Mitochondria and Neurodegeneration
As we now know, a complex chain of events causes faulty mitochondria to take over a small number of your cells as you age, causing them to spew forth damaging free radicals into your body. From a recent paper in Nature: "Many lines of evidence suggest that mitochondria have a central role in ageing-related neurodegenerative diseases. Mitochondria are critical regulators of cell death, a key feature of neurodegeneration. Mutations in mitochondrial DNA and oxidative stress both contribute to ageing, which is the greatest risk factor for neurodegenerative diseases. ... Thus, therapies targeting basic mitochondrial processes, such as energy metabolism or free-radical generation, or specific interactions of disease-related proteins with mitochondria, hold great promise."