Want to revitalize your cells? Autophagy can help with that!
Among the myriad of benefits that fasting provides, autophagy, in my opinion, is the most amazing.
If you’ve never heard the term before, autophagy literally means “self eating” — it’s when our bodies identify old or damaged cell material to either destroy or recycle for cellular repair.
Think of it as one of those junk removal services that will come to your house and haul away anything that’s no longer serving its purpose. When autophagy is activated, our bodies clean out the cellular components that have become “junk,” either eliminating them all together or breaking them down and recycling them into new components that the cell can reuse for repair or energy purposes.
It’s cleaning and recycling all wrapped into one tidy package!
The Benefits of Autophagy
Autophagy not only improves cellular function, it protects and regenerates cells, and encourages the formation of new stem cells — which is one of the most powerful anti-aging tools around.
Research is finding that people who spend significant amounts of time in autophagy have a lower risk of chronic diseases, too, particularly neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s and heart disease. And it can eliminate harmful bacteria and infection in the body as well.
The #1 benefit of autophagy in my book, however, is the role it can play in reducing a person’s risk for cancer.
There’s been a lot of incredible research happening around this potential, especially by Dr. Valter Longo — I would highly recommend looking into it!
To put it simply, cancer cells have damaged mitochondria (the “powerhouses” of our cells) — the cellular respiration system in a cancer cell is broken. And because autophagy works to clean up damaged mitochondria and restore it to proper function, it stands to reason that inducing autophagy could have massive implications for cancer prevention.
If your mitochondrial respiratory system stays intact and functioning as it should, you’re not likely to develop cancer.
Fascinating, isn’t it?
How to Promote Autophagy
We know that all disease and dysfunction begins at the cell level…which is why I focus my work on helping people repair their cellular health. And actively inducing autophagy is an important piece of that puzzle!
Because autophagy is triggered when glucose and insulin levels in the body drop, fasting and ketogenic eating are the most effective ways to jump start it.
There’s some evidence that autophagy may begin as soon as 18 or 19 hours into a fast, but maximum benefits are likely achieved after three or four days.
Intermittent fasting, partial fasting, and of course full water fasting will all have benefits, with the full water fast “packing the most punch” from an autophagy standpoint.
As always, check with your doctor first before beginning any kind of fast or dramatic lifestyle change to make sure it’s safe for you, especially if you have a chronic disease or are taking medications.
For my tips on how to begin fasting and/or get into ketosis, check out this blog. There’s no doubt about it — fasting can be difficult in the beginning! But like anything in life, it gets easier the more you practice…I promise!
Outside of fasting or eating a ketogenic diet, the following can also help promote autophagy:
- Getting restorative sleep
- Engaging in hot/cold therapy (for example cold showers, cryotherapy, etc.)
- Eating certain food & drinks that are high in polyphenols that reduce oxidative stress like:
- Cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli and kale
- Mushrooms
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Green tea
- Organic coffee (I recommend Purity Coffee)
- Red wine (I recommend Dry Farm Wines)
Engaging in these recommendations will promote enough autophagy over time that a person will still get very significant benefits even if they never fast…but I still recommend fasting as the quickest, most efficient way to achieve a clinically significant level of autophagy.
