Cortisol and your Health

Ever wondered what happens when you skip breakfast? It’s not good. After the overnight fast your cortisol is already its highest around 400am. The body perceives this as stress causing that release of cortisol to help wake you. When you don’t eat blood sugar is low so the body depletes your stores of glucose/energy & then makes more glucose in the liver for energy. It also releases more cortisol when doing this. This makes you “wired but tired”, anxious, mid-morning fatigue, cravings, store fat at the belly.  Eating a protein rich breakfast tells your cortisol to fall.  While fasting can be a good weight loss strategy for some, it also drives up the sympathetic nervous system, especially in perimenopause. In perimenopause you have higher baseline cortisol because of lower estrogen and progesterone. Ladies fasting before an intense workout intensifies the cortisol spike. You can counteract this by eating 25-30g of protein with a small amount of complex carb 30-60 min before working out. 

Having high cortisol also leads to faster heart/breathing rate, anxiety, glucose dumping in the blood, low libido, menstrual irregularity, thyroid problems, suppression of estrogen/progesterone, brain fog, moody, weight gain, insomnia, high blood pressure, blood sugar elevation leading to insulin resistance leading to many health diseases, & weaker immune system. I think we are all overlooking at a major health issue with cortisol.

Did you know caffeine raises cortisol? So how do we manage cortisol levels? You MUST decrease stress. Try yoga, walking, nature, breath work, routine exercise, less caffeine, & consistent sleep schedule. Eliminate sugar and processed foods from your diet.

We also need certain vitamins. Magnesium to regulate our hormones. Vitamin C to help metabolize cortisol. B12 & folic acid are also important.

If these things are not enough work with a practitioner for some adaptogenic help. These are things like ashwagandha, rhodiola, & holy basil. These are only to be given by a knowledgeable provider so they do not interact with other meds or cause medical problems by using too much.