Alchemical Wizard 33 : Stimulating Autophagy for Mitochondrial Health!

There are a variety of ways to rid our biological body of accumulated toxins, from detoxifying foods like Acai berries to natural detox agents such as Hinoki cypress tree/Bamboo vinegar foot pads to hot springs and saunas or sweating it out at the gym. The biological process known as Autophagy plays a key role in eliminating toxins and damaged cells in our biological body's. The term autophagy means "self eating," and refers to the processes by which our biological body cleans out various debris, including toxins, and recycles damaged cell components. Autophagy helps to clear out these damaged cells from our biological body, including senescent cells that serve no functional purpose but still linger inside tissues and organs. The reason it’s so important to remove senescent and damaged cells is because they can trigger inflammatory pathways and contribute to various diseases.

The word ‘autophagy’ was coined by Belgian biochemist Christrian de Duve in 1963 based on his discovery of the functions of lysosomes. Autophagy is derived from the Greek words “auto” meaning self and “phagy” meaning eating. Only until very recently in animal studies have researchers been able to observe how autophagy can promote longevity and benefit the nervous system, immune system, heart and metabolism and it seems there is much more research to come!

Let us go a little bit further into Mitophagy! Mitochondria are essential organelles that regulate cellular energy homeostasis and cell death. The removal of damaged mitochondria through autophagy, a process called mitophagy, is thus critical for maintaining proper cellular functions. Mitophagy has been recently proposed to play critical roles in terminal differentiation of red blood cells, paternal mitochondrial degradation, neurodegenerative diseases, and ischemia or drug induced tissue injury. Removal of damaged mitochondria through autophagy requires a few steps. The induction of general autophagy and priming of damaged mitochondria for selective autophagic recognition.

Now to stimulate autophagy, our liver glycogen needs to be low, we need to suppress mTOR, which is the pathway that signals our cells to grow and replicate. We need to up-regulate AMPK, which is the fuel sensor that gets released in energy deprivation and fat burning. And we need to be in this depleted state for at least a day or even more. Autophagy is a matter of degree and it’s happening in different tissues all the time. There are foods and compounds that boost autophagy as well as exercise and heat saunas that can stimulate autophagy. Whenever our biological body is in a depleted state, we’re burning more fat, we’re keeping our lymph system active, and we're stimulating autophagy more.

Therefore, if we were to up-regulate the AMPK boosting pathways that make our biological body's burn it's endogenous fuel sources and suppress the mTOR boosting pathways that register the presence of abundant nutrients, then we could induce mild autophagy while still eating on a regular basis preferably in the 8 hour window or less during the daytime.

This is one of the main reasons why the Keto diet, Mediterranean diet, a plant based diet, vegan diet, intermittent fasting, structured water fasting and juice fasting, etc. are becoming so popular. Scientific evidence to back basic ancient Holistic Health techniques and practices!

OK, here are some viable ways to stimulate Autophagy!

One. Exercise. Autophagy occurs in response to stress. In fact exercise is one of the ways by which we boost autophagy. Exercising creates mild damage to our muscles and tissues that our biological body then repairs and reshapes our “body water”, which then makes our biological body stronger. Exercise also helps flush out toxins by sweating, and is helpful for just about any detox protocol. Let's consider exercise a foundation aspect of effective detoxification. Exercise plays a dual role as it not only stimulates autophagy but is also one of the most potent stimulators of mitochondrial biogenesis. It does this by increasing a signal in our biological body called AMPK, which in turn activates PGC-1 alpha. By stimulating our mitochondria, the organelles in nearly every cell that produce ATP, to work harder, our mitochondria start making reactive oxygen species (ROS), which act as signaling molecules. One of the functions they signal is to make more mitochondria!

Two. Intermittent fasting. Another biological stressor that is beneficial. All this means is that we are eating during the day in an 8 hour or less window. Just not eating 4 hours before our bedtime. This allows our cellular repair and reproduction processes to take place because they are not working on digestion, which takes more than 60 percent of our biological energy while tying to sleep! Of course longer fasting is better. Some days mine end up being 20 hours or more liquid fasts. That means tea or black coffee, structured water and my organic raw apple cider vinegar turmeric elixir or a similar kombucha. This helps to get out old fiber and to repair the biofilm on our intestinal walls. Consider looking into all forms of fasting and find what works for you!

Three. Low carb dieting, Nutritional Ketogenesis or the Ketogenic diet! There is so much information about this out there I will just say that harmful fats like processed vegetable oils will make our health worse. Not only is it processed but it's very high in omega-6 oils, and excess omega-6 fats will integrate into the inner mitochondrial membrane and become highly susceptible to oxidative damage, causing our mitochondria to die prematurely. Now we covered some of this in Alchemical Wizard 30 : The Omega's! Remember to replace the omega-6 fats with healthy fats such as organic unprocessed fats found in real whole foods such as seeds, nuts, and olives, and organic raw virgin coconut oil, olive oil and avocado oil!

Four. Caloric restriction. Calorie restriction and longevity go hand in hand. Too many calories suppresses autophagy! I just over ate at a friends house and I had to come home and take a nap. It's alright though as we get back to the constructive schedule that works for us. Eating fewer calories increases our mitochondrial density which means that we’ll be able to produce more energy with fewer calories!

Five. Some recommended foods for stimulating autophagy are of course matcha green tea, turmeric, ginger, ginseng, immune boosting mushrooms like cordyceps and reishi, berberine, and elderberries along with wild berries of all kinds! Blackberries, blueberries, acai, etc. You always see me foraging for wild foods! Hint, wink, wink!

Six. Pick up Sticks! Stimulating the lymph system through Sweating! Exercise, yoga, heat saunas, infrared saunas, hot springs, spicy foods, even swimming, anything that keeps our blood flowing can help with flushing out the toxins in our biological body and stimulate autophagy!

Blessings Everyone as we continue with Holistic Health modalities to inspire confidence as we unlock resources to make this Ascension shift more meliorative! We are Sovereign and We are most defiantly Freeing Ourselves! And Please Stay Hydrated as the SEP’S (Solar Energetic Particles) and Air Showers continue until this adaptation to a higher frequency is completed!

Travis Carper - Ascension Health Coach / Alternative & Holistic Health Service https://www.facebook.com/traviscarper888/ | https://www.linkedin.com/in/traviscarper888/

Additional References :

Autophagy Science Direct - https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/autophagy

An overview of autophagy: Mechanism, regulation and research progress - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0007455120305014

Autophagy: Renovation of Cells and Tissues - https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(11)01276-1

Benefits of Autophagy, Plus How to Induce It - https://draxe.com/health/benefits-of-autophagy/

What Is Autophagy? When Does Autophagy Start? - https://fastingplanet.com/autophagy/

What is Autophagy? Definition, Benefits, Ways to Increase It - https://supplements.selfdecode.com/blog/autophagy-benefits-and-how-to-harness/

Mitophagy in health and disease. Molecular mechanisms, regulatory pathways, and therapeutic implications - https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10495-024-01977-y

Mitophagy Science Direct - https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/mitophagy

Mitochondrial Biogenesis Science Direct - https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/mitochondrial-biogenesis

Siim Land :

Metabolic Autophagy Master Class Optimal Nutrition for Performance and Longevity with Intermittent Fasting - https://learn.siimland.com/p/metabolic-autophagy-master-class

Fasting and Muscle Mass, a Deep Dive into mTOR, and Reaching Autophagy With and Without Fasting - https://dranthonygustin.com/056-fasting-autophagy/

Dr. Berg Interviews Siim Land on Fasting, Autophagy and More -

Podcast 69: Autophagy 101 – Siim Land - https://burnitnutrition.com/podcast69/

Metabolic Autophagy: Practice Intermittent Fasting and Resistance Training to Build Muscle and Promote Longevity (Metabolic Autophagy Diet) - https://www.amazon.com/Metabolic-Autophagy-Intermittent-Resistance-Longevity/dp/1790686393

S2E4: Siim Land - Biohacking With Autophagy, Fasting, NAD, and More -