It drives me crazy whenever I see someone promoting a “cleanse” these days! The idea that our body can’t “detox” itself isn’t based on any science and continues to be used as a marketing scheme to steal your money. What they don’t tell you is that the body is already designed to detoxify itself! It “purges” toxins through, sweat, urine, stool, and breathing. And the organs that are responsible for that include the kidneys, liver, intestines, skin, lymphatic system, and respiratory system. However, there is another form of “cleansing” that our body does, which is autophagy. You may not know what autophagy is or why it’s essential, but if there ever were a cleanse in the truest sense of the word, this would be it. 

 Care to learn more? Let’s jump right in!

The 101

The word autophagy translates into self (auto) eating (phagy). It may also be called “self-devouring.” Autophagy is a form of self-preservation. During it, the body gets rid of damaged or dysfunctional cells and creates new, healthier ones. The reason it does so is that the old cells pick up a bunch of “dirt” in the form of oxidized particles and eventually start falling apart. Think of it like an old, rusty car; over time, it stops working at its best and needs repair. The body “repairs” itself by purging the cells that can start to clog things up. If left alone, they’ll lead to age-related diseases and decline. The purpose of autophagy is to keep the body thriving and maintain a state of cellular balance (aka, homeostasis). [1]

According to board-certified cardiologist Dr. Luiza Petre, “It is recycling and cleaning at the same time, just like hitting. Reset button to your body. Plus, it promotes survival and adaptation as a response to various stressors and toxins accumulated in our cells. [2] 

Benefits

Why care about autophagy? For the benefits, of course! Here’s why autophagy is important for your health!

• Prevention: Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cancer- these diseases are all linked to inflammation and dysfunction in our cells. Autophagy can prevent them from happening by removing any toxic or defective cells that could trigger disease. Dr. Petre explains it best, “This is how the body polices the cancer villains. Recognizing and destroying what went wrong and triggering the repairing mechanism does contribute to lowering the risk of cancer.” [2] Keep in mind that although the cure for cancer does not exist (which is why you should never self-treat with Dr. Google), prevention is always key. Right now, researchers are scrambling to see how autophagy could play a role in future treatments. [3] Keep an eye on this space! 
• Anti–Aging: It’s one thing to live a long life; it’s another to focus on the quality of life. Like my workouts in the ZGYM, I’m all for quality over quantity. Just like I wouldn’t want to do work out for hours with minimal effort and get mediocre results, I don’t want to live to an old age and have poor health. I want to spend the remainder of my life independent, healthy, and free. Not confined to a wheelchair or stuck in a nursing home. While autophagy can’t stop the aging process, it can affect how the body ages. Age-related health decline is preventable when autophagy is in good order! [4]
• Inflammation and Immune Function: Diabetes, arthritis, IBD (inflammatory bowel disease), hepatitis, asthma, autoimmune disease- all of these are tied to inflammation. Many studies show autophagy helps to reduce inflammation, from arthritis to IBD. It also removes pro-immune response molecules and pathogens that may further drive inflammation. [5] [6] 
• Without overcrowding this post with tons of information, autophagy is also beneficial for our skin, muscles, energy, DNA, and overall well-being (supporting every cell, nerve, system, and organ in the body). [7] [8] [8]

How to Increase It

Here’s the bad news about autophagy. It naturally slows down as we age. But don’t give up just yet! There are many ways to maintain and increase it, none of which requires any juice cleanses or starvation.

• Exercise: Music to my ears! The best way to “detox” is by getting your sweat on! Studies on athletes have shown intense exercise to be the most potent trigger of autophagy in muscle. [10] Research from the Frontiers of Physiology shows that people who played a sport throughout their life (such as football) had “significantly” higher levels of autophagy and were “biologically” younger than people who didn’t exercise. [11] Outside of sports, science has nailed the best form of exercise for stimulating autophagy- high-intensity interval training. It provides a “healthy” amount of stress to get the body to go into repair mode, activating autophagy. [12] Turns out, there’s something to be said about shorter workouts after all!
• Fasting: Specifically, intermittent fasting. Not starvation! Intermittent fasting is when you alternate between periods of “eating” and “not eating” (fasting). There are many ways to do it- skip breakfast, and eat between lunch and dinner, or skip dinner and eat between breakfast and lunch. By fasting, you’re giving your body a chance to focus on repairing and removing waste, build up, and dysfunctional cells. Dr. Anthony Gustin, DC, MS, and founder of Perfect Keto recommends aiming for at least 14 hours of fasting to get the benefits! [13] 
• Low Carb and Keto: Getting into a ketogenic state where your body is burning mostly fat and ketones for fuel is known to trigger autophagy. Some experts even call it a reliable alternative to fasting. According to the experts at Perfect Keto, “The keto diet activates many of the same pathways in your body that fasting does. One is your AMPK pathway, which is a strong trigger of autophagy.” [13] (For more on keto and intermittent fasting, check out this post here.) Another reason to go keto has to do with blood sugar and insulin. That’s because blood sugar spikes insulin, which interferes with autophagy. Not that this is always a bad thing, but if you’re looking to increase it, then keeping insulin low is going to be a priority. However, you don’t have to be keto to do this. You can also follow a low carb diet and be careful about spiking blood sugar and insulin. [13] [14]

Over to You

What do you think? Have you ever heard of autophagy? Share your thoughts with me in the comments below!

Sources:

[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1357272519300639
[2] https://www.healthline.com/health/autophagy#benefits
[3] https://academic.oup.com/carcin/article/32/7/955/2733257
[4] https://www.verywellhealth.com/how-autophagy-works-4210008
[5] https://www.nature.com/subjects/inflammatory-diseases
[6] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5529308/
[7] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6424591/
[8] https://www.cell.com/trends/cell-biology/pdf/S0962-8924(16)30209-4.pdf
[9] https://www.bbc.com/news/health-44005092
[10] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25957282
[11] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30837897
[12] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5974531/
[13] https://perfectketo.com/autophagy/#2
[14] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29056525