Food First, Pharma Last - Part Two of our Interview with Chris Masterjohn

Mad in America: Rethinking Mental Health

Mad in America

Mental Health, Medicine, Health & Fitness

4.7 • 212 Ratings

🗓️ 28 January 2026

⏱️ 44 minutes

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Summary

This week, we are joined by Chris Masterjohn, PhD. Chris is a nutritional scientist, a former professor, and the founder of Mitome. With a PhD in nutritional science and years of research in mitochondrial biology, Chris's work focuses on translating peer-reviewed science into practical tools for human health.

At Mitome, Dr. Masterjohn pioneered the first analysis designed to measure mitochondrial respiratory chain function directly, identifying individual energy bottlenecks and guiding personalized science-backed protocols to optimize the system responsible for over 90% of cellular energy production. His mission is to bring mitochondrial testing out of the rare disease space and into everyday health.

In part 2, we discuss the biochemistry of our stress response and the potential benefits of balanced nutrition for those in psychiatric drug withdrawal.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Mad in America podcast, your source for science, psychiatry, and social justice.
0:14.7	Welcome to the Mad in America podcast. My name is Brooks Heem, and I am the author of the award-winning memoir on antidepressant
0:21.2	withdrawal may cause side effects.
0:23.3	Today I am back with Chris Masterjohn, Ph.D. This is Part 2.
0:28.9	Chris is a nutritional scientist, former professor, and founder of Mitome.
0:33.2	With a PhD in nutritional sciences and years of research in mitochondrial biology, his work focuses
0:38.8	on translating peer-reviewed science into practical tools for human health.
0:43.5	At Mitome, Dr. Master John pioneered the first analysis designed to measure mitochondrial
0:48.4	respiratory chain function directly, identifying individual energy bottlenecks and guiding personalized science-back protocols to optimize
0:56.2	the system responsible for over 90% of cellular energy production. His mission is to bring
1:01.9	mitochondrial testing out of the rare disease space and into everyday health. If you haven't listened
1:07.1	to part one, I would recommend that you go back and give it a listen. We do get into a lot of
1:13.7	the more nitty-gritty science of Chris's work and its connection to serotonin and antidepressants.
1:19.7	And we are going to do a little bit more of that here before getting into more practical strategies
1:25.2	and how we can take Chris's work and apply it to the day-to-day life of people
1:29.3	who are recovering from withdrawal and psychiatric drugs. So, Chris, thank you for taking the time
1:34.7	to come back and talk with me. Thank you for having me. All right. We're just going to jump right
1:38.7	into it because last time we were talking, we ran out of time just as we started to talk about the Sigma 1 receptor.
1:47.4	And the reason why this is important is because when it comes to antidepressants, we spend a lot
1:52.6	of time talking about serotonin and serotonin receptors and serotonin system. But you have hypothesized
1:58.9	that another receptor called the Sigma 1 receptor is quite involved when it comes to antidepressants,
2:05.3	and it may help explain a little bit of why withdrawal can be so difficult for some people.
	...

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