Edward Calabrese: The Hormesis Revolution in Biology, Neuroscience, and Medicine
Oct 12, 2023
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Expert in hormesis Edward Calabrese discusses the significance of hormesis in biology and medicine. They explore topics such as the beneficial effects of low-level stress, the co-evolution of plants and herbivores, hormesis and longevity, and the forces against healthy habits and prevention. They also touch on the positive effects of exercise on mood and well-being, personal nutrition and supplements, and the exploration of toxins in plants.
Hormesis is the concept of the beneficial effects of low levels of stress or challenges on living organisms, promoting survival and resilience.
Hormetic responses have played a significant role in the evolution of organisms and have led to enhanced longevity.
Tapping into the hormetic potential can maximize lifespan through regular exercise, calorie restriction, and intermittent fasting.
The dissemination of the hormesis concept across different scientific disciplines and public education are important for its integration into various fields and for promoting public health.
Deep dives
The Concept of Hormesis and Preconditioning
Hormesis is the concept of the beneficial effects of low levels of stress or challenges on living organisms. Preconditioning is a related concept that involves subjecting organisms to a mild stressor to enhance their resilience to future, more severe stressors. The podcast introduces Professor Edward Calabris, an expert in hormesis and its implications for environmental science and biology. He discusses his early research on peppermint plants and the surprising stimulation that occurred at low concentrations of a growth inhibitor. This discovery led him to further investigate hormesis across various organisms and reveal the widespread occurrence of biphasic dose-response relationships.
The Importance of Harmetic Response in Evolution
Hormetic responses have played a significant role in the evolution of organisms. It is believed that organisms in harsh environments have adapted to intermittent, stressful situations. Examples include bacteria evolving to tolerate high concentrations of toxic substances and plants developing chemicals to protect against herbivores. The harmetic response promotes survival and resilience, leading to enhanced longevity. The podcast highlights the significance of harmesis in the context of evolutionary biology, suggesting that nothing in evolution makes sense without considering harmesis.
Harmetic Challenges and Maximum Lifespan
The podcast emphasizes that tapping into the harmetic potential can maximize lifespan. Regular exercise, calorie restriction, and intermittent fasting are examples of harmetic challenges that engage evolutionary-conserved pathways. These pathways, when stimulated through harmesis, enhance the capacity for survival and foster longevity. The conversation explores the concept of harmesis in the context of extending lifespan and how various fields, such as stem cell research and gerontology, have embraced the concept.
Challenges in Communicating the Concept of Harmesis
One of the challenges discussed in the podcast is the dissemination of the harmesis concept across different scientific disciplines. The specialized nature of scientific research often leads to tunnel vision and lack of cross-disciplinary knowledge sharing. Additionally, profit-driven forces may hinder the exploration and application of harmesis. The podcast emphasizes the importance of public education and knowledge sharing to promote understanding and integration of harmesis into various fields for the benefit of public health.
Importance of Harmesis and Animal Studies
Animal studies are crucial in understanding the impact of interventions on animals' health and well-being. Proper care and ethical treatment should be ensured when conducting experiments. The speaker shares his experience at the National Institute on Aging, where he proposed studies on intermittent fasting and caloric restriction. He emphasized the need to justify why animals are being fed ad libitum without exercise, highlighting that this unhealthy condition should be questioned.
Rejuvenating Pathways in Aging Animals
The speaker explores the concept of hormesis and its potential in rejuvenating aging animals. He discusses findings that show hormetic interventions can be beneficial in young and middle-aged animals, but the capacity for stimulation decreases in older animals. However, certain interventions such as exercise and dietary changes have shown the ability to restore metabolic function in older animals, revealing promising possibilities for enhancing well-being in aging populations.
Harnessing Harmesis for Health Improvement
The speaker highlights the importance of harmesis in various interventions for improving health outcomes. He mentions examples like electroconvulsive shock therapy and psychedelics, which have shown long-lasting benefits for treating conditions such as severe depression and addiction. Additionally, the speaker emphasizes the potential of harmetic lifestyle practices early in life to delay the onset of age-related diseases. He discusses the challenge of advocating for harmesis concepts and suggests the need for educating scientists, clinicians, and policymakers for wider acceptance and implementation of harmetic interventions.
Professor Ed Calabrese has spent much of his life pouring over tens of thousands of dose – response data from studies in fields ranging from toxicology and radiation biology to cancer, neuroscience, and aging. His work has firmly established the hormesis principle as foundational for evolution and health. In the fields of biology and medicine hormesis is defined as an adaptive response of cells and organisms to a moderate (usually intermittent) stress. Examples include ischemic preconditioning, exercise, dietary energy restriction and exposures to low doses of certain phytochemicals. In this episode Ed and I have a far-reaching conversation on hormesis and its importance for basic neuroscience research, human health, and disease prevention and treatment.
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Historical perspective on hormesis, toxicology and radiation biology:
