Fasting has been used since ancient Greek times by Greek physician and philosophers such as Hippocrates, and Plutarch to heal the body. Even 2400 years ago, these highly conscious Greek philosophers intuitively knew the amazing benefits of fasting and used it as a tool to heal the body without understanding the exact science behind why it worked so well.
Here is a quote from Hippocrates, "Everyone has a physician inside him or her; we just have to help it in its work. The natural healing force within each of us is the greatest force in getting well. Our food should be our medicine. Our medicine should be our food. But to eat when you are sick is to feed your sickness".
Another Greek philosopher, Plutarch, has also said, "Instead of using medicine, rather, fast a day".
In both these cases, Hippocrates and Plutarch were talking about Autophagy, without really understanding the exact science behind what Autophagy is. Because only as recently as 2016, Dr. Yoshinori Ohsumi won the Noble Prize in physiology for discovering the mechanisms for Autophagy, and of all the great weight loss, and mental benefits of fasting and intermittent fasting we have discussed so far in this series of videos, Autophagy has to be the most exciting and beneficial part of why fasting is so essential for better health.
Welcome to Info central and In this article we are going to break down how fasting initiates autophagy and why it is so crucial to live a healthier life.
Autophagy is a mechanism your body uses to clear damaged cells from the body, which includes senescent cells that no longer serve a function in your body but still lingers around inside the tissues and organs. If these senescent cells are not removed through the process of autophagy then they can trigger inflammation and cause various diseases and sickness
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Autophagy is so crucial in maintaining a healthy body that it is now being thought of as playing a key role is preventing diseases such as cancer, neurodegeneration, diabetes, liver disease, autoimmune disease and infections as discussed in this research paper https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2990190/
Autophagy is active in all cells but increases tremendously when fasting. In my other videos I have talked a lot about Intermittent fating, and while Intermittent fasting does increase autophagy significantly, studies have shown that a 24-48 hour fast has the strongest effects in inducing autophagy. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3106288/ In this study mice we food-restrcited for 24-48 hours and researchers found a significant increase in autophagosomes after 48 hours of fasting, which is a indicator of cellular recycling in the body.
In the video tittle "why intermittent fasting improves brain health" I talked about how at any given point your body is either in a anabolic state or catabolic state. Your body goes into a building phase called anabolic when you eat and insulin is triggered and then goes into a cleansing phase, called catabolic, several hours after your last meal when insulin is at it's lowest. Being in this catabolic phase is a key factor in living a healthy life as we have discussed the many benefits that comes from being in this state. Benefits ranging from increase in human growth hormone, to autopagy.
So I hope you are able to use the knowledge in these videos/articles to understand the great health benefits of fasting and intermittent fasting, and if you enjoyed the content please visit my channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJZ8Sr2XKEXPoCi5ULRsaIQ and hit the like and subscribe button.
And until next time, Stay Informed My Friends.