[cnlwsu]

Hormesis as a general concept reeks of me of the "like cures like" of Homeopathy. This is mentioned in the article even. "A little snake venom is a cure to snake venom" is commonly used when explaining homeopathy. There may be some scenarios that exhibit this behavior but it still means your relaying on a fallacy of composition to turn it into something that can be sold as a life style.

Why do we have to simplify things and try to apply sweeping generalizations? The universe is complex. Things that apply one way to somethings do not apply that way to others.

[titanomachy]

Yeah but this concept isn't nearly as hard to stomach for me. "Fighting off disease makes you better at fighting off disease" is a little more believable than "these overpriced water molecules can learn the shape of toxins and help eliminate them in your body".

[drcomputer]

> Why do we have to simplify things and try to apply sweeping generalizations? The universe is complex. Things that apply one way to somethings do not apply that way to others.

The same reason we over complicate things. It's hard to select which direction to move in when both directions are ambiguously labeled.

[a8da6b0c91d]

Lab animals protected against stressors live longest of all. You get extremely long life spans in rats kept in sterile environments and fed plenty of very high quality food regularly. Aging is accumulated stress. It is not a genetic program.

“Every stress leaves an indelible scar, and the organism pays for its survival after a stressful situation by becoming a little older.” --Dr. Hans Selye

The pro-hormesis claims I've seen are highly dubious. You constantly see caloric restriction and fasting brought up. It's bunkum. Within a species the animals that eat the most live longest. The restriction idea developed from two misunderstandings: 1) If you restrict feeding early in life the growth of the animal is stunted, and within a species smaller animals live longer. 2) Lab grade animal chow is loaded with mildly toxic things like soy oil and oxidized whey protein, so eating less of it rather than more is preferable.