Ep. #355: Is Autophagy the Secret to Health and Longevity? What 36 Studies Say

It’s not clear that intermittent fasting is an effective way to increase autophagy or that taking special measures to even try to do this is desirable.

Hey, this is Mike Matthews from Muscle for Life and Legion Athletics and welcome to my podcast. In this episode, I am going to talk about autophagy, which is on many people’s minds these days, according to an ever growing number of popular doctors, researchers, influencers, and gurus, autophagy people. is the next big health breakthrough.

By making simple changes to your diet and lifestyle, these people say, you can harness the power of this mysterious physiological phenomenon and cleanse your body of harmful toxins, slow down or even reverse aging. Protect against various types of disease, including cancer, dementia, and heart disease.

Feel more revitalized and rejuvenated and more. And in many cases, the arguments that these people make sound pretty convincing. There are lots of buzzwords. There are whiteboards, there are diagrams. And if the strategies shared, which usually boil down to some form of fasting, or low carb dieting, or a combination of both, if these things only worked half as well as many of these supposed experts claim, the long term results could be life changing.

And of course, it is no surprise that autophagy is one of the hottest health hacks or biohacks around right now. It really shouldn’t be though, and you are going to learn why in this podcast. By the end you are going to understand what autophagy is, how it works, how it impacts your health. How it relates to fasting and what you can and can’t, and more importantly, should and shouldn’t do to try to optimize it.

Now, before we dive into this episode, I have to shill for something to pay the bills, right? No, I’m just kidding. I’m not big on promoting stuff that I don’t personally use and really believe in. So instead I am going to just quickly tell you about something of mine, specifically my 100 percent natural pre workout fat burner supplement forge.

Now it was designed to be used specifically when exercising in a fasted state and it helps you maximize fat burning while training on an empty stomach, minimize the amount of muscle that you lose while training in this state, and maintain intensity and flexibility. Focus in your workouts. All that is why forge has over 400 reviews on Amazon with a four star average and another 220 on my website with a four and a half star average.

So if you want to get leaner faster, and especially in the quote unquote, hard to lose spots like the hips, thighs, and belly, then you want to head over to www. legionathletics. com and pick up a bottle of forge. Today, and just to show how much I appreciate my podcast peeps use the coupon code podcast at checkout and you’ll save 10 percent on your entire order.

And lastly, you should also know that I have a very simple 100 percent money back guarantee that works like this. You either love my stuff or you get your money back, period. You don’t have to return the products. You don’t have to fill out forms. You don’t have to jump through any other hoops or go through any other shenanigans.

So you really can’t lose here. Head over to www. LegionAthletics. com now, place your order, and see for yourself why my supplements have thousands of rave reviews all over the internet. And if for whatever reason, they’re just not for you, contact us and we will give you a full refund on the spot. Alrighty, that is enough shameless plugging for now at least.

Let’s get to the show. Okay. So let’s start by answering the first and most fundamental question. What is autophagy? Autophagy is a cellular process whereby various waste products that have built up within cells, or in some cases where entire cells are recycled into nutrients that can then be used for growth, repair, and fuel.

The word itself It comes from the Greek prefix auto, meaning self, and phagy, meaning to eat. So self eating is the etymology of the word. And although autophagy has recently become a bit of a catch word in the health and fitness space, scientists have known about this process for decades. In fact, the term was coined by the French scientist Christian de Duvet Who also discovered the lysosome more on this in a minute, which earned him a Nobel prize in 1974.

Now to understand how autophagy works and why it matters, you first need to understand a bit about how cells work. function. So in order to produce energy, small structures inside your cells called mitochondria consume nutrients and then convert them into adenosine triphosphate or ATP for short. Now, this chemical ATP is the basic fuel that powers the myriad processes that keep your body alive.

So in this way, mitochondria are like little power plants in your cells. And to give you an idea of just how effective they are, gram for gram, they produce about 10, 000 times more energy than the sun, meaning that if the sun were comprised of mitochondria, it would produce about 10, 000 times more energy.

Now, as you would expect from a power plant, mitochondria produce waste that must be disposed of. And, in this case, it mostly consists of dead or damaged parts of cells and unused proteins. The removal of these waste products is important because if enough build up in the cells, that can then interfere with their ability to function properly.

To clean up these leftover byproducts, small structures called lysosomes patrol inside your cells, and then they gobble up the trash and they break it down into amino acids and fatty acids mostly. Lysosomes also help prevent disease by attacking viruses and bacteria. You can think of these guys, these lysosomes, as cellular janitors, so to speak, and autophagy as how they go about their jobs.

Lysosomes do more than just housecleaning as well. If a cell is infected or cancerous or damaged beyond repair, they can also destroy it and then recycle its components for reuse. So that’s what autophagy is. Now let’s learn a bit more about its effects in the body. So let’s start with just general health and specifically with something that many modern health gurus have right about autophagy.

It is not just healthy, it is absolutely essential. That’s why it is always occurring in your body, in every cell, at all times. And that’s why when it becomes compromised, you can develop many types of Diseases and dysfunctions and ailments. For example, when scientists use drugs to turn off autophagy in mice, they can develop all kinds of health problems like cancer, heart and liver dysfunction.

Retarded growth, anemia, and even obesity. Most of the studies on autophagy have been done on isolated cells. Those are in vitro studies or on animals. But at this point, it is generally accepted that autophagy plays an important role in warding off disease and dysfunction in humans So that’s why many people claim that increasing Autophagy can slow or even reverse aging can protect against various types of diseases and neurodegenerative diseases in particular and reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease among other things.

Those are really the main claims though. So let’s take a closer look at each of them. So autophagy and. Aging, the term aging refers to a progressive decline of physiological function, and it can manifest in many ways, included slowed recovery after exercise, reduced insulin sensitivity, decreased joint function, and other symptoms.

Unwanted side effects of getting older, more importantly, aging also comes with an increased risk of many types of diseases ranging from cancer to heart disease to dementia. Now, older cells. Often contain a greater amount of cellular waste than younger ones. And at least in mice, worms, and fruit flies, aging is also associated with a decline in autophagy.

Now, some people have taken this to mean that just about anything and everything that is associated with aging from wrinkles to muscle weakness to disease can be cured, or at least Mitigated by simply increasing autophagy. Now, that may or may not be true, but at this point, we simply don’t know because the research isn’t available.

We do know that autophagy affects aging in humans, but there really is no evidence. Reliable way to influence that process or to control that process. The whole more slash better autophagy equals less slash better aging argument and almost movement at this point is reminiscent of the hype around telomeres from several years ago.

And in case you missed that one, scientists discovered that the lifespan of our cells is largely determined by these finger like structures on the end of our DNA called telomeres. telomeres. Now what happens is every time a cell replicates, these telomeres get a little bit shorter, which then gave rise to the theory that it might be possible to slow aging by limiting or reversing that telomere shrinkage.

And. This kicked off a frenzy of research into telomeres starting in the mid 1970s and now nearly five decades later, we do have a much better understanding of the function of telomeres, but we still don’t have a reliable way to measure their length to prevent them from shortening or the ultimate limit.

To increase their length that some people have hypothesized could even reverse aging. In other words, the science on telomeres and aging is currently about as useful as a picture of water to a person lost in a desert. Autophagy is in the same boat. Yes, it is a natural biological process that is related to aging.

It affects aging, no doubt. And yes, we know that it’s decline is probably bad and is associated with aging. We don’t have a reliable way of using that knowledge to significantly impact it and thereby impact aging. Okay, so now let’s talk about autophagy and neurodegenerative diseases in particular. So in case you’re not familiar with the term, a neurodegenerative disease includes any disease that involves the loss of structure or function.

function of the nervous system and particularly the brain. Some of the more common examples of these types of diseases that you have probably heard of include Parkinson’s Huntington’s and Alzheimer’s disease and multiple sclerosis. Now, Scientists are still teasing out the primary factors that cause and contribute to these types of diseases.

And one potential candidate involves the buildup of misfolded proteins. What is that? Every structure in the body is largely made of protein from the microscopic mitochondria that we spoke about to the major muscle groups that we train in the gym. And the construction of these things requires extreme attention to detail.

And most of the time, Things work out more or less perfectly, resulting in incredibly complex structures that work exactly as intended. Sometimes, though, the body’s protein machinery makes mistakes, producing misfolded proteins. proteins that can’t function properly. Now, if too many of these misfolded proteins accumulate in the body, they can interfere with cellular function and eventually cause disease.

For example, scientists believe that a buildup of misfolded proteins may be one of the main contributors to Alzheimer’s disease in particular. Now it is not entirely clear why this buildup occurs and it’s even less clear how to treat or prevent it. But research shows that it is possible that insufficient or impaired autophagy could be a factor.

And this would make sense because autophagy does involve rounding up and recycling these misfolded proteins. So it would stand to reason that the decrease in autophagy that’s associated with aging would result in more misfolded proteins in our bodies at any given time. And It’s even possible that at some point in our lives, the accumulation of misfolded proteins could outpace our body’s ability to destroy them.

So in this way, autophagy could help protect against neurodegenerative disease by cleaning up these misfolded proteins before they have a chance to accumulate and Cause problems that said, until we know more about this relationship and more importantly, how to actively and safely regulate it, we can’t do anything special beyond healthy living, eating well, staying active, maintaining good sleep hygiene, staying away from drugs and alcohol and so forth to increase our neurological resilience via increased autophagy.

Okay, let’s talk about cancer now, autophagy and cancer. So cancer is a disease that is caused by uncontrolled division of abnormal cells in a part of the body. If these Defective cancerous cells are allowed to multiply unchecked. They can then develop into a mass, which is of course called a tumor. And over time, this can then interfere with many bodily functions and eventually cause death.

And guess what? Did you know that all of us have had cancerous cells? in our bodies. But in most cases, our bodies are able to identify and destroy these defective cells before the problems begin. In many cases, these cancerous cells are eliminated through the process of autophagy. And this is why scientists think that autophagy Can help protect against cancer and in three ways in particular one by keeping cells healthier and thus less likely to become cancerous in the first place to buy disassembling and recycling cancerous cells.

And three, by reducing the effects of cancerous cells on nearby healthy cells. And as proof of this, some animal and in vitro research shows that when the genes that increase autophagy are destroyed, tumor growth increases. And a recent review of the literature on autophagy and cancer conducted by scientists at Soonchun Yang University Seoul Hospital came to more or less the same conclusion.

One of the primary ways your body destroys cancerous cells before they can replicate and spread is through autophagy. Now, this is all well and good, but unfortunately, as with aging and neurodegenerative disease, there still is no reliable way for us to manipulate autophagy to become more protected against disease.

cancer. Again, we can focus on healthy living through proper diet, nutrition, exercise, sleep hygiene, stress management, and so forth. But beyond that, there currently isn’t any proven way to boost or enhance autophagy. Now, what about fasting and intermittent fasting in particular? Isn’t that a great way to turn on autophagy?

Because that’s what a lot of people are saying these days. In fact, If you read, listen to, or watch anything on autophagy, you probably are going to end up learning about some form of fasting and probably intermittent fasting in particular, which is simply a method of food restriction where you eat all of your food in turn.

feeding windows and then go for extended periods without food. So for example, a common form of intermittent fasting in the body composition space is the 16, eight or lean gains method, where you eat all of your food in an eight hour window, usually from 12 or 1 p. m. to eight or 9 p. m. and then go for 16 hours without food.

Basically, it means. Anyway, the reason why fasting and intermittent fasting often is discussed in conjunction with autophagy is research shows that blood markers of autophagy increase when the body is in a fasted state, meaning that the body has fully processed the last meal that was eaten and insulin levels are at a low baseline.

and the primary source of energy is insulin. Body fat. Now you notice that I said blood markers of autophagy increase, not autophagy increases. And the reason why I say that is scientists currently can’t directly measure autophagy. They can only observe chemical changes that are associated with it. Now, the nitty gritty details of How this works of why these blood markers rise when the body is in a fasted state is a bit beyond the scope of this podcast, but suffice it to say that when insulin and amino acid levels rise, which of course happens when you eat food, autophagy drops and conversely, when insulin and amino acid levels drop.

Autophagy rises. That’s what research currently shows. So for example, in one study that was conducted by scientists at the University of Texas, just three and a half grams of leucine, which minimally impacts insulin levels was enough to significantly decrease blood markers of autophagy for three hours in young men and women.

Now, why does this happen? Why do insulin and amino acids impact autophagy? Scientists aren’t sure yet, but a few potential explanations are, one, when energy is plentiful, as it is after we eat food, our cells may have less of a need to recycle old amino acids for fuel. Why eat leftovers when you can just eat the fresh food that has been served?

Another potential explanation is that the increase in autophagy during periods of fasting may be a side effect of other biological processes that also increase. During fasting, for example, we know that fasting increases levels of a M P K, which is a protein that helps cells store and process nutrients and also has been shown to increase autophagy.

Another potential explanation. As to why insulin and amino acids impact autophagy is that the body may use fasting as an opportunity to destroy old or damaged cells for fuel that would otherwise be left alone. In other words, the body needs a never ending supply of key nutrients to stay alive. And when They are not being provided by food.

It has other ways to obtain them. And in the case of, for example, amino acids, destroying older damaged cells is a way for the body to continue getting those essential amino acids that it needs. When it is not getting them from food now I mentioned a little bit earlier that there is currently no way to directly measure autophagy in humans and Instead we have to look at various chemicals in the blood markers that Scientists believe based on other research are associated with autophagy Now this is important to know because the methods that are used for measuring these blood markers are still relatively new and unreliable, and that means that we shouldn’t be too quick to draw hard and fast conclusions from them.

In time, it is very possible that newer, more effective research tools and methods are going to come along and invalidate much of what is currently Believed. And really the reason I bring this up is you have many phony pundits out there who like to blur the lines between best guesses at what is going on in the body and valid, observable, and significant improvements in health and function.

In other words, it’s one thing to say, Hey, here’s what we know. Here’s what we don’t know. Here’s an interesting theory that seems reasonable, but is unproven. It is just a theory. It’s one thing to say that, and it’s another thing to just say, Oh, we’ve got this taped. This is exactly how it works. If you do this, you will see these outcomes.

Now, the problem for many self styled gurus is if you are going to sell people on yourself and your ideas and your products and services, it is much better to sound certain and to keep things simple and to just tell people, if you do this, you will get that. That makes for a much better sales pitch than an unproven.

Theory that sounds interesting and in the case of fasting and its relationship with autophagy. Yes, it’s interesting for sure, but there are still far more unknowns than knowns. Of course, that hasn’t stopped internet. Gurus from promoting fasting and intermittent fasting as the single best way to increase autophagy and thus a powerful strategy for improving health, immunity, and longevity.

And the logic usually looks like this. Intermittent fasting increases autophagy, period. Autophagy is essential and it slows aging and it helps protect against disease. Therefore, intermittent fasting is essential for slowing aging and avoiding disease. Now again, that’s a fine line. Hypothesis, and it would need to be tested with a lot of rigorous scientific research, but rigorous scientists, the fake YouTube doctors, the chiropractors and naturopaths are not instead.

Many of these people are just charlatans who present their information as gospel, even as the ancient secret of health as Dr. Jason. Phung likes to say, who is one of the main proponents of fasting for autophagy to prove the wonders of intermittent fasting. Many of these dubious guys and gals often point to various studies, like one conducted by scientists at Keough university graduate school of pharmaceutical.

Sciences. Now, if you take studies like that at face value, if you simply read the abstracts, you might conclude that just one or two days of fasting here and there can breathe new life into virtually every organ in your body. And in fact, this is what many people openly claim online. When you dig into the details of the research, though, you learn otherwise.

For example, in the study I just cited, the scientists took eight mice and they gave half of them unlimited access to food, and then they starved the others for two days. Then all the mice were euthanized and blood and tissue samples were collected to measure markers of autophagy. And sure enough, the mice that ate nothing showed significantly greater levels of blood markers of autophagy.

Hooray for fasting. Everybody should fast. Case closed. Or not. There are a few rather obvious problems with this study. First, it was performed with just eight mice over two days, which is most definitely not a reliable model for long term changes in human health. Second, the mice lost about 17 percent of their body weight, the fasting mice by the end of day one, and 23 percent by the end of day two, which is a massive drop in body weight that can’t just be ignored.

The question is, would humans also need to lose weight to see a significant increase in autophagy? Would they need to lose that much weight relative to their body weight? Would the benefits disappear once you resume your normal diet? Could you get the same benefits by just losing weight over a longer period of time?

Was it the weight loss more that drove it, not the fasting? No studies including This one that we’re talking about provide any answers to those questions. Another problem with the study is the results are based on blood markers of autophagy, which as I just mentioned, are not entirely reliable.

So that’s why that study and others like it are Definitely interesting fodder for discussion and for the research, but most definitely not proof that intermittent fasting is an effective, scientifically proven way to live longer and be healthier. And especially when you consider that there is scant human research on autophagy in general and very little understood about how it truly affects aging in humans.

In fact, it’s not even clear that increasing autophagy above normal levels would be a good thing even if we could do it. Because while autophagy does involve cleaning cells of waste products, it also often entails destroying cells altogether, which is definitely not something that you want to just accelerate willy nilly.

In other words, While amphetamines would certainly help janitors do more work, maybe the outcome wouldn’t be a cleaner building. An illustrative example of how little we really know about autophagy and general health comes from a study that was conducted by scientists at Ben Gurion University of the Negev.

And in this study, researchers found higher levels of blood markers associated with cellular autophagy in obese people than normal people. And they also found that larger and more insulin resistant fat cells showed higher levels of autophagy than smaller and less insulin resistant ones. In other words, autophagy appeared.

To be higher in less healthy people and cells than healthy ones, which of course flies directly into the teeth of claims that higher levels of autophagy are always good or always a good sign. The scientists weren’t sure why this was the case either. Maybe it’s because the body senses an excess of nutrients and is revving up autophagy to cope with the influx of proteins or as the authors of the paper posited maybe quote it is also possible that increased autophagy signifies a process underlying increased cell death of hypertrophied adipocytes or swollen Fat cells.

That is, the scientists may have been witnessing the body using autophagy to kill off cells that were being pushed to their literal breaking point due to overeating, a sort of cellular triage, if you will. And this theory is supported by another study, actually, that was conducted by scientists at the University of Campinas, which also found that obesity led to runaway autophagy in the fat cells of both mice and humans.

Instead of thinking about increasing autophagy with biohacks or strategies like intermittent fasting, I think it’s better to think about not doing things that might decrease autophagy below healthy levels. So a good analogy for this is the cooling system in an engine. Most engines have an optimal operating temperature.

Things must be just right, not too hot or too cold for the ideal function of all the parts of the engine. And likewise, humans require a certain amount of autophagy for optimal cellular function, and the body carefully and automatically increases and decreases autophagy as needed. Now, if the cooling system of an engine completely shuts down, it quickly overheats and stops working.

And by the same token, cooling the engine as much as possible isn’t good either. Similarly, increasing autophagy as much as possible, however you might do that if you can even do it at all, isn’t necessarily better than generally living healthily and letting our bodies set the pace. And ironically, given what we currently know, it is entirely possible that eating well and staying active and fit are enough to get all of the benefits of autophagy with no need for intermittent fasting or low carb dieting or pills or powders or anything else.

For example, studies conducted by scientists at the University of Virginia, University of Texas and University of Padova have shown that exercise can increase the expression of genes that are responsible for autophagy. Studies conducted by scientists at the bio potentials sleep center and University of Michigan Medical Center have also found that autophagy is linked to sleep cycles.

So it’s possible that maintaining good sleep hygiene could also go a long way in supporting healthy levels of autophagy. That kind of information isn’t all that sexy, though. It’s hard to sell stuff to people when that’s your position, and especially when you are up against quacks who promise absolute metabolic transformation at the flick of a dietary or a lifestyle switch.

So anyway, to summarize all of what we just discussed there, it’s not clear that intermittent fasting is an effective way to increase autophagy or that taking special measures to even try to do this is desirable. All right. So we have touched on a lot in this episode. Let’s do a quick review. Autophagy is a cellular process whereby various waste products or entire cells are recycled into nutrients that can then be used for growth, repair, and fuel.

This is an essential process in the body and vital part of maintaining good health and function. And when it’s impaired, It can contribute to the development of various types of disease and dysfunction. Now in humans, it is often claimed that enhancing autophagy can slow or reverse aging, can protect against neurodegenerative disease, and reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease.

Yes, it is likely that autophagy plays a key role in those things, but it’s not clear that we can increase autophagy through special measures or that doing so would even be desirable for our health and longevity. Some studies do show that fasting can increase blood markers of autophagy temporarily, and this has helped fuel the fasting frenzy that is currently going on.

But when you dive into that research, you quickly realize that it is often wildly misrepresented or exaggerated, and often as a ploy to just sell supplements, books, courses, and The like these self styled gurus also conveniently overlook research that shows that simple things like staying active and maintaining good sleep hygiene may support autophagy more than fancy diet protocols ever could.

So the bottom line here is this. Yes. Autophagy It is an important bodily function for living a long, healthy, vibrant life, just like breathing or converting glucose into ATP, digesting food and many other natural functions that your body carries out every second of every day without even realizing it.

That doesn’t mean, however, that it is easy or even desirable to tamper with autophagy through dietary modifications, supplements, or other strange methods. Instead, you are much better off just focusing on the fundamentals. Focus on eating well, on staying active, and staying fit, and sleeping well, and managing stress, and Those things will give you your best chances to earn the reward of a long, healthy, vital life.

Hey there. It is Mike again. I hope you enjoyed this episode and found it interesting and helpful. And if you did, and don’t mind doing me a favor and want to help me make this the most popular health and fitness podcast on the internet, then please leave a quick comment. Review of it on iTunes or wherever you’re listening from.

This not only convinces people that they should check the show out, it also increases its search visibility and thus helps more people find their way to me and learn how to build their best bodies ever too. And of course, if you want to be notified when the next episode goes live, then just subscribe to the podcast and you won’t miss out on any of the new goodies.

Lastly, if you didn’t like something about the show, then definitely shoot me an email at mike at musclefullife. com and share your thoughts on how you think it could be better. I read everything myself and I’m always looking for constructive feedback, so please do reach out. All right, that’s it. Thanks again for listening to this episode and I hope to hear from you soon.

Oh, and before you leave, let me quickly tell you about one other product of mine that I think you might like. Specifically, my 100 percent natural pre workout fat burner supplement, FORGE. Now, it was designed to be used specifically when exercising in a fasted state, and it helps you maximize fat burning while training on an empty stomach, minimize the amount of muscle that you lose while training in this state.

And maintain intensity and focus in your workouts. All that is why Forge has over 400 reviews on Amazon with a 4 star average and another 220 on my website with a 4. 5 star average. So if you want to get leaner faster and especially in the quote unquote hard to lose spots like the hips, thighs, and belly, then you want to head over to www.

legionathletics. com and pick up a bottle of Forge. Forge today. And just to show how much I appreciate my podcast peeps use the coupon code podcast at checkout, and you’ll save 10 percent on your entire order. And lastly, you should also know that I have a very simple 100 percent money back guarantee that works like.

This, you either love my stuff or you get your money back, period. You don’t have to return the products. You don’t have to fill out forms. You don’t have to jump through any other hoops or go through any other shenanigans. So you really can’t lose here. Head over to www. legionathletics. com. Now place your order and see for yourself why my supplements have thousands of rave reviews all over the internet.

And if for whatever reason they’re just not for you, contact us and we will give you a full refund on the spot.