February 22

Autophagy and Cellular Recycling

Autophagy is your cells' self-cleaning system, breaking down and recycling damaged components. This process removes misfolded proteins, damaged mitochondria, and invading pathogens. Fasting and exercise trigger autophagy, which may explain some of their health benefits. Yoshinori Ohsumi won the 2016 Nobel Prize for discovering autophagy's mechanisms, revealing how disrupted autophagy contributes to cancer, neurodegeneration, and aging.