Autophagy…Naomi Whittel Style! Naomi Whittel is an incredible woman…now a Blog success in her own right. Dr. Mercola interviewed her, dissected down what she conceives to be the secret of her combat against an inborn eczema autoimmune disease. She has the potential to suffer from extreme eczema and narrates her teenage ‘hell on wheels’. It is an interesting interplay between classic medicine with the use of steroids and her realization, (as was mine with RA (Rheumatoid Arthritis)) that one is going down a path of ‘no return’. Naomi managed to turn things around in her twenties…and her interview by Mercola is well worth the listen.
When discussing Autophagy and advantages with our Mitochondrial Cells…removal of Senescent Cells and the literal garbage of Cellular energy generation from ATP, (or Adenosine triphosphate), our intramolecular energy currency, one has to bear in mind that Naomi is still well on the ‘right side’ of 50. When she from self awareness, knowledge, and nascent sense of survival, concluded that her formula worked…she possessed youngish stem cells, that effectively worked with reasonable efficiency. They were not ground zero…but it was unnecessary for her to dwell, or be distracted on a disastrous stem cell lethargy, that invariably afflicts the old!
Mercola himself is one of the few I have seen who ‘get it’...He actually fasts! And when I say fasts…it is not, (and this is no disrespect to Valter) a Valter Longo Fasting Mimicing Diet (FMD) that is designed to combat the reality of very few persons seemingly able to muster the Mercola attitude or fortitude. I have already explained the risks of Water Fasts outright and so has Longo…and remember he is in Bureaucratic sensitive and Legal Suit California! But interestingly Mercola has picked up on Autophagy Naomi Whittel style! He understands that short of Water Fasting there are other disciplines that have a profound Mitchondrial benefit...and interestingly this I think is also true for the Aged...BUT…and I have not actually undergone a Water Fast…I personally believe the profound effects occur when the Aged knock real sense into their Stem Cells that only comes from Water Fasts and Ground Zero Umbilical Amniotic Stem Cells! BUT want to mention one extra factor that just may have a profound effect on Stem Cells and the whole autophagy process and that is Heat Shock or Cold Shock therapy…but as we have Naomi Whittel Style!..front and center let us consider her formula from the Mercola interview, that includes the following:
- Time your nutrient intake appropriately. This means alternatively utilizing an eight hour eating window and just a normal sleep fast of twelve to thirteen hours. In her book, “Glow 15: A Science-Based Plan to Lose Weight, Revitalize Your Skin, and Invigorate Your Life,” Naomi Whittel, former CEO of Twinlab, shares a number of different strategies specifically aimed boosting autophagy. One of them involves the timing of nutrients. As a general rule, eat fats first and healthy carbohydrates last, whether you’re intermittently fasting (this Blog emphasis…intermittent fasting is not Fasting!) or not. In a recent interview, embedded above for your convenience, she explained.
- Fat first, Carbs Last. She believes that eating carbs at one’s last meal reaps all the benefits from recovery (from the exercise) and helping to relax and prepare for sleep.
- Cyclical exercise. Every other day, do 30 minutes of high-intensity interval training or resistance training. The acute stress of exercise triggers autophagy much in the same way as fasting.
- Eat autophagy-activating foods. In her book, Whittel includes 140 different types of foods that help activate autophagy — such as citrus bergamot tea, green tea and turmeric.
- Activate adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) through proper diet and nutritional supplements. AMPK is an enzyme that stimulates mitochondrial autophagy (mitophagy) and mitochondrial biogenesis, as well as five other critically important pathways: insulin, leptin, mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), insulin-like growth factor 1 and proliferator-activated receptor gamma co-activator 1-alpha.
With age, your AMPK levels naturally decline. Certain dietary habits, such as eating too much unhealthy fat and not enough of healthy fats and getting insufficient amounts of flavonoids (antioxidants) also inhibit AMPK activity. Insulin resistance is also a powerful inhibitor of AMPK. So, keeping this enzyme activated through proper diet is another important factor for maintaining healthy autophagy.
In summary Autophagy is the body’s process of eliminating damaged cells by digesting them! It’s a clean out process encouraging new healthy cells and is foundational to cellular rejuvenation and longevity! Sounds like an intermediate step to Stem Cell true rejuvenation that profoundly comes from Water Fasting! BUT I NEVERTHELESS believe that autophagy generally slows down with age! This is the advantage up to now for the Naomi Whittel Style! way. Is it really the cart, or the horse?…which is first! But I do know and sense that nevertheless this intermediate arena is still profoundly beneficial, whatever age!!
Longer water-only fasts are a form of “starvation” that will induce autophagy. As little as 200 calories can thwart the process, and the starvation period needs to be at least 16 hours (when fat burning starts) but really 72 hours or even longer, so it’s important to be strict if autophagy induction is your chief aim. On the flip side, autophagy cannot remain continuously activated all the time. You also need to allow the cells to rebuild and rejuvenate, which occurs during the refeeding phase. This is why which is why cyclical fasting and feeding is so important.
As Mercola neatly summarizes:
Based on the research that has emerged in recent years, (this blog comment this includes the reality that In 2016, the Nobel Prize in medicine was given to the Japanese biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi for his discovery of the actual mechanisms of autophagy, i.e., how cells recycle their contents.) that he Mercola is now convinced that multiple day water fasting is one of the most profound metabolic interventions you can do to radically improve your health, as it allows your body to upregulate autophagy and mitophagy to remove damaged senescent cells, including premalignant cells. It’s also an extremely effective way to shed excess weight and extend your life span.
