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Cellular cleaning? Why should I care about that? What does it even mean?
Turns out that periodic bouts of cell cleaning are critical to improving your long term health and lifespan.
And how do you clean your cells? As is true with so many things the answer is simple but not easy.
Fasting.
Intermittent fasting in particular has become a popular practice in health and wellness circles as a way to control weight gain and raise energy levels. If your goal is primarily weight loss then intermittent fasting can be a good approach if only because you tend to eat less.
Burn more calories than you eat and you’ll have to dip into your fat reserves. The first law of thermodynamics won’t let you down.
But if weight loss isn’t your focus, it turns out that fasting can also have an outsized impact on your cellular health while helping you live longer.
Over the past several decades, researchers have identified several related cellular processes all strongly correlated with longevity.
For example, reduction in Insulin signaling, reduction in mTOR signaling, reductions in mitochondrial respiration, and reduced total calorie intake have all been shown to increase lifespan in animal models.
Across all these different mechanisms however there’s a common thread. They’re all upstream of a single cellular process called autophagy.
Autophagy (aw-taw-fa-gee) is a process by which a cell cleans up it's own damaged organelles, abnormal proteins, and pathogens.
Auto (self) + Phag (eat) = Autophagy (self eating)
Why would your cells do this? By removing damaged organelles, abnormal proteins, and pathogens, your cells become more efficient and resilient.
In addition, the process of cell autophagy usually delays programmed cell death, meaning your cells stick around longer.
The finding that higher levels of autophagy are strongly correlated to both longer life and cellular health has been replicated in numerous studies and helps to explain the mechanism by which a lot of the known signaling pathways work to extend life.
Cellular stress.
When in a fasted state you’re putting metabolic stress on your cells. The lack of food signals them to enter into a rebuild and repair mode by way of autophagy. Even at the cellular level, your body recognizes that it may be entering a longer period of scarcity and begins to adapt as a result.
Of course, starving yourself isn’t healthy either.
Your body does need nutrition for healthy function. But in the way that a short period of time spent exercising can signal your muscles to grow, a short period of time spent fasting can trigger a similar positive effect.
What if you don't want to lose weight? What if you actually want to build muscle?
Don't worry.
Based on the current available research the most important thing is not just the total quantity of calories but rather the amount of time spent in a fasted state. More important than calorie restriction is calorie compression.
You don't need to eat less. You just need to eat less often.
So whether you’re looking to lose a little bit of weight or increase your overall cellular fitness it might be worth experimenting with intermittent fasting or an occasional, longer water fast.
Cheers,
Nick