Metabolic and Mental Health
Here Is What Happened When I Experimentally Initiated Autophagy Decades Ago
Three practical ways to benefit from the body’s self-healing mechanism to improve physical and mental health with lifestyle habits based on experience
The Purpose of the Article
Discerning readers who see a frequent repetition of the term “autophagy” in my metabolic and mental health articles got curious and wondered about the reason.
Interestingly, they seldom see the use of this term in most of the content they consume. Some even perceive that it might be a controversial topic. I know it is not anymore.
Even though it is a relatively new concept, autophagy has been a passion for me as I benefited from it experimentally, leveraging the fragmented body of knowledge for over three decades like many others.
One of my writing goals is to simplify scientific research and pass along my tacit knowledge to the new generation. Therefore, I confidently share my personal experience and experiments to add clarity.
My specific approach to this self-healing process has been experimental for decades but backed up by science. Therefore, I explain the process, benefits, and reasons in simple terms without going into scientific details.
As the process is highly complex and involved, I only focus on practical ways to make this valuable piece for those interested in benefiting from it with simple lifestyle adjustments.
Key Points
This post answers the following three questions.
1 — How did I realize the benefits of autophagy?
2 — Why does autophagy matter?
3 — How might others customize the protocols and benefit from them?
My Discovery of Autophagy
I learned about autophagy in the mid-1980s when exploring metabolic and mental health.
Reviewing two decades of research in the literature gave me clues. Unfortunately, it was controversial in those days, but after 2016 controversy disappeared thanks to a Nobel prize.
As documented in this paper, “the history of autophagy research began when scientists looked at mammalian cells under an electron microscope. According to Christian de Duve (Nobel Laureate, 1974, discoverer of the lysosome), the word “autophagy” was invented at the Ciba Foundation Symposium on Lysosomes in London in 1963.”
The concept sounded intriguing, so I explored it further. I read every paper published to gain insights. I looked at the speculations with optimism as I intuitively knew that autophagy was a critical health opportunity nature gave us.
My initial inspiration came from those who transformed their bodies using time-restricted eating. Unfortunately, fasting was a taboo topic in the 1980s in science communities due to a lack of knowledge, even though humans fasted from the beginning, knowingly or unknowingly.
Examining the functions of fasting on the body and brain gave me valuable clues. However, as fasting was frowned upon on those days, I acted cautiously.
My journey to explore autophagy started with fasting intermittently. When I saw the benefits, I tried long-term fasting. First, I started with cutting snacks. Then, I skipped one meal, particularly breakfast. And later, I removed lunch.
After refraining from food for a while, I noticed a significant improvement in my physical and mental health. Being on the right track delighted me. I wanted to skip another meal permanently. The desired results improved when I began one meal-a-day plan as a lifestyle choice.
In addition to intermittent fasting, I augmented the effects by changing my eating regimen. Reducing carbs and increasing healthy fats as energy sources was an excellent start.
Objective and subjective results compelled me to explore ketogenic diets further. Finally, I decided to replace carbs with healthy fats and consume a substantial amount of fats.
So, I started a zero-carb diet using a keto-carnivore lifestyle which became a game-changer for me.
What is autophagy in simple terms?
At the highest level, autophagy is the self-healing process in specific systems in the body. The systems and the process are complex. Certain conditions activate self-digestive pathways.
As pointed out in this paper, “This process has been studied for the past seven decades; however, we are only beginning to gain a molecular understanding of the key steps required for autophagy.”
In simple terms, the body uses the autophagy process by consuming useless cells, pathogens, and biological toxins (bacterial toxins) as an energy source. The process leads to self-healing at the cellular level.
When the cells sense energy deficiency, for example, when we don’t eat food or consume more energy than the required amount for balance, the cells try to use alternative ways to create power.
So the process happens in the cells affecting the entire body.
Human cells are made of molecules, mainly proteins, and water. However, cells also interact with pathogens like viruses and fungi, triggering some genes. The interaction is synergistic but also might be problematic.
Scientists are also investigating drugs to start the autophagy process as a therapeutic target, as mentioned in this paper.
A 2022 study reviews new strategies in autophagy-related drug discovery and indicates a path toward establishing a more efficient discovery of autophagy-selective pharmacological agents.
Compelling Reasons to Activate Autophagy
I see initiating autophagy as a proactive health improvement approach.
My main reason was to maintain a preventative approach to my physical and mental health. Even though the field is new, science has already documented the harmful effects of pathogens on the body and brain.
We know that dysfunctional autophagy leads to the pathological accumulation of harmful materials in the body leading to infectious and autoimmune diseases, various forms of cancers, and neurodegenerative diseases.
We know the human defense system works well, but it has limitations when internal and external threats pass the threshold.
So the alternative way to protect our bodies from internal and external risks (e.g., bacterial toxins, pathogens, and misfolded proteins) is to initiate and maintain the body’s self-healing system at the cellular level.
Experimental Benefits I gained from Autophagy.
I summarize the benefits under four broad topics based on my objective and subjective measures.
1 — Immune health
Benefits: Since I started the process, I did not experience a single cold or flu. In addition, my inflammatory and autoimmune conditions, such as arthritis symptoms, disappeared.
Summary of Reasons
Dealing with external and internal threats exhausts the immune system. However, when pathogens and bacterial toxins in the body are cleared by autophagy, the immune system strengthens.
2 — Metabolic health
Benefits: After starting the autophagy process, my metabolic disorders disappeared.
Summary of Reasons
Before starting the autophagy process in my younger years, I was the onset of diabetes with metabolic syndrome symptoms.
The autophagy process contributed to defeating insulin resistance and leptin resistance problems.
When the body became more insulin sensitive and leptin receptive, metabolic syndrome symptoms disappeared. My metabolic health shifted from a pre-diabetic to a fat-adapted position.
3 — Skin health
Benefits: After starting autophagy systematically, I eliminated loose skin, gained clearer skin, and had noticeable abs with a defined body despite older age.
Summary of Reasons
As the techniques to initiate autophagy made the body insulin sensitive and leptin receptive, I gained an excellent glucose profile and fat utilization.
This metabolic shift speeded up fat burning, initially showing more skin. However, the autophagy process used the loose skin tissues for energy creation, perceiving them as unnecessary for survival.
I understand that when the body sense energy deficiency in a fat-adapted body, it mainly uses the fat molecules and less essential tissues such as the skin. However, if the body is not fat-adapted, it sadly attempts to use the muscles.
Therefore, through time-restricted eating with fasted workouts giving a better hormonal profile, I did not lose any muscles but lost the desired level of visceral fat and loose skin.
4 — Mental health
Benefit: Since I started autophagy, my mental energy has increased, my mood has improved, and my cognitive abilities like focus, attention, memory, task switching, and problem-solving have enhanced.
Summary of Reasons
Literature indicates that misfolded protein toxicity causing neural damage is one of the root causes of neurodegenerative diseases. For example, as informed in this paper, “impairment of autophagic flux causes the inability to remove the neurotoxic oligomers of misfolded proteins in the brain.”
Clearing damaged cells, misfolded proteins, pathogens, and bacterial toxins from the body and brain can reduce internal stress.
Even though the body sees fasting as stress (good stress), I believe that the body and brain might have less stress when harmful materials are eliminated. Thus, it might create less cortisol.
Literature indicates that toxicity might cause an imbalance of hormones and neurotransmitters. I understand that hormones and neurotransmitters gain better balance when the body clears harmful materials.
Besides, during the autophagy process, the brain produces BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor), which protects neurons. In addition, during ketosis, BHP (β-hydroxybutyrate) as a byproduct serves as a signaling molecule to reduce inflammation.
Ketosis is an indication of autophagy in the body. It means that the body consumed the glycogen stores and started using fat molecules as an alternative energy source (ketone bodies), which is metabolically cleaner than glucose for the cells.
Practical Ways to Initiate Autophagy
Literature indicates that overeating (excessive calories) and having a sedentary life (lack of movement) inhibits autophagy. I offer three practical lifestyle approaches to initiate autophagy based on experience.
1 — Time-Restricted Eating
It is possible to achieve time-restricted eating using various protocols.
The easiest way is to stop snacks. Even with three meals, we can achieve some benefits from autophagy. For example, between dinner (7 PM) and breakfast (7 AM), we have 12-hour fasting windows if we stop snacking.
If we don’t consume refined carbs and even use ketogenic diets with three meals, it is possible to enter nutritional ketosis and slightly activate autophagy.
The next easier way is skipping breakfast or lunch. Using the previous scenario, if we skip breakfast, we have around 18 hours of fasting window that can enhance the autophagy process.
The third way is skipping two meals like I do and eating only dinner. This protocol gives me 22 hours of fasting window as I consume my meal within two hours. Therefore my body always has a chance to initiate mild autophagy.
However, I also practice long-term fasting from two to seven days to gain better benefits from autophagy. This is because, after two days, the autophagy process gets intenser.
Long-term fasting might require medical supervision for some people, so getting support from qualified healthcare professionals is necessary.
Intermittent and long-term fasting is not for everyone, especially those with underlying health conditions.
2 — Moderate yet Intense Exercise
Movement is essential for the body. Every healthy person can do and needs to do some workouts regularly to maintain health.
Sedentary life is a risk factor for physical and mental health. For example, I explained the importance of exercise for reducing cancer risks in a story titled Exercise Can Lower Cancer Risks.
Like abstaining from food, exercise can also create a caloric deficit contributing to autophagy initiation.
However, intense exercises utilize more oxygen and make a hormonal impact on the body and brain. For example, intense exercise (like fasting) can increase growth hormone and testosterone secretion protecting the muscles.
I do my workouts, such as calisthenics and barefoot walking on an empty stomach. When I was in the gym, people used to scare me, asserting I would lose muscles when exercising on an empty stomach.
In the beginning, I was hesitant. But when I did not notice any muscle loss after six months, as confirmed by DEXA scans, I gained confidence in my experiment. I lost visceral fat, eliminated loose skin, and gained muscle quality.
When the body is fat-adapted, it can happily use stored fat and not touch its precious muscles. However, suppose the body is not fat adapted (unable to use stored fat) and senses severe caloric shortage. In that case, it can use the sugar and amino acids in muscles, causing muscle loss.
Through my experiments, I learned that the hormonal effects of fasting and intense exercise protect muscles.
3 — Thermogenesis
In addition to fasting and exercise, I used thermogenetic effects such as cold (e.g., cold showers and ice baths) and heat exposure (dry sauna) for additional health benefits.
Cold exposure significantly increases calorie use, so it contributes to initiating autophagy. Exposure to heat causes increased body temperature. The body needs to use calories to cool down.
These techniques (cold and heat) also contribute to mitochondrial health and activate longevity genes such as SIRT2.
As I discussed in other articles, I link them for those interested in the topics.
A Cold Shower a Day Might Keep the Doctor Away in My Experience
Conclusions and Takeaways
Seven decades of autophagy research is promising. The scientific interest and investigation intensified after one of the 2016 Nobel prizes was granted to autophagy research. Since then, the topic has become non-controversial.
Even though scientists are trying to find methods to activate autophagy using medical interventions, currently, two viable approaches to initiate autophagy seem to be time-restricted eating and exercise. Thermogenesis (cold and hot exposure) also contributes to it.
When scientists identify autophagy-selective pharmacological agents, therapeutic use of autophagy might become possible. The research is actively making good progress. I believe it will become mainstream by the next decade.
By carefully reducing food intake (cutting snacks and skipping meals), and performing intense exercises, especially on an empty stomach, healthy people might initiate and maintain autophagy to gain mentioned benefits.
However, people with underlying health conditions must obtain support and approval from qualified healthcare professionals before starting autophagy, initiating mechanisms such as fasting and intense exercise.
Systematically and experimentally, initiating autophagy made me feel younger, healthier, and happier. Autophagy was one of the primary reasons I chose my interesting (unusual) lifestyle.
I hope my readers find ways to customize these protocols with support from qualified healthcare professionals to suit their needs.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a happy and healthy life.
Here’s How I Initiate Mitophagy and Make My Mitochondria Denser in 7 Steps
Besides aiming to increase the hormonal intelligence of my readers and writing about neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, GABA, acetylcholine, and norepinephrine, one of my goals as a writer is to raise awareness about the causes and risk factors of prevalent diseases that can lead to suffering and death for a large portion of the population.
I aim to educate, create awareness, and empower my readers to take control of their health and well-being.
To raise awareness about health issues, I have written several articles that present my holistic health findings from research, personal observations, and unique experiences. Below are links to these articles for easy access.
Metabolic Syndrome, Type II Diabetes, Fatty Liver Disease, Heart Disease, Strokes, Obesity, Liver Cancer, Autoimmune Disorders, Homocysteine, Lungs Health, Pancreas Health, Kidneys Health, NCDs, Infectious Diseases, Brain Health, Dementia, Depression, Brain Atrophy, Neonatal Disorders, Skin Health, Dental Health, Bone Health, Leaky Gut, Leaky Brain, Brain Fog, Chronic Inflammation, Insulin Resistance, Elevated Cortisol, Leptin Resistance, Anabolic Resistance, Cholesterol, High Triglycerides, Metabolic Disorders, Gastrointestinal Disorders, and Major Diseases.
I also wrote about valuable nutrients. Here are the links for easy access:
Lutein/Zeaxanthin, Boron, Urolithin, taurine, citrulline malate, biotin, lithium orotate, alpha-lipoic acid, n-acetyl-cysteine, acetyl-l-carnitine, CoQ10, PQQ, NADH, TMG, creatine, choline, digestive enzymes, magnesium, zinc, hydrolyzed collagen, nootropics, pure nicotine, activated charcoal, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B1, Vitamin D, Vitamin K2, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine, and other nutrients to improve metabolism and mental health.
Disclaimer: Please note that my posts do not include professional or health advice. I document my reviews, observations, experience, and perspectives only to provide information and create awareness.
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