Radio-Resistance in Mice Previously Exposed to Hormetic Levels

We are aware that inoculations strengthen the immune system by mildly stressing it and causing antibodies to arise that fight any further intrusion of a similar type of invader. In effect, vaccinations are examples of hormesis: Small doses of poison are stimulatory. The poison in this case is a virus, not an inorganic toxin. Hans Seyle (chapter 4) doesn't care what it is. As long as it stresses the host organism, it starts an alarm reaction that stimulates a defense mechanism.

If radiation hormesis is a valid concept, we might expect small doses of radiation to ward off the bio-negative effects of higher doses - obviously not through the creation of antibodies but by some currently unknown mechanism. Figure 11 illustrates just such a phenomenon.

In this 1990 experiment by M. Yonezawa et al. [Yonezawa, M., Takeda, A., and Misonoh, J. Acquired radioresistance after low-dose x-irradiation in mice. Journal of Radiation Research, 31, 256, 1990], mice were irradiated with a low dose of X-rays (50 cGy or 50,000 mrad) two weeks before a second potentially lethal dose of 740 cGy (740,000 mrad). The survival rates of the irradiated group were compared with the unexposed controls. There isn't much question as to which mouse group I'd want to line up with on "innoculation day."

Table 8 (in chapter 8 - or see below) shows the dose-response for humans is similar to that which Yonezawa finds for mice - at 700 mrem, we're both dead or close to it. Would humans have a similar radio-resistance response? We don't know and aren't likely to until the knee-jerk reaction to anything nuclear is abated by scrapping the LNT. If I were a nuclear worker - involved in changing fuel elements where high-level (but so far, nonfatal) accidents have occurred, or an astronaut potentially subjected to a cosmic radiation barrage, or perhaps a soldier with the potential for high-level exposure from a neutron bomb, I think I'd want someone to look into the radio-resistance phenomenon who wasn't committed to the LNT hypothesis and likely to state at the outset, "All radiation is harmful - and it's our job to keep you from having any."

Table 8 – Acute Radiation Syndrome
Subclinical Range 0 – 100 rads		Therapeutic Range 100 – 500 rads			Lethal Range 500+ rads
		100 – 200	200 – 300	300 – 500	500 – 2000	2000+
Appropriate Action	None	Clinical surveillance	Therapy effective	Therapy promising	Therapy palliative (comfort patient only)
Incidence of Vomiting	None	100 rads: 5% 200 rads: 50%	75%	75%	100%	100%
Delay Time	n/a	3 hours	2 hours	1 hour	3 min.	3 min.
Main Organs Affected	None	Blood Forming Tissue			Gastro-intestinal Tract	Central Nervous System
Characteristic Signs	None	White Blood Cell Decrease	Fatigue, infection, erythema, sterilization, loss of hair above 300 rads, hemorrhage		Diarrhea, fever, electrolyte imbalance, bleeding	Convulsion, coma, loss of muscle control, lethargy, tremors
Critical Period	n/a	n/a	4 – 6 weeks		5 – 14 days	1 – 48 hours
Post-exposure Therapy	Assure of Safety	Blood analysis; assure of safety	Blood transfusion; anti-biotics	Possible bone marrow transplant	Maintain electrolyte balance	Sedatives
Outlook	Excellent	Excellent	Good	Guarded	Hopeless	Hopeless
Convalescent Period	None	Several weeks	1 – 2 months	Long	n/a	n/a
Death Rate	None	None	0% - 40%	40% - 100%	90% - 100%	100%
Death Within	n/a	n/a	2 – 4 weeks		2 weeks	2 days
Cause of Death	n/a	n/a	Hemorrhage, infection		Dehydration	Respiratory failure; heart attack

Hormesis - Grasping the Concept

The dose makes the poison. - Tenet of Pharmacology

Hormesis derives from the Greek hormo, meaning "I excite," from which we also get the word hormone. While of classic origin, hormesis has only recently found its way into many dictionaries and seems to have had its first modern usage by C.M. Southam and J. Erlich in a 1943 study of fungi reported in an unpronounceable scientific journal. [OK, you try it: Phytopathology. The full citation is "Effects of extract of western red cedar heartwood on certain wood decaying fungi in culture," Vol. 33, p. 517, 1943.] The word refers to a phenomenon stated by the "Arndt-Schulz" Law:

Small doses of poison are stimulatory.

Rudolf Arndt (a psychiatrist) and Hugo Schulz (a pharmacologist) were nineteenth-century German researchers who diluted poisons to the point that they were not only no longer poisonous, but had a positive effect on the growth and reproductive rates of yeast. For example, when mercury chloride is diluted by a factor of 700,000, it becomes a stimulant for bacterial growth instead of an extremely potent germicide. Arsenious acid, poisonous to bacteria in normal concentrations, showed a positive effect when diluted by 40,000 times its volume. The Arndt-Schulz team demonstrated that their principle was - or at least appears to be - universal, with regard to the dilution of inorganic toxins.

While Arndt-Schulz seem to be the first to quantify the "low-dose" effect of chemical poisons, the phenomenon had been described earlier by Bernard in Repair Strengthens Tissue (1867), by Hahnemann in Homeopathic Medicine (1810), and even earlier by a Swiss physician and chemist, Philippus Aureolus Paracelsus, in The Dose is Everything (1520). [His real name was Thophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim. (Somehow I think I could have come up with an easier no de plume.) Aside from his work in chemistry, he is credited with being the first to point out the relation between goiter in the parent and cretinism in the child.]

A relatively modern work on the subject, The General Adaptive Syndrome, was written by Nobel Laureate Hans Seyle in 1944. While he identified many agents that increased the resistance of the host to disease, his primary emphasis was on the effects of stress - both the excessive mind-destroying stress of battle and his observation that little is accomplished by humans unless there is some minimal amount of stress-stimulation in their lives. Seyle's contention was that minute doses of the hormetin (the hormetic or stimulatory agent) start and alarm reaction, small doses induce the stage of resistance, and still larger doses bring about a stage of exhaustion in which the organism is no longer able to cope with the stressing agent. X-rays were one of the stress agents he often mentioned. [In describing his experiments, Seyle remarked, "I could find no noxious agent that did not elicit the syndrome" - meaning, of course, the "reverse effect."]

Walter A. Heiby shows numerous examples of low-dose stimulation - and the problem of over-stimulation - in his 1988 book, The Reverse Effect: How Vitamins and Minerals Promote Health and CAUSE Disease. [MediScience Publishers, Dearfield, Ill., 1988. Available for $59.50 from MediScience Publishers, Box 256A, Dearfield, IL 60015.] As you may have already deduced, his term for hormesis is "the reverse effect," expressing the change in response due to different levels of the same stimulant.

Prior to Southam and Erlich's use of the word hormesis in 1943 and Luckey's subsequent popularization of the term in his 1980 and 1991 books, another even worse tongue-torturer was used to characterize the phenomena: hormoligosis - which better defines the action of a small dose from the Greek olig meaning small or few, as in oligarchy.