Hormetic Stress: Become Resilient With Exercise, Plants, & Sun
“Enjoy the pressure. Enjoy the stress. Enjoy being uncomfortable.
And don't shy away from it, embrace it.”
—Gary Woodland
Scientists wanted to learn about different parts of life on earth through a well-controlled environment. So, they built biosphere 2 in the 1980s. One of the most intriguing revelations in this grand experiment had to do with trees. The trees were growing quickly but then stopped before full maturity, and died much quicker than they would have outside of the biosphere. The reason?
No wind.
It turns out that the wind forces the trees to create what is known as “stress wood”. This stress wood allows trees to adapt to the threat of wind and become more sturdy and healthy as a result.
Hormetic Stress In The 21st Century
We have a lot in common with those trees. For most of civilization, our ancestors were subjected to harsh stressors. To survive as a species, humans evolved to adapt to these stressors. This hormetic stress, or low doses of stress, served us well and our bodies thanked us for it, even if it was uncomfortable.
Fast forward to the 21st century where the average person is the tree in the biosphere. We grow up quickly in a well-nourished, modern lifestyle but we never reach full maturity or develop beneficial stress wood, and our healthspan and lifespan are cut short because of it.
I’ve written about the importance of hormetic stress, the principle of least effort, and 4 types of hormetic stress in a previous post. Today I’ll tackle four more ways that you can stress your body to live better.
3 Hormetic Stressors
Exercise
If you did something that caused elevated inflammatory markers, increased reactive oxygen species, elevated your blood pressure and glucose output, and caused microtears in your muscles then your doctor would say stop doing whatever that is immediate. But if you told her that you simply worked out then she would say keep going.
It’s fascinating to me that context is everything. This is hormesis in a nutshell. It breaks the body down for short periods, sends signals that you’re in distress, and your body learns how to manage it better the next time, becoming stronger in the process.
I use this form of hormetitc stress as a tool to improve my patient’s recovery on a daily basis in the clinic. The underlying mechanism is called the SAID principle which stands for Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands. If a patient comes in with a stroke, for example, and one side of their body is weak but active, then imposing demands on those weak muscles is the most appropriate avenue to allow them to adapt and thus, recover.
There are three energy pathways that need to be stressed for holistic fitness.
Phosphagen System: 10 seconds or less of effort
Glycolitic System: 10 seconds to 2 minutes
Oxidative System (a.k.a. the aerobic system): 2+ minutes
Pulling on either the intensity and duration levers of your exercise ultimately determine which pathway you’re tapping into. You can work hard or you can work long but your body won’t let you (effectively) do both.
If you have a 3-mile run that you consistently do out a few times a week at a similar pace then you are not “imposing demands.” Instead, you’re maintaining homeostasis. The same goes for the bro in the gym doing the same workout regimen and the yogi doing the same yoga routine. It’s important to foster growth by seeking new discomforts to challenge your body (and mind) while limiting overtraining in any area.
Do this:
To get some benefit, it’s best to challenge each of these energy pathways at least once every 1-2 weeks. For more info on the minimum effective dose, click on the links.
Sprint or weight lift for the phosphagen system
HIIT or run intervals for the glycolytic system
Zone 2 cardio for the oxidative system
Get Sun
Getting a tan is the classic example of a hormetic stress because it might be the most visual. Once the sun hits your skin it triggers your melanocytes to produce melanin which is the brown pigment that we call “a tan.”
Sun exposure is one of the healthiest things we can do. From an evolutionary perspective, different ethnicities have skin color programmed into their DNA in order to optimize the amount of sun their body safely absorbs. This is why someone of Irish descent has pale skin (with plenty of clouds and rain in that region) and someone of African descent has dark skin. In effect, our bodies found their own sweet spot.
Unfortunately, nowadays we don’t reap the benefits of the sun. Vitamin D (often called the sunshine vitamin) is one of the most common deficiencies in humans partly because we only spend about 7% of our life outdoors. And not getting this exposure hurts us in profound ways.
The Benefits of Vitamin D:
Do this:
Get 15 more minutes of sun a day on as much skin as possible. Getting sun through a window does not count (because the glass blocks UVB rays, more on that here) and getting it through clouds does count. Use an app like Luxmeter to see that you actually get more sun than you might think through clouds). Gradually work up to this depending on your skin type and then continue to add more time per day as your body adapts.
Consider sunshine in a pill. I supplement with vitamin D from October to March due to shorter days and a lower angle of the sun.
Use a happy lamp when you can’t get outside or in the wintertime during the lower solar angle if you live further from the equator.
Use sunscreen appropriately but stick with the healthy types.
For a deeper dive into the effects of light on your health, how to determine your solar angle, and how to use light to your advantage, see my previous post.
Eat Plants For Xenohormesis
Eating plants as a form of hormesis sounds like something my mom would have told me to get me to finish my salad back in the day. But eating plants might be one of the most important things we can do for longevity.
Like humans, plants evolved with two main purposes in mind: survival and reproduction. Plenty of things threaten plants (droughts, fungus, too much sun) but the most immediate is being eaten. For a plant to survive the wrath of a cricket or a deer coming in for a quick nack, they developed protective chemical responses which create a less desirable taste.
Some of these are very strong chemicals that can kill us but many are too weak to pose any threat. So we humans eat the plant and when we (or other animals) do, these protective chemicals for the once-alive plant are now transferred to the thing eating the plant. How awesome is that? Eating these compounds activates the same cellular mechanisms and stress-resistant pathways as other hormetic stressors like fasting and exercise.
What Is Xenohormesis?
This process is called xenohormesis As one study puts it, xenohormesis will “improve longevity and fitness by activating the animal's cellular stress response and can be applied in drug discovery, drug production, and nutritional enhancement of diet.” And this is not just one wild plant that confers some benefits. Of the top 20 drugs on the market, a third of them are derived from plants to take advantage of this process of ingesting natural chemicals and compounds for our betterment.
These chemicals and compounds found in plants are called phytonutrients and they have both antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. There are more than 25,0000 phytonutrients in all and they’re found in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, spices, nuts, beans, and tea.
Below are the main subgroups of phytonutrients, their benefits, and the foods with the highest content. There are also plenty of subcategories to the subgroups that sound like they’re a scrolling sci-fi credit list. For example, carotenoids are a phytonutrient with subgroups including alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, lycopene, etc.. I’ll refrain from listing those for now and highlight the main subgroups instead:
Phytoestrogens (reduces cancer risk, heart disease, and osteoporosis).
Coffee, broccoli, legumes.
Carotenoids (improves immune health and eye health, lowers cancer risk).
Oranges, kale, carrots.
Ellagic acid (reduces cancer and lowers cholesterol).
Raspberry, walnuts, blackberries, pecans.
Resveratrol (improves cognition and cardiovascular health).
Dark chocolate, pistachios, peanuts, wine.
Flavonoids (reduces cancer, heart disease, stroke, and diabetes).
Green tea, coffee, apples, onions.
Glucosinolates (reduces inflammation and improves stress response).
Brussel sprouts, mustard, cauliflower
Do this:
There are plenty of easy ways to use xenohormesis but the most important is to just eat more vegetables. Make sure you have some with every meal.
Since different phytonutrients are sometimes associated with different colors of foods, “eat the rainbow” and vary up your intake.
In the book, Eating on the Wild Side by Jo Robinson she suggests tearing up plants 12-24 hours before eating them you induce more phytonutrients because it thinks it’s being attacked.
Eat ugly plants. Nature doesn’t grow perfect lines of grapes and corn. The stress of less perfect yields creates more antioxidants because those plants fight to survive (hormesis) and then pass on those benefits. The same goes for organic foods vs. those sprayed with chemicals that protect them against stressors.
I throw a scoop of Super Greens powder in a glass of water or smoothie to make sure I’ve got enough variety of plants in my diet (and probiotics).
Takeaway
Using hormetic principles to become healthier sounds pretty nice. Basically, all you have to do is have coffee, do a 20-minute workout, soak up some sun, then eat a colorful salad. While some of this information is mainstream (“eat your veggies”), some areas are myths (“stay out of the sun”). What is surprising, however, is how little each of us consistently incorporates these basic practices into our lives. Pick your favorite and start making it a routine for a more resilient life.
In which ways do you incorporate hormetic stressors into your life? What is your favorite?
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