Japanese cell biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi received the Nobel Prize for Medicine for his research on how cells break down and recycle their own components. A process that ensures the survival of every human cell and is known as autophagy. Fasting activates autophagy, which slows down the aging process and has a positive effect on cell renewal.

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What is autophagy?

During a period of starvation, cells break down proteins and other cell components and use them to generate energy. Through autophagy, cells destroy viruses and bacteria and eliminate damaged structures. This process is crucial for cell health, renewal and survival.

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Ohsumi's work

With his work, Ohsumi created a completely new field of science. He discovered that autophagy genes are used by higher organisms, including humans, and that mutations in these genes can cause disease. Animals, plants, and single-celled organisms rely on autophagy to survive famine.

Although it was discovered back in the 1960s, Ohsumi's research from the late 1980s and early 1990s to date has shown that autophagy plays a role in protecting against inflammation and diseases such as dementia and Parkinson's disease. When Ohsumi began researching autophagy, there were less than 20 publications a year on the subject; today, it is more than 5,000 a year as it is the subject of various areas, including cancer and longevity studies.

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Fasting for health

Scientists have found that fasting for 12 to 24 hours triggers autophagy, and it's thought that's one of the reasons fasting is associated with longevity. There is plenty of research that links fasting to improved blood sugar control, reduced inflammation, weight loss, and improved brain function; Oshumi's research provides some of the “how” of this research. Movement can also stimulate autophagy in some cells, which allows the cells to initiate the repair and renewal process.

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“Sporadic short-term fasting, motivated by religious and spiritual beliefs, is common in many cultures and has been practiced for thousands of years, but scientific analyses of the consequences of calorie restriction are more recent. Published studies suggest that the brain is spared from many of the effects of short-term dietary restriction, perhaps because it is a metabolically favored location that is protected from the acute effects of nutrient deficiency, including autophagy, compared to other organs. We show here that this is not the case: Short-term food restriction induces a dramatic upregulation of autophagy in cortical and Purkinje neurons... Our observation that a brief period of food restriction can induce widespread upregulation of autophagy in CNS neurons could have clinical significance. As already mentioned, an autophagy disorder can lead to neurodegenerative diseases, and the opposite could also be true: upregulation of autophagy can have a neuroprotective effect.”

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Fasting in the “Blue Zones”

Throughout human history, fasting has been part of religious, spiritual, and health practices. In the Blue Zones region on Ikaria, people living there observe religious fasting for around 150 days a year.

Note: Long-term fasting should always be carried out under medical supervision. If you don't eat anything after 7 PM until 7 AM the next morning, that's technically a 12-hour fast, which is why the first meal of the day is called “breakfast.” Dr. Valter Longo, the director of the Longevity Institute at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, recommends that most people eat two meals a day if they have problems with overeating. If someone eats their last meal at 4 PM and has breakfast at 7 AM the next day, that is a 15-hour fast.

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“With increasing research on autophagy, it has become clear that it is not just a response to hunger. It also contributes to a number of physiological functions, such as inhibiting cancer cells and aging, eliminating pathogens, and purifying the cell interior.

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We've also started to see a small explosion in research that reveals a new function by switching off genes that contribute to autophagy. However, there is still a lot we don't know about the mechanism of autophagy, and that needs to be seriously investigated. I hope to be able to further explore autophagy at the molecular level to directly address the mechanism. That is my job.”