What Is Cortisol?

What Is Cortisol? Understanding Your Body's Stress Hormone

In shot, Cortisol is a hormone produced by your bodies adrenal glands. The adrenal glands are two import glands just above your kidneys that produce Cortisol, aldosterone, and adrenaline. Cortisol is often called the "stress hormone" but it actually plays a lot of important jobs in the body. 

But What Is Cortisol? 

Ok, Ok, the introduction above is what you read whenever you google, "what is cortisol", But if cortisol was nothing more than a bad thing, why would your body bother producing it?

The truth is, it isn't quite that black and white.

While cortisol is often painted as the villain, it's actually one of the body's most important hormones. Without it, we simply wouldn't function properly.

What has it ever done for me? 

Well, your Cortisol level should be highest when you wake up, this elevated level of Cortisol helps to ensure you have energy for the day ahead, It also helps to regulate your blood pressure and heart rate, reduce inflammation, and is essential to your fight or flight response. Cortisol is released to maintain this level of alertness in stressful or dangerous situations and can also be used to release glucose from the liver, providing that instant hit of energy to help get yourself out of danger. 

Cortisol helps to:

  • Wake you up in the morning.
  • Maintain healthy blood pressure.
  • Regulate blood sugar.
  • Support your immune response.
  • Reduce inflammation when needed.
  • Help your body respond to stressful situations.
  • Release energy quickly during your fight-or-flight response.

So is Cortisol bad?

No. Cortisol is not bad, too much of it can be a problem, too little can also be a problem. Like all things balance is key (I promise I am not a giant purple being with a flashy gold glove).  

Cortisol isn't the enemy. Understanding what it does is the first step to understanding your body's response to stress.

What causes Cortisol to rise?

Our bodies are incredibly interconnected. Sleep, stress, illness, exercise, diet and even caffeine can all influence cortisol levels. Some of these increases are completely normal, while others may happen if we're under prolonged stress.

  • Stress
  • Poor sleep
  • Illness
  • Exercise
  • Caffeine
  • Pain
  • Anxiety

Signs your cortisol may be elevated:

Persistent stress and elevated cortisol can sometimes be associated with:

  • Poor sleep
  • Feeling wired
  • Irritability
  • Difficulty relaxing
  • Muscle tension
  • Fatigue

Cortisol has gained quite the reputation online, but should you actually have your levels tested? We've put together a simple guide explaining when cortisol testing is useful, how it works and why, for most people, understanding cortisol is often more valuable than measuring it. Check out our article about checking Cortisol Levels here. 

 

Cushing's Syndrome:

Cushing's syndrome is a relatively rare medical condition caused by the body being exposed to unusually high levels of cortisol for a prolonged period. This can happen if the body produces too much cortisol on its own or as a side effect of taking corticosteroid medications over a long period. Symptoms may include rapid weight gain, particularly around the face and abdomen, a fatty hump between the shoulders, thinning skin that bruises easily, muscle weakness and high blood pressure. If a doctor suspects Cushing's syndrome based on your symptoms, they may recommend cortisol testing to help with diagnosis.

 

How can we support healthy cortisol levels:

There are a number of ways we can support our Cortisol levels. On this page we will simply give them as bullet points, but each point will have a link into more in-depth articles to prevent this from being to long.  

Better Sleep: Visit the sleep hub!

Deep Pressure Simulation: Visit DPS Blog

Breathing Techniques: Visit Instant Relief

Healthy Habits: Visit Habit Stacking

A balanced diet can also support your overall wellbeing. Foods that contain fibre, omega-3 fats and fermented ingredients may contribute to healthy eating patterns, while limiting excessive refined sugar and late-day caffeine may help some people feel more balanced.

Want to know more?

We will continue to bring you more in depth reading and support, as follows are other articles we are working on. Once they are underlined they will have a link allowing you to click through and learn more about your topic of choice: 

Sleep:

  • What Causes High Cortisol?

Lifestyle:

  • Foods that may support health cortisol levels
  • Cortisol and exercise
  • Morning cortisol explained
  • Cortisol through the day

Relaxation:

  • Cortisol and Anxiety