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
What Hormones Tell Mitochondria To Do | Ep. 058
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A football coach never touches the ball, yet every play changes because of the signals coming from the sidelines. Hormones are much like that coach, directing messages throughout the body. ATP may fuel the players on the field, but mitochondria are the stadium, the infrastructure, and the environment that make the entire game possible. They are far more than the body's batteries.
Decoding Disease with Dr. Rue
Decoding Disease with Dr. Rue
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Let's think about a football coach for a second. The coach doesn't score the touchdown. He doesn't even throw the ball. He doesn't run the play, but he gives instructions. Hormones do something very similar. They tell the body what's needed, and mitochondria respond accordingly. Take thyroid hormone. We've talked before about how the pathways inside mitochondria produce ATP. Thyroid hormone turns the dial up. More fuel processing, energy production, more mitochondrial activity, which is why people with low thyroid hormones often feel sluggish, cold and exhausted. The message is simple. Produce more energy. Now let's look at cortisol. Cortisol's message is different. Energy is needed right now. Glucose becomes available, resources are mobilized. The message is simple, emergency mode. Now estrogen. Most people think of estrogen as a reproductive hormone, but estrogen also helps to protect mitochondria. It helps protect the machinery responsible for producing energy, which is one of the reasons some women notice dramatic changes in energy during perimenopause and menopause. The message is simple. Protect the machinery. We'll come back to that in future episodes because the relationship between estrogen and mitochondria is much bigger than most people realize. Then there's testosterone. Why do some people feel more energetic when testosterone levels improve? Because testosterone tells the body to build. Build muscle, capacity, performance. The message is simple. Build. And then there's melatonin. Most people think of melatonin as a sleep hormone, but melatonin does so much more than that. We've already talked about how the body communicates daytime and nighttime to mitochondria. Melatonin is one of the major signals involved in that process. But melatonin can also interact directly with mitochondria. It helps reduce oxidative stress, it helps protect mitochondrial membranes, and it helps to support efficient energy production. The message is simple, night shift. Which is one of the reasons melatonin has attracted so much interest in cancer research. We'll spend much more time on that when we get into cancer therapies because the relationship between melatonin and mitochondria is far more interesting than people realize. And finally, insulin. Insulin is one of the body's major fuel messages. It helps communicate that nutrients have arrived and that fuel is available. The message is simple. Fuel has arrived. And when you step back and look at the bigger picture, something becomes clear. Hormones are constantly telling mitochondria what kind of world they're living in. Time to build, time to protect, time to grow, time to conserve, time to prepare for stress. The problem is, sometimes those messages never stop.