Theories are fine, but I have a keen interest in solving my issues.
My doctors and I have been piecing together a "perfect storm" of mitochondria problems. We are all individuals, so my issues won't be shared by everyone, but, these are a few of the issues we've found causing my "storm":
- Low manganese and riboflavin
- Homozygous SOD2 and PEMT SNPs
- High iron (hemachromatosis, now managed with phlebotomies)
- High nitrotyrosine, lipid peroxides, and low vitamin C and glutathione
- SNPs affecting complex I
- Toxicity - mold and heavy metals, platinum based chemo therapy (have chelated a lot of this already)
- Lousy phase II detoxification pathways
These all seem to lead to a vicious cycle of damaged mitochondrial membranes, increased ROS, inefficient ATP production, fatigue, immune and endocrine dysfunction, etc.
Untangling this mess is in order. Repairing membranes, as Garth Nicolson and Patricia Kane suggest, providing nutrients needed for SOD2 (like manganese) and glutathione production, and reducing the iron and other toxicity should be helpful, in theory.
So, though manganese and iron are definitely important, there are other players that may also be having an impact, too.