What is Autophagy?
Autophagy is a crucial cellular process responsible for degrading and recycling cellular components. The term autophagy comes from the GREEK word Auto(self) and Phagy( eating) meaning” self-eating.” The process helps cells maintain their health by removing damaged proteins, organ cells and other cellular debris particularly under stress conditions like nutrient deprivation.
The study of Autophagy gained international prominence when Dr. Yoshinori Ohsumi, a Japanese molecular biologist, made groundbreaking discoveries in this field. In 2016 ,Dr. Ohsumi was awarded the nobel prize in physiology or medicine for his pioneering work on the mechanisms of autophagy.
Why is autophagy important for human health?
Autophagy is like a cleaning and decluttering process that happens inside our cells ,So just like we declutter and clean our house to get rid of unwanted things and keep it tidy. Our cells have a similar function to clean up unnecessary stuff. In other words imagine your cells as individual little houses with different rooms and lots of tiny machinery inside them and sometimes these rooms get cluttered with old and damaged things that just aren’t needed any more like broken proteins or worn out cell parts or even harmful invaders like viruses. So autophagy is like a team of tiny cleaners that goes into these cluttered rooms and just pick up all of that junk .It is also a master of recycling. It breaks down those useless or damaged things into smaller pieces to recycle those smaller pieces into a new and useful things, so by doing this decluttering and recycling things autophagy helps our cells to stay healthy and function properly. its a kind of like a maintenance crew that just keeps everything all in order to get rid of all those things that could be causing us problems or just slow down our system.
So what that means for our cells and body as a whole is that autophagy creates rejuvenation effect, it removes damaged or dysfunctional or unnecessary elements and helps our cells stay nice and healthy to function at peak levels.
Benefits of autophagy:
Disease prevention: Autophagy plays a critical role in cleaning out the misfolded or aggregated proteins that can accumulate inside our brain cells which is something that is associated with diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Cancer prevention: It helps in prevention of cancer by removing of unhealthy and damaged cells which are dividing abnormally ,that can play a role in supporting cancer initiation.
Longevity: Autophagy has been linked to both cellular rejuvenation and longevity, because it removes damaged components and supports cellular health. therefore it can help to delay the aging process and promote longevity. It does not just slow down aging on inside but also slow down the external signs as well.
Skin health: As we grows longer our body cells get damaged which leads to visible signs of aging like wrinkles and skin sagging ,dullness but by promoting cellular repair and renewal autophagy can help to delay onset of these signs by clearing out unwanted cells thus contribute to more healthy and youthful skin.
Immune system support: our immune system functions better by getting rid of pathogens like viruses and harmful bacterial area which ultimately enhances our immunity responses. It also helps to protect against infections.
Detoxification: Autophagy helps in cleaning out toxins. Another beautiful thing that autophagy does is to clear harmful substances from the body. The process thus benefit both how we feel and also how we look because it reduces skin inflammation and acne and other skin issues that can be related to toxin buildup.
Metabolism: Autophagy helps to regulate our metabolism so during the period of nutrient deprivation when we just do not have enough food, it is a survival mechanism that enable our cells to break down their own components to generate energy.
It also helps to maintain energy balance that supports cell survival.
SO NOW WE KNOW THAT WHAT AUTOPHAGY IS ANG HOW IT BENEFITS OUR BODY. THE NEXT QUESTION OF COURSE IS HOW DO WE GET OUE BODY TO DO MORE OF IT BECAUSE THE THING IS OUR BODY DO ALREADY HAVE THE CAPACITY FOR AUTOPHAGY.IT IS A PROGRAME THAT WE ALL HAVE RUNNING INSIDE US.
Here are some of the ways by which we can help our body to do more amazing things. These are:
Intermittent fasting: The most effective methods stimulating autophagy is with intermittent fasting which basically involves restricting our eating windows such as practicing the 16-18 method. In other words fasting for 16 hours and eating within just an 8 hour window.
Exercise: Autophagy works through exercise. Regular physical activity including both aerobic exercise and resistance training has been shown to enable and process of autophagy so what i would recommend is to aim for a contribution of cardiovascular workouts and strength training to really reap the benefits of this. However any type of movement can give you that benefit to boost autophagy.
Hit: Hit workouts in particular seem to stimulate autophagy .it involves short bursts of intense exercise followed by periods of rest or lower intensity.
Balanced diet: Maintain a balanced diet consuming a nutrient-rich diet with a balance of carbohydrates ,proteins and fats plus micro-nutrients like vitamins and minerals.
Reduced refined sugars: Intake of added sugars and processed foods can absolutely impair your body’s ability to carry out autophagy, these foods can trigger inflammation and metabolic dysfunction which really gets in the way of your body’s natural repair mechanisms.
Get adequate sleep: It plays a crucial role in regulating of variety of physiological processes in your body including autophagy, so the best thing to do is to aim 7 to 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep each single night to support optimal cellular repair and rejuvenation.
Manage stress: The last way is to manage stress. There are plenty of ways to practice stress management like Meditation, Deep Breathing, Exercise, Yoga or even taking up hobbies that can help you to relax ,to feel you better. The fact is that you are boosting a process of autophagy inside your body.
CONCLUSION: That’s all from my side, I hope you understand and try to implement the process of autophagy in your life that can help you to live longer, prevent you from diseases and helps you to look more youthful.
I hope that this was helpful to take the deeper dive into autophagy and how it can benefit you, how you can get your body to do more of it.
I am really curious to know if you are motivated to make some changes now to improve your body’s ability to do this amazing work.
GOOD BYE !
STAY TUNED, WE WILL MEET VERY IN THE NEXT POST.