How to Uncover What's Silently Damaging Every Cell in Your Body (And Fix It Fast)

Think of your memory as like the antenna, as the barrier, as the receptor, as the sort of communication hub of your body. And so it has to be beautiful and working well. And when the membrane's not working well because of these damaged membranes, because of toxins and all these things we mentioned, then your cells just don't do the work that they're supposed to do. And you end up with abnormal signals in the body and that translates into symptoms and disease. Welcome back to Office Hours. Today, I'm here with my producer again, Emma, and we're going to go deep into cellular health and talk about something I've been thinking about a lot lately, membrane health. This is definitely one of those topics that sounds a little abstract at first. We hear a lot about our heart health, gut health, brain health, but not nearly as much about the membranes that are surrounding every cell in our body. So what I want to understand today is why these membranes matter so much. What happens when they aren't functioning properly? And whether there are actual things we can do to improve their health. So Mark, let's start with why this is on your radar right now. After decades of practicing functional medicine, what's changed in the science or in the way that you're thinking about health? What has made you so focused on cell membranes? Well, membranes have always been something I've thought about. And, you know, in functional medicine, we talk about structural integrity as one of the key foundational physiological systems. And that means everything from your cell membranes, even your mitochondrial membranes, all the way to your biomechanical structure. And the reason membranes are so important is the interface for cellular communication. It's where all the messages go back and forth between cells that run everything in your body. So it determines what's happening in your body. And without... Having healthy cell membranes, you can't really be healthy without having healthy mitochondrial membranes. You can't be healthy. And so there's a lot of research on this lately that's emerging around how important these membranes are and how often dysfunctional they are and how damaged they are because of our diets, because of lack of certain nutrients, because of low levels of omega-3s in our diet, low levels of choline, which are really key ingredients for healthy And if you don't have healthy cell membranes, Your cells can't receive the messages. They can't filter them. They can't process them. They can't receive the signals from other cells. And you end up with basically kind of static in your biology instead of healthy, optimal communication between cells. This episode is brought to you by Function Health, empowering you to live 100 healthy years. With over 160 lab tests for just $365 a year, and use the code MARK2026 to get $50 off your membership. What makes you so interested about this right now? What's kind of changed in your thinking over the 30-plus years that you've been practicing functional medicine? Well, I just see how critical they are for health and that they've been really neglected as a key interface in the world. And I think membranes are really important. Your gut membrane is important. In other words, your interface from your gut To your inside world, your membranes, cell membranes are important. Your brain, blood-brain barrier is important. The interfaces are really important. It's where the body actually is regulating everything that's going on in your system. So without healthy cell membranes, without healthy gut barrier membranes, without healthy blood-brain barrier membranes, Your biology starts to go into this chaotic, cacophonic, non-harmonious communication system, and that translates as disease. I think it becomes more and more important, particularly as we age, because cell membranes become damaged. It's part of the aging process, but it can be modified and it can be addressed and fixed. So you've mentioned briefly before that about a bit about what they're doing, but I want to go... even deeper. I want to pretend I'm in high school biology. What is a cell membrane actually doing? Basically, your cell membranes is a, we call it a phospholipid bilayer. So there's basically a kind of proteins on the end and fats in the middle. And it basically protects the cell from things that it shouldn't be getting in, but also acts as a way for proteins to lodge in there and and communicate by translating messages from different Protein signals from hormones, from different signaling molecules, from immune molecules, and all those have to be transmitted through this membrane. And so, you know, it basically acts as a place for cell receptors. And when you think about it, it's kind of crazy. There's billions of chemical reactions every second in the body, trillions maybe. Thank you so much, Amy. And, and. Everyone has to occur in the right way. It has to be communicated to the cells. It has to go inside the cells. It has to communicate with the DNA in the cells. It has to change protein function. So these communication systems are really essential to health. And if you don't have this fundamental membrane health, then all the subsequent steps, falter, and you end up in poor health. So this is really the foundation of good health, and it's something that's really been neglected in medicine. We don't talk about it. We don't really study it. We kind of learn about this phospholipid bilayer in college and medical school, but it's kind of not a therapeutic target. But we need to have the right phospholipids, which is things like phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylserine, which are important. Phosphatidylcholine is one of the main phospholipids in the membrane. And you also need... Omega-3 fats, and that creates fluidity and health in the membranes. For example, if you have a membrane that's made up of omega-3 fats versus trans fat, like shortening, your cells will communicate better. When you have trans fat in your membrane, it's stiff and rigid and hard, and your cells can't properly communicate. And this is really important for overall health. And if you don't have this, your health breaks down. So you... You mentioned at the end there, is there anything you want to add about what does a healthy membrane actually need? And to contrast that, is there such thing as an unhealthy cell membrane? Yeah. I mean, one of the things we do in functional medicine is I do diagnostic tests looking at fatty acids. And I can tell if there's odd chain fatty acids or funny looking fats, let's call them funny looking fats that are making up your cell membranes because they shouldn't be there. And these odd chain fatty acids cause disruption in cellular communication. It often happens with toxic overload, toxins get embedded in your membranes. In fact, you know, toxins, particularly mold, can interrupt these intracellular organelles called peroxisomes that actually make the lipid, the phospholipids that you get from your raw materials of what your diet is, they make those fats into the membrane. So the membranes are constantly turning over and we're constantly, you have a little factory inside the cells that makes the lipids. If those peroxisomes are damaged by toxins or mold, you will create these funny looking fats. So you'll have strange non-functioning membranes or poorly functioning membranes. So you end up with sickness, with illness of all sorts. And I think this is something most doctors don't understand. It's something that's modifiable through interventions that help membrane health, whether it's omega-3s. I mean, 95% of Americans don't have Uh, Omega three index over eight, which is the optimal level. And I think 50% have. Uh, one that's lower than 4%, which is really bad. And the lower your omega-3 index, it's a very high risk for cardiovascular disease and, and other, other issues like omega-3 deficiencies can lead to dementia, depression, contribute to ADHD, bipolar disease, many, many problems with cell communication, particularly brain function. I want to dive deeper into diet. So what is the fat that I eat? What does that have to do with my cell membranes? Well, basically you are what you eat, Emma. We all are what we eat. So if we're eating junk. We're creating trans fats, we're creating oxidized oils, and this is a problem. The whole seed oil thing is not, it's not the seed oils that are the problem. It's that they're often oxidized or they're essentially rancid and they can become problematic. It also is the ratio of these fats. You know, it's important to have these omega-6 fats that come from seed oils, but you also have to have the omega-3s. And most of us are very deficient or low in omega-3s that have an excess of these omega-6s. So it's not that they're bad, it's just the ratio matters. And so we end up with these very high levels of dietary omega-6s or even oxidized versions, and that can create damaged membranes. We don't have enough of omega-3s in our diet. We don't have enough choline, which comes from eggs and soy and other foods. We don't have enough of the right phospholipids that actually are really key. And things like olive oil, saturated fats are all important and construct the membrane. But if you don't have the right membranes, all of your inflammatory signals go off, Your, we call it prostaglandins, leukotrienes, they're regulators of inflammation in your body, are all determined by the fatty acids in your membranes. And if you don't have the right fatty acids, and you don't have the right fats, then your cells don't work. So we are what we eat, and you want to eat good fats. You want to have olive oil, avocados, nuts and seeds. I mean, seeds is fine. Like seed oil, people say, but seeds are great, and you can get some seed oils are fine if they're properly made from, for example, Expeller pressed or cold pressed and they're organic and so forth. It's these industrial oils that are really the problem. So I think we have to look at the full composition of the fats in our diet and include all the fats, saturated fats, omega-6 fats, omega-3 fats, choline. These are really important. And this is what your body uses inside the cells to reconstruct. The membrane and to rebuild the membrane. Once this turns over, it needs to be rebuilt. And if we're making it from crappy fats, that's going to affect our cell functioning and our health. You mentioned omega-3s there. Can you go deeper into what these omega-3s are doing inside the membrane? Yeah. I mean, omega-3s have a broad range of effects and they're structural components and they're fluid. Why do fish have omega-3s? Because they're in cold water And these fats need to stay fluid in the cold. Butter or coconut oil would get hard in the cold, but these omega-3s create membrane fluidity, which helps membrane function. They also regulate, as I said, a whole inflammatory cascade. So they regulate the inflammation through things called prostaglandins, leukotrienes, that are made through these various enzymes that are in the cell membrane to regulate inflammation in the body. So they're really a key marker. Biomarkers of inflammation control. They're also really important for brain health. They're important for membrane function in the brain. They're reducing inflammation in the body. They're helping cardiovascular health. They help reduce risk of many, many diseases, including mental health issues. And so it's really important to try to get your omega-3s from fish, ideally small fish. I call it the smash fish. Salmon, mackerel, anchovies, sardines, and herring. These are small fish. They're rich in omega-3s. They often have vitamin D as well. And they tend to have lower toxin levels. I also recommend a company called Seatopia Fish that has very much done a hard job of testing their products for microplastics and heavy metals and toxins. And it's a regeneratively raised, farm-raised fish. But farm-raised can be good or bad, depending on how you do it. You can have a regenerative bison farm that's good, and that's kind of farm-raised. Or you can have... Factory farms, which are very, very bad. So I think it's the same with fish. And we need to source our fish from the right place. We also, I think, should be taking omega-3s as well. I think most people need to look at their omega-3 index. We test this at function. It's part of the basic foundational panel. We probably have the largest data set on this, I think, ever. We have over 600,000 people who've done this. And we literally had Quest had to buy new machines in order to handle the volume of omega-3 testing we're doing. But it's such a new thing that people are checking it. And we're seeing just such low levels in the population. And we're seeing also the risk that comes from having these low levels. So really important to kind of understand what your numbers are, to get tested, and to both consume the right fish and also potentially take the right Omega-3 supplements that are from a good source, that's been third-party tested, that's tested for purity, potency, that doesn't have toxins, contaminants, that's not oxidized. It's a very hard job picking the right fish oil, but there are companies out there that actually have good quality fish oil. Men, I want you to remember three letters the next time you're at the doctor. P-S-A, and it's not public service announcement. Most guys have heard of it. Almost none of them understand it. 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And if you're one of the first thousand people this week, use the code mark 2026 for a $50 credit toward your $365 a year annual membership. I know recently you and I went really deep into insulin resistance. So does the cell membrane have anything to do with how my cells actually hear the insulin's message? Absolutely. Your cells receive every single message from every hormone, Or metabolite, or inflammatory molecule, or protein, your cells or membranes are the transducer that is used to regulate every biological function, including what's happening inside your cells and your mitochondria, energy and food, also what's happening with inflammation in your body, what's happening with DNA expression and making proteins, all that's regulated through ultimately the health of the cell membrane. And there are GLUT4 receptors. In the cell membranes that have to be functioning well in order for you to Be sensitive to insulin. And what happens is we tend to start to get these dysfunctional cell membranes and it contributes to insulin resistance. So it's kind of a vicious cycle that we get into, but it's really important to pay attention to the health of your cell membranes and to eat the foods that support those membranes and to not do the things that hurt those membranes. And sometimes you can help, but sometimes you can't, like toxins and mold and things are definitely things that tend to disrupt membrane function. But you can actually improve your membrane function by actually eating the right way doing things in the right way and taking the right supplements. So really important to make sure that you understand this because with insulin resistance, you become more and more dysfunctional. Your insulin signaling becomes disrupted. And part of how to get that straight is to repair your cell membranes so you have proper signaling through these GLUT4 receptors that are embedded within the cell membrane and have to be functioning properly in order for you to be insulin sensitive. I want to shift gears and I want to talk about the brain now. So you So you always tell us that the brain's mostly fat. Are brain cell membranes different? I mean, your brain cells are really important for everything, right? They run your body and they're unique in that your brain is made up. are mostly fat. So we're mostly fatheads. And most of that fat, about 60%, is called DHA, which is docosahexaenoic acid. In other words, omega-3 fats from fish. You can get it from algae too. The DHA, you can. But it's so important because, you know, the way the cells communicate, the membranes of your nerve cells, the synapses where cells, you know, neurotransmitters get communicated back and forth, all of this is happening through membrane function. And also myelin, which is what coats your nerve cells, it sends the signals down your nerve. All your myelin sheaths are made up of fat. So you have to have healthy fats. And if you don't have that, you won't get proper cell signaling, proper neurotransmitter function, proper brain function. And it'll affect both brain development if you're deficient in childhood and also brain aging as you get older in terms of Alzheimer's and other cognitive deficits. So your fatty acids, your membrane health. Choline, omega-3s, et cetera, are so important for your brain. Could my membrane health affect things that I actually notice, such as my memory, my mood, or my focus? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, if your cells are not healthy, you're not healthy. If your brain cells are not working well, your brain isn't working well. And it's just kind of logical that you have to have optimally functioning membranes in your brain cells, in your... neurons for those neurons to work properly and for your brain to work properly and have brain fog or cognitive deficits or mood disorders or all the things that we see in the brain. So it's really important to take care of those brain membranes, which is the same way you take care of all the membranes in your body. So what about as we age? Do my membranes look different when when I'm 60 compared to when they looked when I was 20. Yeah, there really can be, and I think a lot of the things that happen as we age lead to things like oxidative stress, more inflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, damaged proteins, senescent cells, which secrete all these inflammatory products, and all that puts a stress on the membrane. Plus often our diets aren't as good, nutritional deficiencies can become worse, particularly if you've been a lifelong not having omega-3s, which most people in America have. It's a cumulative effect. And so you'll end up with these changes in the lipids, in the fatty membrane, and you'll end up with poor cell function and then accelerated aging. Keeping your membranes really healthy is important. That's part of why we induce things like autophagy and mitophagy, which are basically self-cleaning mechanisms in the body that occur by fasting or other certain supplements that can do it, like urolithin A for mitochondria. But these lead to the repair and renewal of these things. And it eats up old parts, and basically it's like a Pac-Man, and then processes them, and then rebuilds cells from these kind of parts. It's almost like on an auto shop, and you're taking old parts, and you're building a brand new car and remodeling them. So that's so important as we age. And that whole process tends to break down. And that's why we look at the science and we see actually in terms of cellular repair and inflammation, all these things are so important. And they happen in part because we probably pay attention to the health of our cell membranes. Okay, so we've talked about what it looks like when these membranes are damaged, but what is actually damaging these cells? I mean, it's a lot of things. Our diet, number one, if we're eating, Crappy ultra-processed diet, that creates a lot of burden on the cells, one, because they're deficient in the nutrients needed to make the healthy cell membranes, and two, because they create more inflammation and oxidative stress. Too much sugar is a huge driver of cellular dysfunction and insulin resistance and oxidative stress. That also drives inflammation, another source. Anything related to inflammation will cause that, and that can be changing your microbiome, it can be toxins, it can be allergens. It can be infections, nutrient deficiencies, as I mentioned, omega-3s, choline deficiency, also very important. And when you're low in certain nutrients, you can't regulate oxidative stress, inflammation well. And any toxins like pesticides, herbicides, our cumulative exposure gets more as we get older. We live in a toxic world, unless we do something about it. And there's a lot of things to do to remove toxins from your body, but they accumulate. And those toxins, whether it's mold or petrochemical toxins or metal toxins, they all cause damage to cell membranes. And then aging itself is an inflammatory process. So you're just, you're compounding on all these factors. And so we really want to pay attention to those things that not just lead to membrane dysfunction, they lead to aging and disease. All the things I mentioned, like in smoking, poor diet, ultra processed food, toxins. So inflammatory triggers, allergen inflammation, disruption of the microbiome, across the whole spectrum of all chronic disease, those are the big players in terms of the causes. So it's the same thing that's going to prevent everything else. You just have to pay attention to these because they also affect your membranes. And it's important to focus on not just reducing those things, but also doing things you can do to build your cell membranes back up with the right raw materials. And that's kind of the... Bottom line here, there's ways you can eat and there's things you can do and ways you can live to take better care of your cell membranes. I want to dive deeper into the thing I often ask you about, which is the testing. So how do I measure this? Am I just going to my doctor and saying, hey, can I get a cell membrane health test? Is that? Is that what's happening? Yeah, not really. There's no perfect test. The best test you can get to get a general idea is the omega-3 index, which we offer a function. It's inexpensive, it's reliable, it's proven. And it tells you really where you are in the spectrum. And everybody should be over 8% of their membranes being. Omega-3 fats, as opposed to less than 4%, which you run into big problems. There's also more comprehensive fatty acid profiles that are done by labs like Kennedy Krieger Lab. They're more kind of academic or clinically used for complicated patients. You can look at red cell membrane fatty acids. That's another tool. And you can also look at lipidomics, which is looking at your lipids and what you're produced by the body. And then there's research measures that are not really used clinically. So there's no like membrane test, Looking at your overall health by measuring things, you can actually see what's going on. And I even use these fatty acid profiles to look at these odd chain fats, and I can tell, oh, this membrane's not good. There's something happening in the body that is creating these funny-looking fats that create dysfunctional communication. Think of your membrane as like the antenna, as the barrier, as the receptor, as this sort of communication hub of your body. And so it has to be beautiful and working well. And when the membrane is not working well because of these damaged membranes, because of toxins and all these things we mentioned, then your cells just don't do the work that they're supposed to do. And you end up with abnormal signals in the body and that translates into symptoms and disease. All right. So I am always on social media and I feel like there's always this obvious wellness internet question and it's, do I need to take supplements to rebuild my membranes? Yeah, I mean, so yes, you need to think about... Eating the right way and potentially taking supplements. So eating, we talked about, which is omega-3 fats from fatty small fish and also choline that comes from eggs and soybeans and a few other sources. We typically are low on both of those and they're really the foundational building blocks of your cell membranes. So you can take omega-3 supplements, you can take phosphatidylcholine supplements, you can take phosphatidylserine supplements. There's also... Phospholipids like phosphatidylserine, which makes up part of your cell membranes and regulates cortisol and other things. So you actually can take things to help support your cell membranes. You can take the right types of fatty acids and actually build the right levels of these healthy fats in your diet. So you need to eat the right foods, including the omega-6 rich foods, which are basically seeds and nuts and some other things, even beans. Soybeans have those fats in them. Sesame seeds and nuts and seeds all have these. So those are the key supplements. Well, Miss, there's another... emerging category called plasmalogens, which need more data, but they're an interesting cocktail of compounds that are fatty acids that affect membrane function. And I've seen some clinical benefits from that as well. So there are protocols. There's also kind of a poorly tested, but I think clinically often very effective protocol, which I personally use myself and I'm used with patients with chronic issues like mold, chronic fatigue, toxins, brain health issues. Cognitive decline, Parkinson's, that have been quite effective and involves intravenous phosphatidylcholine at high doses along with glutathione and other antioxidants and carnitine and other things that help properly rebuild cell function. And I've personally seen my own. Cell membranes improve through various testing and diagnostics. I've seen my own brain function improve. So while this hasn't been properly tested, I think it's a really useful tool. I think it hasn't been tested because these things are not reimbursed by insurance. There's no drug company that's going to make a lot of money from it. So I would say the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence. And sometimes we have to sort of look at what we call anecdotal data, which is enough anecdotes that make up data. These are case series and reports. And I think there's a lot there. To say that it's proven would be wrong, but to say that it's clinically useful and I reserve it for certain patients that have had real issues, it can be remarkable. And I've certainly had that with myself because I've had mold toxicity, mercury toxicity. I'm old and I have a lot of toxic built up in my system. So I've seen this really help me and I've seen the removal of these toxins. My membranes get better, my mitochondria get better. All these things improve function and that's what's important. You talked there about some experimental things. Is there anything else that you're seeing that you're actually personally doing because the evidence is strong, but we're not fully there yet for it to be available to the public? I mean, look, I think there's a lot of things that are part of the cocktail of things that are just good for your health and also help your membranes. And that includes omega-3s. Because fatty fish, choline from things like liver, soy, eggs, and even fish, it means exercise, which helps your biological function, membrane function, involves also making sure you sleep, reducing your toxic exposure. There's the things that are really key. I think supplementing sometimes with phospholipid choline in the right settings, with phospholipid serine, with omega-3s is important. I think saunas can be helpful. They really help affect heat shock proteins, which improve the overall health of the body. And they help improve, at least on a theoretical base. This is sort of some of the things that go wrong with aging and some of the damaged proteins that affect mitochondrial function and affect membrane function. And I think, you know, anything that antioxidants are great because oxidative stress is what damages the membranes. So that antioxidants can be lipoic acid, astaxanthin, which comes from, you know, algae. It can be polyphenols from colorful plant foods. All of these things are really important in actually regulating oxidative stress, which will damage your cell membranes. So. Controlling that's important. It's not that we eliminate oxidative stress. It's an important cell signaling process. We have the redox process, but we don't want to over-index on it. And most of us are high levels of oxidative stress would ultimately cause a lot of tissue damage, cell damage, membrane damage. And that's something we can address through diet, through supplements and other approaches. Wonderful. So I appreciate your insight on this. As we close out, what would be kind of your main takeaway for individuals that are listening or watching to this conversation? Check your omega-3 index. Eat fatty smash fish at least two to three times a week. Have liver, eggs, soy, or take choline supplements on a regular basis. Important. And make sure you reduce your exposures to toxins and mold and metals as much as possible. And there's a lot of ways to do that. The Environmental Working Group is a great resource for that. I'm on the board there. Make sure you're... Actually taking care of yourself through adequate sleep, exercise, whole foods diet, so forth. So you're actually supplying all the raw materials for health and you're not accelerating membrane damage. So it's just all the common sense stuff. It's just a different lens we're looking at it through that people mostly don't think about, which is the membrane health of your body. So basically, I want you to understand that membrane health isn't about some new biohacking technique. It's actually understanding why some of the age old practices that promote health actually work. It means healthy whole foods diet, healthy fats. Omega-3s, exercise, sleep, reducing toxic exposure, all these things contribute to your health in many ways, but particularly through how they affect the health of your cell membranes. Hey, everybody, it's Dr. Mark here. I'm so excited to share that my new book is officially available for pre-order today. After more than 30 years of practicing medicine and caring for tens of thousands of patients, I've written the book that brings everything together that I've learned about helping people get healthy and stay healthy as they age. It's called 100. What to do today to live 100 healthy years is a whole body guide to living 100 healthy years. It's grounded in a new understanding of how our bodies work. It's the new map of the body. 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