Autophagy is an important homeostatic process to keep organism healthy by clearing damaged structures and eliminating pathogens and is a key survival mechanism in organisms from yeast to mammals. Autophagy is strongly induced by starvation or nutrient deprivation. It's only natural to conclude that fasting as a way of nutrient deprivation could play a significant role in keeping an organism healthy.
I believe that to a simple level, the aswer is yes; actually, calorie restriction is one of the most classical ways of autophagy induction and has been shown to increase lifespan in multiple animal models.
But, as everything in life, the answer is not that absolute, but a matter of balance; as autophagy induction is not always a positive (pro-survival) cell response. Most importantly, regarding fasting in a translational view, you must remember organisms do not only feed to obtain energetic substrates, but also to supply essencial vitamins and cofactors for key enzymes of metabolic processes, which cannot be obtained through autophagy. To me the really "tricky" point here is to define where healthy fasting ends and malnutrition begins.
YES, it does Ben Martinez
Fasting allows the macrophages to eat the dead, necrotic and to some extent cancerous tissue.
Moreover, fasting has multiple other benefits.
Once I say fasting,i interpret intermittent fasting
regards
Thank you guys for sharing your thoughts. I agree with both of you, Nathan and Sikandar. To find the balance to achieve homeostasis where malnutrition does not occur is very important. Therefore, both intermittent fasting and reasonable calorie restriction diets may be promoted to achieve the goal.
Autophagy is a Greek term for "self-eating" and is a process of recycling and degrading to balance the energy sources and to keep cells healthy by destroying damaged structures and invading foreign organisms such as as viruses and bacteria. Autophagy plays important role as the housekeeping and cleaning mechanism within the cells by clearing damaged mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum and peroxisomes for examples. Autophagy is an important mechanism in eliminating and destroying intracellular pathogens. The process of "self-eating" is critical for cells to survive and is a key homeostatic mechanism for preservation of the organisms from yeast to mammals. Autophagy has been recognized as a very important mechanism to defend against malignancy, infection, neurodegenerative diseases, cardiomyopathy, and autoimmune diseases to name a few. Autophagy works by balancing the sources of energy in response to "nutrient stress". During starvation, cells will break down proteins and other nonessential components to reuse them for energy. It has been known that food restriction induces autophagy in many organs and tissues. Autophagy is strongly induced by starvation and becomes an important adaptive response to nutrient deprivation for the organisms to stay alive until nutrients become available
Autophagy may play a very strong role in how some diseases occur and progress, from cancer and heart disease to autoimmune and neuropathic diseases such as Alzheimer and Parkinson. There has been a connection between the defects or loss of function in autophagy to diseases just mentioned above. Fasting has been known to induce autophagy which is good for cell health and homeostasis, but the disruption of autophagy in certain mutations may cause diseases. It has been shown that upregulation of autophagy takes place in cortical and Purkinje neurons during short term food restriction contrary to the belief that the brain is a privileged organ which requires greater insult to induce autophagy. If the disruption of autophagy may cause neurodegenerative disease, may the upregulation of autophagy from fasting cause neuroprotective effect? Like everything else in life, BALANCE is the key to healthy and happy life. While intermittent fasting may be good for health by inducing autophagy to keep cells healthy, chronic starvation will definitely cause detrimental effects to health.
There exists now the "Fasting Mimicking Diet" or FMD. The diet program is called ProLon and is a 5 day program that is supposed to mimic intermittent fasting without actually fasting or stop eating. It sounds contradictory. But in the age of all things short-cut and convenience, anything is possible. Why not, right? We're still looking and waiting for the fountain of youth and the magic pill that can stop and alter the process of nature.
Yoshinori Ohsumi: autophagy from beginning to end. Interview by Caitlin Sedwick.
- April 2012
- The Journal of Cell Biology 197(2):164-5
- DOI:
- 10.1083/jcb.1972pi
- Source
- PubMed
- Excellent work and accomplishment. I thoroughly enjoyed the interview and your brief history. I mentioned your name in my writing regarding fasting. Your discovery in autophagy is very important and supports my belief that "more is not always good". I believe the root cause of our modern diseases is the "more is better attitude" and the less physical activity lifestyle. I can not be as diligent and as thorough as a scientist like you to understand and study at molecular level the function and the process that is going within a cell, but I'm very much interested in the application of the "basic science" discovered into everyday practical clinical application that people can follow. The fact that fasting or privation can actually be good for health will not be a popular and welcoming news to "the more is better" culture, economy, and society.
Dear Ben Martinez,
Yes, in this way, during the diet and periodic starvation, the body gets rid of not only excess fat but also factors generating the formation of free radicals and unnecessary pollutants, pathogens and other pathogens and carcinogens accumulated in various soft tissues, etc.
Regards,
Dariusz Prokopowicz
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