Do This to Boost the Benefit of Fasting
And a key extra ingredient for cell cleanliness? Exercise. Physical movement, even if it is just brisk walking, can “turn up the cellular vacuum cleaner,” according to researcher Alfred Goldberg, who teaches cellular biology at Harvard.2 That’s a big help to cells – because when a cell’s cleanup program slows, improperly folded proteins can clog up each cell’s machinery. As those junk heaps of useless proteins in nerve cells reach a tipping point, say the researchers, it can lead to neurodegenerative illnesses like ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) and Alzheimer’s disease. I won’t go into all the specifics that the Harvard scientists describe, but they found that the cell’s “vacuum cleaners” get high powered with fasting and exercise because they –- Switch on a messenger signal called cAMP, activating an enzyme named protein kinase A – which leads to the elimination of toxic proteins that can cause neurons to be destroyed.
- Stimulate the action of proteasome, a substance that reacts with defective proteins, tearing them apart so that cells can recycle their component amino acids.
