Hormesis
I was recently introduced to a concept from a seminar by Dr. Kerry Bone that I found to be very interesting. The concept is termed Hormesis, and it came out of a very popular area of research today; research on anti-aging. Baby boomers are at a point in their lives where getting old is very real to them and anti-aging products have quite a market at this time. Consequently during the last 10 years a large increase in research on how to look young, be younger and live longer has been done. Some of this has yielded surprising results.
Most of the research has been done with animals, necessarily so because it would simply take too long to do the research with humans. No researcher is going to invest over 60 years of his life into a research project that is going to be published after he is dead. Anyway, one of the things that they did was to place laboratory animals in the most perfect environment that they could think of; clean and sterile with perfect food, no toxins, no stress at all with the idea that their lives would be extended. They found, surprisingly enough, that the opposite happened. They died earlier. They found that when they placed stress on the animals, such as keeping them hungry, forced exercise, heat shocks and even the introduction of toxins in their environment – they lived longer. They termed this phenomenon Hormesis. Evidently the “ideal environment” isn’t the best for keeping the body going. It appears that the cells of the body need a challenge to perform best. You could say in order for the cells in the body to stay in the game longer, there has to be a game for the cells to stay in.
So how does this apply to health in general? If we are going to starve the body, beat it up, exhaust it and pour copious amounts of toxins in it will we live longer and be healthier? Unfortunately or fortunately (however you look at it) I don’t think that this is necessarily what will happen. I think probably what we are looking at is the amount and degree of stresses that we place on the body. If we think of it as the cells having to have a game to play, I think we should probably say that in order for the body to survive well and live long, the cells need a game to play and they need a game to play that they can win. Somewhere down the line the stress factors change from enhancing the life and vigor of the cells to overwhelming the cells. Not any stress on the cells is apparently bad, but when the stresses become more than the cells can handle, the cells develop problems and malfunction. Exactly at what point the effect of stress changes from good to bad is the tough question. I don’t have an answer. I suppose it may be different with different people. Some people and some bodies probably quit playing the game before others. Bodies that are breaking down need help to get back in the game and get their health back.
One approach to making the body healthier would be to decrease the stresses in the body to levels that the body can easily handle. Make good choices with regards to using less toxic, more natural household cleaners, makeup, soaps, detergents, hair products and other things that we are in continual contact with. Choose foods that are more natural with less preservatives, food dyes, artificial flavors and pesticides. Live a good clean life to reduce our daily stresses as much as possible. Another approach would be to give our bodies better ammunition to handle the stesses that are present all around it in the form of good nutrition, exercise, and chiropractic care.
Is it possible to do too good a job? What if we do such a good job of decreasing toxins and stresses that we are going to die too early? In this day and age, with the amazing levels of toxins around us I simply do not think it is very likely at all. But on the other hand, what a relief it is to know that we don’t have to have a perfect environement to survive well. We can be sane about it and change our environment into a less stressful one by removing toxic substances. But we don’t have to worry about being the effect of an environment that is not perfectly ideal either. We can use our knowledge of toxic substances to be at cause over our environment and change it for the better, but it is nice to know that it isn’t necessary for us to feel the effect of an environment that is not pure.
Indeed, pointing out all the toxic evils that surround us just for the purpose of pointing them out, has no healthful purpose. The idea is, after all, to be cause over our health, not the effect of the environment. So my advice to you is to do as well as you can, make good choices, clean up your space, eat good foods and take care of your body. Then say the dickens with it and live life.
Man has always had toxins of one kind or another in his environment. Campfire smoke has toxins, there have always been poisonous plants, bug bites, spoiled foods, and toxins from infectious organisms. Today we have more man made toxins in the form of synthetic chemicals. It is fortunate that some of these can be fairly easily removed. Just don’t buy the products that have them and throw those out, that do. Cause Point Correlative Testing can help spot if there are toxins in your immediate environment that can be easily removed, and more importantly can direct you as to what you need to make the body stronger against toxins in your environment that aren’t as easily removed. Be strong, be causative, live life. Call (260) 459-6160 (Ft. Wayne) or (773) 929-3964 (Chicago) for an appointment.
Dr Murdock
