Take a look at the works of Mikhail Blagosklonny. His view of aging and hormesis is just what you describe. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3249451/

(I'm not endorsing this view - I believe aging is programmed, largely based on the fact that genes for aging have been conserved since the dawn of eukaryotic life, i.e., cells that have a cell nucleus.)