There's a special kind of tired that sleep doesn't fix. You wake up, you do everything right, and by mid-afternoon your battery is at two percent. I know that tired. At 68, I've lived with it — and I've spent the last couple of years tracing it back to the tiny power plants inside my cells: my mitochondria.
That's what pulled me into a video by Dr. Paul Anderson — a naturopathic physician in Seattle who's spent decades treating people with complex chronic illness, the folks whose energy systems are genuinely broken. He used to teach pharmacology and clinical medicine at Bastyr University, and he trains other physicians in this stuff. In under ten minutes, he walks through the seven supplements and therapies he considers most effective for mitochondrial health — including how to use each one safely. Here's how I understood it.
Source: Dr. Paul Anderson's bio.
1. NAD support and vitamin B3
NAD is one of the main molecules your mitochondria use to turn food into usable energy — and your levels fall as you age. That's the whole "low NAD, tired mitochondria" idea you hear in aging research. Vitamin B3, also called niacin, is one of the raw materials your body uses to build NAD. Dr. Anderson starts here, and it makes sense to me: this is about as foundational as it gets.
Source: review on NAD+ decline with age.
2. B-complex vitamins
The chapter title says it all: these are mitochondrial cofactors. B vitamins are the helper molecules the energy machinery can't run without — B1, B2, B3, B5 and the rest keep the enzymes of your energy cycle turning. My read on his point: before reaching for anything exotic, make sure the basics aren't missing.
3. Alpha lipoic acid
Alpha lipoic acid is an antioxidant your body actually makes in small amounts — and it does its work right inside the mitochondria, where it's involved in converting nutrients into energy. It's one of the better-studied mitochondrial antioxidants out there.
4. CoQ10
CoQ10 sits in the electron transport chain — the final assembly line where your mitochondria make ATP, the energy currency of the cell. Your natural levels fall with age, and they're also lowered by statin drugs, which plenty of us in our sixties take. That's why CoQ10 shows up on nearly every mitochondrial list you'll find.
5. Trace minerals
This one is easy to overlook. The enzymes that run your energy production need tiny amounts of minerals — magnesium, iron, manganese, copper, zinc — to do their jobs. Not megadoses; trace amounts. Without them, the machinery can't run at full speed. Small parts, big job.
6. Methylene blue
Here's the one that surprised me. Methylene blue started life as a textile dye and a medical stain — and researchers are now studying it for mitochondrial recovery. Dr. Anderson even runs a continuing-education course on it for physicians, which tells you this isn't casual stuff. It's also the one with the biggest asterisk: it can interact with certain medications, including some antidepressants. So this one is firmly in "talk to your doctor first" territory. No exceptions.
Source: FDA warning on methylene blue and serotonin syndrome.
7. Red light therapy
And number seven isn't a supplement at all — it's red light therapy: specific wavelengths of red light on the skin, which researchers are studying for their effects on cellular energy. I'll admit I raised an eyebrow. But the research interest is real, and Dr. Anderson includes it because the early evidence around mitochondria got his attention.
Source: red light therapy research.
One thing I appreciated: this video isn't a shopping list. Dr. Anderson talks through how to use each of these safely — because "natural" doesn't automatically mean "safe for everyone." That matters.
What stuck with me is the order of it all — the same lesson as the superager video. The most powerful tools are still the free ones: morning light, sleep, movement, real food. Supplements are helpers, not the foundation. They work best on top of the basics, not instead of them. That's the part I'm taking with me.
This isn't medical advice, and anything in this territory — especially the methylene blue — deserves a real conversation with your doctor before you try it. But if you're tired in a way that sleep doesn't fix, it's worth understanding what your mitochondria might be missing. That understanding is where I started, and it changed everything.
Next read: Building a Better You — the first story; closes the loop.
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