Explainer: Autophagy – body’s self-healing mechanism, its link with traditional Indian practice of fasting

Fasting, a common age-old Indian practice largely seen as a religious and spiritual activity, has been scientifically proven to have immense medical spin-offs and that the body has extraordinary built-in abilities to heal itself when given the right conditions.

A Japanese scientist Yoshinori Ohsumi earned a Nobel Prize in medicine after discovering one of the body’s most powerful self-healing mechanisms. During periods of fasting, the human body begins to consume its own damaged cells, triggering a deep cellular reset known as autophagy.

For millions around the world, the research opened a new window into how deeply lifestyle affects body cells, and how something as simple as timing meals can unlock one of the body’s most powerful repair systems.

“This natural process acts like an inter