The Biochemical Energy That Our Bodies Need, Explained.

Since when did the energy generation process in our bodies have to be so complicated? Well, unfortunately it is…

It is a common sight to see people slumped over or being one with the floor at the end of an exhausting workout. The inertia becomes too much to overcome. It’s difficult to stay up straight. And then we decide that the horizontal position is the position that requires the least resistance, and we seek out that position.

The problem is that our bodies somehow tend to change as we get older. We can’t seem to do what we did at age 35 compared to when we were 25. We can’t stay up that late — we need sleep. We can’t maintain our stamina or energy levels when participating in a group sport activity.

We tend to blame our lower energy levels on “aging” or “getting older”, but a lot of that can be pinpointed on the maintenance that we provide to our bodies. LeBron James can play professional basketball at a high level even at age 37 because of all the time and money that he spends on proper maintenance and recovery.

Unfortunately, most of us don’t have access to that much money for survival, let alone take care of our physical health as immaculately as he can for himself.

But it’s more likely that we’ll go for a run, get ourselves tired out, and then reward ourselves with ice cream or some other sweet treat for doing all that hard work, and in doing so just unravel whatever work that we’ve put into that workout.

But how do our cells even gain energy to get our bodies moving about in a workout?

The answer lies in this molecule known as acetyl-coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA). Acetyl-CoA can be obtained from glucose, fatty acids or amino acids that we feed ourselves with. The cell operates the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle to oxidise acetyl-CoA within their mitochondria, and from there this molecule known as adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is formed.

When acetyl-CoA gets shuttled into the TCA, both the reduced form of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (or NADH) and the reduced form of flavin adenine dinucleotide (or FADH2) are produced as byproducts of the oxidation reactions going on within the TCA.

These NADH and FADH2 molecules are then oxidised by the electron transport chain. Electrons are removed from NADH (to form NAD+) and FADH (to form FAD), and the electrons are transported along the chain by Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10). Protons are pumped from the mitochondrial matrix to the intermembrane space to form a proton gradient, and the electrons are finally used to reduce molecular oxygen to water.

Coenzyme Q10 And The Energy That We Derive From It.

In the mitochondria, the ATP synthase enzyme then makes use of the proton gradient to synthesise ATP.

This process of ATP synthesis is known as oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS). As the word “triphosphate” suggests, there are three phosphate subgroups in ATP. The cleaving of a phosphate group from ATP is the process that releases biochemical energy for the cell to make use of.

Hence, ATP is referred to as an energy currency for the cell to use.

But we do realise that for the energy flow in the body to function at its best, we have a few factors to consider: