Avery Hansen - Autophagy: How to Use Your Body’s Natural Intelligence for Self-Cleansing, Anti-Aging, and Rapid Weight Loss

What was your reaction when you heard the word autophagy for the first time? Or could this be the first time youre reading about it? Its quite a mouthful, and it sounds terribly complicated, something that only medical professionals should be familiar with. The first time I read about autophagy, the author went to a lot of trouble to help us readers understand the pronunciation, which I can understand, but I couldnt help giggling at the demonstration. It was something like Aah - toh - fah - jee. It was very useful, so I must give the author credit for that. My partner, however, refused to accept that this was the correct pronunciation, so we had to search a YouTube channel that pronounces wordsone that he deemed credible, of course. He listened to the robot voice several times while giving me dirty looks, but he finally caved. Only then was I triumphant.

The most fascinating thing about the word Autophagy, for me, is what it means. The word is of Greek origin, and it actually consists of two components, auto and phagy. Auto means self and phagy means eat, which leaves you with the concept of self-eating (Lindberg & Murrell, 2018). I must admit, if one is not familiar with the functions and benefits of autophagy, the idea can be kind of creepy and even gross; how can there be hype about something that sounds so unnatural, especially in the beauty industry? Well, the biggest surprise you will get when you start learning about autophagy is that its the polar opposite of unnatural. Its unbelievable, and you would never have thought that the body had this kind of superpowers and astonishing intelligence. Lets talk about what autophagy is and why its existence was such a ground-breaking discovery.

Autophagy is not understood as only a state that the body enters, but also as an ongoing process, and it is the bodys way of spring-cleaning itself to get rid of unwanted debris that may be irritating the body and preventing growth and healing, like inflammation. This aforementioned act of spring-cleaning is synonymous with the self-eating or self-cannibalizing we mentioned earlier, and this connection comes from the way the body reuses or recycles the unwanted debris for the generation and production of new cells or for cell repair. This process is identified as an evolutionary and self-preserving mechanism that helps the body stay healthy when exposed to toxins or stress (Lindberg & Murrell, 2018). Because autophagy is scientifically defined as a renewal process that can take place on a basic cellular level, it has an effect on many processes and manifestations in the physical body that are currently perceived as health issues. These issues include conditions like diabetes, weight problems, cancer, age-related diseases like Alzheimers and Parkinson disease, and more aesthetic issues like visible signs of aging.

Autophagy has been researched for more than 50 years, and its effects on and benefits of it regarding various types of diseases and health issues have been thoroughly studied. When it was first discovered that a cell would digest or eat other cells in the initial research process, researchers didnt understand the reason behind this process and found it to be rather disturbing. However, the research process didnt stop there, and the reason behind this seemingly macabre process and its fantastic restorative and healing results were soon discovered. As you will discover in the book, there are several prominent researchers who dedicated the scientific study of autophagy to different medical and health fields, which include gastroenterology, genome studies, neuropathology, and molecular biology. These are all specialized fields, but the research comes down to studies conducted to inspect the effect of autophagy on the brain, the intestines, and cell production. The best part of all this research is how the studies came to show that autophagy can make us fitter, younger-looking, and more beautiful people, naturally. So, autophagy isn't only about being healthy, but also about discovering the Fountain of Youth and learning how to maintain a healthy weight.

One of the most popular methods used to activate and utilize the benefits of autophagy is through fasting. Fasting has been practiced for thousands of years and for many reasons, including religious ones, and for general wellbeing. It is well-regarded as an ancient practice. Intermittent fasting is a form of intentional fasting as opposed to voluntary fasting, which is associated with starvation (de Cabo & Mattson, 2019). In more modern times, individuals have been experimenting with intermittent fasting and prolonged fasting to reach the level of autophagy. The basic difference between intermittent fasting and prolonged fasting is that intermittent fasting usually consists of shorter fasting periods that cycle with feeding periods, while a prolonged fast can last from 36 hours to a couple of weeks. Intermittent fasting became a thing again in the UK after it was introduced in 2012 by the BBCs Horizon documentary Eat, Fast and Live Longer (Moseley, 2020). Subsequently, several best-sellers were published, making intermittent fasting a household name. In the United States, intermittent fasting gained popularity in Silicon Valley, and it was the most popular diet of 2018 (Solon, 2017). My idea of intermittent fasting involves allowing the body to do its own upkeep. For example, lets say you have a car that you drive a lot. You fill it with gas every other week, but you also occasionally need to take it in for major and minor services and replace certain parts. Imagine if your car were able to service itself, and you only had to do minimal maintenance. This is probably hard to imagine because a car is not biological in any way, but imagine a car had a built-in intelligence that self-regulated and fixed its own issues. All you would have to do is allow this process to occur, and the car would stay young and trendy-looking on the outside. Youd never have to buy a car again! This is the idea I have in my mind about autophagy, and many people are using intermittent fasting to activate autophagy in their bodies in this way to address numerous health reasons.