Hormesis describes the phenomenon that stress and toxins can have a positive effect on our body in small doses. You can find out here how this benefits you in everyday life.
We usually associate stress with something negative. Of course, if we are under long-term pressure, are chronically stressed and regularly exceed our mental and physical limits, this will have a negative impact on our health. Chronic stress, for example, promotes high blood pressure and depressive states and leads to constant restlessness and exhaustion.
However, in the right “dose”, stress has exactly the opposite effect. It can then promote our health, strengthen our immune system and thereby make us more resilient. This effect is also known as hormesis, Greek for “offence”.
What is Hormesis?
In toxicology, hormesis refers to the phenomenon that certain substances have a stimulating and positive effect in low doses, but have inhibitory or toxic effects in high doses. Mark Mattson, Professor of Neuroscience at John Hopkins University, describes this in a research report from 2008. In biology and medicine, researchers are continuing this idea: In these disciplines, hormesis describes the adaptation of cells and organisms to moderate stress.
So when cells come into contact with a poison or a stressful situation, they get to know the potentially dangerous substance in a protected and time-limited setting. This allows them to develop defense mechanisms. If the same situation or the same substance occurs again, our body is better prepared and can implement the defense strategies it has already learned more quickly.
Hormetic stressors benefit us
According to an article by scientist Dr. According to Elissa Eppel, who studies aging and metabolic processes at the University of California in San Francisco, so-called hormetic stressors can promote the ability to regenerate and lead to the rejuvenation of cells and tissues.
Hormetic stressors are what Dr. Eppel as acute, intermittent stress factors of moderate intensity. They must therefore occur for a limited period of time and in small quantities and be interrupted by breaks for relaxation. This is the case, for example, if we sit in a hot sauna for short intervals, take a cold shower for a few minutes or fast for a few days.
According to Eppel, it is even detrimental to our health if we lack such hormetic stressors. Then our cells could regenerate more poorly and rejuvenation processes in the body are stopped.
Hormesis through sport, fasting etc
(Photo: CC0 / Pixabay / Mariakray)
Hormesis initially sounds like a complex scientific concept. That’s it from a biochemical point of view. But in everyday life you can often expose yourself to situations in which your body is confronted with hormetic stressors:
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Sports: According to Mattson, sports are one of the best-known examples of hormesis in everyday life. Excessive physical strain over a long period of time can lead to injuries and puts strain on tissue and joints. However, in moderation, sport makes us more resistant to injuries and illnesses. Sport also has positive hormetic effects on our nervous and digestive systems, says Mattson.
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Sauna: The sauna is another example of hormesis. If you were to expose yourself to high sauna temperatures for a long time, your body would be damaged. Even if you are weakened, for example going to the sauna with a cold will harm you. However, taking a sauna properly (healthily, not for too long, with enough breaks and not too often in a row) stimulates your immune system and strengthens your circulation and heart.
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Fasting: Not consuming any food seems anything but healthy at first glance. But if you fast properly, you stimulate what is known as autophagy. This is our body’s protective mechanism that eliminates damaged cells, pathogens and faulty proteins. So there is a kind of “clean-up job”.
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Cold: Even short-term exposure to cold can put our bodies under stress in a healthy way. Sebastian Kneipp’s water treatments, for example, are based on this concept. The physician Dr. Thomas Dietze explains in an MDR article that rinsing with cold water and “treading water” in cold water stimulate blood circulation and circulation and can help with complaints such as headaches, tiredness or heavy legs.
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Fruits and vegetables: Plant-based foods are known to be healthy. According to Mattson, however, this is also based on hormesis: To ward off predators, plants have developed chemical defense mechanisms. We consume these in small quantities when we eat. For us, too, these toxic substances are small stress factors to which our body reacts with more resilience, says Mattson.
The following applies to all of these uses of hormesis: Pay attention to how your body feels. It can help you recognize when the air in the sauna is too hot, the cold water is too intense or the sport is too strenuous and the positive effect of hormesis turns into negative stress. Especially if you are not used to saunas, cold treatments, fasting and workouts, you should start slowly and plan regular recovery periods.
Criticism of the hormesis hypothesis
Even whether low doses of radioactive radiation could have a hormetic effect is being debated in science. Even with toxic heavy metals such as arsenic, mercury or cadmium, individual researchers suspect that the smallest doses could possibly have positive effects. So far, for ethical reasons among other things, this has only been tested at the cell level or on plants.
Depending on what it is, the use of hormesis also carries risks:
While it won’t hurt you to eat a little more fruit and vegetables, radiation, for example, is known to be extremely harmful – except perhaps in very specific, extremely small doses. Even during exercise and in the cold, you could overdo the stress and injure yourself or even suffer cold shock. This can be life-threatening, for example when taking an ice bath.
When it comes to toxic heavy metals, it’s actually the other way around: all we know for sure is that they are harmful or even fatal in almost all doses. However, whether and in what doses they may also trigger hormesis is still an open question.
Important: Of course, based on the hormesis hypothesis, you should not intentionally consume toxic or harmful substances in the hope that they will trigger hormesis. If you instead stick to the scientifically proven health recommendations, you will benefit from both hormesis and other health-promoting effects: exercise enough, spend time in nature, eat a balanced, plant-based diet and avoid excessive stress.
Read more on Techzle\.com:
- Concentration killer: These foods weaken your brain
- Get out and about – strengthen your mental health with outdoor exercise
- Find sports motivation: This can help you
German version available: Hormesis: How You Can Experience Healthy Stressors
Edited by Denise Schmucker
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