Ep. 75: Hormesis As An Anti-Scientific Defense For Industrial Pollution And Chemical Exposure (Hormesis Part 1)

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In this episode we discuss:

  • How the concept of hormesis defends our exposure to toxic chemicals, industrial contaminants and pollutants, and ionizing radiation
  • Why hormesis is a dangerous, anti-scientific idea masquerading as science
  • The suspicious history of hormesis and its current definitional problems
  • The important distinction between stress and adaption
  • The problems with the terms “eustress” and “distress”

3:36 – an introduction to hormesis as a means to reverse aging and reverse chronic health conditions 

6:45 – what is hormesis 

12:34 – the suspicious history of hormesis  

16:20 – the definitional problems with hormesis 

34:51 – how hormesis is influencing dangerous public health policies 

47:35 – the difference between stressor effects and specific effects, creating a distinction between stress and adaptation, and the problems with the terms “eustress” and “distress” 

Links from this episode

  • Hormesis Part 1: Does Stress Make you Stronger? (article)
  • Hormesis Part 2: Flawed Research and Harmful Misapplications (Including Ketogenic Diets, Intermittent Fasting, Calorie Restriction, and More) (article)
  • Dioxin (TCDD) is not viable as a hormetic (1)
  • The benefits of the Mediterranean diet are ascribed to hormesis (1)
  • Article aimed at defining hormesis that includes water, reading magazines and playing bingo or card games, and endocrine status as hormetic factors (1)
  • The dangers of hormesis from a public health standpoint (1, 2)
  • The negative effects of minute quantities of plastic compounds, pollutants, and medications found in the environment (123456)
  • Article explaining  the notion that mercury is beneficial due to hormesis (1)
  • Environmental doses of methylmercury inhibit electron transport chain function and ATP synthesis (1)
  • Monkeys fed whole-food diets did not experience lifespan extension from calorie restriction whereas monkeys fed diets containing sucrose and corn oil did (1)
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