Andrew Huberman· PhD
Basically, your mitochondria, they're like a little battery, so they have, well, they have a double membrane, first of all, their structure, but they have a negative charge on the inside, and they have a positive charge on the inner membrane, so in between the outer membrane and the inside part. - Like a neuron. - Like a neuron, yeah. - [Andrew] Yeah, cool. - So I guess, it's like a neuron. It's like a battery, negative and positive. Well, basically, you can uncouple that charge, and so that positive charge proton start leaking out of the mitochondria, and your mitochondria freak out. So this is called uncoupling it. It's maximum respiration, as we call it. They try to make as much energy. They're like, "I got to get that proton back, "that gradient, electrochemical gradient." And so they just go insane. In this case, it's uncoupled energy, so the energy they're making is actually heat, not ATP, but you're essentially burning substrate, so who cares? You're burning glucose. You're burning lipids. You're basically burning things and making heat.