Low doses in the mGy range cause a dual effect on cellular DNA. One is a relatively low probability of DNA damage per energy deposition event and increases in proportion to the dose. At background exposures this damage to DNA is orders of magnitude lower than that from endogenous sources, such as reactive oxygen species. The other effect at comparable doses is adaptive protection against DNA da...

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...

In dealing with concentration or dose-response effects in biological systems, one usually expects to find fairly regular monotonic changes, especially at low concentrations of a promoting or an inhibiting reagent. Oftentimes, however, competing reactions and/or interfering species produce anomalous “paradoxical” effects. These occur when the rate of a reaction or a response at first increases w...

Evidence is presented which supports the conclusion that the hormetic dose-response model is the most common and fundamental in the biological and biomedical sciences, being highly generalizable across biological model, endpoint measured and chemical class and physical agent. The paper provides a broad spectrum of applications of the hormesis concept for clinical medicine including anxiety, sei...