Intermittent living; the use of ancient challenges as a vaccine against the deleterious effects of modern life – A hypothesis

Abstract

Chronic non-communicable diseases (CNCD) are the leading cause of mortality in developed countries. They ensue from the sum of modern anthropogenic risk factors, including high calorie nutrition, malnutrition, sedentary lifestyle, social stress, environmental toxins, politics and economic factors. Many of these factors are beyond the span of control of individuals, suggesting that CNCD are inevitable. However, various studies, ours included, show that the use of intermittent challenges with hormetic effects improve subjective and objective wellbeing of individuals with CNCD, while having favourable effects on immunological, metabolic and behavioural indices. Intermittent cold, heat, fasting and hypoxia, together with phytochemicals in multiple food products, have widespread influence on many pathways related with overall health. Until recently, most of the employed challenges with hormetic effects belonged to the usual transient live experiences of our ancestors. Our hypothesis; we conclude that, whereas the total inflammatory load of multi-metabolic and psychological risk factors causes low grade inflammation and aging, the use of intermittent challenges, united in a 7-10 days lasting hormetic intervention, might serve as a vaccine against the deleterious effects of chronic low grade inflammation and it's metabolic and (premature) aging consequences.

A Review of the Science of Colorful, Plant-Based Food and Practical Strategies for “Eating the Rainbow”

“…Botanical diversity and food variety are relevant topics in the field of phytonutrients. In a recent review, Pruimboom and Muskiet [38] discussed the disparity between the plant diversity of Homo sapiens' diet of over 135,00 years ago at over 3000 species compared to the modern-day diet of which 400 plant species are gathered, but only more than 100 are utilized for food. Research suggests that greater variety of fruits and vegetables may have more significant impact on health markers like blood pressure, oxidative damage, and risk of falls than a less-varied diet [39][40][41][42].…”

Action-Shapers and Their Neuro-Immunological Foundations

“…In other words, such processes naturally self-terminate (Edwards and Guilliams, 2010;Dhabhar et al, 2012;Balta et al, 2017). However, due to the fact that our bodies have evolved in an environment with a different evolutionary fit than they inhabit now, neuro-immunological processes that were intended to self-terminate may be inadvertently trapped in a self-sustaining loop (Zilberter and Zilberter, 2017;Freeman et al, 2018;Pruimboom and Muskiet, 2018).…”

“…For instance, as members of certain religious traditions (e.g., Buddhism), military traditions (e.g., special forces) and sportstraining traditions (e.g., long distance running) have long known the positive effects of meditation (Hoge et al, 2018;Tolahunase et al, 2018), intermittent fasting and short term exposure to cold or hot temperatures (Mattson, 2014). By themselves and combined they have shown to improve cognitive functions and resilience to stress, decrease inflammatory markers in the blood, and aid metabolic flexibility, cell growth and hence muscle regeneration (Mattson, 2015;Freese et al, 2017;Mattson et al, 2018;Pruimboom and Muskiet, 2018). All these factors add up in feeling energetic and being ready to act.…”

Modeling of Molecular Mechanisms of Radiation Adaptive Response Formation

“…Феномен адаптивної відповіді в якійсь мірі можна порівнювати з ефектом вакцинації, коли контакт з малими дозами збудника (бактерій, вірусів) не викликає патологічного процесу, а індукує стимуляцію імунітету і стійкість до високих доз відповідного збудника [25][26][27].…”