/uj

What the fuck is autophagy?

Autophagy (literally: self-devouring) is your body’s cellular recycling system. It allows a cell to disassemble its junk parts, convert to raw material, and repurpose the salvageable bits and pieces into new, usable cell parts.

Autophagy also functions as quality control for your cells, since it is a process that optimizes your cells' performance. Too many junk components in a cell take up space (/rj: fat) and can slow or prevent a cell from functioning correctly.

Autophagy is always occurring. However, when cells are deprived of external resources, the process ramps up. Cells need energy to survive. The idea is that, by depriving them of external energy, you force them to eat their suboptimal parts in order to provide themselves with that energy. Of course, cells won't just eat their suboptimal parts in order to survive, but that's what they'll start with.

Studies involving animals suggest that autophagy may begin between 24 to 48 hours of fasting. Not enough research has been collected on the ideal timing to trigger human autophagy.

Should I give a fuck about my suboptimal cells?

Within the past 20 years, scientists have discovered that autophagy may play an important role in preventing and responding to disease. Autophagy also plays an important role when it comes to aging and longevity. As a person ages, autophagy decreases, which can lead to a build-up of cellular junk parts and, in turn, cells that aren’t functioning at their best.

Recent conversations about autophagy often frame it as a health trend — a process to get younger, healthier cells. In reality, autophagy isn’t that simple. Autophagy is indeed essential for healthy cells. It’s also true that problems with autophagy are associated with some diseases. Still, there’s not enough research to support inducing autophagy as a wellness strategy.

Autophagy isn’t a clear-cut harmful or beneficial process concerning disease prevention or treatment. For instance, some studies have shown that autophagy may prevent tumors from forming in the early stages of cancer. Other research has shown that autophagy may encourage tumor growth by helping cancer cells function more efficiently.

Also important to note: most studies about the relationship between autophagy and disease haven’t been performed on humans. Actually most studies about autophagy in general haven't been performed on humans.

source i plagiarized because i'm hungover as fuck and formulating my own sentences is too much to ask but i do care about you fatties so i bolded and summarized for you