autophagy is the process where your body breaks down old damaged cells and recycles them you can
think of this like your body clearing out what is damaged and not needed and making things run
smoother autophagy generates energy for our cells it reduces inflammation it protects our brains
from neurodegenerative diseases it slows down the effects of aging and helps to prevent cancer now
autophagy is always happening within our bodies to some degree but it really ramps up when we do
an extended fast of 48 hours or more and this is why fasting is being recommended more and more as
a cancer treatment and while fasting certainly is the most effective way to trigger and boost
autophagy there are other things that you can do every day that do work as well number six being
hot and cold exposure both hot and cold therapy have been shown to increase autophagy now this can
be as simple as having a cold shower or doing a cold plunge or on the opposite end of the spectrum
using a sauna both hot and cold therapy have many other benefits as well including speeding
up recovery but you just need to make sure that you're doing them at the right time for your
goals especially if your goals relate to Growing muscle because cold therapy in particular if you
do it too close to your workouts it can actually stunt your muscle growth I won't get into this too
much today I do have a full video on this topic if you want to know more but back to autophagy I am a
huge fan of saunas in particular because autophagy included the benefits are just amazing but I know
that they are quite pricey and impractical for a lot of people they're pretty big you have to have
somewhere to put them which is why I absolutely love my sauna blanket it's a fraction of the price
you can use it anywhere and it's super easy to clean and you still get all the benefits of son
including autophagy I will put the link to the one I use from Bon charge in the description box
down below number five is increase deep sleep we see an increase in autophagy when we're sleeping
and when we're in deep Sleep in particular we usually get most of our deep sleep in the second
half of our sleep however if you are someone who wakes up frequently this could be interfering
with your ability to maximize autophagy we want to be getting between 60 to 990 minutes of deep
sleep every single night so if you are someone who uses a sleep tracker such as the aura ring
or whoop that's what you want to be aiming for I find the Sleep trackers on things such as Garin
watches and apple watches aren't that accurate so I wouldn't really go off of those numbers
and I do have a full video on how to increase your deep sleep in particular if this is something you
struggle with especially if you wake up frequently throughout the night I have tips on that as well
so I will link that video up above number four is to increase Omega-3s Omega-3s specifically in the
form of DHA have been shown to increase autophagy DHA is only found in animal sources mainly Seafood
the top sources include oily fish including salmon shellfish and oysters the form of Omega-3 that you
get in things such as chia seeds and hemp seeds is the precursor to DHA the body has to convert
it and unfortunately it can only convert a small percentage so you really aren't getting very much
if any DHA at all if you're just trying to get it from nuts and seeds you really need to be
incorporating some sort of seafood or I am also a big fan of cod liver oil as well fish oils can be
okay as well you just need to really make sure that it's a high quality one if you're buying
it from a store straight off the shelf and it's not refrigerated absolutely avoid that is going
to be already oxidized like I said it needs to be a quality fish oil if you're going to go
that route and usually Cod Liver oils are higher quality already so it's a bit easier to find one
number three is to reduce carbs when we reduce carbohydrates in our diet we reduce the amount
of insulin that our bodies need throughout the day and this is relevant because when insulin levels
are low autophagy increases and this makes sense because as we discussed before fasting is the best
way to boost autophagy and when we are fasting is when our insulin levels are lowest so when we are
eating a diet that's high in carbohydrates a lot of insulin is needed to process these foods but
when we reduce them and when we focus on mainly fat and protein less is needed so in a sense we're
mimicking fasting which leads to autophagy being triggered and increased more regularly number two
exercise both aerobic exercise and high-intensity interval training have been shown to boost
autophagy aerobic exercise is basically cardio any form of low intensity exercise you can maintain
for a long period of time so think walking running cycling swimming all of these are aerobic
but high-intensity interval training where you're working at close to your maximum for short periods
of time and then resting in between might give you a little bit more bang for your buck now I
want to mention that with high-intensity interval training you don't need to be doing it every day
you don't even need to be doing it every other day you get the benefits when you are able to work
at your Max Capacity and you can only do this if you're fully recovered so high-intensity interval
training really only needs to be done once a week don't overdo it or you're just going to
be selling yourself short and finally number one is to intermittent fast now while extended fasting
does increase autophagy the most doing some form of daily intermittent fasting can help you to
activate it a little bit every day day which is still beneficial so if completing a 48 hour
fast seems completely out of reach that's totally fair Instead try to aim for at least 12 hours of
fasting every single day if you can get that up to 16 or 18 hours that might be even more beneficial
but 12 would probably be the minimum because even these shorter boats of fasting cause our insulin
levels to drop and Trigger autophagy and if you're completely new to fasting you're not sure to start
and what you can consume during a fast check out this video afterwards now I want to hear from you
guys in the comment section down below how many of these autophagy triggering activities do you
do regularly are there any that you didn't know about that you are now going to add into your
routine let me know in the comments down below and I'm also going to link that sauna blanket that
I mentioned earlier in the description box down below if you're interested in it now is the time
to buy because Bon charge is actually having a 25% off sitewide sale for the holidays so make sure to
check it out 25% off is a huge savings thanks guys for watching and I will see you next time [Music]
bye