Me and My Inner Jedi (A Mitochondrial Story)

In 1999 in the Phantom Menace Midi-chlorians were introduced into the Star Wars Universe. They were intelligent life forms that lived in the cells of living beings.

The Force spoke through the Midi-chlorians, allowing certain beings to use the Force if they were sensitive enough to its powers.?

To be a Jedi Knight you need Midi-chlorians, in fact Midi-chlorians are integral to a Jedi Knight's abilities and connection to the Force. ?They determine Force sensitivity, enhance abilities, facilitate communication with the Force, and influence training and mastery. ?A higher concentration of midi-chlorians enables Jedi to perform extraordinary feats and fulfill their roles within the galaxy.?

The back story to being a Jedi is taken from our own existence. Midi-chlorians or Mitochondria, they are one and the same, it’s just the difference between fiction and fact.? So, what are Mitochondria??

? Mitochondria are intracellular symbionts that live within our cells.

? Mitochondria are inherited.

? Mitochondria pre-date animals and humans.

? Mitochondria are related to?ancient bacteria?and have their own DNA that is separate from human DNA.

? Humans are therefore not pure beings, but rather we are cohabitated conglomerations.

?Mitochondria are membrane-bound cell organelles found in the cytoplasm of eukaryotic cells. They are often referred to as the "powerhouses" of the cell because their primary function is to produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the cell's main energy currency.?ATP is made by all living creatures and is often referred to as the "energy currency" of the cell because it provides the energy needed for many cellular processes. This molecule is essential for life, as it fuels metabolic activities in all types of organisms.? An average person will produce their own body weight of ATP every day.

Mitochondria need certain things to produce ATP efficiently, but to keep things simple I’ll stick with Oxygen and Glucose.? The air we breathe and the food we consume impacts our mitochondrial function.

Where does light fit into all of this?

It has been proposed that long wavelengths of light (the red and the infrared (IR) wavelengths) travel further into the body and have an impact on mitochondrial function.? In fact, it is suggested that IR can travel into and potentially through our bones.

When IR light travels into the body it upregulates mitochondrial production of ATP, the terminology for this is Photobiomodulation, and it describes the biochemical reactions that occur in living cells in response to light.? The term "photobiomodulation" began to gain traction in the scientific community during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Researchers and clinicians started to adopt the term to describe the broader range of light therapies being investigated and used clinically. ??By comparison the science of Photosynthesis has evolved since the 1600s when Jan Baptist van Helmont conducted an experiment with a willow tree and concluded that the mass of the plant did not come from the soil but attributed it mainly to water, hinting at the idea that plants obtain substances from sources other than soil.

We’ve come to accept that plants, algae, and some bacteria convert light energy into chemical energy through the process of Photosynthesis, it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise then that living cells in humans and animals respond to light.

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In February 2019 Scott Zimmerman and Russel Reiter published their paper ‘Melatonin and the Optics of the Human Body’, a research paper that explored the impact of light on the body beyond the visible spectrum, and beyond the circadian entrainment we receive from the visible spectrum.

In their research Zimmerman and Reiter show that 'mitochondria produce melatonin in many cells in quantities which are orders of magnitude higher than that produced in the pineal gland. This subcellular melatonin does not necessarily fluctuate with our circadian clock or release into the circulation system, but instead has been proposed to be consumed locally in response to the free radical density within each cell, in particular in response to Near Infrared (NIR) exposure. The main point of this review hypothesizes that the subcellular melatonin is being produced in response to the NIR photons which make up the majority of natural sunlight.'?

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More recently, in January 2024, Glen Jeffery and Michael Powner released a research article outlining how light stimulation of mitochondria reduces blood glucose levels.? Consider this in the context that in the UK we spend in the region on ￡9bn a year on direct Type 2 Diabetes treatment.? Could our reduced exposure to NIR be contributing to the increase in Type 2 Diabetes?? Could a simple intervention such as spending more time outdoors reduce the incidence of Type 2 Diabetes, not just in the UK but across the world?? Can architecture and design have a positive impact by creating a built environment that gives us more access to the longer wavelengths of light??

?We accept light as something that allows us to see, we have controlled lighting for the past 145 years, a drop in the ocean compared to our evolution on earth, and we have come to take light for granted.? Light in the format of the full solar spectrum can influence our physiological performance, and the long wavelengths of light (Red and NIR) can positively impact our mitochondrial function.

Unleash your inner Jedi: Step into the light and feel the force!