[Geroprotectors: specific action or hormesis?].

In recent years, a number of nutrients and chemicals including antioxidants, vitamins, and hormones are widely advertised as "anti-aging" drugs ("geroprotectors"). It is usually believed that life-extending capacity of geroprotectors may be attributed to their specific anti-aging mechanisms, even without solid scientific evidence. Induction of the hormetic adaptive response in stressed organisms could be alternative explanation. The evidence that life-extending effects of anti-aging drugs may be due to hormetic-like response is discussed in this analytic review.