Title: Demystifying Autophagy: Can Hunger Really Cause the Body to Heal Itself?Have you ever heard of autophagy?Perhaps you have read the statement that "hunger can trigger autophagy" in some health articles or social **. But is that really the case?Let's take a look at the autophagy reaction and see how it affects the body. Autophagy, as the name suggests, is a phenomenon of self-phagocytosis inside the cell. It is derived from the Greek word meaning "self-phagocytosis", and is the process by which cells wrap parts of themselves and send them to lysosomes for degradation, and then use the degraded products. This concept first began in the 60s of the 20th century, when Japanese scientist Yoshinori Osumi made important contributions to the field of autophagy.
His research found that autophagy is essential for maintaining the normal physiological function of cells, and is also closely related to health, it can eliminate bacteria and viruses that invade cells, regulate cell metabolism, and fight cell aging. Therefore, autophagy is also considered essential for disease prevention and health maintenance. In Yoshinori Osumi's research, by starving yeasts, it was possible to initiate their autophagic reactions. But in the human body, initiating the autophagy reaction is not as simple as some online information suggests. Animal studies have shown that starvation for 24-48 hours can initiate the autophagy response. However, there are relatively few studies on humans, in which the confirmed time required to initiate the autophagy reaction varies, from as little as 36-72 hours to as long as 3-15 years of calorie restriction.
Therefore, it is not so easy to start the autophagy reaction by starving the stomach. Moreover, autophagy does not rely solely on starvation, exercise and reduced caloric intake can also initiate autophagy. Also, it is interesting to note that research on starvation and autophagy responses is related to another hot research topic – intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting refers to concentrating meals for just a few hours each day and skipping meals the rest of the day. In animal experiments, intermittent fasting can not only help**, but also improve physical function and even prolong life. The study also found that intermittent fasting helped to remodel the expression of genes throughout the body, leading to a more synchronized circadian rhythm in most tissues throughout the body, which also marked an improvement in metabolism.
Not only that, but some studies have also shown that choosing the right time of starvation is also very important for intermittent fasting. In the study of fruit flies, it was found that only when starvation began at night and starved until noon the next day did fruit flies get a significant benefit from starvation and have a significantly longer lifespan. This time-related hunger is thought to be related to autophagy, because animals have a biological clock in their bodies, and autophagy is only most active at night. Therefore, choosing the right time of starvation is very important to initiate the autophagy reaction. In summary, whether starvation can initiate autophagy is not a simple question. The effects of autophagy on the body are very complex, and it is affected by a variety of factors, including when to starve, how to starve, etc.
When using starvation to initiate autophagy, careful consideration is required, and more importantly, the scientific approach is the key to maintaining good health. Therefore, if you want to improve your health, you still need to take a scientific approach and avoid blindly trying.