Nutritional hormesis

Abstract

Objective: Hormesis, the biological and toxicological concept that small quantities have opposite effects from large quantities, is reviewed with emphasis on its relevance to nutrition. Results: Hormetic and other dose-response relationships are categorized, depicted, and discussed. Evidence for nutritional hormesis is presented for essential vitamin and mineral nutrients, dietary restriction, alcohol (ethanol), natural dietary and some synthetic pesticides, some herbicides, and acrylamide. Some of the different hormetic mechanisms that have been proposed are reviewed. Conclusions:The credence and relevance of hormesis to nutrition are considered to be established. The roles of hormesis in nutritional research and in formulating nutritional guidelines are discussed.

Hormesis: Biphasic Dose-Responses to Fungicides in Plant Pathogens and Their Potential Threat to Agriculture

“…These publications served as catalysts for what Calabrese and Baldwin referred to as "the dose-response revolution". The prolific research inspired by these papers has produced hundreds of publications, providing well supported evidence of hormetic effects of a broad spectrum of stressors, including radiation, heat, caloric intake, and even exercise, on plants, fungi, bacteria, protozoa, and animals, including humans (6,10,12,43,44,45,46,47).…”

The nature of nutrition: a unifying framework

“…Although some researchers in the area of hormesis have recognised similarities between toxin and nutrient dose-response curves (Luckey and Stone 1960;Hayes 2007), there have been separate developments in the nutritional sciences that are directly relevant. These developments stem back to the French scientist Gabriel Bertrand, who in 1912 established a rule concerning the dose-response curve for mineral nutrients, which is essentially that too little or too much of a mineral impairs biological function.…”

Neuroprotective effect of STAZN, a novel azulenyl nitrone antioxidant, in focal cerebral ischemia in rats: Dose–response and therapeutic window

“…Calabrese and co-workers found more than 5000 hormetic dose-response relationships published for over 900 chemical and physical agents. (Calabrese and Blain 2005) Given the vast array of chemical and physical agents and their different mechanisms of action, hormetic effects are unlikely to be the result of a single molecular mechanism and more likely to be related to a disruption of homeostasis (Hayes 2007). It may be helpful to view the effects of antioxidants generally and the neuroprotective effects of STAZN in particular in this context.…”

“…Free radicals and reactive oxygen species themselves, while potentially harmful at levels which overwhelm antioxidant defenses, act as cellular messengers necessary for normal function, and a brief increases may activate protective mechanisms such as are seen in pre-conditioning and post-conditioning (Valko, Leibfritz et al 2007). Thus, the efficacy of free-radical-scavenging antioxidants may be limited to their ability to restore levels of free radicals and oxidative stress to within narrow homeostatic limits (Castagne, Lefevre et al 1999;Hayes 2007). …”