Autophagy is the body's way of clearing damaged cells to regenerate the body and keep body functions running properly.
This process is part of the innate immune system or the innate immune system in the body. This immune system is common to foreign substances or those that are no longer useful in the body. differ from antibodies that are specific only to certain microorganisms.
This immune process is said to protect the body from severe infections that attack the body. This is because the innate immune system is the body's first defense against infection before the formation of antibodies.
The good news is that the innate immune system can be activated to protect yourself from the risk of infection, one of which is Covid-19 infection. This article will discuss autophagy and how to activate it.
What is autophagy
Autophagy comes from the word "auto" which means by oneself and "phagy" which means to eat. So autophagy is eating by oneself to clean substances or parts that are not beneficial to the human body. This process is a very beneficial process for the human body.
Benefits of autophagy
The main benefit of this process for the body is as an anti-aging process. This is the body's natural process to repair and renew body cells. This process is said to be able to extend a person's life.
In the autophagy process, immune cells will 'eat' cells that have died and are recycled to utilize molecules that can still be used by the body.
The detailed function of this process in the cell is as follows:
- Feeds on toxic proteins in cells that cause neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease.
- Breaks down residual protein for reuse.
- Provides energy and is useful for repairing damaged cells.
- Prevent and treat cancer.
How to activate autophagy
Autophagy can be activated in two ways, namely physical exercise and fasting. Physical activity will activate organs that play a role in metabolic processes and trigger this process to occur in the body, the organs involved are muscles, liver, pancreas, and adipose tissue. Fasting is the best way to activate autophagy. An animal study showed that animals who fasted for at least 24 hours were better able to survive infections that occurred in their bodies.
Meanwhile, in non-fasting animals, a higher mortality rate was found due to the bacterial infection. This is the result of increased autophagy activity after fasting. However, while fasting is proven to be good for activating this process as part of the immune system, you need to maintain a balanced nutritional intake when you are not fasting. You must still meet the daily nutritional needs of the body so that the body can function properly.
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