Hormesis, allostatic buffering capacity and physiological mechanism of physical activity: A new theoretic framework

Despite great progress made in sports medicine, the physiological mechanism of moderate physical activity-induced physical fitness remains only partly understood. Combined with the hormetic characteristic of physical activity and property of allostasis, we first propose the hormesis induced allostatic buffering capacity enhancement as a physiological mechanism to explain the moderate physical activity-induced physical fitness. As stressful stimulus, physical activity can induce several stresses in the host, including eustress ('good stress') and distress ('bad stress'), which may have both positive and negative effects. Too little or too much physical activities will introduce too weak eustress or too strong distress and result in allostasis load through weakening allostatic buffering capacity or damaging allostatic buffering capacity respectively. However, moderate physical activities will introduce eustress and contribute to the hormesis induced allostatic buffering capacity enhancement, which benefits organism. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.