By: Carly Pontifex
Neuroscience Graduate Student
Have you noticed that the most important jobs tend to be the least appreciated? We rarely gave enough credit to the parents that cleaned our rooms. Nor the garbage man that picked up our trash. There are things that you don't notice until one day they stop. Your laundry is all dirty, the toys are on the floor, the garbage bags pile up outside and start to stink. Through my studies I have gained a finer appreciation for the remarkable biologic system; autophagy. The cellular equivalent of housekeepers and garbage men.
From the industrial waste disposal systems of cities, to single cells, all systems must find a way to manage waste. You have 37 trillion cells in your body; each one has to manage the mess that comes with living and growing. The cell’s garbage comes in the form of broken-down proteins. You can think of proteins as tiny machines. These machines perform all the necessary tasks of life. When they break, they must be recycled. Cells have their own version of garbage men and garbage trucks. We call the garbage man a cargo protein; it tags and bags the trash. We call the garbage truck the autophagosome; it carries the trash to its destination. The autophagosome carries the garbage to the lysosome. The lysosome is the final destination – the recycling plant.
I study how mutations disrupt the waste system of the aging cell. Genetic diseases where nerves or muscles degenerate are linked to failures of the waste disposal systems. I want to know how we can improve these deficits. Even in the absence of disease, our bodies age. Our cells get lazier and the waste disposal systems of the cell slow down. This makes waste disposal inefficient. I'm going to let you in on a little secret: you have the power to send a message to your cells. You can tell them to tell them to "clean up that mess!". Believe it or not, your cells will listen.
A cell relies on signals from its surrounding. You've just eaten dinner. Your cells recognize that there's lots of proteins, sugars and fats around. These nutrients tell the cell to activate the 'building and growing' program. The next day you have a busy day, so you skip breakfast, and you work through lunch. Your cells recognize that nutrients are low, and respond by changing programs. Your body considers this a chance to activate the 'clean and repair' program. Health experts once called this 'starvation mode'. The message was this: avoid it at all costs. Eat three, six, even ten meals a day! If you aren’t filled with fuel at all times, you’re doing it wrong! These days, we know better. Going into short periods of fasting has positive health benefits. In animal experiments fasting prolongs life. Scientists like myself, suspect that this is the case for humans too. Some dismiss intermittent fasting diets as a passing fad. Yet, growing scientific evidence suggests that there are many other benefits. Fasting has been shown to improve cell repair and brain function. It improves the immune response and reduces inflammation. It promotes restoration of nerves in MS. Not only that, but it may even have cancer-killing properties.
In order to achieve good health, we needn't be in chronic states of consumption. Breakfast might not be the most important meal of the day, at least not every day. In a world of plenty, few can imagine going without. Going without can be just what our bodies need. To the credit of evolution, our bodies don’t fear short-term energy deficits, it thrives on them. Best of all-- it’s a remedy that’s free.
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