All about hormesis (it’s not your nemesis)
Why introducing a little stressor can be good for your body
Key takeaways:
- Introducing a small amount of adversity into your daily routine can prime your body to adapt to greater challenges. This principle is called hormesis.
- The benefits of hormesis can be seen in aerobic exercises that train your heart and muscles.
- Other examples of hormesis include temperature therapy and foods that contain hormetin, a substance that provokes mild cellular stress responses in your body.
- You can apply the principle of hormesis to improve your mental agility by learning something new.
Remember when Kelly Clarkson used to sing ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’?
Our body often benefits from a ‘good’ kind of stressor. Simply put, a little bit of adversity is great for our tenacity.
Called hormesis, this phenomenon is the basis of many things we do to make our body stronger, fitter, and healthier. Think high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and muscle-building exercises, temperature therapy, eating antioxidant-rich vegetables, or mental exercises that maintain our neuroplasticity.
Get the lowdown here.
What is hormesis?
Hormesis is a biological principle that tells you that a little bit of stress can be good for the body.
By adding tiny amounts of the right kind of stress to your daily habits, your body will adapt and repair itself, becoming stronger and more resilient.
Bringing hormesis into your daily life
Here is a couple of practical examples to get you going.
HIIT it, don't quit it
If High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) exercises are your favourite method of calorie-torching, you have benefitted from hormesis. This is how hormesis fuelled by physical exercises can push your body in beneficial ways.
- It targets the heart.
These exercises rely on short bursts of intense activity that create moderate amounts of cardiovascular stress, pushing your heart to work harder and more efficiently.
- Then, it improves your oxygen delivery.
Intense, fast-moving exercises use up oxygen rapidly, prompting your body to create new microscopic blood vessels called capillaries to better deliver oxygenated blood to your body.
- Your cellular system gets a wake-up call.
This brief but intense stressor triggers the genes responsible for survival and repair in your body.
- It’s time for maintenance mode.
During recovery, micro-tears in your muscle fibers are repaired, helping you build thicker and stronger muscles.
- Ready to ‘lock in’? Make it a routine.
A single workout session may not make a lasting difference, as your body will ultimately revert to its baseline state. To get the most out of your moves, aim to work towards 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity per week, and pair it with muscle-strengthening activities at least twice a week.
Want to learn more about how to make the most of your high-intensity workouts? Check out this article.
Heat up, cool down
Exposing your body to intense temperatures via a cold or hot therapy throws your internal environment briefly off-balance. This triggers your body’s survival instinct. In response, the genes that prime your body to be stronger and more resilient kick into action.
- Brown fats, assemble!
Thermal stress nudges your body to crank up the production of brown fats. Don’t let the word ‘fats’ scare you — brown fats are the good guys that help burn calories and enhance your metabolic efficiency.
Waking up your brown fats
Under thermal stress, your body increases the production of brown fats. They are the ‘good guys’ who maintain your body’s temperature while boosting your metabolic rate.
- Say hello to cold-shock proteins.
The shock generated by a cold immersion releases proteins like the RNA-binding motif protein 3 (RBM3) is potentially beneficial for repairing damaged muscle structures.
- A refreshing reset.
The cold dip activates the sympathetic nervous system responsible for action and alertness. Following it up with a hot bath reactivates your parasympathetic nervous system, creating a rebound sensation that eases your body and leaves your muscles feeling recharged.
Take a dive into temperature therapy via this article.
Befriend your vegetable frenemy
Would you eat something toxic on purpose? The answer is most certainly a big “nope!”. But studies found that some fruits and vegetables produce mild toxins. The twist? They are responsible for triggering a moderate stress response that benefits the body.
- Friend or foe?
Called hormetins, this substance is present in your favourite natural foods. You can think of them as the ‘frenemy’ who gives your body tough love so you can get stronger and better.
Go for the greens
You can think of hormetins as the ‘frenemy’ who gives your body tough love so you can get stronger and better. You will find it in apples, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and fermented vegetables.
- Let’s meet the usual suspects.
Common examples of hormetins include quercetin in apples, catechins in green tea, and sulforaphane in broccolis and Brussels sprouts.
- It activates your body’s defenses.
By triggering cellular stress response pathways in your body, these mild toxins help your body to reduce inflammation, handle oxidative stress, and potentially decrease the risk of chronic diseases.
Want to know the absolute rock stars of leafy greens when it comes to supercharging your health? Get the details here.
Give your mental muscles a big stretch
Your biceps are not the only muscles that would benefit from toughening up. ‘Gym time’ for your brain can be as simple as learning something out of your comfort zone that will push the little grey cellsin your brain to reorganise, change, and adapt, a ‘superpower’ called neuroplasticity.
So plastic, it's fantastic!
Yes, altering your brain's neutral pathways is not a stuff out of science fiction! By learning something new, you rewire your brain, allowing your neurons to form fresh connections and reinforce existing ones.
Choose something moderately challenging that allows your brain to stretch itself, and sustain the practice with focus to make those changes stick.
- Make it a fun mission.
Training your brain doesn’t have to feel like a chore. Quite the opposite, embarking on a new learning adventure is an opportunity to re-engage with your passions or topics you have always wanted to learn more about.
- Art, language, or tech, anything is possible.
If you love wandering through the National Gallery, take a fun course in art history or an art-jamming session with your SG Culture Pass. Love bingeing romantic K-dramas or Thai comedies? Learn the language with an app in your pocket.
- Get into coding.
If you have a knack for designing blogs or an e-commerce hobby, learning how to code will unlock a whole new world of skills and opportunities. Are you a beginner who loves to absorb new skills the unorthodox way? Try your hands at vibe-coding.
For more cerebral challenges to set your brain galloping, check out our recommendations.
Lastly, challenge your fears
Maybe you have a fear of heights you want to conquer. An absolute fear for deep water. Perhaps you draw your comfort from familiar places, and hate the chaos of airports and travelling to new cities. It’s natural to have aversions for things that make you feel uncomfortable, but you don’t have to turn your harmless fears into your lifelong nemesis.
- Taking gradual steps.
To conquer your fears could pay off in many ways. You may find out that you enjoy the activity you used to dread as a child (be it swimming, travelling, or rock-climbing). This, in turn, can lead to a rewarding variety in your daily routine and help you strike new friendships.
- Start small, go slow.
If swimming as a child used to make you fall sick, taking a dip in a pool for just 20 minutes a week when you feel well-rested could do just the trick. If climbing a mountain sounds like a herculean challenge, a weekend of bouldering with friends can give you a taste of just how thrilling it could be to defy the heights.
- Remember, you are in control
When you adopt a small dose of stress or adversity, you have the comfort of knowing that the choice is entirely yours. You can set the pace or drop an activity when it all gets too much.
If you used to feel jittery about travelling somewhere new, let these travel trends show you that there is more than one way of exploring the world, even for book-loving introverts!
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