Scientists Reverse Aging with Self-Eating Cells (Autophagy)

Many people promote intermittent fasting as a healthy diet. Besides keeping us in shape, intermittent fasting also does something else: it promotes self-eating in cells (autophagy). Autophagy might be crucial to delay age-related diseases and live longer. But how does autophagy work? And can we use autophagy to reverse aging?

In the 80s, a scientist named Yoshinori Ohsumi started to study autophagy. Autophagy is a process where the cell degrades often old damaged parts to get nutrients. After Ohsumis discovery, scientists found autophagy in many other organisms including humans. Autophagy is especially important in cells which have to survive for long periods of time. As we get older though, autophagy becomes less active. This, and other factors, lead to the accumulations of unwanted proteins in the cell. Over time, neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimers or Parkinsons might break out.
Scientists soon realized that autophagy could be used to live healthier and even longer. Rapamycin is a drug that has been shown to induce autophagy in animals. At the same time, rapamycin prolonges the lives of mammals. Although rapamycin has not been used to treat neurodegenerative diseases, there are first short-term studies which show the rejuvenating effects of rapamycin in humans. Other drugs have been shown to induce autophagy as well and reverse age-related signs in animals.
We can try to promote autophagy in our bodies through intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting means that we (for example) fast 16 hours a day. In this manner, intermittent fasting slightly stresses the cell and leads to a greater degree of autophagy. Intermittent fasting has been associated with multiple health benefits, especially when it comes to lowering the risk of age-related diseases. Alternative, regular aerobic exercise is also associated with lower risks to develop age-related diseases. Let's see what happens when clinical studies aiming to slow down and reverse aging are completed!

00:00-1:01 Intro
1:01-3:27 Discovery of Autophagy
3:27-6:54 How Self-Eating Cells Fight Disease
6:54-9:36 How Scientists Activate Autophagy
9:36-12:02 How We Can Activate Autophagy

References:

Images:
Projector Close Up, Infected Cells by Beachfront, CC-BY 3.0
Alzheimers plaques by Nephron, BY-SA 3.0
Yeast by DBCLS 統合TV, BY-SA 4.0
Lewy Bodies by Suraj Rajan, (CC-BY 3.0

Music:
Laconic Granny by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)
Title: Filaments by Scott Buckley (CC BY 3.0)

About Clemens Steinek:
CLEMENS STEINEK is a PhD student/youtuber (Sciencerely) who is currently conducting stem cell research in Germany.

[missshroom]

I have suffered from anxiety and I have found that doing 50 jumping jacks in the morning shakes off nervous energy and helps me to focus. I also have been fasting during the day until evening where I allow myself to eat what I want. It’s been 4 years and I have never been happier. Zero bloating, much better digestive process, perfectly regular bowel movement every morning, stabilized weight, energy thru out my day. I just can’t say enough on the benefits…love it. Now it is a process to get there though. But once there you will never turn back. Good luck everyone🍀🌎☀️💙…btw I do not drink alcohol…this helps with people starting the change of life…in your 40’s…just ditch it altogether…you will not be disappointed 😁

[michaeltuffin]

I’ve been wanting to do this. I’ve had a stroke. This is the first comment and I am the first like.. I take this as a sign to start and I will..

[DavidJohnson-ygqm]

I started intermittant fasting 6 weeks ago. I have to date lost 9 lbs. 14st 4lb to 13st 8.5lb. I am not sticking stricktly to the diet as it is a lifetime change and habits are hard to break, however at 69 this is the lowest my weight has been from when I can remember as my weight loss stopped at around 14st. Keeping it to that before now was very difficult. I also have noticed a reduction in age related pains. All positives.

[sophiaisabelle]

We appreciate your effort and hard work. God bless you all.

[ssm-sfby]

I understand it's a general misconception, but as a scientist working relatively close to the field of autophagy I have to say there's no real strong evidence that autophagy occurs during IM. Autophagy is an extreme condition and it's widely different between mice and humans. IM in mice will induce autophagy as 48h of starvation kill a mouse, so 6h is a relatively huge time without food. In humans it's only been shown after 5-7 days of full fasting or fasting mimicking diet. If you're active and lean there's potentially room for this timeframe to be as low as 3-4 days, but this is already a stretch

[kenhnsy]

Thanks for sharing your expertise.
A video about serropeptase and nattokinase would be interesting.

[jamescondron]

I have a question for you, in the case of intermittent fasting to promote autophagy, would the ingestion of common supplements such as multivitamins or amino acids prove counter productive,
Thank you

[KareemMohamed-fftt]

Hey man I love your content I truly think you are very underrated.
When you said intermittent Fasting I was shocked because every year in Islam we fast for one month "Ramadan" from sunrise to sunset no eating or drinking anything and our prophet used to fast the same way 2 days every week too, The creator does know our secrets indeed.

[victoriamihai]

Thank you
Great video.
I have been working with people with dementia for around 13 years.
Good to know fasting is fixing the brain.
I do 24 hour dry fast.
Very healing.
Autophagy happens earlier when you are on low carb diet.

[sprigganpanda]

Is rapomycin an expensive ingredient? Because if it makes the skin more youthful you think you'd see it more in skincare.

[spiralsun]

Your head looks interesting. I like the pink blobs with clear bubbles in the video animations. I love pink. Thank you for sharing all the awesome information! I love that Japanese scientist Yoshinori Ohsumi ❤ and I really loved the example of following your passion. Very noble sentiment. Thank you 🙏🏻 ❤

[tnijoo]

I wish the links to the references had the names of the articles and their authors, so you don’t have to click on every single one.

[ArkonArchive]

Greetings, Clemens! Might we please know why you changed your Channel Name? I don't mean to pry, just a curious fan :)

[cw]

The clean up crew of our bodies, little vultures of our dead and dying cells keeping the environment clean and disease free.

[luckyxayahan]

Autophagy speeds up the Hayflick effect. ..

[peacego]

May we find a way to live forever in time not to perish forever from this world. God bless scientists!

[JoRoBoYo]

aren't stress cause faster aging?

[DeconvertedMan]

idea for next thing to cover: are products/services promoted from youtubers good/bad or other? :D

[exosproudmamabear]

See, I said Ramadan works greatly. Just fast properly and bam you now unlocked antiaging. Anyway I learned autophagy could cause autoimmune diseases just right now with this video and chat gpt so gonna go complete my fasting days from ramadan to get my sjögren better.

[rayversen]

I eat twice a day. Does that activate autophagy?