The Fire Inside: Energy, Oxidative Stress, & How We Burn Without Breaking

There’s a kind of tired that sleep doesn’t fix.

A kind of fog that green smoothies can’t touch. A sense, quiet, persistent, that your body’s running on fumes, even when you’re “doing everything right".

This is often where people end up in my work. Not in full collapse, but somewhere murky. Low energy. Slowed repair. Hormones a bit off. Brain not quite online.

They don’t need more hustle. They need a better burn.

Where Energy Really Comes From

In Where Energy Begins, we opened the door to mitochondria, the tiny structures inside your cells that turn food and oxygen into usable energy.

But mitochondria aren’t machines. They’re not neutral. They’re deeply alive, deeply responsive, and deeply affected by how you live, eat, move, and rest.

Every moment, they’re making ATP, the molecular currency your body uses to function. But in the process, they also create sparks. A necessary part of the burn.

The problem isn’t the spark. The problem is when there’s no plan for the cleanup.

What Oxidative Stress Actually Is

When mitochondria make energy, they generate what’s known as reactive oxygen species, or ROS. These are unstable molecules, think of them like sparks from a fire.

In small amounts, they’re useful. They signal, repair, defend. But when they build up faster than your body can clear them, they start causing damage. That’s oxidative stress.

It’s not “bad oxygen". It’s not a detox buzzword. It’s your mitochondria asking for support, because the fire has been burning too long without someone tending to it.

And just like smoke in a room, too much ROS starts to interfere with everything: your brain, your mood, your hormones, your recovery. Even your ability to make energy in the first place.

The Feedback Loop No One Talks About

Oxidative stress doesn’t just happen in isolation. It links up with inflammation in a kind of biological echo chamber. Here’s how the loop goes:

• Mitochondria make energy → ROS increases

• Too much ROS damages cells → the body flags danger

• Inflammation kicks in → immune cells release more ROS

• ROS rises → more damage → more inflammation

• And the cycle continues

You don’t always feel when it starts. But over time, it shows up as that wired-but-wilted feeling. That ache that lingers. That sense that your body is always working, but never recovering.

Why It Matters

Oxidative stress isn’t just about ageing or “toxins". It’s about capacity.

Your body’s ability to make energy without harming itself in the process. To respond to stress and come back to baseline. To rise to the moment, and still return to rest.

When oxidative stress is high and support is low, that capacity narrows. And everything else, digestion, hormones, mood, clarity, gets squeezed.

What Helps (And What Doesn’t)

You don’t need to fight oxidative stress. You need to support the systems that manage it.

Your body already has genes and enzymes built for this. SOD2, GPX1, CAT, Nrf2, your internal cleanup crew. But like any system, they need the right materials, and the right conditions. That means:

• Foods like Broccoli (especially sprouts) that contain Sulforaphane to help turn on protective genes, not just mop up damage

• Nutrients like selenium, zinc, polyphenols, flavonoids

• Enough sleep to repair

• Breathing that calms, not constricts

• Movement that signals strength without tipping into excess

It also means knowing when not to add more. More supplements, more stressors, more pressure to “optimise". Because sometimes the best thing for your mitochondria is a warm bowl of food, a deep breath, and less input.

The Point Isn’t Perfect Energy

The point is to burn without breaking. To make the kind of energy that powers you and clears the load, no debris, no drag. The kind that rises and softens. That powers, and recovers.

Your mitochondria aren’t asking for control. They’re asking for rhythm. For signals that it’s safe to make energy without going into survival mode.

This isn’t about hacking your system. It’s about tending to the fire that fuels everything else. Not to make it perfect, just to burn energy without breaking.

Because when your cells feel supported, everything else gets a little easier.

Want to see where the science comes from? For the extra curious, the references are here.