mitochondrial uncoupling
Article
mitochondrial uncoupling is a recurring concept in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 2 times across 2 issues between March 02, 2021 and March 07, 2021. The archive places it in contexts such as “In the past few years, there’s been something of a renaissance in the mitochondrial uncoupling space”; “ethical issues about my post last week on DNP and mitochondrial uncoupling”. It most often appears alongside DNP, 1938 FDA, 2,4-dinitrophenol.
Metadata
- Category: Concepts
- Mention count: 2
- Issue count: 2
- First seen: March 02, 2021
- Last seen: March 07, 2021
Appears In
Related Pages
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- DNP (2 shared issues)
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- 1938 FDA (1 shared issues)
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- 2,4-dinitrophenol (1 shared issues)
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- 2,4-dinitrophenol (1 shared issues)
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- ATP carrier (1 shared issues)
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- AK-47 (1 shared issues)
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- BAM-15 (1 shared issues)
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- Britain (1 shared issues)
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- British (1 shared issues)
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- British tabloids (1 shared issues)
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- brown fat (1 shared issues)
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- Cerastes (1 shared issues)
External Links
Source Context
Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.
In the 1930s, a shady outfit called Isabella Laboratories made a popular over-the-counter diet pill called Formula 281 (slogan: "281 for the too weighty one"). If you're familiar with any of: the 1930s, shady pharma, or diet pills, your next question will be "did it contain amphetamines?". Actually, no! It contained 2,4-dinitrophenol, a mitochondrial uncoupling agent.
Inline links: Formula 281
DNP is a mitochondrial uncoupling agent. Remember, mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell. They pump protons across a membrane, creating pressure for electrons to follow. This forms an electrical gradient which your body exploits to create the "energy currency" ATP. To "uncouple" mitochondria means to punch holes in the membrane, letting the protons leak back through and "wasting" the energy as heat. This makes your body's energy production less efficient, meaning you have to burn more calories per amount of metabolism you want to do. Hence the weight loss. But replacing otherwise-useful energy with waste heat can have some nasty consequences.
But all is not lost. In the past few years, there’s been something of a renaissance in the mitochondrial uncoupling space.
1. Several people brought up ethical issues about my post last week on DNP and mitochondrial uncoupling. In order to help me form a policy on this, I've made a survey about it, which you can find at the bottom of this post. I'm not going to talk about it more for now so that I don't bias your survey answers, but I might discuss it more in the future.