Did you know that your body has its own biological process for clearing out old or damaged cells, and recycling dysfunctional components to prioritize healthier, more productive ones? For billions of years, autophagy has acted as a kind of evolutionary survival mechanism in humans, by helping to optimize cellular function and energy stores in times of food scarcity, stress, or injury. In today’s world, while most of us don’t find ourselves braving harsh elements and fierce predators to hunt down our own food on a daily basis, autophagy still plays a vital role in overall health and long-term survival. Let’s look at how this remarkable mechanism may be the missing link in modern-day metabolic health, and explore how we might also manually activate it for even deeper cellular rejuvenation benefits.
How does autophagy affect metabolic health and longevity?
As the body’s natural recycling system, breaking down and repurposing damaged cellular components to use as energy to build younger, more efficient functioning parts, autophagy empowers a form of cellular resetting that keeps your other metabolic processes performing at their best. In this way, it also helps boost overall functionality, support key metabolic markers, promote healthier metabolism, improve glucose control and fat storage, reduce chronic inflammation, and promote a healthy immune system. Together, all of these things serve to lower your risk for developing chronic disease, and may even help to slow the overall aging process through enhanced cellular rejuvenation too.
Does autophagy change or decrease due to lifestyle?
Yes and no. In this modern age, our food tends to be readily available in stores, and much easier to access without the need for hunting or gathering. Much of what we eat is also mass-produced and/or overly processed for more convenient snacking, and a longer shelf-life. As a result of this constant influx of nutrients throughout the days and weeks, autophagy can downregulate or turn off, making it less efficient at clearing out cellular damage to keep our metabolic systems functioning optimally. In addition, most of us live much more sedentary lives than our ancestors did; while they often experienced long stretches of time without food, and spent large portions of their days being incredibly physically active just to survive, many of us today spend hours sitting in front of computer screens, and exercising very little. A sedentary lifestyle may also contribute to slower autophagy if it also leads to excessive weight gain. That’s because obesity can cause dangerous visceral fat to accumulate around your vital organs, which impairs their ability to function, thereby overloading autophagy with the extra work.
What happens to autophagy as we age?
As the body ages, cellular damage tends to increase, and over time, the build-up can become more taxing for autophagy to manage efficiently on its own. While it doesn’t suddenly stop working as you age, this cellular cleanup process is likely to be less productive under the added strain. Autophagy can also become impaired due to things like chronic diseases or long-term exposure to environmental pollutants, both of which tend to be more common as we age. Dysregulated – or lack of – autophagy can then lead to inflammatory conditions, including neurodegenerative disorders, cancer, autoimmune diseases, and cardiometabolic conditions.
In addition, women in their menopausal and post-menopausal years face very specific age-related autophagy challenges. Common menopause symptoms like fat-focused weight gain due to hormone fluctuations, loss of muscle mass, and reduced insulin sensitivity all lead to a greater metabolic load, which can slow autophagy’s cleanup process. As a result, women in menopause may also have a much harder time losing weight, which then puts them at an even higher risk for metabolic inflexibility (an inability to shift easily between burning glucose or fat for fuel). For all of these reasons, working to support, and even manually stimulate autophagy can be an incredibly powerful tool for menopausal women, and all aging adults.
How can diet, exercise, and fasting activate autophagy?
Since autophagy is a natural biological process that increases when your cells experience certain stressors which deprive them of nutrients or oxygen, you can technically increase your autophagy rate by regularly practicing things like traditional calorie restricted diets (CR), prolonged fasting (more than 72 hours), or even high-intensity workouts like HIIT (high-intensity interval training) or sprinting. It’s important to note, however, that each of these approaches comes with its own unique challenges, risks, and shortcomings:
- Daily caloric restriction of 20-40% has been shown to activate autophagy, but studies suggest that achieving more meaningful and sustained autophagy-related benefits requires longer periods of time on a CR diet (often 15 days to several months), which can be difficult for many people to adhere to comfortably.
- High-intensity exercise that creates short bursts of energy using less oxygen has been shown to ramp up autophagy in response to metabolic stress. Exercise-induced autophagy lasts for shorter bursts of time, however, and benefits tend to be most active in muscle tissue, rather than a whole-body cellular rejuvenation.
- Prolonged fasting may be the most effective way to trigger whole-body autophagy, but depending on your metabolism, it usually takes at least 72 hours of nutrient scarcity to activate. Again, this can be uncomfortable for many people to adhere to, and in the case of more extreme forms of prolonged fasting, like a water fast, it can also lead to dangerous side effects including nutrient deficiencies, dehydration, electrolyte imbalances, and a loss of metabolically active muscle mass. It’s always recommended to consult with your healthcare provider before embarking on any form of prolonged fasting protocol.
How the Fasting-Mimicking Diet (FMD) activates autophagy benefits that are safe and sustainable
For all the benefits of a prolonged fast without the common discomforts and dangers associated with more extreme fasting methods, the Prolon 5-Day FMD is an effective option that’s backed by over 25 years of scientific research. As the first and only nutrition program clinically proven to activate autophagy in humans, the FMD provides foods with precisely balanced macronutrient ratios that stay below the body’s nutrient-sensing pathways, and keep the body in a fasting state. As such, it offers a safer, more approachable fasting alternative that activates powerful and sustained autophagy benefits, while still delivering vital nourishment for your body. Some of these autophagy-related benefits may also support:
- Healthy aging: Three monthly cycles of FMD over the course of three consecutive months have been shown to reduce biological age by 2.5 years, while lowering insulin resistance and supporting immune health.
- Cardiometabolic markers: 20 days (4 cycles) of the FMD is shown to have the same heart health benefits as 120 days of the Mediterranean Diet.
- Visceral fat-focused weight loss: FMD clinical studies show an average of 5 pounds of sustained fat-focused weight loss after just one cycle, along with reductions in waist circumference and BMI. Additionally, this weight loss has been shown to specifically target dangerous visceral fat, which can accumulate around the abdomen and organs, and is closely linked to metabolic dysfunction.
- Lean muscle mass protection: The majority of the weight loss resulting from other fasting or weight loss methods comes from muscle mass, which can slow metabolism, and affect overall metabolic function. The FMD was designed, and clinically proven, to protect this metabolically active muscle.
Autophagy is just one of the remarkable tools our bodies have for keeping us healthy, active, and protected from chronic conditions like type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and Metabolic Syndrome. By incorporating safe and clinically-backed fasting programs like the Prolon 5-Day FMD, in addition to practicing healthy diet, exercise, and sleep routines, we can help better empower autophagy to do its work naturally and effectively for years to come.
Disclaimer: This guest commentary reflects the author’s analysis and is provided for informational purposes only; it does not constitute medical, legal, or official editorial advice from Life Science Daily News, nor is it an endorsement of any specific healthcare provider or platform.
