Hormesis: Beneficial toxins?

NOTE: This is a VERY "IN A NUTSHELL" summary.

For a long time, people have had a kind of "unsafe at any speed" concept with things like carcinogents - any small amount is inherently bad. However, there is this theory called "Hormesis" that essentially says that some toxins in small amounts are not bad, and can actually have positive effects. It's fascinating.

I think this might have an impact on people worrying about trace to very trace toxins.

Info here:
Hormesis Article

It kinda makes sence, actually.

[edit on 29-10-2005 by Toxic Fox]

Here is another article, from Fortune magazine in 2003, republished by CNNMoney.com : "A Little Poison Can Be Good For You - The received wisdom about toxins and radiation may be all wet."

Reading about this makes me think of the medical practice of homeopathy.

Yes, this is fascinating.

Originally posted by Mary Rose
Here is another article, from Fortune magazine in 2003, republished by CNNMoney.com : "A Little Poison Can Be Good For You - The received wisdom about toxins and radiation may be all wet."

Reading about this makes me think of the medical practice of homeopathy.

Then quacks gave hormesis a bad name. It became associated with homeopathy, the bogus idea that diseases can be treated with tiny traces of toxins. (Homeopaths endorse much smaller doses than those that typically trigger hormesis.)

Originally posted by Mary Rose
"A Little Poison Can Be Good For You - The received wisdom about toxins and radiation may be all wet."

In 1990, University of Massachusetts public-health professor Ed Calabrese launched a hormesis revival by forming an international body to foster research on the phenomenon.

More recently, from UMass.edu, "UMass Amherst Researcher Edward Calabrese Receives Marie Curie Prize for Work on Hormesis, Low-Dose Radiation and Health:

AMHERST, Mass. – Edward Calabrese, a professor in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has been awarded the Marie Curie Prize for “outstanding achievements in research on the effects of low and very low doses of ionizing radiation on human health and biotopes.”

At an international conference this week at UMass Amherst, Andre Maisseu, president of the Paris-based World Council of Nuclear Workers, announced that Calabrese is the council’s 2009 Curie Prize winner. Maisseu saluted Calabrese during the annual meeting of the International Dose-Response Society, of which Calabrese, an environmental toxicologist, is a founder and current director. Maisseu said the prize recognizes an entire body of research that has improved scientific knowledge of low-dose ionizing radiation effects on human beings and biological communities. A formal award ceremony will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in September.

While Calabrese is the foremost expert in the world on a chemical dose-response phenomenon known as hormesis, he has done little dose-response work with ionizing radiation, he observes. However, he feels deeply honored by the council’s recognition. “I accept that I’m being given credit for bridging the gap between chemical hormesis and ionizing radiation,” he says, “and I do believe there is evidence to bridge it. What I have urged all along is for mainstream science to see hormesis as a basic biological principle.”

I suspect we're going to be hearing the term "hormesis" in the coming weeks and months in relation to radiation/Japan/the effect on the rest of the world.