Of all the hormones produced by the body, cortisol is the most misunderstood. It\u2019s essential to any number of biological processes, and yet commonly typecast as \u201cthe one to do with stress\u201d \u2013 an evolutionary adaptation for different times, wildly unsuited to modern living, something to reduce with meditation, reset with ice baths or regulate with red-light therapy.<\/p>\n
Personal trainers will tell you to avoid long runs in case they result in \u201ccortisol belly<\/a>\u201d, while influencers diagnose \u201ccortisol face<\/a>\u201d as a sign of too much pressure in the office. To top it all, social media has recently seen the rise of the \u201ccortisol cocktail\u201d \u2013 a combination of coconut water, orange juice, salt, and lemon that TikTokers claim can reduce stress and help with weight loss.<\/p>\n But how much of this has any kind of scientific validity \u2013 and is worrying about your cortisol levels doing you more harm than good?<\/p>\n The first thing to understand is what cortisol is, and what it actually does: and yes, that does include helping to manage our response to external stressors. In situations that the body perceives as fight-or-flight, it helps the body to produce immediate energy \u2013 as well as suppressing non-essential functions such as digestion or repair (we\u2019ll get to whether this is a bad thing or not shortly). \u201cCortisol plays a vital role in blood-sugar regulation, by prompting the liver to produce glucose and helping ensure a steady supply of fuel to the brain and body,\u201d says Hannah Alderson, a nutritionist, hormone specialist and author of Everything I Know About Hormones. \u201cIt also helps modulate inflammation, keeping immune responses in check and preventing them from going into overdrive. It\u2019s key in how we metabolise fat, protein and carbohydrate.\u201d It also regulates blood pressure, can act as a mood buffer, and kicks in to help fight infection if we\u2019re recovering from an acute illness. But one of its most vital roles is also its least talked-about.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the hormone that gets us out of bed,\u201d says Angela Clow, emeritus professor of psychophysiology at the University of Westminster. \u201cYou get this burst of it in the morning, which is called the \u2018cortisol awakening response\u2019. That\u2019s not a bad thing or a stress response \u2013 it\u2019s the body\u2019s way of waking up and promoting cognitive function. You\u2019ve probably experienced a time when you have an early flight or a busy day ahead, and your body anticipates it and wakes you up without needing an alarm clock. That\u2019s cortisol priming your brain to be more alert and more active, preparing you for the day ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n Rising cortisol levels help us get ready for the day ahead. Photograph: Posed by model; Flashpop\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Research published earlier this year<\/a> confirmed that cortisol is already increasing from its lowest point about three hours before you wake up \u2013 putting to rest any idea that getting up itself is stressful for the body, and suggesting instead that rising cortisol levels are part of what gets us ready for the day. Like every other higher organism on the planet, we\u2019ve evolved to live in an environment that\u2019s dark for (roughly) half of every day, and so our body needs a way to switch from restoration into activity, which seems to be one of cortisol\u2019s key roles.<\/p>\n \u201cA very large proportion of the genes in your body are sensitive to cortisol,\u201d says Stafford Lightman, a professor of medicine at Bristol Medical School and co-author on the recent research. \u201cAnd so cortisol has a daily rhythm, and that daily rhythm regulates multiple genes in multiple tissues; in your brain, your liver and your immune system.\u201d<\/p>\n As part of this process, cortisol levels gradually decline throughout the day, with periodic bursts approximately every 90 minutes helping to maintain proper bodily function. This certainly isn\u2019t a bad thing, but it does make gauging it difficult: you could take two measurements 30 minutes apart and get two wildly differing numbers. Under laboratory conditions, researchers take cortisol readings from blood or saliva multiple times a day to obtain a general picture of how volunteers\u2019 levels fluctuate and respond to stressors. At-home tests are much less useful: if you\u2019re only testing yourself once or twice a day, the only thing you might notice is that your levels are very high or very low.<\/p>\n \u2018Dad, you\u2019re messing with my hormones!\u2019 Photograph: Posed by models; Ivan Rodriguez Alba\/Getty Images<\/p>\n So what about the idea that the minor stresses of everyday life are constantly keeping our cortisol levels perilously high? One common characterisation of the way this might work is that our bodies, evolved to deal with sabre-tooth tiger attacks and flash floods, can\u2019t easily distinguish between those sorts of immediate, physical threats and more psychological ones \u2013 an argument on the school run, say, or a nasty email from a client. Social stressors, the theory goes, can be insidious: they\u2019re basically ever-present, especially if we\u2019re prone to catastrophise, and if our bodies\u2019 restorative systems switch themselves off every time we encounter them, we\u2019ll never have time for rest and repair.<\/p>\n Baboon beta males have shorter lives than alphas. Photograph: Karel Tupy\/Alamy<\/p>\n In baboon troops \u2013 which are very social and hierarchical \u2013 this effect is visible, with the lower-pecking-order males suffering with worse immunity and shorter lifespans, as their fight-or-flight systems are constantly prioritised over the rest-and-digest ones. But baboon lives tend to be genuinely far more stressful than human ones \u2013 if you\u2019re kicked out of the troop or can\u2019t find a mate, you\u2019re facing a genuine, near-immediate threat to your genes\u2019 survival, rather than just feeling a bit put out. There\u2019s speculation, of course, that our bodies can\u2019t make this sort of distinction, and that we still internally respond to having our birthday forgotten at the office like we would to banishment on the savannah. But is that really true?<\/p>\n As it turns out, probably not. To test the effect of short-term bursts of stress, psychologists have developed all sorts of unpleasant laboratory procedures \u2013 from cold-water immersion to problem-solving under time pressure, to the Trier Social Stress Test, where volunteers are tasked with delivering a speech and mental arithmetic task in front of an unresponsive panel of evaluators. And the effect isn\u2019t as pronounced as you might have been led to believe.<\/p>\n \u201cTrying to stress a human is really difficult,\u201d says Lightman. \u201cEven plunging your hand into freezing-cold water has very little effect. If you\u2019ve got a really important job interview that is going to govern the rest of your life, then yes, that\u2019s probably going to be stressful. But it\u2019s very subjective \u2013 some people, of course, actually like giving presentations in front of a crowd. With things like the Trier test, you might get a reaction the first time, and then you won\u2019t again \u2013 just understanding what the test is about is enough to destroy the effect.\u201d<\/p>\n This means you\u2019re unlikely to be suffering spikes in cortisol from the odd snippy Zoom call or altercation at the self-checkout \u2013 and, even if your body sees those situations as a threat to your wellbeing, there are other systems that kick in first. \u201cIt\u2019s not just cortisol that goes up in stressful situations,\u201d says Dr Thomas Upton, a clinical research fellow who also worked on the recent study. \u201cThere are other hormones \u2013 like catecholamines, your adrenaline and noradrenaline \u2013 that play key roles in the immediate part of the fight-or-flight response. This is what helps you \u2018fight the lion\u2019 and get yourself out of the situation, followed up by cortisol release if the stress is strong enough or long enough. What you\u2019re feeling in a very stressful situation like a jump scare is a rush of adrenaline that makes your heart pound and your mouth go dry and all the rest of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Heightened cortisol becomes more of an issue when you\u2019re continuously stressed. Photograph: Posed by model; Olga Pankova\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Brief, short-term stress is probably not doing you any harm, then. But does this mean heightened cortisol becomes more of an issue when you\u2019re continuously stressed over the long term \u2013 for instance, from worrying about a family problem or the mortgage \u2013 or even deliberately putting yourself through too many difficult workouts?<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s a bit trickier,\u201d says Prof Clow. \u201cIf you just have a short burst of perceived stress, you will have a little burst of cortisol. That\u2019s fine: your body will speedily return to normal cortisol secretion. But if you\u2019re chronically stressed, repeatedly getting these bursts, that can affect the regulation of your underlying circadian pattern, which is regulated by your biological clock. So that, instead of having a healthy dynamic pattern of cortisol secretion over each 24 hours, you get \u2018flat-lining\u2019, which is not able to regulate other processes adequately.\u201d<\/p>\n Constant stress, then, is probably bad for your cognitive function and health. But cortisol is unlikely to change how you look, unless there are larger problems at play. \u201cIf you had Cushing\u2019s syndrome, which is a rare condition where cortisol levels in the body are very high, for example due to a tumour of the adrenal gland, then yes, you might gain extra weight around the stomach, or notice that your face becomes round and puffy,\u201d says Niamh Martin, a professor of endocrinology at Imperial College London. \u201cBut that tends to be with very, very high cortisol levels.\u201d<\/p>\n And, while it\u2019s true that something like a long run can elevate cortisol levels over the short term, that doesn\u2019t mean there\u2019s any need to ditch your plans for a new personal best. \u201cDoing, say, a marathon is a massively stressful situation for the body,\u201d says Upton. \u201cYou need a cortisol response in that situation, and there\u2019s nothing wrong with it: if you didn\u2019t have that response, the results would probably be terrible. You might actually die.\u201d<\/p>\n The good news, then, is that you can happily ignore the most outlandish advice about keeping cortisol in check with cocktails or cold plunges. Unless you\u2019re suffering from a clear medical issue, you probably also don\u2019t need to worry about how your cortisol\u2019s changing on a daily or hourly basis. Several companies are working on methods for continuously monitoring cortisol levels as you go about your everyday life \u2013 but even these could do most people more harm than good. \u201cSomething that we\u2019ve seen with glucose monitors is that they create a lot of \u2018worried well\u2019 people who put one on, have their breakfast and say, oh hell, my blood sugar\u2019s gone up too much,\u201d says Lightman. \u201cAnd then they start worrying about doing all sorts of things and make themselves ill. If you\u2019re an Olympic sprinter or something, continuous monitoring might be useful. But, among most people, there\u2019s so much individual variation that the range we call \u2018normal\u2019 is huge.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s one more obvious question here, though: if cortisol isn\u2019t the culprit, why does stress seem to go hand in hand with poor health, immune-system disruption and weight gain? \u201cIt\u2019s very difficult to unpick,\u201d says Martin. \u201cFor instance, many of us have a complex relationship with food \u2013 and there are behavioural reasons why we eat besides being hungry \u2013 so it\u2019s easy to blame cortisol if we notice that we\u2019re gaining weight, but it might also be that, because we\u2019re stressed, we\u2019re eating in a different way. Similarly, you might be having a tough time at work and that means you don\u2019t have time to exercise, or you\u2019re not sleeping well because you\u2019re stressed and that\u2019s negatively affecting your cortisol levels, rather than the relationship going the other way. Part of the issue is that we still don\u2019t fully understand the chronic stresses that modern life involves and what their impact is on our bodies over a long period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n So what does all this mean for you and your life \u2013 stressful or otherwise? \u201cI think the most evidence-backed approach is to treat cortisol as something like a bystander, rather than blaming it for any issues you\u2019re having,\u201d says Martin. \u201cIf you\u2019re chronically stressed, that\u2019s something to deal with for health reasons, but it\u2019s not necessarily a question of artificially finding ways to keep your cortisol down \u2013 it\u2019s more holistic than that. The most important thing is to look after yourself, rather than reaching for an expensive supplement or a cortisol cocktail or anything like that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere are a few things that seem to help keep cortisol well regulated,\u201d says Clow. \u201cThe research suggests, for instance, that the earlier you wake \u2013 within reason \u2013 promotes a healthy and dynamic cortisol rhythm. So getting plenty of sleep and then getting up relatively early seems to be very good for you. There\u2019s increasing evidence that night-time light exposure inhibits your melatonin secretion, which liberates cortisol and allows it to rise while you sleep.\u201d It\u2019s worth mentioning, though, that getting enough sleep \u2013 and on a regular schedule<\/a> \u2013 might be more important.<\/p>\n Physical exercise seems to keep cortisol well regulated but, if you can\u2019t face the gym, that\u2019s not necessarily a bad thing. \u201cGentle exercise, like walking, stretching or pilates, can regulate cortisol far better than an hour-long Hiit class on an empty stomach,\u201d says Alderson. \u201cBreath work is amazing and you can do it anywhere. Micromoments of joy are a lot simpler to weave in than grand gestures like week-long yoga retreats \u2013 and, even if they\u2019re not directly affecting your cortisol, they matter more than people realise. A laugh, a hug, a walk in nature: this stuff really matters.\u201d<\/p>\n Finally, it\u2019s important to remember that, even if modern living does occasionally nudge your hormones outside optimal levels, cortisol is on your side. Your body\u2019s stress response to most things should be good for you. Try to get some exercise every day, sleep on a regular schedule, and eat as sensibly as you can. Don\u2019t worry about the other stuff: you really don\u2019t need the stress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Of all the hormones produced by the body, cortisol is the most misunderstood. It\u2019s essential to any number…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[97,259,260],"class_list":{"0":"post-40941","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}