One of the natural methods by which the body gets rid of any "junk" is autophagy. This process literally means "self-eating" and consists in digesting dead or damaged elements of its structure by the cell. The first mentions of autophagy can be found in research conducted in the 1960s. However, it was only Professor Yoshinori Ohsumi who examined it more closely, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology last year.
Autophagy is an extremely important process for the preservation of life and health of the body. The body's cells store unnecessary metabolic products throughout their lives. Autophagy ensures the elimination of used or damaged parts of cells without the need to kill these cells. Autophagy occurs in cells in response to many factors such as bacterial or viral infections, nutrient deficiency, toxin damage, inflammatory cytokines, and DNA mutations. There are many types of autophagy, but the most important for the human body is macroautophagy. It involves the destruction of intracellular organelles with the help of special structures called autophagosomes and lysosomes containing digestive enzymes. The elements of the cell degraded in this way are broken down into simple organic compounds that can be further used by the cell. For this reason, autophagy is also known as "cellular recycling". So as we can see, autophagy is partly recycling, partly a method of garbage disposal, partly a method of defense and partly a method of energy management. It is therefore extremely important for the cell to maintain its natural balance and homeostasis. If this process does not go smoothly, cells loaded with toxins start to malfunction and then die. More and more studies confirm that abnormal autophagy process has a negative impact on our condition and can lead to the development of various diseases, such as diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. On the other hand, efficient autophagy plays a very important role in infections, leading to their control, it also promotes the activation and increase of acquired immunity, ensuring a better presentation of both viral and cancer antigens to immune cells.
Every day we are exposed to free radicals, we face factors unfavorable to our health in response to inflammation in our body. Usually a person can deal with all of this enough to complain about some minor ailments at best without suffering from any chronic disease. This is what happens when the autophagy processes run smoothly enough to deal with the elimination of most toxins. However, when it is no longer possible due to excessive burden, then these inflammations intensify enough to lead us to a chronic disease. And it is in such a situation that it is worth supporting the body with appropriate habits favoring the optimization of autophagy processes. And what supports them the most? Fasting, training, and a proper diet.