REPAIR YOUR BODY FOR FREE
Is it your intention to live healthier and longer? If it is, a good time to start a plan is now. Too many of us don’t have a plan until an illness strikes or we get to an age when our mortality begins to bother us and a friend or family member has a problem or even dies. This is particularly relevant in this time of the Corona pandemic.
The good news is, if you have a plan, you can do something to achieve these goals immediately. After decades of microbiological research, and with the help of sophisticated equipment, researchers have been able to put together a roadmap of how the body functions. One of the major breakthroughs was the discovery of our gene infrastructure.
This allowed a Japanese cell biologist, by the name of Yoshinori Ohsumi, to discover and understand a process our body uses to renew and regenerate itself. This process is called AUTOPHAGY. Although first discovered in the 1960s, Ohsumis’s research from the late ’80s and early ’90s has shown that autophagy performs a vital role in protecting the body against inflammation and diseases such as dementia and Parkinson’s.
When he started researching autophagy, there were virtually no articles on the subject, whereas today more than 5,000 appear each and every year. These cover a wide range of fields including cancer and longevity. For his work on autophagy, Ohsumi received in 2016 the Nobel Prize for Medicine.
The question is: How can you benefit from this groundbreaking research?
What is Autophagy?
As you age, and as a normal response to just going through life, proteins and organelles in your body get damaged or die. If they're not cleared out, these damaged particles accumulate in your cells and clog things up. When this happens, your cells can't divide and function normally which then causes cell death and age-related diseases, contribute to poor tissue and/or organ function, and can even become cancerous.
Enter the process called autophagy. During autophagy, the body earmarks these damaged parts of cells, unused proteins, and other junk in the body for removal and then clears them out. Undamaged elements are stored and recycled for important, new cell functions, especially during periods of stress or starvation, and are reused to create new cell structures.
This is a form of cellular cleansing and is the true meaning of a detox. Autophagy also helps deliver nutrients to cells that need them. Autophagy also destroys viruses and bacteria and gets rid of damaged structures. It’s a process that is critical for cell health, renewal, and survival.
What are the benefits of the autophagy process?
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Protects against disease and inflammation
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Extends the quality and length of your life
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Reduces risk of neurodegenerative diseases (dementia, Parkinson’s)
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Helps prevent the onset of cancer
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Encourages the growth of new cells in the brain and heart tissue
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Helps improve digestive function by repairing and restoring the gut lining
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Regulates cellular mitochondria, improving the body’s energy production
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Protects against metabolic stress
So is there a simple way to promote the process of autophagy in your own body in a controlled manner? Welcome to the concept of Intermittent Fasting.
Intermittent Fasting (IF)
The good news is you can benefit personally from these new scientific discoveries and it doesn’t cost you anything, other than a decision to implement your plan.
The research shows that autophagy is a response in the body activated by a lack of food, sometimes referred to as starvation. The body is no longer concerned with digestive functions and needs to look for and create new forms of energy and also has more time to get involved in a regeneration process.
The question then arises whether we can create a controlled form of starvation for our bodies to take advantage of the autophagy benefits? The answer is “yes” and it is called Intermittent Fasting (IF).
IF has been a hot topic for some time now as a very effective method to lose weight but very little is discussed about the major health benefits which can also be achieved through the process of autophagy which it invokes.
The concept of IF is relatively simple. You break down your day into two periods, one when you eat and one when you don’t eat.
There are many IF plans, all based on the amount of time each day or week when we don’t eat anything. The most common one is the 16:8 method which simply means you restrict any eating to within a continuous 8 hour period and don’t consume any food for the remaining 16 hours.
This means if you skip breakfast and just eat lunch at, say, 12.00 pm and dinner/supper at 8.00 p.m., then your eating window is 8 hours and your fasting period 16 hours. Remember, the 16 hours also includes the eight hours you would normally be sleeping. You can still eat snacks during the afternoon as long as you are not consuming large amounts of sugar. The key is not to eat anything during the 16 hour period.
You will not only burn excess fat in your body quickly and lose weight, but you will also invoke the process of autophagy and begin to feel a whole lot better. I have been practicing IF now for several years and was so amazed by what happened to my body, I wrote a book on how to get started.
Decision Time
If you have arrived at this paragraph then it would appear you have an interest in improving your health and are planning to live longer. Taking a decision to let your body have a chance to repair itself is really quite simple. It doesn’t cost you a dime and in fact, you will be saving money by eating less!
After just a couple of weeks, you will notice an increase in your overall energy level, and your power of concentration will start to improve. These are both signs that the autophagy process is beginning to work. The only caveat to pay attention to is, if you already suffer from a major disease, make sure you talk to your doctor first.
Just press the GO button and cancel breakfast!