many times they were

exposed however the Striking result was

the effect near infrared therapy had I

mean look at that Improvement as a

matter of fact here's the top down view

the Green Dot is where they started and

the Red Dot is the target hole I don't

even need to identify the conditions

because you can clearly see that the

cognitively impaired mice moved around a

lot trying to find it yet cherum ATP

levels were also recovered with infrared

therapy as seen in red compared to the

blue so across multiple studies these

photobiomodulation therapies seem to

improve mitochondrial function except

there's still a great mystery by the way

there's another study that I have a big

issue with but it does offer some really

interesting results on blood sugar

regulation in humans from a

photobiomodulation therapy I'll be

covering that one for the physic

insiders if you aren't already a member

then join using the link in the

description but back to the mystery this

mystery comes down to how does this work

it bugs me to just leave it so

open-ended and just say that it improves

mitochondrial function great how as I

mentioned I spoke to my dad who also has

his PhD but in physics and has done

extensive work with

lasers I described some of the proposed

mechanisms like those outlined in this

review and we discussed on a few

possibilities that make sense I hope

that you have your seat belt on in the

Magic School Bus because we're about to

discuss some heavy details on how

mitochondria function you already know

that mitochondria have that inner and

outer membrane and that the inner

membrane contains these protein

complexes that make up the electron

transport chain you should also know

that there's a gradient between the

exterior of the mitochondrian and the

interior of the mitochondria the

interior is much more negative in charge

so when your mitochondria produce

cellular energy producing those ATP

molecules the way that they do that is

by allowing positively charged protons

to spin complex 5 also known as the ATP

synthes in doing so those protons flow

in into the insection of the

mitochondrian and since they're

positively charged they reduce the

membrane potential in other words the

more positive exterior of the

mitochondrian and the interior become

more similar so they're both positive

this is problematic because if the two

sides are the same there's no drive for

the protons to continue to flow across

complex 5 and therefore you stop

producing at TP for cellular energy

think of it like a water mill that has

no more water turning the wheel no more

mitochondria Powerhouse of the cell

fortunately the other complexes of the

electron transport chain pump protons

back out of the internal section back

out thereby maintaining the membrane

potential more negative inside it's like

a futile cycle of pumping protons out

then allowing them back in through the

complex 5 but the end result is that you

keep producing ATP okay where does red

light and near red light come in there

are many mechanisms that have been

outlined some speculative however it

seems that red light interacts with the

complexes of the electron transport

chain and can energize them increasing

their activity so more proton pumping

more ATP generation and so on in

addition red light can interact with

complex 4 which is believed to act as a

photo receptor and can accept more

electrons that then allows more protons

to be pumped out of the mitochondrian

thereby increasing the membrane

potential remember greater negativity

inside also there is an interaction with

oxygen at complex 4 and interestingly

other molecules can block that

interaction of oxygen with complex four

like nitric oxide this nitric oxide is

bound to the Heen groups that make up

part of complex 4 and red light can

dislodge these nitric oxide molecules

allowing oxygen to interact a new this

further AIDS in the maintenance of the

membrane potential and the generation of

ATP it's also believed that red light

therapy and the like can affect

mitochondrial retrograde signaling since

that's just so obvious I just won't even

bother explaining it right I kid of

course it's basically that because there

are these changes in ATP concentration

as well as other molecules like calcium

reactive oxygen species and so on this

has a trickle down effect on other

signaling molecules that could enter the

nucleus of the cell where genes are

housed and change the gene expression

there's a lot more to it than that but

at least this offers some explanation

Beyond uh light do good mitochondria

which is what I feel social media

devolves to and we just accept it a

sufficient explanation well not here and

if you're interested in more on my work

on red light therapy just hop on over to

this video of mine it shines a light on

the topic good one

[Music]

Nick yeah