Fitness tools that monitor your daily use of energy, from counting steps to tracking sleep, have exploded in popularity. Researchers are developing better noninvasive, high-resolution methods to estimate how well the fundamental source of that energy - your mitochondria - are working, and they have recently had some important successes. Mitochondria are the tiny energy factories of our cells,
By using existing human drugs to improve metabolism and restore shortened lifespans in microscopic worms, scientists have set the stage for human clinical trials of possible innovative therapies for mitochondrial disease.
What causes disease? Why do we get sick? Douglas Wallace's answer could spark a revolution in medical thinking. For thousands of years, practitioners of Eastern medicine have linked human health to the concept of energy, or "qi" - its presence, absence and flow through our bodies affecting everything from heart disease to mental clarity. Ironically, Douglas Wallace, PhD, one of CHOP's most internationally renowned experts in Western medicine, has spent his career proving that they just might be right.