Autophagy: Upgrading Your Body for Free

Autophagy sounds like a big word but it represents a surprisingly simple concept. Here it's explained in simple terms for the common person, because information is the best motivator.

Today’s newsletter is about autophagy: what it is, what diseases it prevents, what the world’s top researchers in neuroscience have to say about it, why you’ve never heard of it, and how you can get it to work for you. 

But first, I want you to consider a question since all good research begins with a well-formulated question. 

Is it possible that these two massive changes from industrialization have had negative effects on our health? 

• First: the dramatic decrease in physical labor required by the average person (we no longer walk to the market, work outdoors, carry our water, chop wood, hand wash clothes, etc.)

• Second: the dramatic increase in readily-available highly processed foods—fast food on every corner, packaged goods with a shelf-life of 11 years filling our pantries, an abundance of soda, candy bars, crackers, etc.

If so, how exactly have these changes negatively affected our health, and is there a hack to combat them?

One of the primary ways that industrialization has negatively affected human health is that our bodies are missing out on the necessary process of autophagy.

What is autophagy?