that theory doesn't seem to encompass all that is know.
> Wallace notes: “The mitochondrial theory of aging holds that as we live and produce ATP, our mitochondria generate oxygen free radicals that inexorably attack our mitochondria and mutate our mitochondrial DNA.”1
if aging is killing the mitochondria, why then the mother passing mitochondria to the offspring give them a blank state if they got dna-damaged mitochondria to begin with?
The mitochondria that mothers pass down are from a special group of cells that already existed when the mother was born and they are kept in a special, protected state that minimizes damage.
[1] https://www.medcentral.com/pain/chronic/low-level-laser-ther...
[2] https://weberlasersystems.com/collections/books