Fasting = stimulating cell autophagy, can it improve Alzheimer's disease?

Recently, Rong seems to like talking about food. There is no way, although Rong has lost the qualification of being a foodie, but if you don't eat well, or to be more precise, don't eat well, you will get fat, which is also the starting point of all tragedies.

Today we are going to say goodbye to eating! Well, it's not that absolute, to be exact, it's fasting. This word is still quite popular now. Many health and weight loss institutions have their own fasting courses, and even have their own "theoretical" basis, which includes everything from ancient and modern times, both at home and abroad, and it seems to cover half of the history of human civilization.

Is there any scientific basis for this? Of course there is. In fact, he has won the Nobel Prize more than once. It's just not as simple as you think. Let's first clarify a key concept: autophagy, which is the process of transporting damaged, denatured, and aged proteins or organelles in cells to lysosomes for degradation. Lysosomes here are organelles in cells that contain enzymes that digest proteins, carbohydrates, and fats.

You should know that the autophagy mechanism controls many physiological functions of the human body. When the human body is hungry or has other stress responses, cellular autophagy can quickly provide energy to the human body. After the body is infected, cellular autophagy can eliminate viruses and bacteria, and can eliminate aging and damaged organelles and proteins, which is of great significance to the human body's anti-aging.

If cells are likened to the cars we drive, then cars will wear out, age, bump into each other, and eventually become scrapped during constant use. Of course, we can change cars, but we can also repair them and replace parts. The specific method we choose depends on how to do it more cost-effectively. For example, if your car is soaked in water, it is better to deal with it at a low price for safety reasons. But if you can maintain the condition of the car by replacing parts and doing maintenance, I am afraid everyone would want to continue driving it. Cell autophagy is an efficient mechanism for replacing parts.

But how to activate cell autophagy? One of the earliest methods verified by everyone is to increase glucagon. This name is familiar, right? It and insulin are brothers, one increases while the other decreases, adjusting our blood sugar level. When we eat, insulin rises and glucagon decreases. If we fast, insulin decreases and glucagon increases. The process of increasing glucagon will stimulate cell autophagy, which is one of the main causes of cell autophagy.

Stopping eating and depriving the body of the food, energy, and nutrition it needs, which is what we often call fasting, can stimulate cellular autophagy and activate the cell's self-repair function.

There is also a regulatory enzyme called rapamycin target protein, which inhibits autophagy when it is stimulated, and may induce autophagy when it is dormant. Therefore, many manufacturers have produced this enzyme to try to regulate cell autophagy. However, it is still in the experimental stage.

As we age, the autophagy ability of human cells will gradually decline and eventually be lost. The consequences of losing the autophagy ability are very terrible. If the system does not clean up abnormal proteins and organelles for a long time, a large amount of harmful substances will accumulate, work efficiency will be low, and various diseases will be caused, such as Alzheimer's disease with impaired cognitive ability, and cancer. At present, a large number of studies have found that stimulating autophagy can improve Alzheimer's disease and inhibit cancer by so-called starvation of cancer cells. Of course, this matter still needs a lot of new data support before it can be considered a hammer.

In short, for the elderly, if the autophagy mechanism declines, special means must be used to stimulate autophagy. Intermittent fasting is a good method, that is, 5+2, 5 days of normal fasting and 2 days of fasting. On the fasting day, you can only consume 500 calories, and try to finish eating in the shortest interval, such as four hours.

Because once you resume eating, autophagy will stop. You have to be hungry for a long enough time. Remember, many studies have found that all long-lived people eat relatively little. Under the condition of ensuring nutrition, it is healthier to eat less. It has been confirmed in animal experiments that eating less can prolong life.