AUTOPHAGY (FASTING): Natur's System of Cell Maintenance And Recycling.

Autophagy (Fasting):

Nature’s System Of Cell

Maintenance

(M. Javed Naseem)

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At least 12-hour fasting triggers Glucagon which

looks for those cells and junk in the body that

requires to be cleaned. For a complete overhaul

daily fasting is required for 20 to 25 days. It is

essential for cell recovery and recycling. Now,

you understand why God prescribed a month-long

daily fasting (Ramadan) for Muslims?

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Human body is the most wonderful creation of the Almighty Creator, Allah, and is also the most complex at the same time. Not many people have heard the word ‘autophagy’. Autophagy is a fundamental process for degrading and recycling cellular components.  

You can call autophagy an actual human cell workshop where cell maintenance work is done in an organized and sophisticated way. It is like a ‘recycling plant’ of human body that constantly takes care of body’s defense mechanism. At this plant, the decaying, damaged and rotten human cells are recycled in an amazing way. The healthy cells, as a matter of fact the healthy parts of cells, eat up the damaged and infected cells. Thus the body is cleaned up internally of the harmful elements before they could create a disease. Here’s how it works:

When our cells are starved or otherwise stressed, they don’t immediately shut down. Instead, they employ autophagy to cannibalize their own components. The word autophagy (pronounced o-toff-a-gee) literally derives from the Greek expression for self-eating, and this recycling process allows the cell to stay alive during tough times.

“By recycling part of the cellular content, autophagy allows our body to cope with starvation and with all types of stress,” said biologist Maria Masucci of the Nobel Assembly. “By capturing invading viruses and bacteria, autophagy is essential for the body’s defense against infection.”

Once again, another scientist, this time the Nobel Prize winner from Japan, Dr. Yoshinori Ohsumi, has proven what the wisdom behind fasting (Ramadan) is. God had prescribed fasting for a whole month (of Ramadan) for Muslims more than 1400 years ago. Today, modern science has humbly proven that fasting is very important for human health. It’s a system of Nature to maintain healthy cells in human body and eliminate the decaying or damaged cells. God says in the Quran:

فَبِأَىِّ آلاۤءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ

“Then which of the favors of your Lord

would you deny?”

(al-Quran 55:13)

In October 2016, the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet of Sweden (i.e., the Nobel Prize Committee) announced to award the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Dr. Yoshinori Ohsumi of Japan for his discoveries of mechanisms for autophagy – a fundamental process for degrading and recycling cellular components.

  

The word autophagy originates from the Greek words auto-, meaning "self", and phagein, meaning "to eat". Thus,autophagy denotes "self eating". This concept emerged during the 1960's, when researchers first observed that the cell could destroy its own contents by enclosing it in membranes, forming sack-like vesicles that were transported to a recycling compartment, called the lysosome, for degradation. Difficulties in studying the phenomenon meant that little was known until, in a series of brilliant experiments in the early 1990's, Yoshinori Ohsumi used baker's yeast to identify genes essential for autophagy. He then went on to elucidate the underlying mechanisms for autophagy in yeast and showed that similar sophisticated machinery is used in our cells.

According to Nobel Prize Committee, Dr. Ohsumi's discoveries led to a new paradigm in our understanding of how the cell recycles its content. His discoveries opened the path to understanding the fundamental importance of autophagy in many physiological processes, such as in the adaptation to starvation or response to infection. Mutations in autophagy genes can cause disease, and the autophagic process is involved in several conditions including cancer and neurological disease.

Degradation – a central function in all living cells

In the mid 1950's scientists observed a new specialized cellular compartment, called an organelle, containing enzymes that digest proteins, carbohydrates and lipids. This specialized compartment is referred to as a "lysosome" and functions as a workstation for degradation of cellular constituents. The Belgian scientist Christian de Duve was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1974 for the discovery of the lysosome. New observations during the 1960's showed that large amounts of cellular content, and even whole organelles, could sometimes be found inside lysosomes. The cell therefore appeared to have a strategy for delivering large cargo to the lysosome. Further biochemical and microscopic analysis revealed a new type of vesicle transporting cellular cargo to the lysosome for degradation. Christian de Duve, the scientist behind the discovery of the lysosome, coined the term autophagy, "self-eating", to describe this process. The new vesicles were named autophagosomes.

Autophagy – an essential mechanism in our cells

Thanks to Ohsumi and others following in his footsteps, we now know that autophagy controls important physiological functions where cellular components need to be degraded and recycled. Autophagy can rapidly provide fuel for energy and building blocks for renewal of cellular components, and is therefore essential for the cellular response to starvation and other types of stress. After infection, autophagy can eliminate invading intra-cellular bacteria and viruses. Autophagy contributes to embryo development and cell differentiation. Cells also use autophagy to eliminate damaged proteins and organelles, a quality control mechanism that is critical for counteracting the negative consequences of aging.

Disrupted autophagy has been linked to Parkinson's disease, type 2 diabetes and other disorders that appear in the elderly. Mutations in autophagy genes can cause genetic disease. Disturbances in the autophagic machinery have also been linked to cancer. Intense research is now ongoing to develop drugs that can target autophagy in various diseases.

Autophagy has been known for over 50 years but its fundamental importance in physiology and medicine was only recognized after Yoshinori Ohsumi's paradigm-shifting research in the 1990's. Yoshinori Ohsumi was born 1945 in Fukuoka, Japan. He received a Ph.D. from University of Tokyo in 1974. After spending three years at Rockefeller University, New York, USA, he returned to the University of Tokyo where he established his research group in 1988. He is since 2009 a professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology.

(Courtesy: https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2016/press.html)

The Deccan Chronicle

Dr. K. Krishnaiah of Deccan Chronicle adds:

A Japanese Nobel prize winner has finally proven how staying away from food can actually help you live healthy. Fasting has two very good benefits for us. Japanese scientist Dr Yoshinori Oshsumi’s Nobel prize-winning work on autophagy has shown how damaged cells self-eat or self-destruct — keeping the body in good condition. The other benefit is that when the self-destruction occurs, there is the inducement of the growth hormone which allows for the generation of new cells.

Autophagy of the body means it cleanses itself of damaged, dead and unrepaired cells. It’s a natural process where good cells create membranes that hunt out scraps of dead, diseased, infectious cells and gobble them up. The good cells strip these diseased cells into parts and use the resulting molecules for energy.

 

Autophagy requires the right kind of conditions for it to occur. Nutrient deprivation is the key activator of autophagy. When the body is on a fast mode it signals the brain that there is not enough food available and the body then goes back to stored foods. This condition allows for autophagy — where the cells first attack the old and junky proteins in the body. This happens because the insulin levels in the body dip and the hormone opposite to insulin, glucagon, begins to work in the body. When glucagon is activated, it starts looking for those cells and junk in the body which require to be cleaned. But even the slightest amount of food is easy to shut-down glucagon. It requires completely abstinence from food for 12 to 36 hours which is usually seen in many fasting practitioners. But they must drink plenty of water.

Once autophagy is stimulated, the growth hormone stimulates and it helps to create new energetic cells in the body. It is found to control inflammation and also helps in the process of building immunity. Exercise also stimulates autophagy. Sweating, grunting, post-workout pains put stress on the body and it further allows for the eating away of damaged cells. When the process of autophagy occurs in the body there is actually a feeling of re-invigoration as fresh energy flows in. This discovery is also going to help in the creation of new medicines.

(Courtesy: https://www.deccanchronicle.com/lifestyle/health-and-wellbeing/161016/cell-strategy-how-fasting-makes-the-human-body-better.html)

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