Hormesis: How Certain Kinds of Stress Can Actually Be Good for You

November 8, 2012

pimg class=”alignright” title=”Improve” src=”http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg158/MDA2008/MDA%202011/improve.jpg” alt=”improve” width=”288″ height=”287″ /Why are certain things #8220;good for us#8221;? Why does lifting weights make us stronger? Why does running a mile on a regular basis improve our aerobic conditioning and allow us to improve our times? Why does skipping a meal every now and then increase insulin sensitivity, lower body fat, improve lipid numbers, and generally make us healthier? Why are plant polyphenols so consistently associated with health benefits?/p
pThe answer is a title=”Wikipedia: Hormesis” href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hormesis”hormesis/a. You see, back when Nietzsche said, #8220;That which does not kill us makes us stronger,#8221; he may not have been talking about the positive and beneficial physiological effects of exposing yourself to various stressors and toxins, but he could have been. All those things #8211; the exercise, the fasting, the plant phytochemicals, plus more #8211; stress our systems and force us to adapt to the imposed stress. Organisms, after all, like […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

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