Hormesis describes the drug action of low dose stimulation and high dose inhibition. The hormesis phenomenon has been observed in a wide range of biological systems. Although known in its descriptive context, the underlying mode-of-action of hormesis is largely unexplored. Recently, the hormesis concept has been receiving increasing attention in the field of aging research. It has been proposed...

Hormesis (defined operationally as low-dose stimulation, high-dose inhibition) is often used to promote the notion that while high-level exposures to toxic chemicals could be detrimental to human health, low-level exposures would be beneficial. Some proponents claim hormesis is an adaptive, generalizable phenomenon and argue that the default assumption for risk assessments should be that toxic ...

INTRODUCTION. It is commonly stated that " any radiation dose, no matter how small, can cause cancer ". The basis for that statement is the linear-no threshold theory (LNT) of radiation carcinogenesis. According to LNT, if 1 Gy (100 rads) of exposure gives a cancer risk R, the risk from 0.01 Gy (1 rad) of exposure is R/100, the risk from 0.00001 Gy (1 millirad) is R/ 100,000, and so on. Thus th...

The session will begin by outlining several examples of what appears to be unexplained or paradoxical effects of plant extracts or drugs given at low doses. We will then explore the definition, basic principles, and ramifications of a concept named " Hormesis. " This fascinating field of research examines the bio-stimulatory effects of numerous substances given at doses below the commonly belie...

OBJECTIVE Low dose radiation may stimulate the growth and development of animals, increase life span, enhance fertility, and downgrade the incidence of tumor occurrence.The aim of this study was to investigate the antitumor effect and hormesis in an erythrocyte system induced by low-dose radiation. METHODS Kunming strain male mice were subcutaneously implanted with S180 sarcoma cells in the r...

This paper reviews the contemporary evidence that radiation can accelerate aging, degenerative health effects and mortality. Around the 1960s, the idea that ionizing radiation caused premature aging was dismissed as the radiation-induced health effects appeared to be virtually confined to neoplasms. More recently, radiation has become associated with a much wider spectrum of age-related disease...

This paper represents the first systematic effort to describe the historical foundations of radiation hormesis. Spanning the years from 1898 to the early 1940's the paper constructs and assesses the early history of such research and evaluates how advances in related scientific fields affected the course of hormetic related research. The present effort was designed to not only address this gap ...

Hormesis, or biological effects of low level exposures (BELLE), is characterized by nonmonotonic dose response which is biphasic, displaying opposite effects at low and high dose. Its occurrence has been documented across a broad range of biological models and diverse type of exposure. Since hormesis appears to be a relatively common phenomenon in many areas, the objective of this review is to ...