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Twice-a-week fasting CRUSHES Type-2 Diabetes: Insulin resistance defeated by autophagy

July 16, 2025 - autophagy acts as a critical quality control mechanism. While traditionally viewed as a survival pathway, dysregulation of autophagy is implicated in metabolic disorders, including type 2 diabetes (T2D).

Emerging research highlights autophagy as a key regulator of glucose homeostasis and insulin sensitivity. In pancreatic ?-cells, selective autophagy maintains proper function by eliminating malfunctioning mitochondria and protein aggregates, ...

A breakthrough in understanding how inflammation in the colon works could lead to cancer prevention

February 15, 2019 -

The cellular process, known as autophagy, causes inflammation when it is dysfunctional, leaving us prone to getting diseases in the gastrointestinal system. The study was led by Dr. Ioannis Nezis from the School of Life Sciences at Warwick. Nezis and his colleagues observed the cellular phenomenon in fruit flies, and found that dysfunctional autophagy causes serious inflammation which makes the fruit fly susceptible to disease and cuts its life span by half....

Functional foods are healthy, but why?

July 29, 2020 -

Numerous studies have found that functional foods promoting autophagy -- a regulated mechanism that enables the removal of dysfunctional or unnecessary cell components -- can prevent or treat chronic diseases, as well as support optimal health and delay cellular aging.

These benefits of functional foods are attributed by scientists to their bioactive components. Today, the demand for functional foods is increasing due to the rising prevalence of chronic diseases, ...

Simple strategies that activate your body’s natural detoxification process

August 27, 2018 -

This particular method is one of the most common ways to practice intermittent fasting. It will give you approximately 16 to 17 hours of fasting time every day to activate autophagy.The benefits of autophagy

Here are some of the health benefits that autophagy offers:

Other ways to induce autophagy

Autophagy can also be activated through the intake of certain foods, ...

Surprising new study may help scientists stop cancer from occurring in the first place

June 05, 2019 - autophagy is one of two types of programmed cell death," explained Karlseder's fellow researcher Joe Nassour. "But no one was doing experiments to find out if that was really the case."

For their experiment on human cells, the researchers deactivated tumor-suppressor genes that impose a limit on cell division. They observed that cells divided nonstop until their telomeres became dangerously short, triggering crisis.

Next, they investigated the markers of autophagy ...

Nutrition is the key to keeping your cells young: When cells don’t get enough energy they breakdown, creating conditions for many age-related diseases

June 24, 2018 -

The researchers have discovered that a family of proteins called WIPI proteins facilitate autophagy by serving as scaffolds that connect the signal-directed initiation of the process with the subsequent metabolism of cellular material. The experts report in the journal Nature Communications that one form of WIPI protein called WIPI4 protein signals the cells to regulate the extent of the breakdown process when energy begins to deplete. The process is started by the WIPI1 ...

Plants starved for energy found to resort to “self-cannibalism” by breaking down and consuming cells from their own leaves for survival

May 14, 2018 - autophagy when the host plant is starved for energy.

Of course, autophagy shouldn't be a cause for concern. Simply put, it's the normal process of destroying a cell and using what's left to create a new one. This is an essential process of cellular development, as this allows the host to survive extreme cases of both external stress – such as nutrient deprivation – and internal stresses like that of pathogen invasions and damaged organelle build-up. Autophagy ...

Functional foods help fight disease on a cellular level, thanks to bioactive ingredients

December 10, 2019 -

What is autophagy?

Autophagy is the body's way of cleansing itself. It is an evolutionary conserved cellular process of removing aberrant components in eukaryotic cells. This includes old tissues, mis-folded proteins, and damaged cellular organelles. As a way of maintenance ensuring the body's functions, it is necessary to get rid of these components and introduce new ones which will take their place.

A lot of chronic diseases are connected to problems ...

Fatty foods can sabotage the brain’s cleanup crew—causing memory lapses

September 19, 2025 - autophagy system, and research has long linked high-fat diets to cognitive decline. A 2021 study in Neurobiology of Aging found that middle-aged adults who ate more saturated fats performed worse on memory tests. Another, from The Lancet, tied Western-style diets (high in fried foods and red meat) to smaller brain volumes and faster cognitive aging. But the Japanese study is the first to show how quickly the damage can strike—and that it’s not about the brain shrinking ...

Dietary restrictions may help you live longer, according to a new study

December 13, 2018 -

The process of autophagy, also known as cellular recycling, plays a crucial role in lifespan expansion. It involves breaking down the cell’s parts into smaller molecules to eliminate unnecessary or broken cell machinery while providing the building blocks necessary to make new cell components. This is especially important when your diet does not contain the necessary building blocks.

The study used eat-2, a strain of roundworm (Caenorhabditis elegans), as a ...

Scutellaria Radix found to be a promising anti-cancer agent against non-small cell lung cancer

May 25, 2020 - autophagy. They discussed their findings in an article published in The American Journal of Chinese Medicine.Chinese skullcap can stop the progression of non-small cell lung cancer

For their study, the researchers used two NSCLC cell lines, namely, H358 and H2087 cells, which they treated with SR. They reported that this decreased the viability of cancer cells. Protein detection by Western blot showed that SR increased the expression of proteins involved in cell suicide ...

Boost cellular health with the immortality herb

July 28, 2019 - autophagy. By definition, autophagy is an intracellular process of degrading damaged organelles, excess or unwanted proteins, and pathogenic substances and recycling them for other purposes, such as cell repair. By ridding the cells of these substances, autophagy prevents the buildup of cell debris that can lead to various diseases.

Ensuring that autophagy takes place whenever it's needed is particularly important for normal and healthy ...

Resveratrol can help treat alcoholic fatty liver disease

June 28, 2019 -

In their study, which was published in The American Journal of Chinese Medicine, the researchers found that resveratrol has protective effects on alcoholic fatty liver disease as it induces autophagy. Autophagy is a vital physiological process in cellular catabolism that involves the regulation of lipid droplets. It retains a balance among protein synthesis, degradation, and self-recycling.

Earlier research has shown that resveratrol has a liver-protective ...

Researchers identify betulinic acid as a promising new agent for treating hepatic fibrosis

April 14, 2020 - autophagy-related markers.

The researchers found that betulinic acid can prevent unfavorable scarring by reducing the expression of relevant proteins and inducing autophagy. These mechanisms of action make the compound a promising agent for the treatment of liver fibrosis.Betulinic acid can help prevent liver fibrosis

Fibrosis refers to the overgrowth, hardening and scarring of tissue caused by a surplus in deposits of extracellular matrix (ECM) components, ...

A 3-day fast can reduce inflammation, revitalize the immune system and clear up post-vaccine symptoms

June 12, 2023 - autophagy.Autophagy improves Type-2 diabetes, obesity and the inflammatory conditions associated with “long COVID”

The process of autophagy does not occur during intermittent fasting. An intermittent fast involves 12 -24-hour breaks between meals and has become a popular method to spur weight loss. While intermittent fasting remains an effective lifestyle practice, the process of autophagy only activates after a person fasts for 24-72 hours....

Study explains how a chemical from Japanese cornel may help treat Alzheimer’s disease

December 18, 2020 - autophagy-related genes (ATG7, ATG12, Beclin-1 and LC3II), suggesting that CIG can restore autophagy function.

Autophagy is the natural process by which cells get rid of unnecessary or damaged components. Multiple studies suggest that impairment of the autophagy process occurs in early-stage Alzheimer's disease. But because of the health benefits linked to autophagy, researchers believe agents that can modulate this process are ...

The role of functional foods in treating chronic diseases

July 22, 2020 -

In this review, the researchers focused on several bioactive components of functional foods, such as resveratrol, epigallocatechin-3-gallate, curcumin and trehalose, and their regulatory functions in autophagy. They believe this review could serve as a reference or provide novel ideas for the development of functional foods capable of modulating autophagy for the treatment of chronic diseases.

Read the full study at this link....

Chinese skullcap can kill brain cancer cells, thanks to its active component baicalein

November 25, 2021 -

In their report, published in The American Journal of Chinese Medicine, the researchers noted that baicalein, a flavonoid derived from the roots of Chinese skullcap, can induce cell autophagy and apoptosis -- two processes that help clear out damaged cells from the body. In particular, the team investigated the mechanism behind the anti-cancer activity of baicalein using human glioma cells.Exploring the anti-cancer activity of baicalein

A glioma is a tumor ...

Chinese skullcap herb found to kill ovarian cancer cells

September 17, 2019 - autophagy. Its primary function is to initiate the formation and elongation of autophagosomes -- vesicles that carry cellular components bound for degradation.

BA treatment with chloroquine, a medication used for malaria, further reduced cell viability and increased the cleavage of poly (ADPribose) polymerase (PARP) in both HEY and A2780 ovarian cancer cell lines, indicating that BA induces protective autophagy in these cells. PARP is a protein found ...

Strict eating and fasting schedule cleans the blood: Study finds it could clear out proteins that cause Huntington’s disease

March 28, 2018 - autophagy, in which the cells clean themselves, removing damaged and unnecessary components.

Scientists have long been aware that the autophagy process does not work properly or effectively in Huntington’s patients, so triggering its correct functioning through fasting should yield similarly positive results in human patients as it did in the mice involved in the trial.

“Our findings suggest that, at least in mice, when you fast, or eat at certain ...