What is Cortisol?

Cortisol is quite affectionately known as the “stress hormone.”  It is the hormone your adrenal glands produce and secrete when your brain and body perceive a stressor. Once released and circulating in the bloodstream, cortisol causes an increase in your heart rate and blood pressure, which is the natural “flight or fight” response meant to help humans escape danger. Aside from characteristic and occasionally drastic changes in response to stress, cortisol levels fluctuate normally according to factors like time of day, sleep quality, exercise type and timing, dietary choices, and of course inflammation levels.

How Cortisol Levels Affect Your Body?

General signs and symptoms of excess cortisol include unexplained and stubborn weight gain, specifically around and below the belly button, as well as internal feelings of high stress and anxiety, sensations as though everyone is moving slower than you, sensitivity to noise and light, as well as issues sleeping.  Elevated cortisol levels associated with prolonged stress decrease the body’s ability to make the specific neurotransmitters and hormones necessary for stabilizing our mood, blood sugar and thyroid function.

Too little cortisol may also cause fatigue, as well as dizziness, extreme sensitivity to sound and light, weight loss, muscle weakness, and darkening of various skin regions. It is also one of the causes of a phenomena called orthostatic hypotension, which is a feeling of dizziness or “blacking out” when moving from sitting to standing. Decreased cortisol levels can be due to a problem in the adrenal or pituitary glands, and onset of symptoms can be very gradual. Without treatment, this could become a potentially serious condition. Eventually, the adrenal glands “burn out” and the production of cortisol declines, leading to feelings of depression. When cortisol declines, the ability to mobilize glucose for energy decreases as well, which leads to fatigue, impaired brain function and further imbalance of neurotransmitters. Either way your cortisol is trending, you may find yourself identifying with the descriptions “wired but tired” and “flatlined,” which is all the more reason to seek guidance from a trained healthcare professional.

Elevated cortisol levels associated with prolonged stress decrease the body’s ability to make the specific neurotransmitters and hormones necessary for stabilizing our mood, blood sugar and thyroid function. Eventually, the adrenal glands “burn out” and the production of cortisol declines, leading to feelings of depression. When cortisol declines, the ability to mobilize glucose for energy decreases as well, which leads to fatigue, impaired brain function and further imbalance of neurotransmitters. Either way your cortisol is trending, you may find yourself identifying with the descriptions “wired but tired” and “flatlined,” which is all the more reason to seek guidance from a trained healthcare professional.