Doug Wallace thinks around 80% of disease is due to mitochondria heteroplasmy, the rest is due to faults in the nuclear DNA. So it could well be that a virus is keeping our mito down, or causes immune problems which effect our mito, or something kicks off CFS and sends us in to a downward spiral affecting our mito, or something else.
I think you would need to remove the offending agent then put the mito in an enviroment where they can repair / function correctly. Maybe if we do enough for the mito then we can beat it without removing the offened agent, if it is even still there.
I think this is an interesting discussion.
From what I've gathered from Naviaux's presentations and in talking with him directly, removing the offending agent, then repairing the damage/rebalancing the biochemical processes would be the ideal.
Two good things about mitochondria - they die and are reformed every so often, so there's the opportunity to change bad ones to goid ones, and one can encourage the proliferation of more, through exercise and other interventions. More mitochondria means more capacity to make ATP.
One question that comes up is if mitochondria are compromused, is pushing them to make more ATP faster a good thing, or a potentially damaging thing? Or, is it best to fix them, by giving them good nutrients they need, before pushing them to do more?
I'd like to know the answer. I find that sublingual NADH gives me an energy boost within 15 minutes, but try to save it for when I really need it, not knowing the answer.
Also, I found the attached paper which has some interesting ideas about attacking Alzheimer's from a mitochondrial perspective...and recognized some familiar interventions. I suspect (and have already experienced) there's a lot that can be done yo optimize mitochondrial function to help us.
The question is how best to go about it.