Hormetic Stress: Why This “Good Stress” Is Key For Enhancing Longevity + Building Resilience From The Inside Out

I talk a lot about stress in my telehealth functional medicine clinic. It is often the driving force behind chronic illness and plays as big of a role, if not more, than diet. However, not all stress is bad stress. While that seems contradictory, the type of stressor and the amount of time you are exposed to it are the biggest factors that make some stress “good” and some stress “bad”.

Known as hormetic stress, this type of stress can actually build long-term resilience that has been connected to enhanced wellbeing and longevity. But what exactly is hormetic stress, what are the benefits of hormetic stress for longevity and lifespan, and how much is too much? Let’s dive in.

Understanding hormetic stress

Also known as hormesis, hormetic stress is a process in which you expose yourself to small amounts of controlled stressors in order to promote beneficial changes in your body. Ultimately, hormetic stress works by activating your body’s natural defense and cellular repair systems through low-dose stressors, prompting cells to become more resilient to mild stress and better equipped to handle future challenges. Rather than causing damage, these short periods of manageable stressors act as a signal to your body to initiate a healthy stress response to adapt and grow stronger.

Hormetic stress is the perfect example of the goldilocks principle at work — not too much and not too little. You are challenging your body just enough outside of its comfort zone to trigger adaptive responses that make it stronger without going overboard. For instance, even though exercise is difficult, it grows strong muscles. However, too much creates burnout and injury, yet without it you can become lethargic. It’s all about balance!

What are examples of hormetic stress?

Hormetic stress can take on two forms — physical and mental. Things like exercise, cold plunges, and saunas are great examples where your body is exposed to external physical stressors. Whereas non-physical types of hormetic stress are often mental in nature like engaging in cross-word puzzles, reading a map/navigating a new place, or solving math problems.

One clarification I have though when it comes to mental-related hormetic stress, is that it is not referring to emotional stress from toxic relationships, grief, or trauma. Oftentimes these factors are overwhelmingly emotional in nature and go on past the point of being beneficial. This is the type of “bad” stress that I see with my patients that can result in chronic health problems. All of this to say, don’t go searching for drama in the name of hormetic stress!

READ MORE: The Science Behind How Toxic Relationships Affect Your Mental Health

The link between hormetic stress + longevity

Hormetic stress and its link to longevity is fascinating because it activates many of the same pathways associated with healthy aging. Chronic inflammation, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, and the accumulation of damaged proteins are all considered hallmarks of age-related decline. But studies have found when your body encounters mild stressors it responds by stimulating autophagy to improve mitochondrial function and enhance antioxidant defenses — all mechanisms that work to mitigate these key hallmarks of aging. 

And the research doesn’t stop there. Not only has hormetic stress been shown to enhance both cognitive function and cardiovascular health, it continues to play a role in age-related studies, specifically for its ability to help prevent Alzheimer’s and dementia! (1) Even though we can’t stop aging altogether, we can strategically incorporate hormetic stress into our lives and a way to optimize, and possibly even, slow down the aging process.

Ways to incorporate hormetic stress into your life

Thankfully, hormesis isn’t something that you have to work very hard at. There are many ways to add a dose of hormetic stress into your life that don’t involve changing up your entire lifestyle. Whether you want to start a new daily ritual or add a few new things into your diet, these are my favorite ways to add some good stress into your life.

1. Change temperatures

Exposing your body to each end of the temperature spectrum, including heat stress and deliberate cold exposure, is a fantastic way to induce hormesis. Whether you enjoy a sauna session, cold plunge, or both, your body is forced to deal with the stress of extreme heat or extreme cold for a prolonged period of time. In fact, studies show that both infrared saunas and cold therapy can alleviate inflammatory markers in your body like IL-6. (2,3) 

And if you don’t have a cold plunge, don’t worry. Even everyday things like cold showers and ice packs are also considered forms of cold therapy as they still work to lower your body temperature as a whole or in a targeted area.

2. Try HIIT

Any type of regular exercise can promote hormesis and autophagy, but high-intensity interval training is one of my personal favorites. (4) Through short, intense bursts of intense activity your muscles are deprived of oxygen. This may seem like a negative thing, but when this happens, it encourages mitochondrial biogenesis (the production of mitochondria), autophagy, and antioxidant defense. (5,6,7)

It’s also important to note that proper hydration is vital to make sure your cells fully reap the benefits of your activity. People are finally starting to understand the importance of electrolytes but there are way too many that contain unnecessary sugar. However, my Longevity RX Cellular Hydration sticks are engineered for optimal cellular hydration and performance and are the only leading brand with a balanced 1:1 ratio of sodium to potassium to support your body’s ideal electrolyte balance. 

3. Practice intermittent fasting

Intermittent fasting is one of my favorite types of hormetic stress for its ability to trigger autophagy. When you restrict your windows of eating, it signals to your body that nutrients are scarce. When this happens, your body responds by using existing cellular resources — reusing the helpful parts of the cell and cleaning out the potential harmful parts like damaged proteins and organelles (that contribute to various cancers, cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative disorders, and other age-related health problems). 

If you are new to intermittent fasting, I suggest starting off with the 8-6 window plan where you eat between the hours of 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. Doing this allows you to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner while still getting in 14 hours of uninterrupted fasting time, most of which is when you are sleeping. For a complete guide to intermittent fasting, check out my article here.

4. Eat more plant foods

While eating more vegetables doesn’t seem stressful (at least to some people) it is actually a sneaky hack to activate hormesis. Known as xenohormesis, this principle explains that plants that are exposed to more stress in their environments can actually transfer those stress resistant beneficial effects to animals and people that consume them. (8) Some of my favorite phytonutrient-rich nutrients and foods include:

• Curcumin from turmeric
• Quercetin from green tea
• Glucosinolates from broccoli sprouts
• Resveratrol from grapes

You can also target your supplements to get even more of these beneficial phytonutrients into your diet. I specifically formulated Liv120 with Longevity RX to create the world’s first cellular superfood containing the full spectrum of health-promoting colors, including red ginseng, black currant, purple acai, blue turmeric, green matcha, orange reishi, yellow astragalus, white soursop to power your body’s longevity pathways and mitochondrial energy. It comes in a yummy pomegranate goji berry flavor for a refreshing afternoon pick-me-up.

5. Start a breathwork routine

Specific breathwork routines can be incorporated into your daily routine even easier than a workout session yet have just as powerful hormetic health benefits. Experiencing intermittent hypoxia — where your body alternates between periods of low oxygen and normal oxygen levels — through different techniques like the Wim Hof method and box breathing has been shown to have powerful organ protective qualities by reducing oxidative stress, lowering inflammation, and enhancing apoptosis, your body’s way of getting rid of damaged cells. (9)

LISTEN: Ashley Neese: Breathwork Benefits, Body Budget & Why You Need To Rest

Things to consider

The phrase “too much of a good thing” still applies to good stress. It is possible to take hormetic stressors too far. For example, exercising without any rest can actually put your body in a state of chronic inflammation. Even your threshold for stress can be different than someone else’s. So take note of your lifestyle and whether or not you are already in a state of heightened stress and choose how you incorporate hormetic stressors into your life accordingly.

The takeaway

When it comes to stress, balance is key. It’s easy to talk about the negative effects of stress and forget about the nuance that often comes with various health hot topics. Short-periods of deliberate stress affect your body in a completely different way than negative, chronic stress. In my telehealth functional medicine clinic, we help you uncover and cut out negative stressors so you can start incorporating the right kind of stress into your life for enhanced overall wellness and longevity.

As one of the first functional medicine telehealth clinics in the world, we provide webcam health consultationsfor people around the globe. 

Photo: Unsplash.com

Sources

• Mao, L., & Franke, J. (2013). Hormesis in aging and neurodegeneration-a prodigy awaiting dissection. International journal of molecular sciences, 14(7), 13109–13128. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms140713109
• Laukkanen, J. A., & Laukkanen, T. (2018). Sauna bathing and systemic inflammation. European journal of epidemiology, 33(3), 351–353. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-017-0335-y
• Bleakley, C. M., Bieuzen, F., Davison, G. W., & Costello, J. T. (2014). Whole-body cryotherapy: empirical evidence and theoretical perspectives. Open access journal of sports medicine, 5, 25–36. https://doi.org/10.2147/OAJSM.S41655
• Mooren, F. C., & Krüger, K. (2015). Exercise, Autophagy, and Apoptosis. Progress in molecular biology and translational science, 135, 407–422. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.pmbts.2015.07.023
• Jahangiri, M., Shahrbanian, S., & Gharakhanlou, R. (2025). High intensity interval training alters gene expression linked to mitochondrial biogenesis and dynamics in high fat diet fed rats. Scientific reports, 15(1), 5442. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-86767-5
• Escobar, K. A., Welch, A. M., Wells, A., Fennel, Z., Nava, R., Li, Z., et al. (2021). Autophagy response to acute high-intensity interval training and moderate-intensity continuous training is dissimilar in skeletal muscle and peripheral blood mononuclear cells and is influenced by sex. Human Nutrition & Metabolism, 23, 200118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hnm.2020.200118
• Clemente-Suárez, V. J., Bustamante-Sanchez, Á., Mielgo-Ayuso, J., Martínez-Guardado, I., Martín-Rodríguez, A., & Tornero-Aguilera, J. F. (2023). Antioxidants and Sports Performance. Nutrients, 15(10), 2371. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15102371
• Hooper, P. L., Hooper, P. L., Tytell, M., & Vígh, L. (2010). Xenohormesis: health benefits from an eon of plant stress response evolution. Cell stress & chaperones, 15(6), 761–770. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12192-010-0206-x
• Zhang Q, Zhao W, Li S, Ding Y, Wang Y, Ji X. Intermittent Hypoxia Conditioning: A Potential Multi-Organ Protective Therapeutic Strategy. Int J Med Sci 2023; 20(12):1551-1561. doi:10.7150/ijms.86622. https://www.medsci.org/v20p1551.htm