What is autophagy and how can it help your health?

This video is meant to expand your general knowledge about living a healthy life. Please consult with your doctor before making any significant changes in your health practices, diet and nutrition.

In this video, Dr. Mindy Pelz explains a process that is much in the news when it comes to health: autophagy.

Autophagy is a natural, regulatory mechanism inside the cell that instructs the body to clean out damaged cells, in order to regenerate newer, healthier cells.

Benefits of autophagy:

• Clears infections, pathogens, viruses, bacteria (xenoautophagy) from cells
• Repairs cellular proteins (macroautophagy)
• Participates in innate & adaptive immune response
• Activates macrophages
• Removes damaged mitochondria
• Dictates the length of cilia responsible of pathogen clearing in the respiratory tract

Autophagy can clear out infections, pathogens, viruses, bacteria, and in the respiratory tract specifically, autophagy has even been shown to dictate the length of cilia in the mucosal lining of the lungs. The longer the cilia, the more capable the lungs are at clearing pathogens from the airways.

View the original video here.

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