Decoding Disease with Dr. Rue
Learn to see your body through a different lens.
There comes a point where you begin to sense that what you are experiencing cannot be fully explained by symptoms alone. Patterns repeat, progress feels incomplete, and something deeper is asking to be understood. I’m Dr. Rue, a naturopathic physician focused on chronic illness and integrative oncology, where the work is not about chasing conditions, but about observing the terrain in which they arise.
In this space, we explore how the body adapts, how systems communicate, and how environment, metabolism, and lived experience shape what you feel day to day. The body is not random, and it is not working against you. It responds in ways that reflect its internal and external worlds. As you begin to understand those responses, your relationship with your health begins to change.
These are quiet, intentional conversations designed to bring clarity without removing complexity. If you have ever felt that your experience does not fit into a simple explanation, you are not alone. This is a place to listen more closely, to reconnect, and to begin seeing what may have been there all along.
Decoding Disease with Dr. Rue
Who Has The Hardest Working Mitochondria? | Ep. 056
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Quick question: We have a bodybuilder, a marathon runner, a chess grandmaster, a pregnant woman, and a baby.
Whose mitochondria are working harder?
Decoding Disease with Dr. Rue
Decoding Disease with Dr. Rue
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Let's play a game. Imagine I put five people in a room and I ask you a simple question. Whose mitochondria are working the hardest? First, a professional bodybuilder. Massive muscle can deadlift weights most of us can only imagine. Second, an Iron Man athlete swims for miles, cycles for hours, runs a marathon for fun. Third, a chess grandmaster sitting squarely in a chair, barely moving. Fourth, a pregnant woman. And then fifth, a newborn baby. So who wins? Most people probably pick the bodybuilder or the Iron Man athlete. And honestly, that's what I would have guessed too. But let's work through it. The bodybuilder is impressive, no question about it. But they're built for power. Short bursts, maximum force, a few incredible seconds. The Iron Man athlete is different. They're built for endurance. Their muscles are packed with mitochondria. Thousands upon thousands of tiny power plants helping to produce energy for hours at a time. That's why they can keep going when most of us have hit a wall. Then there's the Grand Chess Master. And before you laugh, remember that your brain makes up about only 2% of your body weight, yet it consumes roughly 20% of your energy. 20%. That's astonishing. Every move, strategy, every possibility being calculated costs energy, a lot of energy. In fact, mitochondria often cluster near synapses. Because that's where the work is happening. Now let's talk about the pregnant woman. Because she's doing something remarkable. She's not supporting one body, she's supporting two. Building organs, a brain, an entire human being, all while keeping herself alive too. And then there's the newborn, the dark horse in this competition. Because a newborn is growing at a pace that most of us will never experience again. Every day, new tissue, new connections, new development, an explosion of growth. And it all requires energy. So who's the winner? Who's walking away with the gold medal for the hardest working mitochondria? Drumroll please, the newborn baby. Seriously, not the bodybuilder, not the Iron Man athlete, not even the chess grandmaster. The newborn. Because growth is expensive, really expensive. A newborn is building new tissue, new connections, a rapidly developing brain, a rapidly developing body. Everything is growing, changing, and requires an enormous amount of energy. And the baby's mitochondria are working overtime to make it happen. Now, if we were handing out silver medals, I think the pregnant woman has a very strong argument. After all, she's literally growing a newborn. And if you've ever been pregnant, you probably don't need a podcast episode to tell you how much energy that takes.