in today's video we are going to be talking about autophagy and five ways to increase it with and
without fasting the word autophagy is derived from the greek words auto which means self and phaging
which means to eat basically it means self eating and that's what autophagy is it is a cellular
process where your body cleans out damaged cells and regenerates new ones autophagy is a good thing
you can think of it like this the cells in your body are not meant to last forever
just like parts in your car at some point they will become worn down and need to be replaced
if your car gets a flat tire you will want to replace it your car is not going to work very
well if you are driving around and ignore the flat and the same goes for your cells
if one becomes damaged you want it to be replaced and that is where autophagy comes in now autophagy
is always happening when we sleep to some degree but there are some additional steps you can take
to increase it so in today's video i'm going to give you five things you can do to boost
autophagy
hey guys welcome back to my channel if you're new here my name is kait i'm a health coach and i post
videos on a high fat nutrient dense way of eating if you like this video please give it a thumbs up
feel free to share and make sure to subscribe and make sure to follow me on instagram twitter and
facebook where i share new posts every single day as i mentioned at the start autophagy is a really
interesting mechanism but our understanding of it is relatively new researchers have known
about autophagy since the 1960s but it has only been within the last decade that it has become a
topic of particular interest the 2016 nobel prize in physiology or medicine was awarded to yoshinori
osumai for his discoveries of mechanisms for autophagy osuma's work illustrates the
importance of autophagy for our cells and their need to be degraded and recycled but autophagy is
not just about optimizing health it can also be used to prevent and even reverse disease
as is the case with parkinson's and alzheimer's for example autophagy removes toxic proteins from
the cells that are attributed to these neurodegenerative 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 fight infection and increase longevity
everyone has the ability to increase autophagy no matter your age so now let's get into the ways you
can do this and make sure to stick around until the end because tip number four might surprise you
number one intermittent fasting fasting is by far the number one way to increase autophagy
it isn't fully understood why autophagy increases when we are fasting but what is known is that when
insulin is low and glucagon is high the glucagon triggers it so when i say intermittent fasting i
am referring to not eating for a period of time every day usually this is anywhere from 16 to 22
hours someone practicing intermittent fasting will not eat for this period of time and then we'll eat
all of their calories for the day within a smaller time frame although it is impossible to measure
autophagy outside of a lab most researchers agree that the process begins between 16 and
20 hours after your last meal number two exercise both aerobic exercise and high intensity interval
training have been shown to trigger autophagy aerobic exercise is basically cardio anything
that is low impact and that you can sustain for long periods of time think walking jogging or
cycling but high intensity interval training also known as hit can 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 10 to 20 minutes at a time and you get a lot
of the same benefits as aerobic exercise including autophagy now what i really want
to stress with hit is that you don't want to be doing this every day you probably don't even want
to be doing it more than once a week you will get the most benefit from doing hit workouts
once a week and doing it on a day where you are fully recovered and can give it your all number
three eat a ketogenic diet the keto diet is a way of eating that is low in carbs and high in fat
and it is well known to mimic a lot of the benefits of fasting one of these benefits is
that it keeps insulin low because you're limiting foods that have the greatest insulin response now
i've been talking a lot on my channel lately about insulin and insulin resistance but for
anyone who isn't familiar insulin is a hormone sometimes referred to as the fat
storage hormone when we eat insulin increases and glucagon which is the counter hormone decreases
insulin is released to help shuttle the excess energy in your bloodstream to your cells and that
is how it gets the nickname of the fat storage hormone when insulin is high your body is storing
fat 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 the trigger for autophagy which
i briefly mentioned earlier carbohydrates are the macronutrient that triggers insulin the most
and in turn suppresses glucagon insulin pretty much stops autophagy dead in its tracks
so anytime you eat a high carb meal you are stopping autophagy now if you eat a low carb diet
such as the keto diet the food you are eating has a much less significant impact on insulin
so your insulin stays low glucagon stays higher and autophagy is activated more regularly
i do have a lot of other videos on my channel about how to eat a keto diet
the best foods to eat the worst foods to eat so i will link one of those videos above and you can
check it out afterwards number four get quality sleep autophagy also increases
when we sleep of course when you are sleeping you're not eating and technically fasting
so this makes sense but the quality of your sleep also matters one study done on mice
found that when sleep was fragmented so there were interruptions in the sleep
autophagy was disrupted my absolute number one tip for improving sleep quality is to invest in a pair
of blue light blocking glasses blue light has been shown to suppress melatonin and disrupt our 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 it boosts our alertness and in the evening when the sun sets
this signals our bodies that it is almost time for a bet and melatonin is released the problem is
that our modern environments are filled with blue light our phones our computer screens our lights
we are staring into blue light well after sunset and this messes with our circadian rhythm
and this is where blue light blockers come in glasses like these ones from blue blocks block 100
of blue light so you can pop them on after sunset and sleep like a baby now the reason i like blue
blocks over other brands is that they actually live up to their claims a lot of other brands
on the market do not even block blue light or do not block it 100 so if you are using blue light
blockers you really want to make sure you're getting what you paid for i do have a discount
code for blue blocks if you want to try them out i will link these glasses in the description box
down below and you can use the code hck15 to save 15 off your order number five extended fasting
and the final way to boost autophagy is by extended fasting generally an extended fast
is anything more than 24 hours as i mentioned earlier when we spoke about intermittent fasting
autophagy begins 16 to 20 hours after we last ate but it reaches its peak somewhere between 48
to 72 hours now the thing with extended fasting is that it does not have to be done regularly a
48 hour fast every three months or a 72 hour fast every six months is enough to reap the benefits
extended fasting too often will cause more harm than good and those are five ways you
can increase autophagy obviously some of these tips you can implement daily and other ones only
need to be implemented periodically now i know you're probably thinking what can you consume
during a fast that won't stop autophagy a general rule of thumb is that any food you eat
will stop autophagy and any drinks with calories will stop autophagy water is okay to drink
black coffee probably okay and unsweetened tea but beyond that if your goal is autophagy i wouldn't
consume anything else during your fasting window anyways guys that is all i have for you today let
me know in the comment section down below if you practice intermittent or extended fasting for the
purpose of autophagy if you did enjoy this video giving it a thumbs up and leaving me a comment
show youtube that you enjoyed it and help the video to reach more people
thank you guys for watching and if you did enjoy this video you might also like my video on
seven drinks that do not break a fast you can check it out here if you want to catch up on
my most recent upload you can find it here and if you want to check out my keto diet
and carnivore diet coaching programs you can find them here thanks again guys i'll see you next time
bye