Rhonda Patrick, Ph.D.

Zone 2 does increase mitochondrial biogenesis.

But, you know, if you start to go a little more vigorous, you actually can get a stronger stimulus.

And I know that's...

what we're talking about here, vigorous, includes zone two.

But I'm just saying, generally speaking, it just gets back to this whole idea, right?

The more intense the stimulus, the greater the adaptation to a degree.

Obviously, you don't want to go to the complete extreme where it's like, all you do is work out.

I'm not going to say that's all you do, but you definitely work out a lot.

Yeah, people can buy these lactate meters and it's a little finger prick test you can do.

And I've done it several times and it's kind of fun to do as well.

So I encourage people to try that out.

I think another sort of surrogate marker in my mind is also looking at oxidative stress markers.

Because when your mitochondria are not functioning well, if they're damaged, if they're unhealthy, they will...

produce more reactive oxygen species.

They are the major generator of reactive oxygen species.

And so, you know, that's another sort of surrogate marker, I would say, as well.

But yeah, it's kind of annoying that we don't have a direct marker of mitochondrial function.

And I know people are working on that.

But, you know, everything takes a long time to make its way to our homes.

I mean, the biohackers out there want to know, right?