Autophagy: The Real Way to Cleanse Your Body

It's time to put those cleansing juices and detox diets on the shelf. Because they're nothing more than nonsense. You can try losing weight with cabbage juice, of course. But as long as you continue to eat, these cleansing fruit and vegetable juices won't speed up the detoxification process for your body.

Now, I can move on to the good news. Much is still unknown about how our bodies truly cleanse themselves. This self-cleaning process is entirely within your control.

All you need is to be a little bit of your own cannibal.

You're surprised, aren't you?

Yes, you heard right.

You can train your body to eat itself. It's hard to believe, but you'll want to train your body in this.

This process is actually a natural process called autophagy (literally, "self-eating"). It's like your body is doing a kind of house cleaning for itself: the cells in your body produce membranes that trap dead or damaged cellular debris. These membranes quickly break down and eliminate the dead and damaged cellular debris. The same membranes then use the molecules produced in this process for the energy needed to create new cells.

Dr. Colin Camp, an assistant professor of radiation therapy at Pittsburgh Medical Center, views this process as "your body's innate recycling program." He continues, "Autophagy turns us into gears that can easily get rid of old parts, effectively stopping cancerous growths and metabolic disorders like obesity and diabetes."

There is also significant evidence that this process keeps inflammation and the immune system under control. Scientists, When they experimented with mice in which the autophagy process was not functioning, they observed that these mice were heavier and sleepier than the others; their cholesterol levels were higher; and they had damage to large parts of their brains.

In short, the way to stop aging is through autophagy. And you can easily learn how to make this process work better.

Three Paths to Self-Destruction

The question, "How can I eat myself?", is probably one you haven't asked yourself before. Let us tell you before you ask. First of all, autophagy is a response to stress. Therefore, if you want to eat your own body a little more, you will need to stress your body out. (We realize this article is getting weird, but trust us and keep reading.)

As is often the case, short-term discomfort brings many long-term benefits. We've compiled three ways to strengthen autophagy, your body's ability to eat itself. The first is exercise, the second is fasting at regular intervals, and the last is reducing carbohydrate intake.

1. Exercise

If sweating and post-workout discomfort don't mean much to you, let us explain: Exercising puts stress on the body. In fact, training damages your muscles, which leads to microscopic sweating. The body then reacts to stop this sweating. This makes the muscles stronger and more resistant to future "damage."

Regular exercise is actually the best-known way to help cleanse our bodies without us even realizing it. (That's precisely why you feel refreshed and rejuvenated after exercising.)

In one study, autophagosomes, structures that form around cells that our bodies decide to recycle, were examined. In the study conducted with mice, scientists, Researchers found that after running on a treadmill for 30 minutes, the rate at which mice healthily destroy their own cells increased. Furthermore, the autophagosomes in these mice were observed to be highly mobile and active. This rate continued to increase until the mice ran for 80 minutes. (Following this experiment, the scientist leading the study decided to buy a treadmill.)

While this is the case in mice, what about humans? Daniel Klionsky, a cell biologist at the University of Michigan specializing in autophagy, answered this question as follows: “Determining the duration and intensity of exercise necessary to initiate autophagy and reach its optimal level is currently quite difficult. However, there is no doubt that exercise offers many benefits for your overall health, beyond its potential role in autophagy.” Especially if you enjoy challenging workouts, you're one step ahead. Similarly, radiation therapist Colin Champ recommends relatively more intense exercise to maximize benefits.

2. Fast/Experience Intermittent Fasting

Interestingly, those who believe they "cleanse" their bodies by drinking detoxifying fruit and vegetable juices are actually doing something anti-autophagy when they eat meals. While skipping meals is initially a stressful factor that the body dislikes, ultimately skipping these meals provides significant benefits.

At this point, some studies show that intermittent fasting or abstaining from food has tremendous benefits in reducing the risk of developing diabetes and heart disease. And this miraculous property is actually directly related to autophagy.

However, numerous studies have focused on how fasting/intermittent fasting promotes autophagy in the brain. This leads us to the conclusion that fasting or intermittent fasting may significantly reduce the risk of developing neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

Furthermore, some studies have shown that intermittent fasting improves cognitive functions, brain structures, and neuroplasticity. This means the brain can learn more easily. However, it is not certain whether autophagy is the primary factor in this, and these studies have been conducted on rodents. Since humans are not the same as rodents, it may not always be possible to predict that the results from these studies will be the same for humans.

Participants specify this fasting period as 12 to 36 hours. The important point here is to drink plenty of water during this time. (You can also limit your exercise to light yoga and stretching.)

3. Reduce Carbohydrate Intake

Dr. Colin Camp, an assistant professor and radiation therapist at Pittsburgh Medical Center, practices this by fasting for 18 hours a day, two days a week. However, he notes that this fasting period can be quite challenging for a normal person. This is where it's thought that sometimes skipping meals can be beneficial. (In this sense, one study observed that fasting for one day a month in this way reduced the risk of heart disease.) Actually, there's another way to reap similar benefits without giving up your beloved boneless steak. (The only thing you'll have to give up is sugar and sweets.)

This alternative approach is called ketosis. This ketogenic diet is becoming increasingly popular, especially among bodybuilders and those who want to live longer. The main idea is to reduce carbohydrate intake to such a level that the body is forced to use only fats as an energy source.

Ketosis allows you to burn body fat while keeping your muscles intact. Similarly, there is some evidence that ketosis helps the body fight cancerous cells, reduces the risk of developing diabetes, and protects the brain, particularly against diseases such as epilepsy. (A study conducted within this scope...) researchStudies have shown that at least half of the children with epilepsy who follow this ketogenic diet experience a reduction in epileptic seizures.

"The ketogenic diet is like autophagy," Champ said, continuing, "By following a ketogenic diet, you can experience metabolic changes and benefits similar to those of intermittent fasting, but without actually going hungry."

Ketogenic diets are very high in fat: 60% to 70% of a person's total calories should come from fat. (Foods like steak and peanut butter are great sources of ketones.) In this diet, proteins make up 20-30% of calories, while daily carbohydrate intake is kept below 50 grams.

If this ketogenic diet sounds more difficult than intermittent fasting, there's no harm in trying. Colin Champ also says that similar benefits are seen in people following diets where carbohydrates don't exceed 30% of total calories.

Is there an easier way?

Unfortunately, no. However, I can say that if researchers could combine the positive health effects of autophagy into a pill, it would be very profitable. I can tell you that there are studies underway to make this a reality.

Klionsky, who specializes in autophagy, says in this context, "Studies are underway to activate autophagy with chemicals because it is much easier, but there is still a long way to go."

Champ points out that anti-epileptic drugs are being developed that produce effects similar to those of ketosis. If these efforts become more widespread, we may be able to trigger autophagy effortlessly with a small pill.

But I think you shouldn't get your hopes up too much: "So many metabolic changes occur during ketosis that it might not be possible to compile all of them into a pill. You might need the stress that occurs in the body during ketosis to achieve the same benefits," says Champ.

It's also important to remember that we don't require you to fast all day, be in ketosis, or exercise constantly to experience the positive effects listed above. Even practicing any of these for a few hours will be sufficient.

Conclusion

There is an important point to emphasize here: that stress and self-destruction prolong lifespan. “How we survive stressful times like famine and starvation is actually something we inherited from our ancestors and evolved over time. Of course, hunger and excessive exercise can kill us, but we have learned how to adapt the characteristics and mechanisms our bodies used to cope with these things centuries ago to benefit from them today,” says Champ.

Klionsky, however, points out that there is much that is unknown about the autophagy process and says it is too early to say that autophagy will be a definitive cure for cancer, make you a genius, or delay aging.

"The main problem is that observing autophagy, especially in a living mechanism like the human mechanism, is still difficult," he said.

In conclusion, we can say this: Regular exercise and periodically limiting carbohydrate intake provide a tremendous number of benefits for your body and activate the autophagy process. The essence lies in a stronger, leaner, and cleaner body. And that's what we mean by detox.

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This article, greatist.comIt was taken from [source] and translated into Turkish.  Habit Gıda AŞ bears no responsibility for the content of this article. This article is for informational purposes only, translated from English to Turkish, and does not contain any health advice. Habit Gıda AŞ cannot be held responsible for any health problems that may arise in readers as a result of this article. Readers should not take any action based on the content of this article without consulting their doctor regarding their health condition. You should consult your doctor about all matters related to your health.