This presentation provides an assessment of hormesis, a dose-response concept that is characterized by a low-dose stimulation and a high-dose inhibition. It will trace the historical foundations of hormesis, its quantitative features, mechanistic foundations, and its biomedical/clinical applications. It will be argued that hormesis is the most fundamental dose response, significantly outcompeting other leading dose-response models in large-scale, head-to-head evaluations used by regulatory agencies such as the EPA and FDA. The hormetic dose response is highly generalizable, being independent of biological model, endpoint measured, mechanism, chemical class (including a broad spectrum of what are now called functional foods), physical agent (e.g., ionizing and non-ionizing radiation) and interindividual variability. Hormesis also provides a framework for the assessment of chemical mixtures, incorporating the concept of additivity and synergism. Because the hormetic biphasic dose response represents a general pattern of biological responsiveness, as well as quantitatively defining the limits of biological plasticity, it is expected that it will become progressively more significant within toxicological evaluation, risk assessment practices as well as with medical and public health applications via the use of functional foods.

Hormesis: Adaptive responses in biology and medicine with applications to the emerging field of functional foods

256th National Meeting (2018)

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