During the month of October 2021, I tried a new self-experiment. I tried “boosting” my autophagy during two and three days fasts with Fish Oil or Cod Liver Oil. It seemed to work… but a first a few cautions are in order. Do not try boosting your autophagy until you have gone through Phase I and Phase II as described below. Too strong autophagy is scary and potentially harmful when you have a high amount of viral proteins as your immune system may react very strongly.
I am splitting the Autophagy Protocol into 3 phases:
Phase I – Building up to a fast, slowing viral replication, and promoting nighly low-level autophagy
Basically, diet changes to a no sugar, no processed carb diet and limiting eating for 8 to 10 hours daily – preferrably skipping dinner rather than breakfast. During this phase your viral debris may be quite high. You might experience a strong headache or other such symptom after 2 or 3 weeks as your virally infected cells are made visible to your immune system. Stick with Phase I for a month. Longer if you keep seeing gradual improvements.
Phase II – Periodic Strong Autophagy
The purpose of phase II is to go to increase the amount of viral degradation via autophagy. I believe the most efficient way is to induce strong autophagy on a weekly basis. Intially, just a 1 day fast. About 10% of long haulers experience a strong increase in their symptoms for a day or two or three with their first fast. While that can be alarming, it indicates that virus has been “unmasked” and infected cells are now visible to your immune system. That is a good thing. Most experience 4 to 8 hours of increased long covid symptoms in the evening or night of their first fully fasting day and evening. Some feel fine during the fast but experience increased symptoms after they resume eating the next day. Either way is fine. Even if you are in the one-third that do not feel increased symptoms, rest assured that a small percentage of the viral proteins were still degraded within your cells.
Once the initial short fast is accomplished, alternate 60 hr fasts with alternate autophagy methods such as Quercitin plus Resveratrol, Fisetin, and Fish Oil/Cod liver oil. You should aim for 2 days per week of autophagy during this phase which will likely last 2 to 3 months. Stay in this phase as long as you keep seeing gradual improvements.
Phase III – Boosting Lipophagy during your fasts and more frequent autophagy
Once your long covid symptoms have decreased to 2 or 3 symptoms, you may notice that you recover from your fast or autophagy weekend more quickly. You get back to your “baseline” of symptoms within a day or two. This happens when your viral load has decreased to perhaps 10% of your initial viral load. The problem is that getting to 100% recovered from 90% recovered can be as challenging – sometimes more so – than recovery to 90% of functioning. For this stage, some long haulers decide to increase the frequency with which they induce strong autophagy. Initially add Wednesday to your Sat, Sun autophagy routine. After a couple weeks then try “boosting” your weekend fasts. Do this by taking 1000 to 1250 mg of fish oil or 1 tsp of Arctic D cod liver oil at 1 or 2 pm during your fasting days. Caution – this will likely increase the symptoms you feel in the evenings of your fast.
Lipophagy – the best flavor of autophagy? From my analysis of the weekly symptom survey data 60 hr fasts were superior to 36 hr fasts and superior to 2 days of Quercitin plus Resveratrol. Initially, I was quite surprised by this result. One possible explanation is that lipophagy, the selective degradation of intracellular lipid droplets is enhanced in the 60 hr fasts compared to the 36 hr fasts. Quercitin and Resveratrol, boost cellular reactive oxygen species, triggering damaged mitochondria to be degraded by autophagy. This general autophagy is not selective for lipid droplets. A 2021 study of SARS-CoV-2 replication in cell culture demonstrated that the virus increases the formation of lipid droplets and uses them as an energy source for replication. Blocking lipid metabolism greatly decreased viral replication. Furthermore, in electron micograph “pictures” SARS-CoV-2 virus particles were associated with the outer surface of the lipid droplets. Other researchers have previously shown that Omega 3 fish oils, such as DHA and EPA increase the degradation of lipid droplets via autophagy. This selective degradation in the lysosomes is called lipophagy. It is my belief that lipophagy may be the most effective flavor of autphagy to degrade viral particles and fight long covid.
Another way to push back against the way the virus alters cellular lipid metabolism is to decrease lipid droplet formation by taking a statin. Indeed, during my rapid decrease of symptoms in the Fall of 2020, I was taking 10 mg of Atorvastatin. It turns out that 10 mg is a good statin dose. Higher doses trigger feelings of autophagy for me. 40 mg of Atorvastatin is a strong autophagy inducer… too much for daily use. Statins are prescription medications and liver enzymes need to be monitored on a periodic basis by your health care provider. An herbal alternative to statins is Red Yeast Extract. I used the Pure Naturals brand which comes with 600 mg per capsule. Again, higher doses induced feelings of autophagy just like statins. A good daily dose seems to be just 200 to 300 mg. I weigh 160 lbs so 1.7 mg per pound or 3.7 mg per kg is a dosing guide. Note: this is against the backdrop of the stack of supplements recommended by the Autophagy Protocol. Personally, I would take 10 mg of a statin – regardless of stage or viral load. Of course check with your doctor as I am a scientist, not an MD. (This is a commonality with the current Dr. Patterson treatment.)
A review/ hypothesis paper:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7278986/
A key research paper showing the importance of lipid droplets for SARS-CoV-2 replication:
https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1009127