Spiritual Autophagy

Necrotizing fasciitis is known as a deadly human flesh-eating disease. It is caused by a bacterial infection of the fascia under the skin, producing toxins that destroy tissues. Sounds scary, I agree. The literal meaning of autophagy is self-eating—auto means self, and phagy means eat. But while that may sound like something similar to human flesh-eating disease, it’s actually very different. Even though it also refers to the destruction of self, it is actually a self-preservation mechanism.

The purpose of autophagy is to remove damaged organelles and proteins from a cell that would cause it to malfunction. It accomplishes this by breaking down, clearing out, and recycling damaged parts of the cell.

Autophagy has many anti-aging benefits because it helps destroy and reuse damaged components within cells to create new building materials that will be used for repair and regeneration. This cleaning house process is like hitting a reset button in your body, promoting a clean-as-you-go approach, rather than waiting for major crisis to occur.

As an analogy, let me share with you my recent experience with my vacuum. I was gifted a very nice cordless vacuum cleaner three years ago. It worked great—until it didn’t. I called the company and we concluded that I needed to buy a new battery. I ordered one, but that didn’t fix the problem. I called again. We concluded that I needed a new motor. But at that moment, I realized it would be cheaper to buy a new vacuum. Sigh. What if my supposedly high-end, brand-name vacuum could break down the motor itself, recycle the parts, gears, metal, and remake a brand-new motor for itself? That vacuum would be truly the best on the market. You would never need to purchase another vacuum again. It would be a self-regenerating machine!

Picture a cell that has damaged, dysfunctional parts—parts that are causing it to function sub-optimally. Sounds like decline. Sounds like growing old. In contrast, picture that same cell being able to break down those damaged, dysfunctional parts and recycle all that debris, using it to remodel itself, kind of like hitting a reset button. Simplistically, that is kind of what happens in cellular autophagy.

Without autophagy, cancer cells survive and multiply, damaging proteins aren’t cleared out of brain cells, infection isn’t cleared out, liver cells become fatty, and fat cells wouldn’t be able to break fat down for the purpose of weight loss. Autophagy is so beneficial that it’s now being referred to as a key in preventing diseases such as cancer, neurodegeneration, cardiomyopathy, diabetes, liver disease,autoimmunity, and infection.

Autophagy is a self-preservation mechanism in which your body removes damaged or dysfunctional parts of cells in order to regenerate newer, healthier cells.

The Bible informs us that the way to a new life is through dying. It initially sounds morbid until one realizes that the life we’re talking about is not only optimal living here and now, but also eternal life. This death is not extinction. It is a death to self that targets our self-destructive, selfish, and ego-centric nature we inherited from the very inception of sin. Like cellular autophagy, it is a degrading of that which only ruins us. Like cellular autophagy, there is a process.

Next month, we’ll learn more about autophagy at a cellular—and spiritual—level.