Tag: hormesis

Health & Fitness

Acupuncture: A type of hormesis?

  In working on the poster and exploring alternative models for acupuncture effectiveness for the “Discussion” section, I came across this article as cited in “Getting Stronger,” a blog devoted to hormesis. Interesting stuff. “External stressor-induced initial changes in the level of controlled variables are first detected by these molecular sensors. The signal is then…

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Medical Research

Moxibustion and Immune Function

What follows are two studies on moxibustion and immune function.  I have become particularly interested in moxibustion because 1) Moxibustion may operate on a different biological model instead of electrical activity. 2) Moxibustion is a therapy that patients can do on their own at home. Zhongguo Zhen Jiu. 2013 May;33(5):415-8. [Impacts of moxibustion on erythrocyte…

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Ethics in Medicine

Why Bacteria are Your Friends

I majored in Biochemistry in college and spent a year before Medical School working in the lab of Dr. Daniel Koshland.  He was a great scientist and a wonderful man.  After a 3 month trip to India, I was telling him and the group about my adventures, and how I had gotten sick at each…

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Ethics in Medicine

Hormesis: Benefits of Low Dose Stressors

One strategy in my mission to improve  acupuncture results is to find models in nature that explain why humans would have evolved to respond to acupuncture.  What is it mimicking in nature that makes it have it’s healing properties?  For example, is it an analog of grooming, or touch? I came across the concept of…

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