Increase Autophagy to renew your cells, increase longevity, and protect against disease.
Autophagy is a process that our bodies are constantly going through to maintain healthy cells and recycle old cells. Through this regulation of the cell cycle, normal autophagy is extremely important for lowering inflammation and preventing disease
What is Autophagy?
Autophagy is a word that translates to "self-eating" as it is derived from "Auto" (meaning self) and "Phage" (meaning eat). It is natural process occurring in the body in which damaged cells are destroyed and their organelles are recycled. It is easy to picture autophagy as Pac Man going around the body and cleaning up dead or damaged cells and organelles. Regulating autophagy is extremely important as dysfunction has been associated with diseases of the lung, liver, heart, nervous system, muscles, as well as other metabolic conditions, ageing, and cancer (1).
What are the benefits of Autophagy?
Increased autophagy can be beneficial for improving longevity, aging, and preventing disease. It does this by destroying damaged inflammatory cells/organelles which have no function, improving/regulating the immune response (2), reducing oxidative stress (2), and clearing toxic particles within cells. Autophagy has also been shown to protect against microbial infection (3) and protect the nervous system against neurodegenerative diseases (4).
How to Increase Autophagy:
Autophagy is always occurring and is increased when the body is stressed and forced to adapt. Increasing autophagy will increase the clearance of damaged cells and harmful toxins, with many possible health benefits. Here are some of the many strategies that can be implemented to increase autophagy.
1. Intermittent Fasting, Caloric Restriction, & a Ketogenic diet:
Intermittent fasting is currently one of the most popular ways to increase autophagy and caloric restriction is a proven method that can be used to extend the lifespan. The ketogenic diet is a strategy that reduces available fuel to the cells and mimics caloric restriction to increase autophagy. The ability of these three strategies to increase autophagy make them potential therapeutic options as complementary treatments for cancer (5).
2. Exercise:
As mentioned before, autophagy is activated when the body is stressed. Exercise is a minor stress to the body which activates many beneficial processes, including autophagy (6).
3. Coffee:
Many people drink coffee while fasting or on a caloric restriction diet to reduce appetite, or before exercise to increase energy levels. Not only does coffee go extremely well with all of the previously mentioned strategies, it also has been shown to help increase autophagy even further (7).
To about more benefits of coffee, check out the article here.
4. Green Tea:
Another excellent beverage for all of the previous mentioned strategies is green tea. Green tea has been shown to have numerous health benefits due to it's polyphenolic compounds. It also makes an excellent pre-workout drink providing more relaxed and focused energy (due to it's L-theanine content), all while increasing autophagy (8).
To learn more about the benefits of green tea, check out the article here.
5. Medicinal Mushroom Extracts:
Many nutritional supplement products are using medicinal mushroom extracts for benefits like relaxation, cognition, and exercise performance. Certain compounds in some of these mushroom extracts have been shown to increase autophagy and improve longevity as well. Specifically, the extract of Reishi mushroom has been shown to induce autophagy and may have preventative effects against breast cancer (9).
6. Sleep:
Melatonin is a hormone that regulates the sleep-wake cycle and has beens shown to have many benefits like reducing oxidative stress and improving the immune system. Having a good sleeping cycle is essential to melatonin production and both sleep & melatonin have been shown to increase autophagy (10, 11)
To learn some awesome strategies to improve your sleep, check out the article here.
Although autophagy is a complex process involving many nutrients and metabolic pathways, most of the regulation comes down to a proper diet, lifestyle, and not over-eating. Autophagy is a relatively new concept for longevity, but it is becoming very popular in the scientific research as a point of intervention to reduce the risk of many chronic diseases.