Fasting can be a catalyst of the process of autophagy.
What happens in the body during fasting?
Fasting can be a catalyst of the process of autophagy. This process has been known since the 1960s. The process of autophagy was described in the works of Professor Yuri Nikolaev, a founder of the method of calorie restriction therapy: "During the absolute diet, the necessary proteins are drawn from the reserves available in the tissues of less important organs for the body”. Then, one more fact of the absolute diet was found: during the use of protein reserves, the weakened, painfully altered tissue is utilized, as well as tumors, edema, adhesions, etc. This process in medicine is called "autolysis". During the restructuring of the endogenous (internal) food body to maintain its existence not only the accumulated reserves spends and burns, but also the slag of exchange origin.
Nobel prize for autophagy
In 2016 Japanese scientist Yoshinori Osumi explained the genetic mechanism of autophagy and was awarded the Nobel prize for that. Autophagy is a set of processes that allows the cell with the help of lysosomes to get rid of the accumulated intracellular "garbage" and organelles that have become unusable. During autophagy, the cell component that should be eliminated is surrounded by a two-layer membrane, forming an autophagosome. During the next stage, the lysosome merges with the autophagosome, and the lysosomal enzymes begin to break down the contents of the autophagosome to the smallest molecules. This way cell destroys old or defective components, and the" remains " are used again.