Hello, health enthusiasts, and welcome to Rev Up Health, your go-to podcast for all things wellness. I'm Dr. Mark Hechler, and I'm Tandi Hechler. Together we're here to fuel your health journey with the best of functional medicine and holistic well-being. Each episode, we'll dive deep into topics that matter to your health, bringing you the latest insights, research, and inspiring stories. Whether you're on a quest for vibrant health or just looking for daily health tips, we've got you covered. So let's embark on this journey together and transform the way you live. So, Tandi, what's on our wellness radar for today?
Hello, we are so excited to have a special guest on the Rev Up Health Podcast today. Her name is Jennifer Scheinman, and she is an accomplished registered dietitian nutritionist with over two decades of experience in nutrition and wellness. During her career, she has worked at some of the nation's leading health and wellness institutions. Jen's master's degree in integrative and functional nutrition, coupled with advanced training in bioenergetics and hormone health, provides her with a profound understanding of the complex interplay between nutrition, cellular health, and longevity. She is currently the senior manager of Timeline Nutrition, where she plays a pivotal role in educating both healthcare professionals and consumers about the significance of cellular health and Urolithin A in the context of aging and longevity. Beyond her responsibilities at Timeline, she's a renowned speaker, writer, and media figure, and continues to practice as a nutrition coach. Without further ado, we'd like to welcome Jen.
We're so excited to have Jen here to talk with us today about Mitopure, so let's get right into it. Welcome, Jen — thanks for joining us today, we appreciate your time. Thank you so much, I'm really excited to be here. I feel so blessed that I get to spend my days introducing people to something they've probably never heard of before, but that can be so impactful in so many different aspects of their health.
Our journey on Mitopure started back at the beginning of the year. It's certainly something we gained a lot of interest in, and with our activity and level of endurance, it's all about the mitochondria — what a person can do to improve mitochondrial function and health is just imperative to their everyday life as well as longevity. So let's start with mitochondrial health — how is that related to longevity?
Mitochondria: The Cell's Factories
Well, I couldn't agree more, and I personally think that over the course of the next 5 to 10 years, mitochondrial health is going to be common, everyday conversation the way that gut health and the microbiome is now. If we think about where the microbiome was 10 years ago — the mainstream public was just starting to think, "Wow, we have these critters inside us, and they're so important, and they do things outside of just the gut." The mitochondria is that same thing, where the research is exploding around the importance of mitochondrial health in so many different aspects of aging.
I'm very visual, so I like to think of the mitochondria in an analogy: it's like a factory inside your cells that takes raw materials — the food that you eat and the air that you breathe — and runs them through a very complex assembly line, and at the end you get your cellular energy, called ATP. A lot of people have a little post-traumatic stress disorder from high school biology, so I won't scare anyone too much, but if you keep that visual of a factory in your mind — just like any other factory, it starts to wear down with overuse and as we age. So there are things we can do to help build new factories, to make sure those factories are running efficiently and are protected, and then things we can do when those factories break down — we can recycle them, demolish them, and rebuild newer ones.
That's really the ultimate pathway of mitochondrial health: thinking about these three different areas — building new ones, keeping them functioning correctly, and then breaking down and removing the broken mitochondria to make room to build new ones. That's where Mitopure really comes in, with the molecule Urolithin A, which is quite a mouthful.
There are a lot of things that disrupt our mitochondrial function — everything from what we eat, how we exercise, our sleep, and all types of toxins and environmental exposures. So anything we can do to help maximize its efficiency is going to make everything a lot better for us.
How to Optimize Mitochondrial Health
You hit the nail on the head — making sure we're eating a healthy, well-balanced diet that's rich in micronutrients. Let's start backwards, with the raw materials, the food we eat. If you start with quality raw materials, that's obviously much better than starting with crummy, low-quality raw materials. And then there are the cofactors — all these things that help go into the energy metabolism process, the vitamins and minerals we get from a healthy, well-balanced diet that help optimize your mitochondrial function. We can protect our mitochondria with nutrient-dense antioxidants, and then there's exercise, sleep, and avoiding toxins. And then there's targeted nutrition therapy with supplements that can help protect the mitochondria, make them function more efficiently, or help this process called mitophagy — the recycling of dysfunctional mitochondria, breaking them down and building newer, better-functioning factories.
What Is Urolithin A?
So tell us a little about the Urolithin A that we get in Mitopure. I already touched a little on the gut, and one of the things the gut microbiome does is create what are called postbiotic nutrients. I like to think of it as: we give these little bacteria and species in our gut room and board — they get to live inside our gut and eat the things we don't digest, certain fibers and polyphenols (compounds in a lot of plants and foods that we personally can't digest, but they can), and then they pay us back in these metabolites that travel throughout our body and do different things. Some B vitamins and vitamin K are examples of postbiotic nutrients — and Urolithin A happens to be one of those too.
So we don't get it directly from food; we need a healthy gut microbiome to make it. We have these dietary precursors — the polyphenols — that come from foods specifically rich in them, like pomegranates, dark-skinned berries, and some nuts. They're not in all the foods we eat, so most of us aren't eating enough of those precursors, and most of us don't have the right gut microbiome to make it. We've actually studied populations, and only about 30 to 40% of the population can make it — and that's worldwide; we tested it in different countries and areas of the world.
What Urolithin A does is trigger that recycling process of the mitochondria — the mitophagy. When those factories have gone through their wear and tear and been damaged, we normally have an inability to recycle them, and what Urolithin A does is optimize and rejuvenate that recycling process. That process declines as we get older too, so you get more dysfunctional mitochondria and less ability to recycle them — and that's where Urolithin A steps in.
Why Most of Us Can't Make Enough
Poor gut health is so critical, and I don't think people can appreciate how imperative gut health is — for the Urolithin A production, but also for hormone regulation. It's quite interesting that only 30 to 40% of people have the appropriate bacteria to break it down, and if we don't have them, you don't get the Urolithin A. And unfortunately, we don't know which specific strain of bacteria will make it, so I can't even say "go take this probiotic." We know that people who have healthier gut microbiomes with richer strains of bacteria will make it, but we haven't been able to pinpoint it. That's really where my background as a dietitian comes in — I really do believe food first, and supplements are meant to supplement where you can't get it from diet. This is that perfect case where most of us are just not going to get it from diet.
What the Research Shows
So what does the research say about supplementing Urolithin A? Here's where I find it so fascinating and why I think mitochondrial health is becoming so important. Other than our red blood cells, every cell in the body has mitochondria — and not just one or two; depending on how energy-dependent the tissue is, like your brain and muscles, there might be thousands of mitochondria. So when we start talking about the research, remember it's due to the mitochondrial function, and different tissues are going to have different responses. At first that can be like, "Wow, this might be helpful for skin, and it might be helpful for muscle" — yes, because it's happening on the mitochondrial level.
The research really started in the muscle space, for a couple of reasons. The muscles are so important in terms of aging — we start to lose muscle mass, and muscle has so much importance besides just mobility; it's basically like an endocrine organ, it can send out inflammatory markers, it's a glucose disposal system. There are three clinical trials. The first one was really just proving that when you take a supplement of Urolithin A, you'll see this induction in mitophagy — after about a month, we start to see these old, damaged mitochondria become dismantled, broken down, cleaned out, and we get newer mitochondria — and that was done with muscle biopsies.
Then the question becomes, "So what? How are people going to feel?" So two separate follow-up studies were done, one in middle-aged adults and one in older adults, looking at several markers of muscle strength and performance, and in both we saw improvements in muscle health. In older adults, we started to see improvements in muscle strength; in middle-aged adults, we saw improvements in muscle endurance. What's really interesting is that those benefits happened even in the absence of changing diet or exercise. The one thing I should say is that it takes a little time — these aren't instantaneous. Those studies saw improvements at two months and at four months, so it's something people do need to take for an extended period to really start seeing those benefits.
Mark's Experience
I noticed that too. Obviously I run marathons, so I kept a consistent training level, but when I began to take the Urolithin A, I absolutely noticed the difference in my endurance. It's actually sold me. There are a lot of things where you say, "You can read the studies, you can read the literature," but when you experience it, it just drives it home. You mentioned a percentage of gain, anywhere from 12 to 17% in strength and endurance, and I literally noticed that's kind of where I buy in — around 15% improvement. I really noticed a big difference, not only in strength and ability to do workouts, but also in endurance. When I'm out there running for several hours, I don't run out of steam — I'm able to continue without that fatigue, and I have not changed my training program. So it's certainly noticeable.
Recovery, Inflammation, and Immune Health
The other thing we hear — even though our research was done more in sedentary adults, a lot of professional and recreational athletes are starting to look at it in terms of how it can improve athletic performance. As you've noticed, and as I've noticed personally, one thing we hear a lot is recovery. I don't really get sore at the gym anymore, even if I change up my workout or move up a weight set. We did conduct a study — it's not published yet, we're still analyzing the data — in Olympic-trained endurance athletes, and the big story there really does seem to be recovery. So what you're feeling, this enhanced endurance, we get that feedback quite a bit from people who are professional athletes or just do a lot of endurance training.
One of the things we see in all our studies is this robust improvement in inflammatory markers — C-reactive protein, for example, comes down in all of our studies. When you're doing really hard bouts of training, there's a natural inflammation that happens as part of exercise, so the thought is that this is probably helping to quell some of that inflammation. It would be interesting to see what it does to those inflammatory markers, like IL-6.
We actually just finished up a study — also not published yet, but should be by the end of the year — looking at immune health. The immune system is also susceptible to mitochondrial decline and exhaustion, and that's part of why, as people get older, they're more susceptible to cancer and infections, and even things like vaccines don't work as well. This study looked at about 50 healthy adults randomized to either placebo or 1,000 milligrams of Urolithin A, and after a month we did really intense immune phenotyping. What we saw was improvements in markers of inflammaging, and that the immune cells had more mitochondria and were more metabolically active — so it basically rewired this aging immune system. I think the inflammation piece is one to really keep a watch on and explore.
Urolithin A for Skin
One thing we haven't gotten to experience much is the topical application. I know you guys have a whole line of products that work with that too. Urolithin A can be absorbed topically through the skin cells — it's a completely different mechanism of action. People are familiar with vitamin C — you need to eat it, but when you apply it topically, it has a much more localized, potent effect. That's what we've discovered with Urolithin A: when you apply it topically, those skin cells absorb it, it stays very localized, and we see that same mitochondrial turnover, so the skin cells are basically acting in a more youthful way.
In our clinical data, using skin biopsies and high-tech measurements of things like wrinkles, we start to see that the genes that turn on collagen production, assembly, and organization are all upregulated, so you're having more collagen production. The other thing that's super interesting is that we also exposed skin to UV light — we know UV damage is the number one cause of skin aging — and we saw that the skin cells are much more resilient to the damaging effects of UV light compared to placebo. That means a lot of the inflammation and redness that happens — erythema, as it's called clinically — is reduced much more quickly.
We have three different skin products, which can be used alone, but for best results you get them in conjunction: a serum you'd use first, a day cream to use during the day, and a night cream to use at night, and all three have 1% Urolithin A, which was studied to be the best, most clinical dose. The products are lovely — no fragrance, no dyes, no colors, very gender neutral, so they don't feel girly, but they're super effective. For people spending lots of time outdoors, or even in front of computers where the blue light is damaging our skin, it's a really nice way to have that protective effect.
How Long Until You Feel It?
So people should plan to give the supplement a good couple of months to notice a difference. The interesting thing with the skin is that it's a lot quicker — in the skin biopsies, we saw some of that cellular turnover happening in about 72 hours, and in two weeks people are reporting they see differences, and it becomes statistically significant at eight weeks. So the skin is a lot more of an immediate result, which is nice, because people want immediate results in everything.
The dietary supplement is going to take more time. I'd say giving it eight weeks, even up to four months, is probably a good idea — although our customers say they feel things sooner, noticing an improvement in energy at four or six weeks. But based on our clinical data, I like to give people that expectation. That's a good motivator for people too — motivation is what drives everybody to be consistent in their activities and exercise. If you start feeling better, you're going to perform better and probably stick with your program.
Why Mitopure?
One thing that came to mind — Urolithin A is the active ingredient, so what makes Mitopure better than just another Urolithin A supplement you could get? That's a fantastic question. Most of the research out there is actually done with Mitopure. We have an extensive R&D team that publishes high-quality scientific research papers in top medical journals — this isn't just some company doing something in a basement lab and making false claims; we take this very seriously. In my background as a dietitian, working in the field for over 25 years, I've never seen a supplement company do the type of work that Timeline — the parent company of Mitopure — is doing. That was kind of why I joined the team, because this is really raising the bar on the way dietary supplements are done.
We also have third-party certifications to make sure it's a quality, clean ingredient — we're NSF Certified for Sport and clean-label certified, so these third parties are basically saying there are no additives or contaminants, and there's truth in labeling: there's 500 milligrams of pure Urolithin A in here. Most of the research really came from our company — we're really who put Urolithin A on the map — so you can trust that it's clean, quality, and pure.
Dosing and Side Effects
For folks who don't know, it's a once-a-day dosing. You can go up to 1,000 milligrams — the immune data was with 1,000 milligrams, and I believe the endurance study was 1,000 milligrams as well. The benefits plateau past a thousand, and even though there's not really an upper safety level or toxicity, there's just no reason to go higher than a thousand milligrams. And the side effect profile is really good — everything in our clinicals was the same as placebo. We get very few negative reports.
I think the biggest thing is that people really expect to feel something, and not everybody will feel something. Most of our customers do say they feel great results, like you're saying, but it's important to recognize that even if you're not feeling anything, that doesn't mean it's not happening under the hood. I don't feel my vitamin D doing anything, but I know I need to take it. There are certain supplements you'll definitely feel. Mitochondrial decline is one of these key hallmarks of aging — everything from our brain to our skin to our muscles, even reproductive aging, is tied to mitochondrial health — so I really believe this is a foundational piece of your longevity plan, like vitamin D and omegas.
That's a great analogy with the car — the car is going to run, but you've got to change the oil, take care of the tires, fix the belt, and all that. It's maintenance that keeps it running.
How to Take It
One thing to mention is how to take it. As you mentioned, you can take it at any time of the day — even though it's energizing, it's not stimulating, so it's not going to keep you up at night. There are two different ways to take the supplement: we have soft gels, which I take because I travel a lot, and we have a really nice powder you can mix into a smoothie. It's berry flavored, with no fake or added sugars, and it's great in a smoothie or in yogurt. That's a way for people who either aren't interested in taking pills, or are already taking so many pills they don't want to add another one. It's so nice that there's an option, especially when people start this kind of longevity journey — there are a lot of things, so it's nice to have a powder you can add with all the other powders. I mix mine with Greek yogurt — you get the protein from the yogurt, the probiotics, and the Urolithin A, so it's a really nice food-based approach.
Gut Health and Urolithin A
One of the things we talked about with gut health in relation to Urolithin A — have any of your studies looked at whether it has the same effect if someone doesn't have great gut health? The beauty of taking Urolithin A is that you're bypassing the need to have good gut health. Our gut is primed and ready to absorb it — you don't have to rely on having the right gut microbiome to make it for you. We've seen really nice concentrations of Urolithin A showing up in the bloodstream regardless of whether you have a healthy gut microbiome or not.
I saw I think it was six times the blood level versus just pomegranate juice. Exactly — that goes back to the study I mentioned. Even if you have the right gut microbiome to make it, in order to get the same blood level, the same therapeutic dose, you'd have to drink six cups of pomegranate juice. I love pomegranates, I think they're a great food, but I would never tell someone to drink six cups of pomegranate juice a day — probably the sugar alone would counterbalance any benefit you'd get from the Urolithin A. So I do not advise six cups of pomegranate juice a day.
Wrapping Up
Well, this is so great. We really appreciate you taking the time to visit with us about this, and we're excited that we can offer a 5% discount to our listeners with the code "revelationhealthandwellbeing," all one word. We really appreciate you taking time to explain things and shed a little light on something new. Like you said, mitochondrial health is already exploding, and we're just scratching the surface, so I think there are going to be a lot of benefits to knowing and improving our mitochondrial health. Absolutely — I'm excited to see what it shows. Thank you guys so much for having me, I really enjoyed the conversation. We enjoyed it too. We appreciate everybody watching in. Thanks so much, Jen.
Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Rev Up Health. We hope you're leaving with some valuable insights to supercharge your health journey. Don't forget to follow or subscribe to Rev Up Health wherever you listen to your podcasts, and if you enjoyed today's episode, please leave us a rating and review. Have a topic you want us to explore? Reach out to us on our social media channels — we love hearing from our wellness community. Until next time, keep thriving, and remember: your journey to health is a journey to a better you. Stay well, and we'll connect with you again soon. This is Tandi, and this is Dr. Mark, signing off from Rev Up Health. Take care.
The information provided in this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. The content is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between a patient and their healthcare provider. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional before making any changes to your healthcare regimen, including diet, exercise, or treatment plans. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Revelation Health and Wellbeing.