The word hormesis is getting a lot of press these days in the preventive health world. People are throwing it around as if it’s some new scientific finding that can make you healthier when nature has been doing it for millennia. And while there are more complex clinical definitions, at its core hormesis means the reaction of your body to small or moderate levels of stress to heal and become stronger and healthier. It is the miraculous core of the recovery process I’ve written about. A perfect example is exercise, whether aerobic or strength. You tax your body more than it is used to, and this promotes a reaction that heals the slightly damaged body parts.

But there is more, a giant bonus: Taxing your body “heals” those parts slightly stronger and more efficient than they were before. And whether it’s your heart, lungs, muscles, or any other part of you, hormesis is healing, regenerating, and rebuilding. It is making what was stressed or slightly damaged stronger in the recovery process. As such, it is the core process of all preventive health.

To put this in context, imagine taking your car to the mechanic to be fixed, and it comes back with stronger parts, more horsepower, and increased fuel efficiency. And all this was done for free! Nature does this for you every day, and it can be encouraged to do even more if you work at it, doing all the things I’ve written about in these pages, such as stretching, aerobics, yoga, what and when to eat, sleeping well, strength training, and High Intensity Interval Training. We take this process for granted, but it’s time we started noticing just how wonderful it is.

Hormesis is also the core process of evolution and is inextricably woven into the way nature works. Our march through history was guided by countless slight improvements and new capabilities to meet the challenges that our evolutionary ancestors faced. Imagine the extreme effort involved to hunt a mammoth or walk great distances or chop down trees with a stone axe to build a shelter. Hormesis is captured in that old phrase “whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

How Does It Work?

Short-term inflammation is intricately woven into our bodies’ process. Stress or damage starts the inflammatory process, which then mobilizes the immune system and its countless cellular and hormonal allies to remove the damaged cells and replace them with more cells or stronger ones. Hormesis catalyzes and accelerates the regeneration of old tissue into new and stronger tissue. It has the same effect on bodily processes, increasing the efficiency of metabolism and oxygen transport in cells and lungs, for example, as the result of aerobic exercise. The reason I am tired when recovering from a workout is because my body’s energy immediately begins to focus on healing, recovery, and becoming stronger.

Without the stimulus to cause hormesis to happen, that is, without moving enough, this regeneration doesn’t happen. The process needs the stress of slightly taxing whichever part or system is involved (for example, muscles or joints) to make it work. In other words, it doesn’t happen by just sitting around. In fact, the opposite happens. Our various systems and body parts degenerate as opposed to regenerate, and long-term chronic inflammation sets in instead of the regenerative and healing that happens in hormesis.

 What Happens When We Get Older?

Our ability to regenerate becomes weaker with age. This is why, if I am to maintain mobility and overall health in later life, I need to move more than I used to, and I need to incorporate other hormetic practices into my life. Some of these are breathing exercises that lower my blood oxygen (thereby improving oxygen transport into the cells and boosting the immune system) and my morning routine, which kickstarts hormesis for me every day. In addition, intermittent fasting for 12 hours or more a day is also a hormetic practice, because the mild calorie deprivation causes my body to use the food it has more efficiently and to stimulate better immune function. This vital healing process has become a way of life for me in these later years, and I seek it in almost everything I do. It is what keeps my bodily systems tuned up and efficient, my muscles strong, my joints flexible.

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) workouts are hormesis on steroids. This intense physical training stresses the system more than lower-level Zone 2 exercises, replicating the adrenaline-driven fight or flight reactions our ancestors faced when confronted by danger and, therefore, requires longer recovery periods.

A lot of people are promoting “hacks” to accelerate hormesis and boost its powers. I would be wary of these, especially if they are promoting supplements or other products that cost money. The real miracle cure already exists within you and can be easily accessed with movement and diet. Plus, time-honored practices involving temperature extremes, like saunas and cold baths, can also be useful, and they are fun to do with others.

So, it doesn’t matter what you call it: hormesis or recovery or healing or improving aerobic capacity or simply getting stronger. The important thing is that you feel it and experience it, find ways to cause it to work for you, and make it a big part of your life. It is the ultimate road to preventive health and well-being, especially in your later years. It’s nature’s miracle healer, and it’s free!