You've probably heard about the importance of autophagy, but may have wondered what it is

By enhancing autophagy, we can live longer and in better health.

What is autophagy?

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Autophagy is the self-cleansing process that cells use to recycle junk molecules and organelles.

Cells constantly synthesize enzymes and structural molecules, which get damaged in the course of the life of the cell.
To function optimally, cells must break down and recycle these molecules that are past their expiration date and make new ones.

To do this, they use autophagy, a word derived from the Greek for "self-eating".
The term was coined by the Belgian scientist Christian de Duve, who not only got a Nobel Prize for his work on autophagy, but was also named a viscount. Image
The 2016 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology went to Yoshinori Ohsumi, for his discoveries of mechanisms for autophagy. Image
When a cell lacks nutrients, autophagy increases, partly to supply necessary nutrients until a regular supply resumes.

Autophagy is "evolutionarily conserved", which means it occurs in virtually all eukaryotic cells, from yeast to insects to mammals.
How important is autophagy?

It is "essential" for life extension.

That is, every practice or method of life extension known also increases autophagy. Image
When organisms including humans are young, they're able to upregulate autophagy easily, but this ability declines with aging, resulting in accelerating accumulation of cellular waste.

This has been termed the garbage catastrophe of aging. tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.117…
Rapamycin, the most promising life extension drug, increases autophagy through mTOR inhibition, and this may be a key way in which it fights diseases of aging and increases lifespan.

sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
Intermittent fasting, by stopping nutrient supply, increases autophagy, which may be central to its benefits. tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.41…
Exercise is also a powerful way to increase autophagy, perhaps even more powerful than short-term fasting.

The higher the exercise intensity, the higher the autophagy activation.

faseb.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.10…
A ketogenic diet induces autophagy, although this area of research is fairly new.
tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108…
In old animals, an anti-lipolytic drug (a vitamin B3 analogue) has an anti-aging effect by increasing autophagy.

sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
In summary, many life extension effects converge on the induction of autophagy, which rids cells of junk.

Autophagy is the ultimate "cleanse"

It can be increased through fasting, exercise, diet, and various drugs.
Maximizing Longevity and Healthspan: Multiple Approaches All Converging on Autophagy

Exercise, fasting, rapamycin, and metformin all increase autophagy and extend lifespan.

frontiersin.org/articles/10.33…
Autophagy activation alone increases lifespan in mice nature.com/articles/ncomm…
"Garb-aging" is caused by cellular debris that leads to inflammation, and increasing autophagy can fight it.

Fasting and exercise, among other interventions.

sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
All lifespan extension paradigms can be explained by increased autophagy.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
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More from @Mangan150

Sep 6
You may have never heard of it, but insulin resistance is the most important concept for those who care about their health.

Let me quickly explain it, in a simplified way:
First: it’s easier to understand insulin resistance as a continuum from excellent to very poor metabolic health.
Someone who is in excellent metabolic health is what’s called “insulin sensitive”

They almost surely have low body fat levels and:

-Low triglycerides
-Normal or higher HDL
-A1C in the normal range
Read 11 tweets
Aug 27
Could we prevent most cancer cases, today, without any new technology?

I think we can.

Here's why: Image
Cancer is rare in young people, but common in older people.

In fact, about 90% of all cancers happen to people over the age of 50.

And 50% of ALL cancers happen with people over 70. Image
So now we must ask:

Why does almost every cancer case happen later in life?

Could it be simply because older people are, on average, in worse metabolic than young people? Image
Read 11 tweets
Aug 11
What's the smart way to think about carbs?

Big difference between:

1) Recognizing that almost every crappy food choice contains carb

2) Claiming that all carbs are “bad”.

Let's dive in: Image
Image
I speak from personal experience, and from working 1-on-1 with over 1500 people since 2015.

Here's the truth:

Every single client I've had who said they were "struggling with carbs" was in fact not struggling with any unrefined carb source. Image
Said differently, people who say they have a “carb problem” almost never struggle with things like fruit, potatoes, or even rice.

When you get specific, you realize that it's those processed/junk food sources that are an issue.
Read 9 tweets
Jul 28
The cholesterol hypothesis has been wreaking havoc on human health for 75 years.

This is the idea that higher cholesterol levels, especially LDL, are causally linked to “clogged arteries” and heart disease.

Let’s debunk once again:
Optimal total cholesterol levels are higher in than what current medical dogma states.
Lowering cholesterol is a bad idea if you care about brain health:
Read 8 tweets
Jul 23
The two words that matter most for those who want to improve their health, mood, energy levels and quality of life:

Body composition.

Let’s define it:
Body composition refers to the components that make up your total weight.

There are a few ways to think about the components, the best one in my view being the three-compartment model which includes:

Bone
Fat
Fat-free mass
Fat free mass includes both muscle and organs.

When we talk about getting to and maintaining a low body fat %, it’s generally calculated as:

Fat mass divided by total weight (all three components).
Read 7 tweets
Jul 9
The most common reason older men have lower testosterone levels?

It’s not because they’re older.

It’s because they’re fat.
25% of men over 75 have T levels on par with high T young men.

What's stopping all men from having T levels that high?

Carrying excess body fat, and not training correctly.
I think a lot of men (and their doctors) are too quick to jump on the TRT wagon.

Get rid of excess body fat and build a little muscle…

And odds are good you could have naturally high T levels.
Read 4 tweets

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