Hormesis is basically biological responses to low exposures to toxins and other stressors. A pollutant or toxin showing hormesis thus has opposite effect in small doses as in large doses.

Pharmacologist Hugo Schulz first described such a phenomenon in 1888 following his own observations that the growth of yeast could be stimulated by small doses of poisons.

Alcohol is believed to be hermetic in preventing heart disease and stroke, although the benefits of light drinking may have been exaggerated. In 2012 researchers found that tiny amount of ethanol doubled the life span of Caenorhabditis elegans, a round worm frequently used in biological studies,that were starved of other nutrients.

Whether hormesis is common or important is controversial – The idea that low dose effect is positive is questionnaire.

Regulatory agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), traditionally use a linear model for carcinogens. In the linear model, the assumption is that there is no dosage that has no risk of causing cancer.

Manjiri Shinde

T. Y. B. Pharm

Tags: MET Institute of Pharmacy