What is Autophagy and How Does it Help Us Heal?
Why Our Fasting Retreats Are Designed Around This Ancient, Evidence-Based Practice
In today’s world of biohacking trends and conflicting health advice, it’s easy to overlook one of the most powerful healing tools your body already knows how to use:
Fasting.
At Fasting in Paradise, we don’t view fasting as deprivation. We see it as restoration—a return to your body’s natural rhythm of repair, renewal, and reset.
It’s not just a break from food. It’s a break from overload.
Behind that pause is one of the most elegant and well-documented healing mechanisms your body holds: Autophagy— our body’s natural cellular recycling process that clears out damage so it can rebuild itself stronger.
What Is Autophagy?
Autophagy (pronounced aw-TAH-fuh-jee) comes from the Greek words auto (“self”) and phagy (“to eat”), meaning “self-eating”.
Autophagy is not about destruction. It’s cellular housekeeping. A spring cleaning for our system that positively impacts cell renewal and slows down the aging process.
The concept and its science hit mainstream in a big way when Yoshinori Ohsumi, Professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, was awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his recognition of autophagy’s “recycling” role in the human body. He discovered that external cellular stress- such as heat, radiation, starvation (i.e. fasting), and infection activates autophagy. Before this discovery, there were about 20 papers a year written on autophagy. Now there are more than 5,000!
So what’s happening in our bodies during autophagy?
Image Source (writing on image is author’s own)
To better understand autophagy, we’re going to use the metaphor of “taking out the trash”.
Stimulus: Say you walk in to the kitchen and there is trash all over the floor.
This is the moment autophagy starts.
Phagophore nucleation You grab a trash bag from your cabinet and begin to open it.
This is the moment your cell starts forming the cleanup pouch.Phagophore expansion and cargo recognition = You identify what is trash in the kitchen and what isn’t and start putting the trash into the open bag.
This is when the cell recognizes what’s damaged—like broken proteins or worn-out mitochondria—and actively pulls them into the growing phagophore.Autophagosome formation (closure) = You seal the trash bag.
The bubble is now fully closed around the waste, forming an autophagosome.Fusion with lysosome = You take the trash to the incinerator.
The autophagosome fuses with a lysosome, which is full of digestive enzymes.Breakdown and recycling = The trash is broken down and any useful parts are recycled.
Nutrients are sent back into the cell; waste is discarded or repurposed.
Autophagy and Intermittent Fasting: The Science
Now that we understand what autophagy is, how exactly does fasting activate it? New research is showing that intermittent fasting (IF) and autophagy are closely connected, but scientists are still figuring out exactly how fasting turns on this process. Here’s what we know so far:
One group of researchers discovered that when the body goes without food (a state called “starvation”), it triggers autophagy by switching off certain proteins and switching on others. Specifically, fasting reduces a protein called P300 and increases another called SIRT2. This change helps activate a key protein, ATG4B, which plays an important role in kicking off autophagy.
Under normal conditions (when food is available), P300 keeps autophagy turned off. But when you fast, that inhibition is lifted. In experiments with mice that didn’t have the SIRT2 protein, fasting didn’t properly activate autophagy—suggesting that SIRT2 is essential for this process.
Here’s another important piece: when your body runs low on energy—like glucose (sugar) and ATP (the body’s fuel)—it turns on a sensor called AMPK. This sensor helps the body conserve energy by slowing down processes that use a lot of energy, like building new proteins or making fat.
AMPK also directly activates autophagy by turning on certain proteins that control the process. One of those proteins, ULK1, is a major switch that starts the autophagy machinery.
In short, when you fast:
Your energy stores drop.
That activates AMPK.
AMPK then shuts down fat-making and energy-consuming processes.
At the same time, it flips on autophagy, allowing your cells to clean up damaged parts and recycle them for fuel.
Why Autophagy Matters: Beyond Just Weight Loss
So what does all of this actually mean for us - what are the improvements to our health that we can realize with autophagy?
Fasting and Brain Health
Studies show that even short fasts (24–48 hours) can trigger autophagy in the brain and liver. In one experiment with mice, fasting increased the number and size of “autophagosomes”—the containers that carry cellular junk to be destroyed. This happened not just in liver cells but also in neurons, the cells of the brain. The process even helped shuttle debris from nerve endings back to the cell center for full breakdown and disposal.
This cellular detox helps reduce harmful protein buildup in the brain, which is linked to conditions like Alzheimer’s. One protective pathway involves proteins like SIRT1 and FoxO, which activate cleanup enzymes and reduce sticky plaque deposits (like amyloid beta). In simple terms: fasting helps keep the brain clean, calm, and better protected from age-related decline.
However, the benefits may vary based on age, genetics, and the exact fasting protocol. Some studies show that fasting too often or for too long—especially in older animals—can stress the system and reduce its ability to clean up. Like most things in nature, balance matters.
Fasting and the Heart
Autophagy is just as crucial for the heart. It helps heart cells survive during stress, like when blood flow is temporarily blocked (as in a heart attack). Fasting turns on AMPK, a “fuel sensor” that helps heart cells conserve energy and repair themselves.
In mice, alternate-day fasting for six weeks increased autophagy and reduced the damage from heart attacks. But when scientists blocked the final step of the autophagy process (where the garbage gets destroyed), the benefits disappeared. This shows how vital it is that the entire cleanup cycle works properly—not just the beginning.
Fasting and Liver Metabolism
Your liver is your body’s metabolic powerhouse. It’s the main site for detox, energy conversion, and ketone production during fasting. Fasting helps reduce fat buildup in the liver (especially in fatty liver disease), and this is largely thanks to autophagy.
For example, a study showed that mice on a high-fat diet who fasted 72 hours per week for 8 weeks had less liver fat and more activity of key cleanup proteins like LC3 and BCLN1. But interestingly, fasting didn’t trigger much autophagy in muscle tissue—likely because the liver takes the lead in energy production and ketone release during fasting.
Inflammation and Fasting
One hidden benefit of autophagy is its ability to reduce inflammation. In fasting mice, inflammatory markers like TNF-alpha and IL-6 were lower, and immune cell activity was more balanced. This effect is linked to autophagy’s ability to break down inflammatory molecules like HMGB1 before they can cause damage.
Fasting and Cancer
This is where it gets complex. Autophagy plays a double role in cancer. On one hand, it helps healthy cells repair themselves, resist damage, and reduce inflammation. On the other, some cancer cells actually hijack the process to survive stress like chemotherapy.
That said, fasting has shown promise in cancer prevention and treatment support. It lowers blood sugar, insulin, and growth factors like IGF-1—key fuels that many cancer cells rely on. In animal studies, fasting before chemotherapy or radiation made the treatment more effective and less toxic to normal cells.
But the results aren’t always consistent. Certain cancers, or specific genetic mutations, may respond differently. And not every fasting method is safe for every person—especially if they’re elderly, underweight, or already dealing with a disease.
The Role of Nutrients
Fasting also changes how your body uses amino acids (the building blocks of protein) and fatty acids. In muscle tissue, autophagy helps release amino acids when food is scarce. In cancer cells, removing amino acids like methionine or glutamine can slow tumor growth.
Low-carb, high-fat diets like keto may work for some cancer patients by starving tumors of sugar. But some tumors can adapt and even thrive on ketones. So again, personalization is key.
In Summary: What Does All This Mean for You?
Fasting can activate your body’s cellular recycling systems, especially in the brain, liver, and heart.
These effects may protect against neurodegeneration, heart disease, fatty liver, and certain cancers.
Autophagy helps reduce inflammation, balance immune function, and improve how cells respond to stress.
But fasting isn’t one-size-fits-all. Age, health status, and duration of fasting matter.
Regular, thoughtful fasting—especially when paired with beyond organic/regeneratively farmed food the rest of the time—can be a powerful way to support long-term health.
Why We Built Fasting in Paradise Around This Truth
Our guests aren’t coming to our retreats to chase numbers on a scale. While our weight definitely matters, we are more than that number on the scale. Weight is only one metric in a series of measurements in wellness. Bloat, fatigue, inflammation, brain fog, digestive issues, and many more ALL affect how we can show up in our day every day.
Women come to our retreats to remember how good it feels to feel good.
We design every aspect of our retreat experience to create the optimal conditions for autophagy, fasting success, and true cellular reset:
Minimally-Toxic Environment
No perfumes, pesticides, or plastics. Only clean, healing inputs.
Filtered Air, Water, and Natural Light
Filtered and structured water, air purification, and circadian-friendly lighting—all curated for your body’s natural detox pathways.
Expert-Led Fasting Protocols
Inspired by the work of so many experts, Dr. Jason Fung, Dr. Stephan Cabral, Dr. Courtney Hunt, and Dave Asprey, just to name a few. Our fasting approach is personalized, supported, and never extreme.
Circadian Rhythm Reset
Sunrise rituals, grounding, stillness, and rest help re-sync your internal clock for deeper healing.
Sacred, Small Group Setting
Because healing requires space, safety, and support. Our boutique groups foster true connection and transformation.
This isn’t a fast you try alone in your kitchen.
This is a scientifically supported, spiritually nourishing biological reset—the way nature (and science) intended.
Are You Ready to Reset on a Cellular Level?
If you’re feeling:
Foggy, inflamed, or wired-but-tired
Like your hormones, mood, or metabolism are out of sync
Curious about fasting but unsure how to do it safely
You’re not broken.
You’re just overdue for a reset.
Our next boutique fasting retreat opens in Fall 2026—but space is extremely limited.
Join the private waitlist here to be first in line when enrollment opens. No pressure—just a gentle nudge when the timing feels right.
Because healing doesn’t come from doing more. It comes from doing less—on purpose.