Anthropophagy is the utilization of molecules in the cell compartment by the body. During this process, the body undergoes a process of adaptation to difficult conditions. More easily explained, autophagy is the self-eating of worn-out, damaged, or aging cells. The resulting energy is used to build new organelles. But the transition of the human body to this state is possible only when hunger is felt for a certain period of time.

When a person is in a state of autophagy, he recycles everything that is harmful and accumulated over a certain period of time. Toxins and infections are eliminated from the body.

Fasting in brief

During intermittent fasting, also called intermittent fasting, nutrient intake is controlled. These states can be broken down into two stages:

for a period of 12 to 48 hours, food intake into the structures of the human body stops;
in the period from 8 to 24 hours, a person should eat a daily portion of calories, which should correspond to one of the main goals – losing weight, maintaining or gaining weight.

Despite the fact that there are several options for intermittent fasting, they are united by one general principle – you need to correctly combine the period of rest and the period of saturation of the human body.

Almost all religions in the world have periods in which to fast. But if we talk about the real popularity of fasting, then it arose only when the Japanese researcher Yoshinori Osumi received the Nobel Prize for his study of autophagy.

Autophagy targets

When everything is going smoothly in the cell, the autophagy process is at a low level, helping to recycle the worn out cellular components. This is a kind of “maintenance” regime for our cells.

But when stress occurs in the cell (not enough nutrients or energy, altered components increase, or microbial invasion), autophagy kicks in at full power to help protect us. This mode of autophagy is called stress response.

Aging and longevity

Autophagy activation counteracts the age-related accumulation of damaged cellular components and increases the metabolic efficiency of cells. (8 )

Autophagy is a response to stress that helps cells become more resilient while decreasing available energy. In particular, autophagy can be activated to remove dysfunctional mitochondria (mitophagy), which produce many harmful reactive oxygen species (ROS), leading to cell degradation. (9) These processes are reported by science to increase the lifespan of several animal species.

Mental stress

The typical action of autophagy provides protection against the development of mental disorders. Autophagic disorders are associated with an increased risk of certain mental illnesses, including depression and schizophrenia. (11 )

Post-mortem studies of the brains of people with depression and schizophrenia have revealed deficiencies in the main autophagic pathways. (12, 13 )

Neurodegeneration

Many neurodegenerative diseases result from the accumulation of deformed proteins in and around neurons, causing gradual death of brain cells and subsequent loss of mental capacity. (14 )

Autophagy protects us from neurodegenerative diseases by removing these proteins. In Huntington’s disease it removes the Huntington protein (HTT) (15 ), in Alzheimer’s it removes amyloid-beta (made from the APP protein) (16 ), in Parkinson’s it removes-synuclein (SNCA), and in dementia it removes the microtubule -associated protein tau. (17 )

Inflammation

Autophagy can both increase and decrease inflammatory responses in the body. It intensifies inflammation when a pathogen invades the cell and stimulates the activation of the immune response. (22 )

Autophagy then reduces the inflammation caused by the immune response by clearing the cell of antigens that stimulate this immune response. In addition, autophagy also removes the pro-immune response molecules produced by the cell in response to the invasion of pathogens. (23 )

THE PROCESS OF AUTOPHAGY AS A STIMULATOR OF LONGEVITY (source )

Biological mechanism of the process

The human body contains autophagosomes. It is they who absorb waste, waste elements, harmful microorganisms. After absorption occurs, the autophagosome itself fuses with the lysosome of the cell. resulting in the splitting of all absorbed into enzymes. And it is they who are further fuel for humans.

This process began to be studied by scientists several decades ago. Then, for the first time, it was revealed that during short-term fasting, the level of amino acids contained in the blood does not drop in a person. This was the first sign that a person himself takes from some source of the structure of the protein.

But this process can take about 24 hours, usually no more than 36 hours. During this period, autophagy allows the body to not affect muscle mass. Excreted exclusively glycogen and partially water.

As soon as fasting lasts longer, muscle mass begins to gradually “burn”.

Summing up, we can say with confidence that autophagy itself is necessary for the body to cleanse itself of all “debris” at the intercellular level.

The effect of autophagy on various diseases and oncology

As soon as the Nobel laureate Yosinora Osumi clarified the pattern of such a reaction of “self-eating” in a person, there was a lot of speculation around. Most of them related to the fact that the autophagy process can positively affect oncology, or rather, prevent the development of malignant tumors and even destroy tumors. This assumption was based on the fact that autophages will devour cancer cells, preventing their reproduction.

But not everything is as simple as it has become presented by people who are not versed in the process itself.

The very process of autophagy touched cancer cells – and became an excellent means of survival for them. If suddenly the human body itself blocks the access of nutrients to cancerous tumors, then they turn on the autophagy process and begin to use their own energy reserves. As a result, fasting does not cure cancer, but simply switches the mechanisms of nutrition in them.

If we talk about the process itself, then both the proteins of the cell itself and those outside of it are subject to destruction. Such a variety in the mechanisms of action allows you to get rid of viral and bacterial infections, which can be located both inside the cell and in the intercellular space.

Autophagy: a mechanism in simple terms

We saddled our beloved horse, hold on, lovers of purification! Now, having learned about autophagy, everyone rushed to “cleanse and become younger”, because supposedly fasting once a week prolongs life and is the most correct cleansing of the body. But alas, this is not so again.

The whole problem is that the eminent scientist, as always, was not understood and the next “pill against cancer, old age and death” was trumpeted all over the world. But first things first.

What is it and why is it necessary to eat your own flesh

In 2016, the Japanese scientist Yoshinori Osumi became the Nobel Prize laureate for his research on the mechanisms of autophagy (stress in the word on the second a). The term “autophagy” itself appeared in the 60s of the last century.

It began to be used in relation to the cellular mechanisms for cleaning the body from degraded proteins. Scientists have found that by this process, the cell is cleared of intracellular debris, sending it to the lysosomes.

Despite the fact that the process was known to scientists for a long time, its details remained unexplored. So, our 2016 Nobel Prize winner proved the existence of autophagosomes and the fact that thanks to them, cells feed on unclaimed elements stored in lysosomes.

The fact is that for a long time it was believed that lysosomes are a kind of dump that does not bring any benefit and everyone was tormented by the question: “but why do not lysosomes increase in size, do not inflate like balloons, where the waste of cells accumulated in them goes? “.

And so the Japanese discovered autophagosomes that break down “garbage” into amino acids to help the cell get rid of the unclaimed. And what does cancer, aging and starvation have to do with it? This is out of the question!

Yes, it is self-eating that allows most body tissues to survive the lack of resources. For cancer cells, autophagy has proven to be a remarkable survival tool.

Even if the body for some reason does not supply the tumor with nutrients, it does not die – precisely because its cells use their own energy reserves, relying on autophagy processes. Those. you need to be treated not by fasting, but on the contrary, to find out how you can stop this process in a tumor!

With the help of autophagy, cells get rid of their potentially harmful components. If some organelles do not work as they should, or some protein molecules have the wrong structure, the autophagosomes destroy them.

This is good in most cases, especially for long-lived cells. But with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease, autophagosomes and lysosomes do not have time to degrade these proteins.

For autophagy, it does not matter which proteins to destroy – formed in the cell itself or outside of it. And this means that with its help it is possible to get rid of viruses and bacteria that enter cells and cause various diseases.

It has been shown that pathogens of viral and bacterial diseases in the course of evolution develop complex defense mechanisms in order not to fall under the hot hand of autophagosomes or to stop their action. In general, autophagy is important for many processes in the immune system, from inflammation to defense against viruses and bacteria.

After how many hours of fasting does the process start

This question torments many, but alas, there is no truthful answer to it. Yes, logically, hunger spurs the autophagy process. But how much? How much do you need to be without food? Will fasting for one day have an effect?

Will the amount of time be the same for all people that will affect it? What will happen with cancer and oncology or multiple sclerosis? Is it important what exactly you ate before the famine and how much?

Will the fact that you smoke, drink kefir, algol or cocktails spoil autophagy? What enhances it, how are insulin shots and autophagy related, does ketosis and the lchf diet make autophagy more effective?

The answer is amazing and honest: nobody knows. Whoever finds out will probably get a Nobel Prize, and you will fraternize with Yosinori.

It is now assumed that the more often we eat, the closer our autophagy is to baseline. The less and less, the more active it is. However, autophagy is also a finite process and at some point your fasting turns into hunger, in which your body starts consuming healthy cells in order to survive. When will this happen? Depends on your body fat and other indicators.

Our verdict: while everything is too vague, what to make loud conclusions. Yes, it does exist. Yes, the cells are cleared. That’s all for now.

No, it is not necessary to starve to start autophagy, technically, this is not a side process that occurs only during hunger, but one of the main processes in the body, and its violation is one of the main causes of metabolic disorders. But fasting will make it worse. What kind of fasting and how much: interval, daily, 16 to 8, dry, wet – it is not clear.

Now there are a bunch of experts who talk about autophagy as a super-learned and understandable process. But this is not the case.

We have always been amazed at how people are willing to trust any information that meets their beliefs. We read an article written by a copywriter on some shabby site / self-published book / watched a video of a guy with burning eyes with madness – and that’s it, they believed. The truth about autophagy now is this: something is understandable, but even more incomprehensible.

How to properly start the autophagy process?

To start the autophagy process, you need to make your cells starve. Then they will use not those “building materials” that come from outside, but “disassemble” themselves into parts in order to remove all unnecessary and unusable components, and create an updated version of themselves from suitable and strong components.

Fasting activates autophagy, but fasting needs to be done properly. If you constantly exist in a mode of malnutrition, then the autophagy process will not be able to stop at the stage you need, which can cause the activation of the degeneration process.

There are two types of proper fasting: prolonged and intermittent fasting. The first option provides for a refusal to eat for 2 or more days and a week break until the next fasting. The second option provides for a refusal to eat for a day and one or two days of normal nutrition until the next refusal of food for 24 hours.

Remember, the denial applies to food, not water.

The autophagy process can be started without fasting, but the effect will not be as noticeable. To do this, you need to include in your diet foods containing autophagy-promoting substances:

• strawberry and raspberry juice, pomegranate juice, from which urolithin A is formed due to the intestinal microflora;

· Dairy products – Vitamin D;

· Grapefruit, mushrooms, cheese – spermidine;

· Barley, legumes, oats, mushrooms, walnuts, peanuts, bread – vitamin B3;

· Bitter cucumbers – kukurbitatsin;

· Brown rice – a gamma-tocotrienol;

· Physalis – fizalin A;

· Ginseng root – magnoflorin;

· Soy – dioscin;

· Cocoa, green tea – epicatechin, catechin;

· Red grapes – resveratrol;

· Curry – curcumin.

Experts recommend consuming the above foods to boost the autophagy process. But do not abuse them, otherwise you can harm your body.

Prolonged type of fasting

Cycles of prolonged fasting are capable of activating autophagy. One cycle should last two or more days, and the break between cycles should last at least 7 – 8 days. During the break, the diet of the autophagic person must be thoughtful and balanced.

Through numerous studies, scientists have shown that in people who practice prolonged fasting, the sensitivity of malignant tumors to therapy has increased, and the regulation of levels of insulin-like growth factor 1, insulin, glucose has improved markedly.

Prolonged fasting leads to a decrease in the number of leukocytes in the blood and liver mass. But as soon as a person begins to eat normally, his liver is restored, and important renewal processes are triggered in the immune system.

This type of fasting is not suitable for all people, so it must be practiced only under the strict supervision of a doctor. People over the age of 65 should use this approach with extreme caution, as a lack of protein at this age can trigger unwanted muscle loss.

Intermittent fasting

Experiments carried out on laboratory mice have confirmed that intermittent fasting is an excellent prevention of diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, and tumor diseases. In patients with bronchial asthma, people who practiced a two-month fast in the “one day after one day” regimen, the number of markers of inflammation decreased markedly.

Although intermittent fasting is not very compatible with the concept of fractional meals, which is generally accepted and beloved by many nutritionists (eat a little, but often), people who often eat have a significant increase in insulin levels in the blood. Gradually, cells become insensitive to insulin, which contributes to the onset of insulin resistance. After a while, such a person may develop type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Why are recommendations for fractional nutrition lost their relevance? There have been several studies in laboratory mice. One group of mice was fed at intervals of twelve hours, while the other group was fed fractionally and frequently. Representatives of both the first and second groups received the same amount of calories per day. Mice that tried at intervals of twelve hours had significantly improved circadian rhythms, their sleep problems disappeared, they were less nervous and irritated, and metabolic diseases not only did not develop further, but also disappeared.

If you have a busy work schedule and you don’t always have time to have lunch, then this is a reason for joy, not sadness! And try to have snacks as little as possible in the middle of the working day.

Scientists say that eating at intervals of 12-14 hours not only triggers the autophagy process, but also lowers the level of glucose and bad cholesterol, and promotes the loss of fat, but not muscle mass. If you fast from evening to morning for 13 or more hours, then the risk of breast cancer decreases several times!

How can I activate autophagy?

The good news is that your body is already quietly conducting autophages – even as you read this! But some techniques can help optimize autophagy and are easy to integrate into daily life.

1 Fasting

Intermittent fasting is “the safest and best proven strategy” for triggering autophagy, according to Weiss, who notes that fasting is our “evolutionary trigger” to stimulate this natural process.

“Nutrition inhibits autophagy by turning on an enzyme called mTOR, which is a potent inhibitor of autophagy,” explains Dr. Robert Zembrosky, functional medicine specialist and clinical nutritionist. Fasting, by contrast, allows this enzyme to shut down, thereby stimulating autophagy.

There are many different ways to integrate the benefits of fasting into your daily life, from simple mild reduction in calorie intake to full, multi-day fasting. While research shows that a 24- to 48-hour fast is ideal for stimulating autophagy, Zembrosky notes that even a 12-hour period is a good start – and it can be done quite easily by simply abstaining from food for a few hours before bed.

Various intermittent fasting protocols such as the 16/8 protocol (eating for eight hours a day, fasting for the remaining 16 hours) or fasting every other day further increase the potential for autophagy, so consider incorporating some of these techniques into your daily routine. for maximum benefit.

2 Food Keto

The high-calorie ketogenic (low-carb) diet has become popular for its anti-inflammatory properties. It’s also incredibly helpful in triggering autophagy.

“Ketones have high energy, powerful antioxidant properties (so they dramatically reduce inflammation) and incredibly regenerate nerve cells – improving the health and function of the brain and the entire nervous system,” says Weiss.

The key, however, is to go for a healthy ketogenic diet, which means refraining from some of the heavy cheese and bacon-based recipes you can find online. Weiss notes that choosing a ketogenic diet with a high proportion of plant-based ingredients is the healthiest approach.

The best way to prevent insulin spikes and support autophagy activation is to start the day by eating fat first, leaving any carbohydrate intake at the end of the day.

3 Exercises

Exercise, notes Zembrosky, “can recirculate and regenerate tissue in muscle, liver, pancreas and adipose tissue.” He points to a study published in the journal Nature showing that as little as 30 minutes of exercise can activate autophagy processes, so movement, especially in tandem with other methods, can be a great way to activate autophagy.

How to starve properly: analysis of circuits and protocols

Alternate day fasting (ADF) 36 12 – every other day (36 hungry / 12 full hours).

According to this plan, you eat every other day. So, for example, on Monday you eat from 8 am to 8 pm. Then you fast for the night and Tuesday. Eat again from 8 to 20 on Wednesday and fast on Thursday and night. Etc. On the day of food consumption, it is recommended to select “healthy” foods and eat what you want.
Meal-skipping – accidental skipping meals.

Some proponents of GHG believe that it is necessary to act like evolutionarily laid down principles. Exercise and food are taken without a strict schedule. Appropriate food is offered, calorie intake varies randomly, and breakfast or dinner is randomly skipped once or twice a week. The rules are very flexible.
Eat Stop Eat 24 – eat or not (fasting for 24 hours, 1-2 times a week).

According to the plan, you fast for 24 hours once or twice a week, eat a lot of protein and little processed food, etc. on the rest of the week. You can choose any 24 hours. For example, have breakfast on Monday and then have breakfast on Tuesday or dinner on Wednesday, and the next meal is Thursday dinner.
Leangains 16 8 – dry weight (16 hours of fasting / 8 meals).

In addition to the 8/16 hour diet, there are several basic rules: a high-protein diet, cyclic carbohydrate intake, inclusion of workouts on an empty stomach, nutrient timing is maintained (most of the calories are consumed after exercise).

According to the plan, you are fasting from 9 pm on Monday to 1 pm on Tuesday. You can train until 13:00 on Tuesday, taking 10 g of BCAAs during training. After class, you eat 2 – 3 times until 21.00, the largest meal is immediately after class. Fasting starts again on Tuesday evening and continues until 13:00 on Wednesday. And this is repeated every day.
Fasting 18 6 – a more severe version of the previous one, is aimed at the rapid loss of extra pounds – the food window is only six hours.
Warrior Diet 20 4 – Warrior’s diet (20 hours of fasting 4 hours of food).

According to the plan, you must fast or consume only a limited amount of the recommended foods for 18 to 20 hours each day. For meals, 4-6 hours are allotted, for example, a family dinner. Exercise before eating. Time for meals can be selected in accordance with an individual schedule.

The benefits and harms of losing weight

We have already rubbed calluses on our fingers to write this, but alas, for weight loss it is only important how many calories are received during the day and how much energy is spent by the body during the day: if there are more calories, then you gain weight (even with PG), if less – you are losing weight (no matter if you are on PG or not).

Those. even with intermittent fasting and regardless of the number of meals, you need to keep KBZhU.

Second point. For some reason, many believe that IG helps to reduce weight precisely by burning fat, and thus, allows you to preserve precious muscle (of course, compared to the usual calorie restriction).

In fact, there is not a single convincing study that would prove this fact. But there are those that, in comparison with weight loss with and without the use of PG and without it, show that people lose about the same amount of weight.

A study using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) did not find any difference in body composition after comparing 14 days of the ALF fasting versus the constant calorie restriction diet.

Proponents of the GHG utility myth cite the famous survey study by Varady, KA (2011). Intermittent versus daily calorie restriction: which diet regimen is more effective for weight loss? Obesity Reviews. 12 (7), 593-601, in which the author concludes that under comparable conditions, losing weight on a calorie deficit with the use of PH, allows you to save 15% more muscle than with simple calorie restriction (without PH).

But analyzing the study, we understand that there are too many questions to argue that this is true:

Most of these studies have involved overweight or obese people, and there is no data for people without these problems.
There was no physical activity.
Biggest Fail: The subjects took their word for food intake, so it is unclear how accurate the data on protein and calories consumed in the experiment are.
There is a significant difference in the timing of the study between those on intermittent fasting (maximum 12 weeks) and those on daily calorie restriction (maximum 24 weeks).

Due to the fact that GHG studies are rather short (most of them), the composition of body and weight (and do not forget that they are measured by bioimpedance) is strongly influenced by water (which drains out rather quickly, especially at first).

So the shorter the studies, the more impressive evidence they can provide, but the results need to be measured in the long term.
In general, in principle, most studies on this topic have been carried out on animals (rats and monkeys). Those experiments in which people participated were often conducted with a small control group.

In addition, the data obtained in the studies gave more questions than answers regarding GHGs. Still, make the people starve for 12 hours, beat how to drink give

Our opinion

With all due respect to all research and opinions, we believe that fasting is a very, even too powerful tool for influencing the body to use it “shoub fat”.

Hunger is an enormous stress that doctors compare to surgery. Nutrition is a basic need not only for the body, but for the human psyche (dopamine addiction ), an innate instinct.

Long-term lack of nutrition leads to the death of the body, so fasting, albeit short-term, is a complex psycho-emotional state of the body that causes anxiety and fear.

We do not dispute that IS has a scientific basis and can be useful in many cases, but alas, it has also created a number of overly zealous followers who preach its universal necessity for everyone in the world.

Objectively, fasting like this is a great option for those who prefer the convenience and luxury of large meals, not to mention ease of preparation.

Any significant superiority of the metabolic effects of IG over traditional nutritional models is speculation today .

The coolest thing is that IG takes into account the individual characteristics of each person in food intake. Some people make more progress on small, frequent meals, while others make more progress on large and infrequent meals.

The benefits of a particular dietary approach come directly from someone’s personal preference, commitment, or ability. You like it and you are comfortable – cool, keep going. You can’t go without breakfast and lunch with dinner – it’s also great, the main thing is that you feel comfortable!

By the way, remember that the official opinion of medicine is that fasting and the gallbladder are a bad combination. Problems in the gallbladder arise due to stagnation of bile, and it stagnates during many hours of interruptions in nutrition. As a result of stagnation of bile, inflammation of the gallbladder and the formation of stones develop.

And what does fasting lead to? Food does not come in – there is no outflow of bile, it stagnates and thickens. For this reason, fractional meals are recommended strictly in time to avoid stagnation.

Of course, we are not talking about, for example, patients with pancreatitis, in whom the main treatment is “hunger and cold”, about people with obesity and insulin resistance, to whom doctors and a keto diet can prescribe a couple of days of hunger.

But the key words are: the doctor prescribed it, but she did not read it herself on the Internet and prescribed her hunger treatment.

We are horrified by the people who are treating everything from cancer to infertility by fasting.

Let me give you a quick note about starving cancer: Many people believe that dietary restriction affects tumors negatively. Roughly speaking, a lack of nutrition can arrange a kind of “deficiency” of cancer cells. But there is one super strong counter-argument: lack of food lowers immunity (we already wrote the second in the paragraph about autophagy).

Do not think that our body has some incredible reserves of super useful substances. Reduced immunity contributes to any development of oncology – this is known and proven.

There are many situations where there are small outbreaks of cancer cells somewhere, but they end in nothing, because the immune system is able to suppress them. And this is where the trouble happens, if the immunity is “killed”.

And the second – one fasting is still not enough to cure cancer, this is also a fact. Here, if something works, then the full course of treatment – operations, chemistry, radiation, or something from this that the doctors prescribe.

So, in order to survive all this, every drop of immune forces is worth its weight in gold! Therefore, in general, when all this is near, it is recommended to eat, sleep, rest, and do everything that somehow strengthens. As the oncologists say: “survive the treatment, and then you will starve”.

But something brought us

For us, there is only one conclusion: balanced, rational nutrition and fasting with the restriction of KBZhU give absolutely the same effects. Choose according to your comfort!

If you find it difficult to maintain a daily calorie deficit, then you can choose the option without complete starvation, the main thing is that the rule remains for the microcycle: energy surplus (on the day of training)

Sources used and useful links on the topic: https://kakxydet.ru/autofagiya-kak-pravilno-golodat https://kodelife.ru/autofagiya-chto-eto-takoe-i-kak-ona-mozhet-prodlit-zhizn / https://kost-shirokaya.ru/pp-bez-problem/diet/intervalnoe-golodanie/ https://BestLavka.ru/chto-takoe-autofagija/ https://net-kg.ru/3-sposoba -aktivirovat-autofagiyu-sostoyanie-kogda-organizm-pozhiraet-svoi-kletki-s-polzoj /

Post source: lastici.ru