Energy not Growth – UK Health Radio

In Part 2 of her ‘grand tour around mitochondrial metabolism’ Robin and Dawn pick up where we left off, looking at the Krebs cycle of metabolism, and looking at its involvement with cancer. Warburg spotted that there was a problem with cancer cells’ ability to make energy almost a century ago but, genius though he was, he didn’t conceive that they were using the cycle to create growth instead. It turns out that energy metabolism and biosynthetic growth are two sides of the same coin. The cycle turns one way and we make energy, it turns the other way and we get growth, sometimes unwanted growth, but the body may well be doing this as a way to avoid cell damage or even cell death. In seeking to influence metabolic pathways we need to appreciate the delicate equilibrium at the heart of the mitochondrial energy/growth pathway, and the conditions needed to safely drive the electron transport chain in a positive and health promoting direction. We cover this and more in the interview.