Longevity
Your Built-In Fountain of Youth
AMPK and mTOR are antagonistic cellular switches that regulate protection versus growth. By exercising and eating consciously, you can activate AMPK and slow your body's natural aging process.
Longevity
AMPK and mTOR are antagonistic cellular switches that regulate protection versus growth. By exercising and eating consciously, you can activate AMPK and slow your body's natural aging process.
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One of the most renowned biochemists of our time, and also a Nobel Prize winner, is Albert Szent-Györgyi. In the early 20th century, he also isolated and characterized vitamin C.
In a scientific paper, Szent-Györgyi formulated this principle in 19771:
"Regulation always requires two antagonists. Traffic cannot be controlled by red light alone, or green light alone, but only by both red and green."
Simple, yet brilliant. Because with this, Szent-Györgyi described exactly how our cells function, more precisely: our biochemistry.
The two perhaps most important "cell switches" in our lives are AMPK (AMP-activated protein kinase) and mTOR (mechanistic Target of Rapamycin), the main subject of our first book from 2014, the "Handbook to Your Body" (linked below).
They also work antagonistically at their core. When one becomes more active, the other becomes less active—and vice versa. Much of what we do each day is ultimately broken down into AMPK or mTOR through complex biochemical pathways.
They in turn activate an entire set of signaling pathways "downstream," which are associated with certain behaviors of a cell or whole tissues and ultimately of the body.
AMPK stands for "protection, preservation, stress resistance" and ultimately: longevity. mTOR, on the other hand, stands for "growth, reproduction, healing" and ultimately for: well-being.
So it rarely comes down to activating just one of the two switches. It's always about the timing of both switches' activity.
mTOR is the cellular abundance switch. It's allowed to become particularly active when we eat a lot, move little, when our tanks are full, when we bathe our cells in insulin. In moderation, this is beneficial.
In excess—as in Western societies—this mTOR overactivity makes us sick. Anyone who thinks these are simple cause-and-effect relationships to remedy is greatly mistaken, because: Millions of euros flow into researching these relationships every year, and yet millions of people die annually from "too much mTOR."
The remedy would be, as you correctly suspect, quite easy to bring about. Think only of Szent-Györgyi: regulation requires "two antagonists." This means: we simply need to make AMPK more active to throttle mTOR.
The solution lies in the very name of this longevity enzyme. AMPK ("AMP-activated...") becomes active when the cell is no longer full of energy, when energy levels drop. For example, when we eat a bit less.
Or during exercise. This is exactly why exercise is considered a "polypill" against countless diseases.2 Exercise is one of the most important tools to activate AMPK regularly, perhaps in all tissues.
Just this way, exercise protects against Alzheimer's and neurodegeneration via AMPK. In muscle, increased AMPK activity creates a signaling molecule (irisin) that reaches the brain and protects nerve cells there. The consequences3:
Solely through exercise. That is, AMPK.
Whoever understands these connections once can spare themselves a lot of questionable knowledge.
This knowledge sets you free. Because once you understand that mTOR is easy for us to activate, while AMPK often falls short in "modern" societies... you just put a bit more effort into AMPK.
—life becomes surprisingly simple.
Whoever wants to live by AMPK has many options with us: Our Blog, two books (here and here), or our dietary supplements. AMPK was a reason why edubily exists today.
In any case: nobody should have to die from AMPK deficiency anymore. We discussed the sad truth of widespread deficiency here just recently.
