Name: True or False: What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger?
Uploaded: 2026-01-26T17:14:15.000Z
Duration: 3 min 36 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Adverbs of degree

Last week I got an email that I almost overlooked.

It said, Dear Life Noggin, can very bad things be good for you?

I almost disregarded the question because, well, avoiding dangerous elements like radiation or toxins seems like a no brainer.

Those things could cause some serious damage or even kill ya.

But according to one theory, it's not as black and white as it seems.

And in some cases, if you are given a small enough amount of something that's typically considered harmful, you may insist instead see some health benefits.

One second, I'm just getting a note from the Life Noggin lawyers.

Do not try ingesting or purposely doing anything that can cause you harm or kill you.

Oh, so blocko is really cool and smart and buff.

So could bad things potentially help you?

It's been around for quite some time with the concept originating from the 16th century.

Since then, scientists have identified a variety of stressors that can cause an adverse reaction at high doses, but

These include things like exercise, dieting, heat, various chemicals like toxins, restricting blood flow and even radiation.

While each works in a slightly different way, in general they cause mild stress on the cells by producing free radicals, moving molecul in or out of our cells and increasing the demand for energy in response.

Protective stress resistant proteins are made like antioxidants.

For example, exercise puts a lot of stress on your cells, like starving them of oxygen and depressing the immune system, but

the cells adapt and develop a more efficient defense system.

However, if you exercise too hard or often, it can cause overuse injuries and decrease your immune system.

There are a number of other possible stressors currently being evaluated for medical applications.

The most widely studied is ischemic preconditioning.

This is when blood flow to a certain organ or tissue is restricted for a short period of time.

Some evidence suggests that this will allow the body to build up a tolerance to it before it occurs naturally and causes a serious injury to an organ like the heart or brain.

But so far, clinical studies have had mixed results and the mechanism is still poorly understood.

Some cellular studies have found that low doses of radiation can create a positive effect, with one rodent study resulting in a delay of the onset of cancer.

But others have found that there is no effect or that it prevented DNA repair.

So yeah, there's a lot to still figure out there.

Clearly a lot of work still needs to be done to fully understand this process and determine whether or not it can be applied medically.

I definitely don't want to be the test subject for any of these though.

So maybe for now the saying should go what doesn't kill you might make you stronger.

So what's one bad thing you still cling to?

Let me know in the comment section below only if you feel comfortable doing so.

Also click like and subscribe because it really helps this channel grow.

Click here to watch this video we did on the Secrets Hidden in youn DNA.

Thanks to Lifespan, the team that powers Life Noggin.

Check out the great work they do down in the description.