Autophagy (aw-TAWHF-uh-gee), also known as the ability of our cells to clean themselves, is very important to our metabolic health.
What is metabolic health and how important is it?
Metabolic health is defined as having blood sugar and its corresponding insulin secretion in a healthy, low range, most of the day every day.
Think of your body like an airplane with lots of knobs and switches and levers available to optimally operate that aircraft. If you had to pick just one lever to ensure a safe takeoff and landing, I would recommend selecting the lever that controls your metabolic health.
And that lever is knowing your autophagy genes and learning how to overcome any weaknesses found in your genetic testing profile.
Pancreatic islet beta cells are the cells inside our pancreas which make insulin. If those pancreatic islet beta cells have impaired autophagy, they fail to produce and secrete insulin efficiently.
When we have defective or suboptimal autophagy (as shown in the test results below), our cells are not very responsive to outside signals such as insulin. As a result, we become more prone to insulin resistance and the development of pre-diabetes and diabetes. And another undesirable side effect of suboptimal autophagy is a super lazy metabolism! No one wants that!
Genetic Testing Results – Autophagy
Activation of autophagy improves insulin resistance, and the inhibition of autophagy speeds up the death of these important pancreatic cells, especially if your pancreas is comprised due to type 2 diabetes. You don’t want to hasten the demise of these cells which are so important to your insulin management.
Poor or suboptimal autophagy is also a contributing factor in the process of blood sugar metabolism, which aids in the development of diabetic complications like kidney, liver, heart, and brain disfunction among others.
Now do you see why the autophagy lever on that airplane is so important?!
