What's Mitochondrial Disease?

Mitochondrial disease is when your body’s tiny energy factories don’t work properly.

Imagine your cells are like little workers in a big factory. They need energy to do their jobs, and that energy comes from mitochondria, which are like the tiny engines inside each cell. These engines take food and turn it into fuel so your body can move, think, grow, everything!

Normally, mitochondria make a lot of power for your body to use. But when someone has mitochondrial disease, these little engines don’t work as well. It’s like if the engines in your toy car started sputtering and couldn’t go very fast anymore.

This can happen in one part of the body or all over, like if your legs feel tired after walking a few steps, or if your brain feels foggy when you try to learn something new. Sometimes it even affects how your heart beats or how your eyes see.

Because mitochondria are in almost every cell, mitochondrial disease can cause problems in many different ways, like when your body is trying to run a big race but only has one little engine instead of many!