The Energy Resistance Principle

Living organisms are physical-energetic systems that must obey simple principles guiding energy transformation across physical and temporal scales. The Energy Resistance Principle (ERP) accounts for the behavior and transformation of energy in the wet, carbon-based circuitry of biology. We show how energy resistance (éR) is the fundamental property that enables transformation, converting the unformed energy potential of food into useful work to counteract entropy and sustain life. But excessive éR leads to dissipative loss and bioenergetic inefficiency, reductive and oxidative stress, inflammation, molecular damage, and information loss. Thus, the hallmarks of disease and aging naturally arise from éR. The ERP shows how too much of a good thing becomes deleterious. Disease-causing stressors elevate éR, whereas sleep, exercise, and restorative interventions that promote healing minimize éR. The ERP is a general framework for discovering the modifiable bioenergetic forces that shape development, aging, and the dynamic health-disease continuum.