Autophagy is important no matter our age, but it’s particularly critical as we get older, since aging hinders our ability to clean our old cells and proteins and all this debris can start to build up. Reductions in autophagy have been linked to a range of diseases. The authors of one study wrote that autophagy’s main job is to protect us from anything ranging from infections and cancer to neurodegeneration, accelerated aging, and heart disease.9
