autophagy is a cellular process where the body cleans out damaged cells
and regenerates new ones it has been shown to slow down aging improve brain function and
prevent and even improve cancer and other diseases autophagy is always happening
in the body to some capacity but there are certain things we can do to really boost it
one of the ways is fasting extended fasting over 72 hours specifically but fasting can be stressful
it can be difficult especially for this long it can be overwhelming for a lot of people
who have never fasted before and the good news is there are other ways to increase autophagy
that don't require fasting and we are going to talk about three ways to do that today
hey guys welcome back to my channel if you're new here my name is kait i'm a certified health
and nutrition coach i post videos here on youtube twice a week talking all things insulin resistance
weight loss sleep and more so if you're ready to take control of your metabolic health
make sure to click that subscribe button and you can also find me on tick tock and
instagram where i share new posts every single day autophagy has become a pretty hot topic in
recent years especially when it comes to longevity but autophagy is not just about optimizing health
it can also help to prevent and even reverse certain diseases in general
autophagy decreases as we age so this means that the amount of damaged cells can increase
and this might be part of the reason for other diseases that are associated with aging
autophagy has also been shown to reduce inflammation and fight infection and even though
autophagy does decrease as we age everyone no matter of your age has the ability to increase it
and we're going to talk about three ways to do that today number one is to eat keto the
keto diet is a way of eating that is very low in carbohydrates and high in fat and it is well known
that keto mimics a lot of the benefits of fasting including autophagy when you are eating a keto
diet your insulin is low because you are limiting the foods that have the greatest insulin response
carbohydrates now i talk a lot on my channel about insulin and insulin resistance i won't
get too into it today but if you want to know more about that i'm going to link a video above
when we eat insulin increases and glucagon which is the counter hormone decreases insulin is
released and it helps to shuttle the excess energy in our bloodstream to our cells when
insulin is high our body is in fat storing mode glucagon is triggered in the opposite way when
you haven't eaten for a while glucagon increases and it triggers your body to release stored energy
glucagon is also a trigger for autophagy so because carbohydrates cause the biggest release
of insulin this suppresses glucagon and this is why high insulin reduces autophagy significantly
so anytime you eat a meal that is very high in carbohydrates you're down regulating autophagy
significantly now if you eat a low-carb ketogenic diet a lot less insulin is needed
and autophagy is going to be activated regularly tip number two is to prioritize sleep autophagy
also increases when we sleep and this makes sense to a certain degree because obviously
while we're sleeping we're fasting we're not eating insulin's low glucagon it's gonna go up
but the quality of our sleep also matters one study found that when participants experienced
a lot of interruptions in their sleep autophagy was also disrupted now my absolute number one tip
for improving your sleep that i talk about all the time is regulating your light exposure and
blue light specifically the best thing you can do to improve your sleep quality is invest in a
pair of blue light blocking glasses blue light has been shown to suppress melatonin and disrupt sleep
basically blue light is a really big factor in sinking our circadian rhythm
during the day blue light is emitted from the sun and this boosts our alertness and in the evening
when the sun sets this signals our bodies that it's evening and melatonin is released to help us
sleep but the problem is our modern environments they are filled with blue light our computer
screens our phone screens even the lights in our house so when we're exposed to these after sunset
this can suppress melatonin and make it difficult to get a good quality sleep and that's where blue
light blocking glasses come in you put these on after sunset and they block 100 of blue light
from reaching your eyes i really like this pair from bond charge i've been wearing them for years
they are absolutely fantastic really well made i'm gonna put the link to check them out in the
description box down below number three is high intensity interval training also known as hit
both aerobic exercise and high intensity interval training have been shown to increase autophagy
aerobic exercise is basically cardio so any type of exercise that's low impact that you can sustain
your pace for a long period of time think jogging think walking think cycling anything like that
but high intensity interval training also known as hit might give you more bang for your buck
this type of training involves sprinting for short periods of time resting for short periods of time
and repeating generally you only have to do this for a short amount of time think 10 to 20 minutes
and you get a lot of the benefits of aerobic exercise including autophagy now i will note that
with hit you also don't need to be doing it every day once a week or once every 10 days is enough
to reap the benefits to get the most out of a hit session though you really need to be fully rested
fully recovered so that you can sprint to your max potential anyways guys that's all i have for
you today so to recap number one eat a keto diet number two prioritize your sleep and number three
do hit training you can do one of these you can do all of them but let me know in the comment section
down below which you're gonna try first if you did enjoy this video you might also enjoy my video on
signs and symptoms of an iodine deficiency which you can check out here a lot of people don't
realize they're deficient in iodine so highly recommend that video if you want to catch up on my
most recent upload you can find it here and if you want to check out my coaching programs including
my seven-day keto crash course you can check that out here thanks guys i'll see you next time bye