Lipid Replacement as an Adjunct to Therapy for Chronic Fatigue, Anti-Aging and Restoration of Mitochondrial Function

Lipid replacement therapy (LRT) has been used along with other strategies, such as antioxidant therapy, to replace damaged or oxidized cellular lipids that accumulate during aging and in various clinical conditions. Differing from traditional lipid nutritional supplementation, LTR replacement lipids are protected from oxidation and damage during storage, ingestion and digestion. Important lipids that require constant replacement are phospholipids, glycophospholipids and other lipids that make up cellular and organelle membranes, especially mitochondrial membranes. Decreased mitochondrial function and loss in the efficiency of the electron transport chain are related to aging and fatigue. Oxidative damage to mitochondria, mainly from Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS), results in peroxidation of cellular and mitochondrial lipids, proteins and DNA, but it is ROS damage to mitochondrial membrane lipids that may cause the most rapid loss of mitochondrial function. LRT along with antioxidants can circumvent ROS membrane damage and replace and restore mitochondrial and other cellular membrane functions via delivery of replacement lipids in their unoxidized, undamaged states. Recent clinical trials have shown the benefit of LRT plus antioxidants in restoring mitochondrial electron transport function and reducing fatigue. In aging subjects mitochondrial function was restored to levels found in young adults in consort with reductions in fatigue, suggesting the anti-aging and antifatigue benefits of LRT plus antioxidants in protecting mitochondrial and other cellular membranes from oxidative and other damage and preventing loss of function.