January 20, 2025 • 40 mins
Cortisol is the 'it' hormone of the moment. So many people are talking about cortisol face, cortisol weight gain, cortisol anxiety, but what is cortisols actual function and role and why are many of the myths that surround it, simply not true? In today's episode, we talk cortisol and our stress response, including:
- Why cortisol isn't all bad
- The evolutionary function of cortisol
- How cortisol levels become dysregulated
- The link between cortisol and exercise
- The impact on weight, sleep, creativity, even emotional intelligence
- Why a supplement won't save you
- The 4 best tips from doctors and endocrinologists
Listen now for your cortisol 101 lesson!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everybody, Welcome back to the show. Welcome back to
the podcast, new listeners, old listeners. Wherever you are in
the world, it is so great to have you here.
Back for another episode as we, of course break down
the psychology of our twenties. Today we're going to be
talking about cortisol. We're going to be talking about the
(00:20):
hidden and in depth impact that this stress hormone has
on our bodies, on our minds, our cognition, and even
things that you might not think about, like your emotional intelligence,
our creativity, our relationships. You have probably been hearing a
lot about cortisol recently, and your interest may or may
(00:42):
not be piqued. So I want this episode to be
a bit of a one oh one psychology guide to
a what cortisol is be, what it does, and why
it's important, see what happens when it becomes disregulated, and
more importantly, how to sustainably your stress response and lower
(01:02):
your risk of chronic stress so that dysresgulated cortisolt hopefully
doesn't become a problem for you. There is a lot
of stress to be experienced in our twenties. I'm sure
I don't need to tell you that because you know,
this period of our life is so uncertain and at
times unstable, but it also feels very unnecessarily urgent, as
(01:23):
if we have to have it all figured out right now.
This instant and all of these expectations in this external
but also internal pressure creates the perfect conditions for us
to be in emergency mode, maybe more often than we
need to be, and so understanding what happens to our
bodies when that's the case, or also when we experience
(01:46):
great environmental stresses like illness, like a breakup, like something
terrible or traumatic, it's really important to know what's going
on behind the scenes when it comes to your stress
response so that that doesn't become the dominating state for you.
There's also a lot of misinformation online about cortisol that
I want to break down. Some of the myths I've
(02:08):
heard recently are that cortisol is always bad for you,
that you shouldn't do intense exercise because it increases cortisol.
Your cortisol levels, you know, they can be controlled by
processed sugar, You need to cleanse, you need supplements, etcetera, etcetera.
But I think that the answer is a lot more simple,
and the more you know about just the very basics
(02:30):
of cortisol, the more you can make informed choices. So
that is our plan for today. Let's talk all things
cortisol and the experiences you may or may not know
are associated with there's widely talked about but often misunderstood hormone,
but also how you can manage your stress levels in
the most simple, basic ways in your twenties. All of
(02:52):
that and more on the psychology of cortisol without further ado,
Let's get into it. Let me start out by saying
something maybe rather obvious, and that is that cordosol gets
a bad rap. Truly, it is demonized by people for
so many things, especially online, where people talk about cortisol face,
(03:16):
cortisol weight gain, how to reduce your cortisol using oranges,
or some secret herbal recipe that only they can sell
to you. I even saw a video the other day
titled how to get your Cortisol levels to Zero, which
honestly it made me laugh. I sent it to a
few friends because that is the complete opposite of what
you want. You know, there is just so much misinformation
(03:37):
around this hormone. So let's quickly myth bust this idea
that Cortisol is singularly bad for you. Cortisol actually plays
a really essential role in your body, a vital one. Obviously.
It's known as the stress hormone because of its part
in helping us feel alert and energized and able to
(03:59):
respond to danger like a car racing towards you, or
a vicious dog, or some deadline, or even internal stresses
like repetitive thoughts and a fear of failure. Cortisols association
with stress, which we typically see as bad, is probably
why it gets a bad reputation, and you know why
(04:20):
it's demonized, But it actually is really important in helping
us handle the big, scary, nerve racking things that we
encounter in our daily life, and without it, we would
not be able to act or respond to really anything
in our environment in a way that was appropriate. Some
people often the second misconception is that adrenaline and cortisol
(04:42):
are the same, because they do work pretty closely together
when it comes to arousal and our stress response. But
the main difference is that adrenaline is what triggers your
flight or flight response. It is the first responder, It
is the police car at the scene. It gets your
heart pumping your pupils dilated, your blood pressure up. But
cortisol is what comes in, is backup. It's the paramedics,
(05:04):
it's the ambulance. Your cortisol is there for the recovery,
it's there for the long game. It's there to make
sure that your response to whatever situation is alarming you
is sustained. So really what it's responsible for is the
long term stress response, so your hypervigilance, making sure you
(05:24):
are still alert to potential new threats, making sure your
body can get enough glucose and can use that glucose
helping your body break down fats, protein carbs, which essentially
is what allows you to have energy, not just in
the aftermath of a crisis, but during your day to day.
So what I'm really trying to say is that we
(05:46):
really actually need it. Let's imagine you did lower your
cortisol levels to almost zero, as that video I saw
the other day was suggesting. You know, if you didn't
have enough cortisol available in your body, I've really just
put it quite frankly, you would die. Like that's it.
It's called a drenal insufficiency, and it's life threatening, like
(06:07):
you would go into shock, you wouldn't be able to move,
you wouldn't really be able to respond to anything. So
you do need cortisol, plain and simple, Even though it
has that negative association with stress. We also know that
stress isn't wholly bad either. But the problems begin to
occur when your body cannot regulate the level of cortisol.
(06:29):
We'll talk about what that does to your body in
a second, but we need to discuss why it happens.
So the biggest culprit here is chronic stress because it
causes how cortisol levels to remain high even when the
thing in our environment or the internal stress that has passed.
So chronic stress is like a rather broad descriptive here.
(06:50):
It contains many events, situations, things, But I want to
give you some examples of what could cause us to
be in this state. A big one is long term
financial problems. Maybe there was a study from twenty thirteen
that found that financial strain increases daily cortisol output. And
you know a lot of us are experiencing the cost
(07:11):
of living crunch. That's likely making our baseline level of
stress increase. If you have a demanding, high pressed job,
that's also going to contribute or even not having a
job at all. On the other side of the spectrum,
you can see why that sometimes might feel tricky to navigate.
What's another few examples tense and difficult relationships, whether that's romantic, platonic, familial,
(07:34):
that can bleed into your mental health and increased cortisol
levels because you feel stressed in response to your emotional
social environment. Even health problems like if you have a
chronic illness or a serious injury that has impacted your
physical functioning, that's going to increase cordisol. And major life
events so death, divorce, a breakup, all of those have
(07:58):
a lingering emotional impact act that can disturb our emotional chromeostasis.
So the one important thing to remember is that stress,
although it sometimes helps motivate us, it helps us get
shit done, it is not meant to be experienced constantly.
And when it is, this means that the system in
(08:19):
our body responsible for secreting all types of hormones, it's
called the HbA axis, it remains overactive and it's not
necessarily getting the cues from our body to slow down
to pump the brakes. Over time. What this does is
it desensitizes cortisolv receptors and it disrupts the body's natural
(08:42):
feedback mechanisms. So a feedback mechanism is basically there are
little I don't know how to explain it, like there
are little watch towers, little gates in our body that
are meant to be like, oh okay, we've got too
much here, send it back, send it back, lower it down, increase,
like almost like markers, little test areas that your body
(09:03):
is able to use to respond to levels of cortisol.
But when they become too desensitized or whatever it is,
they don't start giving the right feedback. So that can
either result in something called hyper secretion, so too much cortisol,
or the opposite low low levels, which is hypo secretion,
so hyper versus hypo. How I really like to imagine
(09:26):
hyper secretion, which is really what we're focusing on today.
It's like you're behind the wheel of a car and
your shoe gets jammed over the accelerator and you're trying
really hard to keep your eyes on the road. You're
going so many miles an hour. You're trying to navigate
traffic lights, navigate, you know, navigate, stop science and there's
a bus full of children. You want to avoid that
there's a lake, you don't want to fall into it.
(09:48):
You're trying to keep your eyes focused on what is
actually happening, whilst also trying to get your shoe unjammed.
And that's the impossibility of dealing with high cortisol injuiced
chronic stress. You have to both deal with the impacts
of high cortisol whilst also trying to reduce the stress.
At the same time. You have to try and keep
(10:09):
your eyes on the road, but also you know, look
down to try and get the shoe off the pedal.
So some other causes of high and dysregulated cortisol include
an overactive pituitary gland. This one's actually very very common.
Sometimes it can be due to tumors or growths, but
also medications like steroids, also some form of birth control.
(10:31):
I actually looked into this because I hadn't heard of
that before. I hadn't heard about the relationship between birth
control and cortisol, and there definitely needs to be more
research done on it. But there was a twenty twenty
four case study conducted by a doctor at UCLA that
found that some oral contraceptives increase cortisol level in patients.
He measured this by testing cortisol levels before and after
(10:55):
the use of an oral contraceptive for two months, and
found that there was an almost three one hundred percent
increase twenty six milligrams over the normal range after this
person began to go back on their birth control. So
it doesn't mean to go off your pill right away,
or that your pill is making you stressed, although I
(11:16):
think a lot of women would tell us like, there
are huge emotional differences that I notice because the pill
is influencing hormones and that is what cortisol is. But again, yes,
not about trying to convince you to just go cold
turkey on something that's very, very important for your health
and your reproductive health in other areas. But it is
(11:37):
an important factor to really think about. If you have
just gone on the pill and you've noticed anxiety spiking,
could this be a contributor. But also if you are
already prone to chronic stress, and you already work in
a really intense industry, you're drinking three to four coffees
a day, you can only really unwind with alcohol, all
(11:57):
of these things are going to be compounding. They're going
to be compounding factors. On your mental emotional, cognitive state.
And the reason why is because of the influence they
have on cortisol and the influence they have on how
our body responds to stress. Some other factors that contribute
(12:18):
to high cortisol conditions, like depression and anxiety, have also
been associated with elevated cortisol levels. However, it's important to
note the direction of this relationship. It's kind of hard
to pin down, right, how do we know whether you
are anxious because you have elevated cortisol or your anxiety
is causing cortisol levels to spike, right, It's very hard
(12:40):
to tell. Most researchers would say, actually, it's a very
intertwined system anxiety high cortisol. Although we don't know the relationship,
we do know they often go hand in hand. This
is kind of a very quick summary of what contributes
to a spike in this stress hormone, and it's important
to know that there is no way of escaping the
(13:02):
impact this will have on your body. Humans are very
strong creatures, but we are also still creatures, and no
creature can survive under conditions of acute stress for a
long period of time. Health does decline. Mental wellbeing does decline.
You even see small things like hair and skin quality
(13:24):
start to fade, Like you start to see someone's skin
become quite grayish, their hair starts to fall out, all
signs of like a sickness, and that sickness in this
instance is coming from stress. Obviously, those are some intense examples.
Let's talk about what the hidden impact of excessive cortisol
might look like on a smaller scale. Firstly, I'm going
(13:47):
to touch on some of the non obvious effects that
you may not have heard about yet. The first big
one is that high levels of cortisol dampen your emotional intelligence,
so you're less able to respond not only just to
your own emotional states, but also you're less able to
recognize and appropriately respond to others. It's why you may
(14:08):
become snappy. You may suddenly realize you're saying things you
don't mean, and you didn't quite realize that you were
saying them. That you're just exhausted and tired and sad.
And if someone asks you why, you can't tell them
because you haven't been able to see or notice any
cause and effect between situations and your emotions, because your
(14:29):
emotional intelligence has been compromised. Here's another interesting impact. There
was a twenty fourteen study that found that elevated cor
result actually shifts our response to risk so that we
become more cautious and guarded when it comes to anything
from financial decisions to Korea to relationship decisions. It can
(14:52):
make it so that when we see opportunity, we feel
like the likelihood of that opportunity being realized is is reduced,
so we're less likely to take risks, We're less likely
to bet on ourselves. It's why people who are in
chronic stress states find it harder to you know, take
the leap to start a business, or to go back
(15:14):
to school, or to try something new. Stress intertwines not
just with health, but with decision making as well. Here's
another you know, kind of scary realization or impact of
high courts all it makes us more pessimistic and it
makes us less creative. So if you are someone who
loves making art, you love creating things, that important creative
(15:36):
process and that ability to come up with new ideas
spontaneously and execute them, it will decline when you are
in a stressed state, because you cannot thrive during acute stress.
It's why the secret to being more creative is and
always will be rest and novelty over discipline and routine
(15:57):
and overworking, because in the former ladder, in the latter conditions,
there is just not enough room for your brain to
explore different areas of itself. So those are some of
the impacts you may not have heard of, but here
are some of the ones that you may already have
a sense might occur to someone who's experiencing high cordisol levels.
(16:18):
The first one is rapid weight gain. So high cortisol
levels triggered by chronic stress, they increase our appetite and
cravings for high calorie fatty foods by stimulating the release
of appetite regulating hormones. So let's talk about why this
is the case. Obviously, cortisol is released in response to stress,
(16:38):
and if the body is stressed, it's thinking this is
an emergency situation. This is a situation that we want
to endure and survive. And if we're going to survive
it, it means we should have as many resources as possible,
including the energy stores that are necessary. How do we
bulk up or increase energy stores as a resource by
(16:59):
eating more? So your body is literally saying almost like
almost preparing for like not hibernation, but the opposite, like
preparing to fight, to run away, preparing to hunger down
and endure whatever chronic stress is currently playing out in
your life and on your mind. It can also lead
to what we call food noise. This is like an intrusive,
(17:22):
constant thought about food because your body is of course
trying to consume more energy and trying to find a
way to motivate you or influence you to do so.
Here's another a third effect of this, a third reason
why people who are experiencing chronic stress often complained about
weight gain. It's the cortisol promotes fat storage, especially in
(17:44):
the abdominal region, by increasing insulin resistance and altering how
fat is distributed in the body. Again, your body is saying,
we need this. This is def Con one. We're in
an emergency situation. Let's get our stocks up. Elevated cards
and levels also slow down the metabolism. So together these
(18:05):
effects create a cycle of stress induced weight gain. It's
so hard when I hear people or see people talking
about their experience of just almost suddenly gaining weight for
no reason and in such an unfair way, like they're
doing everything that they think they should be doing. They're
really healthy people, they eat really well, they have a
(18:27):
really active lifestyle, and they're still gaining weight in a
way that feels like their body is working against them.
And you know, weight gain isn't a terrible thing. It's
not a bad thing. It's not something that should be
avoided at all costs. But when it just appears to
happen sporadically and spontaneously and nothing about your lifestyle has changed,
(18:47):
it can be rather frustrating. It's why anytime I see
someone like getting trolled on Instagram or TikTok for weight gain,
you best believe like I'm leaving a comment on their behalf,
because you really have no idea what's happening in their
life to cause that, let alone suggesting that you know,
suddenly they should feel a shame because their body is
(19:08):
responding to perhaps a really intense situation or an emotional
or external environment of intense stress or loss or grief
or whatever it is they're going through. The human body
is so much more complex than just calories in and
calories out. And I don't know when we as a
(19:29):
society will really start to understand that. You may also
experience this as kind of in a similar vein a
bit different increased inflammation, especially in the face. And this
is this idea that you may know of as moonface.
That's where this has come from. So moon face is
kind of like a colloquial way to describe the puffiness
(19:51):
and appearance that our face gets when cortisol has just
regulated has been dysregulated for too long, so you often
will begin to lose definition and features. It looks like
your face is literally swelling up and looking like a
big round moon. And this occurs because our body is
holding onto more fluid and salt because cortisolt is not
(20:14):
properly regulating these deposits, or is not properly regulating our
insulin levels, which is causing us to hold onto fat
in these stores in our face. Again, this can become
a big point of insecurity for people, especially since you know,
our face is often the first thing people see, and
so when we can't recognize it anymore and we experience
(20:35):
a drastic change, that can cause a lot of insecurity,
sometimes even a bit of an identity crisis. I don't
think that's a vain thing to experience. Our physical form
and our characteristics do help us define ourselves. So when
they suddenly change without us really realizing how or why,
and we get this puffiness, we can really struggle. Those
(20:58):
are just some of the first con sequences or impacts
that come to mind. I'm going to take a quick
break here because I feel like I've just been throwing
information at you. When we return, we're going to talk
about some of the further impacts on things like sleep,
like our relationships, like our of course anxiety levels, but
also how we can address this and some of the
(21:18):
lifestyle changes that maybe floate at to you by a
doctor or by a psychologist. Alright, I want to touch
on one final consequence or impact of high cortisol that
we may notice in ourselves before we get into my
(21:38):
tips and advice. And this big consequence is the impact
of high cortisol on sleep, specifically something we call mourning anxiety.
Morning anxiety has to be one of the worst forms
of anxiety. You know, all of them are actually pretty bad,
but morning anxiety. You know, if I had to choose
my favorite or only favorite, it definitely takes the cake.
(22:02):
So imagine you're RESTful, you're in bed, you're cozy, you're
dreaming nice dreams. You're asleep, you're just feeling very, very peaceful,
and then suddenly you are wide awake, heavy breathing, racing heart.
You instantly feel uneasy for no particular reason, and it's like, okay,
here we are battling through another day of this. That
(22:22):
is morning anxiety is going from being RESTful to just
being completely anxious. And I don't even know how to
explain it. Like you wake up and your body is
almost shaking, and it feels like you're just waking up
to a completely energized body that you had no awareness of,
(22:43):
and suddenly you're like fifty percent dipped into like a
boiling pot of water, and you have no idea how
you got there. That's what morning anxiety feels like. And
being alert when you wake up isn't a bad thing.
In fact, that's one of Cortoso's useful functions. It's meant
to actually peak or spike in the morning to help
you get out of bed and to help you get
(23:03):
up and active and ready. But sometimes that cordso awakening
response can become skewed and not work properly. Chronic stress
obviously contributes to that. It leads to elevated corterisol levels
at night because we feel like we can't switch off,
which then has lingering effects till the morning. So not
(23:24):
only are you not going to get good sleep, but
you're also going to feel a sharp cortisol spike right
before you wake up, and that's going to create not
just you know, take that natural alertness that you're meant
to feel in the morning and turn it into anxiety.
And of course, like the ball doesn't even stop there.
Twenty eighteen study found that when you have a bad
(23:46):
night's sleep, you already are at risk of higher levels
of anxiety the next day, which you guessed is going
to make it so much harder to sleep the next night,
and it's just becomes a cycle of Okay, I can't
sleep because I'm anxious, but then when I finally get asleep,
my sleep isn't any good. And then I wake up
really anxious the next morning because those quarters or levels
(24:07):
have carried over, but also because I had a bad
night sleep, so I'm extra anxious. How do you think
that's going to help you or help your body? It doesn't,
and it honestly has such lingering effects in all other
areas of your life. You're cranky, you have that mild
feeling of irritability constantly, you can't process information as well,
you feel slow. In a study from twenty thirteen, research
(24:30):
is observed people's IQs after a good night's sleep versus
a terrible night's sleep, where they periodically woke up their participants.
Those who had been woken up their IQ dropped on
average ten points the next day following sleep deprivation. It
might seem small, but if that is a consistent impact
that you are noticing caused by high quisol, it's just
(24:51):
going to feel like everything else is just a little
bit harder. This really does go to show it's not
just about feeling more anxious. It's not just about feeling
more stressed. It touches everything else in your life. It
is in everything disorder or on everything experience. And I
think I really feel, you know, I really feel for
people who start to piece that together and realize that
(25:14):
all of these interactions and things that are happening in
their body link back to this stress response they can't control.
So we're going to talk about how to navigate that.
Whether you're experiencing just low levels of stress slightly elevated
cortisol or extremely high levels of cortisol. What are some
of the lifestyle adjustments that might be recommended to you.
(25:38):
I think if you're going to get tips on how
to lower cortisol levels, the first people you want to
talk to or hear from are doctors or an endocrinologist.
Basically that's a doctor who specializes in hormones and the
endocrine system hormones like cortisol. But before you get to
that step, I do actually want you to make sure
that what we're describing applies to you. There is a
(25:59):
difference between heightened levels of stress, you know, the short
term and chronic stress that is causing elevated cortisol. And
if you think that this applies to you, please go
and see a doctor. They will be able to diagnose
it for you. They will be able to really see
what's happening below the surface through blood tests, through saliva tests.
But I really think that cortisol just regulation is not
(26:21):
something you can say, oh, yeah, I have that that
describes me, and I'm just gonna go with that diagnosis. Also,
because it can be linked back to really serious serious
problems like cushing syndrome or tumors or problems with your
pituitary glands. So if you are hearing this description being
like that's me, Oh my god, that's me, that's totally me,
(26:42):
go and speak to your doctor. I think whenever something
blows up online or on social media, like this idea
of you know, cortisol face and cortisol weight gain and
is it high cortisol, we really do find it very
easy to see ourselves represented in people's descriptions. It's very
easy to see something and say, oh my god, that's
totally me. And that's because that's intentional from them, Like
(27:04):
they want you to engage with their content, so they're
going to make it as general and broad as possible.
And I'm sure their intentions are pure, and if they're
trying to sell some tea or some supplement, maybe it
did work from them. But your health is really such
a valuable investment. And you know, if you wouldn't want
your mum or your sister, or your brother or your
(27:25):
partner getting all their health advice from people on social media,
don't do the same for yourself. People sharing their experiences
is so valuable and it does help us become more
educated about things that we didn't know about the human
body or ourselves, but for something like cortisol dysregulation, make
sure you get a doctor to confirm that. And with
(27:46):
that in mind, that's where I sourced all my information
from specialized professionals, because I understand cortosol from a psychological perspective,
but how it impacts us biologically and how an entrochnologer
or a doctor would recommend we address that That really
reigns supreme for me. Besides from addressing underlying medical conditions
(28:08):
that are causing elevated cortisol and addressing those through a
medical intervention, which DA would be the first step. The
biggest piece of advice I received for lowering stress and
therefore lowering chronic overexposure to cortisol is to pursue balance,
not extremes. Often extremes are what caused chronic stress in
(28:31):
the first place. Extreme work hours, extreme exercising in some instances,
extreme relationships, extreme sleeping patterns. Your best bet for reversing
the impact of high cortisol or chronic stress is to
try and return to your factory setting, to return to
how you were made to operate as a human as
(28:54):
best as you can given your circumstances. What that means
is get back to the most simplest foundations of health, sleep, nutrition, safety, connection,
outdoor time. Let's focus on sleep first. Obviously we spoke
about that morning anxiety and how sleep can be very
heavily impacted by cortisol. But the tip that I heard
(29:15):
that I thought was really, really amazing is that even
if you are not asleep, try and be in bed
for eight hours a day. Don't scroll, don't get up
and watch TV just because your body isn't listening to you. Yes,
you may have to lay in bed till two am
in the morning, but you're giving your body the best
chance at rest. It has around forty to forty to
(29:37):
sixty minutes before bed as well. Reduce your exposure to
bright and blue light. I personally did this. I was
finding that I had my phone in my bedroom, so
if I couldn't sleep after the first ten minutes, I
would get my phone, or I would watch parks and
recreation or something like that. But I have since bought
like an old fashioned alarm clock, and it's been a
game changer. It's been incredible. I spend less time in
(30:00):
bed in the morning, and my room is now associated
with sleep. It's not just like some fun place to
hang out, Like that's not where I go to scroll,
that's not where I go to watch movies, Like that
is my RESTful place, and that is all that I
want it to be kind of used for. Another basic
to get back to is regular movement, and movement in
a way that you enjoy, not in a way you
(30:24):
think you should be enjoying it or doing it. Now,
there's been a lot of information going around that high
intensity exercise should be avoided if you're trying to manage stress,
mainly because of a finding from a two thousand and
eight paper that essentially claimed an intense exercise increased cordisol levels.
Now that paper was correct, it did increase cordsol levels,
(30:45):
and it was actually published in the Journal of Antocrinological Investigation,
so their findings were accurate. But those levels of cortisol
actually ended up fading and reducing over the next four
to six hours. And that's because exercise is a form
of stress. It is stress on our bodies, but there
is a difference between short term stress and chronic long
(31:09):
term stress. Exercise triggers short term stress, which does cause
cortisol levels to rise, but actually when we keep up
with that regular movement and exercise, our body learns how
to regulate those spikes and cortisol fluctuations, and so it
becomes better able to regulate cortisol in general. So although yes,
(31:29):
you might experience a small spike in cortisol after you exercise,
you'll also experience a spike in endorphins. You'll also feel
more relaxed, and so it actually is for the better. Obviously,
if you are exercising at ninety percent effort seven days
a week, you're not giving your body a chance to
repair and balance things out. But pursuing the kind of
movement that our ancestors would is really beneficial. Moderate exercise
(31:54):
movement in whatever form works best for you, walking, lifting
the way we would have lifted for trees, children, rocks,
like I know it sounds so rudimentary and basic, but
if it's gotten us to where we are as a species,
where we are now, and if that's how our bodies
were designed to operate, I'm just assuming that that kind
of movement is really what our body is asking for.
(32:15):
The Next focus is what we're putting into our body,
the biggest one being caffeine. I'm sorry if that's not
what you wanted to hear, but truly, caffeine is not
doing you any favors. So I haven't drunk coffee or
really caffeine really for almost four years. At this point,
(32:37):
maybe I'll have the occasional diet coke because I can't
be helped. But I noticed such a huge shift in alertness,
energy levels, and anxiety. I was so reliant on caffeine
to make me alert, and then I would basically just
allow it would make me alert, and then I would
(32:57):
obviously it would fade away and I'd feel less alert,
and then I'd make myself a lot again, and you know,
by the time that I was ready for sleep, hopefully
the caffeine had faded. Like it was really controlling my
energy levels, and with that it was artificially controlling my
anxiety and stress levels. Like the times that I felt
most stressed in my day or in my week were
the times when I had consumed the most caffeine, thinking
(33:20):
that it was going to help me be more productive,
but actually it just made me feel more jittery. It
made me feel more almost like unstable in a way,
like every single thought just felt a little bit too
loud and a little bit too urgent, and when I
eventually quit, I found that I was so tired for
the first two weeks, like I cannot explain how tired
(33:42):
I was. But then I was actually able to regulate
energy using routine and actually utilizing like the natural circadian
rhythm and flow of my day and my wakefulness versus
sleepy hours, and noticing like peak kind of like peak
hard work times, of like peak inspiration motivation focus times
(34:06):
for myself. And it was a really important change. A
two thousand and eight study also showed caffeine stimulates cortisol secretion.
No matter how much caffeine you consume as well, you
were never able to build up a tolerance enough that
it would stop cortisol spikes from happening. So, if you
are sitting there being like I'm so stressed, I'm so anxious,
(34:28):
and you have not cut out caffeine, if you haven't
gone DCAF, if you haven't gone for a tea, if
you haven't cut down to just one coffee a day,
please before you consume a supplement, before you try and
do crazy ice plunges for your anxiety, just try it
and see if it works. The next best tip that
you will hear is to spend more time outside. Nature
(34:50):
is where your stress response is meant to operate, and
so it is there that it will be best regulated.
I'm going to say one more time. Nature was where
your stress response was meant to w op rate, So
it's there that it can be regulated. Time and time again,
you'll see studies showing us that nature has a positive
effect on stress by reducing carters or levels, even if
it's just for twenty to thirty minutes a day, that's
(35:13):
the time it would take to eat your lunch outside,
or if it's really cold, where you are eat your
lunch next to a window so that you can just
see nature even if you can't be in it. Some
scientists like to call it the nature pill because they
have suggested that outdoor time, like what we used to
have as children, should be something that they can prescribe
to people. You know, people who live very busy urban
(35:35):
lives could be prescribed like thirty minute nature prescription, the
same way that they would be prescribed antibiotics or painkillers. Hopefully,
so they take it seriously, so they find like they
finally realize that it should be a priority, that this
will help you, that this is actually a researched and
necessary medical intervention. One study found that people who made
(36:00):
nature a daily priority for themselves saw salvatory quarters or
levels and self reported stress dropped by almost half from
what they were previously experiencing. But it is a practice
that we largely ignore because we have become so detached
from our natural habitat as mammals and as humans. Another
resource that you have at your disposal right now, much
(36:21):
like nature, is your breath. It is the tool of
meditators worldwide for good reason, because controlled breathing helps stimulate
your parasympathetic nervous system that's known as our rest and
digest system compared to our fight or flight system, and
our fight or flight system is what activates quarters are released,
(36:44):
so activating your rest and digest system is the counterbalance
that you need. You have probably already heard of a
lot of the breathing exercises that people recommend. Belly breathing
in particular, if you've done a yoga class, you'll be
familiar with this. It's the in hold for four, six
out kind of breathing, So breathing for four, hold your
(37:07):
breath for four, breathe out for six, where you're kind
of focused on feeling your body expand like there's a
big cloud filling up that space. So if you feel
your you know, energy levels and your stress levels rising
in response to a deadline or something in your environment,
or just something you can't put your finger on, try
this technique and try it as a way to get
(37:29):
in front of your stress and then later on respond
more appropriately. There are other natural remedies as simple as
nature and breathing itself that are important. Laughter, tending to
your spirituality, spending time alone, giving yourself silent and alone,
space and time all really important for chronic stress. Looking
(37:49):
after a pet, looking after others great for managing anxiety
and worry. Mainly, I think that what I would want
to impress on people, particularly those of us in our twenties,
is that we are told, especially in this day and age,
that pushing ourselves, being disciplined, sacrificing for success is going
to give you the happiest and most fulfilled life you
(38:11):
could ask for. It's going to give you wealth, it's
going to give you accomplishment, praise, achievement, and yes, pushing
yourself maybe will get you those things. But if your
body is under immense chronic stress in order to get there.
I don't think one part of it will be worth it.
You won't be able to enjoy it, you won't feel good.
Your body will literally become sick, it will crumble, it
(38:33):
will feel terrible, you will feel miserable because you have
neglected your physical and mental health to get to that point.
I think what's even more important to notice that high
levels of stress from lifestyle factors like overworking, they are
going to make it harder for you to focus. They
impair executive functioning, mental clarity, brain health, motivation. So pace yourself,
(38:55):
go slow, take time for rest and to nurture your body.
And I actually think that it helps you get to
the place, or to your achievements in a more sustainable
and therefore faster way, and in a way that by
the time you get there, you can actually enjoy them,
rather than feeling like just everything around you is crumbling
(39:16):
and suddenly you've gotten to where you want to be
and you have to take time off just to get
the basics down, pat and look after yourself. So I
don't think anything should cost you your health. It's not
worth it. It's so hard to recover, So take care of
yourself and recognize chronic stress as just as a risk
to your health as anything else that you would be
(39:39):
scared of, as smoking, as loneliness, as dangerous driving. Even so,
I hope this episode has helped you. I hope that
you have learned more about the impact, the hidden impact
of cortosol. We've mythbusted some of these beliefs that some
people hold about cortosol being bad, that you shouldn't exercise intensely,
that you shouldn't eat so foods because a bad view,
(40:02):
that this can only be cured by supplements. Whatever it is.
Hopefully you have a better, more clear understanding. If you
did enjoy this episode, make sure you follow along on
Spotify or Apple podcasts, leave a five star review, leave
a comment as well if you made it this far.
I love engaging with you guys all that way and
getting to respond to you all and see what you've
felt about this episode, And make sure you are following
(40:24):
us on Instagram at that Psychology podcast to see further tips,
behind the scenes stuff and also some infographics about this episode.
Until next time, stay safe, be kind, be gentle to yourself,
manage your stress, and we will talk very very soon
Hello everybody, Welcome back to the show. Welcome back to
the podcast, new listeners, old listeners. Wherever you are in
the world, it is so great to have you here.
Back for another episode as we, of course break down
the psychology of our twenties. Today we're going to be
talking about cortisol. We're going to be talking about the
(00:20):
hidden and in depth impact that this stress hormone has
on our bodies, on our minds, our cognition, and even
things that you might not think about, like your emotional intelligence,
our creativity, our relationships. You have probably been hearing a
lot about cortisol recently, and your interest may or may
(00:42):
not be piqued. So I want this episode to be
a bit of a one oh one psychology guide to
a what cortisol is be, what it does, and why
it's important, see what happens when it becomes disregulated, and
more importantly, how to sustainably your stress response and lower
(01:02):
your risk of chronic stress so that dysresgulated cortisolt hopefully
doesn't become a problem for you. There is a lot
of stress to be experienced in our twenties. I'm sure
I don't need to tell you that because you know,
this period of our life is so uncertain and at
times unstable, but it also feels very unnecessarily urgent, as
(01:23):
if we have to have it all figured out right now.
This instant and all of these expectations in this external
but also internal pressure creates the perfect conditions for us
to be in emergency mode, maybe more often than we
need to be, and so understanding what happens to our
bodies when that's the case, or also when we experience
(01:46):
great environmental stresses like illness, like a breakup, like something
terrible or traumatic, it's really important to know what's going
on behind the scenes when it comes to your stress
response so that that doesn't become the dominating state for you.
There's also a lot of misinformation online about cortisol that
I want to break down. Some of the myths I've
(02:08):
heard recently are that cortisol is always bad for you,
that you shouldn't do intense exercise because it increases cortisol.
Your cortisol levels, you know, they can be controlled by
processed sugar, You need to cleanse, you need supplements, etcetera, etcetera.
But I think that the answer is a lot more simple,
and the more you know about just the very basics
(02:30):
of cortisol, the more you can make informed choices. So
that is our plan for today. Let's talk all things
cortisol and the experiences you may or may not know
are associated with there's widely talked about but often misunderstood hormone,
but also how you can manage your stress levels in
the most simple, basic ways in your twenties. All of
(02:52):
that and more on the psychology of cortisol without further ado,
Let's get into it. Let me start out by saying
something maybe rather obvious, and that is that cordosol gets
a bad rap. Truly, it is demonized by people for
so many things, especially online, where people talk about cortisol face,
(03:16):
cortisol weight gain, how to reduce your cortisol using oranges,
or some secret herbal recipe that only they can sell
to you. I even saw a video the other day
titled how to get your Cortisol levels to Zero, which
honestly it made me laugh. I sent it to a
few friends because that is the complete opposite of what
you want. You know, there is just so much misinformation
(03:37):
around this hormone. So let's quickly myth bust this idea
that Cortisol is singularly bad for you. Cortisol actually plays
a really essential role in your body, a vital one. Obviously.
It's known as the stress hormone because of its part
in helping us feel alert and energized and able to
(03:59):
respond to danger like a car racing towards you, or
a vicious dog, or some deadline, or even internal stresses
like repetitive thoughts and a fear of failure. Cortisols association
with stress, which we typically see as bad, is probably
why it gets a bad reputation, and you know why
(04:20):
it's demonized, But it actually is really important in helping
us handle the big, scary, nerve racking things that we
encounter in our daily life, and without it, we would
not be able to act or respond to really anything
in our environment in a way that was appropriate. Some
people often the second misconception is that adrenaline and cortisol
(04:42):
are the same, because they do work pretty closely together
when it comes to arousal and our stress response. But
the main difference is that adrenaline is what triggers your
flight or flight response. It is the first responder, It
is the police car at the scene. It gets your
heart pumping your pupils dilated, your blood pressure up. But
cortisol is what comes in, is backup. It's the paramedics,
(05:04):
it's the ambulance. Your cortisol is there for the recovery,
it's there for the long game. It's there to make
sure that your response to whatever situation is alarming you
is sustained. So really what it's responsible for is the
long term stress response, so your hypervigilance, making sure you
(05:24):
are still alert to potential new threats, making sure your
body can get enough glucose and can use that glucose
helping your body break down fats, protein carbs, which essentially
is what allows you to have energy, not just in
the aftermath of a crisis, but during your day to day.
So what I'm really trying to say is that we
(05:46):
really actually need it. Let's imagine you did lower your
cortisol levels to almost zero, as that video I saw
the other day was suggesting. You know, if you didn't
have enough cortisol available in your body, I've really just
put it quite frankly, you would die. Like that's it.
It's called a drenal insufficiency, and it's life threatening, like
(06:07):
you would go into shock, you wouldn't be able to move,
you wouldn't really be able to respond to anything. So
you do need cortisol, plain and simple, Even though it
has that negative association with stress. We also know that
stress isn't wholly bad either. But the problems begin to
occur when your body cannot regulate the level of cortisol.
(06:29):
We'll talk about what that does to your body in
a second, but we need to discuss why it happens.
So the biggest culprit here is chronic stress because it
causes how cortisol levels to remain high even when the
thing in our environment or the internal stress that has passed.
So chronic stress is like a rather broad descriptive here.
(06:50):
It contains many events, situations, things, But I want to
give you some examples of what could cause us to
be in this state. A big one is long term
financial problems. Maybe there was a study from twenty thirteen
that found that financial strain increases daily cortisol output. And
you know a lot of us are experiencing the cost
(07:11):
of living crunch. That's likely making our baseline level of
stress increase. If you have a demanding, high pressed job,
that's also going to contribute or even not having a
job at all. On the other side of the spectrum,
you can see why that sometimes might feel tricky to navigate.
What's another few examples tense and difficult relationships, whether that's romantic, platonic, familial,
(07:34):
that can bleed into your mental health and increased cortisol
levels because you feel stressed in response to your emotional
social environment. Even health problems like if you have a
chronic illness or a serious injury that has impacted your
physical functioning, that's going to increase cordisol. And major life
events so death, divorce, a breakup, all of those have
(07:58):
a lingering emotional impact act that can disturb our emotional chromeostasis.
So the one important thing to remember is that stress,
although it sometimes helps motivate us, it helps us get
shit done, it is not meant to be experienced constantly.
And when it is, this means that the system in
(08:19):
our body responsible for secreting all types of hormones, it's
called the HbA axis, it remains overactive and it's not
necessarily getting the cues from our body to slow down
to pump the brakes. Over time. What this does is
it desensitizes cortisolv receptors and it disrupts the body's natural
(08:42):
feedback mechanisms. So a feedback mechanism is basically there are
little I don't know how to explain it, like there
are little watch towers, little gates in our body that
are meant to be like, oh okay, we've got too
much here, send it back, send it back, lower it down, increase,
like almost like markers, little test areas that your body
(09:03):
is able to use to respond to levels of cortisol.
But when they become too desensitized or whatever it is,
they don't start giving the right feedback. So that can
either result in something called hyper secretion, so too much cortisol,
or the opposite low low levels, which is hypo secretion,
so hyper versus hypo. How I really like to imagine
(09:26):
hyper secretion, which is really what we're focusing on today.
It's like you're behind the wheel of a car and
your shoe gets jammed over the accelerator and you're trying
really hard to keep your eyes on the road. You're
going so many miles an hour. You're trying to navigate
traffic lights, navigate, you know, navigate, stop science and there's
a bus full of children. You want to avoid that
there's a lake, you don't want to fall into it.
(09:48):
You're trying to keep your eyes focused on what is
actually happening, whilst also trying to get your shoe unjammed.
And that's the impossibility of dealing with high cortisol injuiced
chronic stress. You have to both deal with the impacts
of high cortisol whilst also trying to reduce the stress.
At the same time. You have to try and keep
(10:09):
your eyes on the road, but also you know, look
down to try and get the shoe off the pedal.
So some other causes of high and dysregulated cortisol include
an overactive pituitary gland. This one's actually very very common.
Sometimes it can be due to tumors or growths, but
also medications like steroids, also some form of birth control.
(10:31):
I actually looked into this because I hadn't heard of
that before. I hadn't heard about the relationship between birth
control and cortisol, and there definitely needs to be more
research done on it. But there was a twenty twenty
four case study conducted by a doctor at UCLA that
found that some oral contraceptives increase cortisol level in patients.
He measured this by testing cortisol levels before and after
(10:55):
the use of an oral contraceptive for two months, and
found that there was an almost three one hundred percent
increase twenty six milligrams over the normal range after this
person began to go back on their birth control. So
it doesn't mean to go off your pill right away,
or that your pill is making you stressed, although I
(11:16):
think a lot of women would tell us like, there
are huge emotional differences that I notice because the pill
is influencing hormones and that is what cortisol is. But again, yes,
not about trying to convince you to just go cold
turkey on something that's very, very important for your health
and your reproductive health in other areas. But it is
(11:37):
an important factor to really think about. If you have
just gone on the pill and you've noticed anxiety spiking,
could this be a contributor. But also if you are
already prone to chronic stress, and you already work in
a really intense industry, you're drinking three to four coffees
a day, you can only really unwind with alcohol, all
(11:57):
of these things are going to be compounding. They're going
to be compounding factors. On your mental emotional, cognitive state.
And the reason why is because of the influence they
have on cortisol and the influence they have on how
our body responds to stress. Some other factors that contribute
(12:18):
to high cortisol conditions, like depression and anxiety, have also
been associated with elevated cortisol levels. However, it's important to
note the direction of this relationship. It's kind of hard
to pin down, right, how do we know whether you
are anxious because you have elevated cortisol or your anxiety
is causing cortisol levels to spike, right, It's very hard
(12:40):
to tell. Most researchers would say, actually, it's a very
intertwined system anxiety high cortisol. Although we don't know the relationship,
we do know they often go hand in hand. This
is kind of a very quick summary of what contributes
to a spike in this stress hormone, and it's important
to know that there is no way of escaping the
(13:02):
impact this will have on your body. Humans are very
strong creatures, but we are also still creatures, and no
creature can survive under conditions of acute stress for a
long period of time. Health does decline. Mental wellbeing does decline.
You even see small things like hair and skin quality
(13:24):
start to fade, Like you start to see someone's skin
become quite grayish, their hair starts to fall out, all
signs of like a sickness, and that sickness in this
instance is coming from stress. Obviously, those are some intense examples.
Let's talk about what the hidden impact of excessive cortisol
might look like on a smaller scale. Firstly, I'm going
(13:47):
to touch on some of the non obvious effects that
you may not have heard about yet. The first big
one is that high levels of cortisol dampen your emotional intelligence,
so you're less able to respond not only just to
your own emotional states, but also you're less able to
recognize and appropriately respond to others. It's why you may
(14:08):
become snappy. You may suddenly realize you're saying things you
don't mean, and you didn't quite realize that you were
saying them. That you're just exhausted and tired and sad.
And if someone asks you why, you can't tell them
because you haven't been able to see or notice any
cause and effect between situations and your emotions, because your
(14:29):
emotional intelligence has been compromised. Here's another interesting impact. There
was a twenty fourteen study that found that elevated cor
result actually shifts our response to risk so that we
become more cautious and guarded when it comes to anything
from financial decisions to Korea to relationship decisions. It can
(14:52):
make it so that when we see opportunity, we feel
like the likelihood of that opportunity being realized is is reduced,
so we're less likely to take risks, We're less likely
to bet on ourselves. It's why people who are in
chronic stress states find it harder to you know, take
the leap to start a business, or to go back
(15:14):
to school, or to try something new. Stress intertwines not
just with health, but with decision making as well. Here's
another you know, kind of scary realization or impact of
high courts all it makes us more pessimistic and it
makes us less creative. So if you are someone who
loves making art, you love creating things, that important creative
(15:36):
process and that ability to come up with new ideas
spontaneously and execute them, it will decline when you are
in a stressed state, because you cannot thrive during acute stress.
It's why the secret to being more creative is and
always will be rest and novelty over discipline and routine
(15:57):
and overworking, because in the former ladder, in the latter conditions,
there is just not enough room for your brain to
explore different areas of itself. So those are some of
the impacts you may not have heard of, but here
are some of the ones that you may already have
a sense might occur to someone who's experiencing high cordisol levels.
(16:18):
The first one is rapid weight gain. So high cortisol
levels triggered by chronic stress, they increase our appetite and
cravings for high calorie fatty foods by stimulating the release
of appetite regulating hormones. So let's talk about why this
is the case. Obviously, cortisol is released in response to stress,
(16:38):
and if the body is stressed, it's thinking this is
an emergency situation. This is a situation that we want
to endure and survive. And if we're going to survive
it, it means we should have as many resources as possible,
including the energy stores that are necessary. How do we
bulk up or increase energy stores as a resource by
(16:59):
eating more? So your body is literally saying almost like
almost preparing for like not hibernation, but the opposite, like
preparing to fight, to run away, preparing to hunger down
and endure whatever chronic stress is currently playing out in
your life and on your mind. It can also lead
to what we call food noise. This is like an intrusive,
(17:22):
constant thought about food because your body is of course
trying to consume more energy and trying to find a
way to motivate you or influence you to do so.
Here's another a third effect of this, a third reason
why people who are experiencing chronic stress often complained about
weight gain. It's the cortisol promotes fat storage, especially in
(17:44):
the abdominal region, by increasing insulin resistance and altering how
fat is distributed in the body. Again, your body is saying,
we need this. This is def Con one. We're in
an emergency situation. Let's get our stocks up. Elevated cards
and levels also slow down the metabolism. So together these
(18:05):
effects create a cycle of stress induced weight gain. It's
so hard when I hear people or see people talking
about their experience of just almost suddenly gaining weight for
no reason and in such an unfair way, like they're
doing everything that they think they should be doing. They're
really healthy people, they eat really well, they have a
(18:27):
really active lifestyle, and they're still gaining weight in a
way that feels like their body is working against them.
And you know, weight gain isn't a terrible thing. It's
not a bad thing. It's not something that should be
avoided at all costs. But when it just appears to
happen sporadically and spontaneously and nothing about your lifestyle has changed,
(18:47):
it can be rather frustrating. It's why anytime I see
someone like getting trolled on Instagram or TikTok for weight gain,
you best believe like I'm leaving a comment on their behalf,
because you really have no idea what's happening in their
life to cause that, let alone suggesting that you know,
suddenly they should feel a shame because their body is
(19:08):
responding to perhaps a really intense situation or an emotional
or external environment of intense stress or loss or grief
or whatever it is they're going through. The human body
is so much more complex than just calories in and
calories out. And I don't know when we as a
(19:29):
society will really start to understand that. You may also
experience this as kind of in a similar vein a
bit different increased inflammation, especially in the face. And this
is this idea that you may know of as moonface.
That's where this has come from. So moon face is
kind of like a colloquial way to describe the puffiness
(19:51):
and appearance that our face gets when cortisol has just
regulated has been dysregulated for too long, so you often
will begin to lose definition and features. It looks like
your face is literally swelling up and looking like a
big round moon. And this occurs because our body is
holding onto more fluid and salt because cortisolt is not
(20:14):
properly regulating these deposits, or is not properly regulating our
insulin levels, which is causing us to hold onto fat
in these stores in our face. Again, this can become
a big point of insecurity for people, especially since you know,
our face is often the first thing people see, and
so when we can't recognize it anymore and we experience
(20:35):
a drastic change, that can cause a lot of insecurity,
sometimes even a bit of an identity crisis. I don't
think that's a vain thing to experience. Our physical form
and our characteristics do help us define ourselves. So when
they suddenly change without us really realizing how or why,
and we get this puffiness, we can really struggle. Those
(20:58):
are just some of the first con sequences or impacts
that come to mind. I'm going to take a quick
break here because I feel like I've just been throwing
information at you. When we return, we're going to talk
about some of the further impacts on things like sleep,
like our relationships, like our of course anxiety levels, but
also how we can address this and some of the
(21:18):
lifestyle changes that maybe floate at to you by a
doctor or by a psychologist. Alright, I want to touch
on one final consequence or impact of high cortisol that
we may notice in ourselves before we get into my
(21:38):
tips and advice. And this big consequence is the impact
of high cortisol on sleep, specifically something we call mourning anxiety.
Morning anxiety has to be one of the worst forms
of anxiety. You know, all of them are actually pretty bad,
but morning anxiety. You know, if I had to choose
my favorite or only favorite, it definitely takes the cake.
(22:02):
So imagine you're RESTful, you're in bed, you're cozy, you're
dreaming nice dreams. You're asleep, you're just feeling very, very peaceful,
and then suddenly you are wide awake, heavy breathing, racing heart.
You instantly feel uneasy for no particular reason, and it's like, okay,
here we are battling through another day of this. That
(22:22):
is morning anxiety is going from being RESTful to just
being completely anxious. And I don't even know how to
explain it. Like you wake up and your body is
almost shaking, and it feels like you're just waking up
to a completely energized body that you had no awareness of,
(22:43):
and suddenly you're like fifty percent dipped into like a
boiling pot of water, and you have no idea how
you got there. That's what morning anxiety feels like. And
being alert when you wake up isn't a bad thing.
In fact, that's one of Cortoso's useful functions. It's meant
to actually peak or spike in the morning to help
you get out of bed and to help you get
(23:03):
up and active and ready. But sometimes that cordso awakening
response can become skewed and not work properly. Chronic stress
obviously contributes to that. It leads to elevated corterisol levels
at night because we feel like we can't switch off,
which then has lingering effects till the morning. So not
(23:24):
only are you not going to get good sleep, but
you're also going to feel a sharp cortisol spike right
before you wake up, and that's going to create not
just you know, take that natural alertness that you're meant
to feel in the morning and turn it into anxiety.
And of course, like the ball doesn't even stop there.
Twenty eighteen study found that when you have a bad
(23:46):
night's sleep, you already are at risk of higher levels
of anxiety the next day, which you guessed is going
to make it so much harder to sleep the next night,
and it's just becomes a cycle of Okay, I can't
sleep because I'm anxious, but then when I finally get asleep,
my sleep isn't any good. And then I wake up
really anxious the next morning because those quarters or levels
(24:07):
have carried over, but also because I had a bad
night sleep, so I'm extra anxious. How do you think
that's going to help you or help your body? It doesn't,
and it honestly has such lingering effects in all other
areas of your life. You're cranky, you have that mild
feeling of irritability constantly, you can't process information as well,
you feel slow. In a study from twenty thirteen, research
(24:30):
is observed people's IQs after a good night's sleep versus
a terrible night's sleep, where they periodically woke up their participants.
Those who had been woken up their IQ dropped on
average ten points the next day following sleep deprivation. It
might seem small, but if that is a consistent impact
that you are noticing caused by high quisol, it's just
(24:51):
going to feel like everything else is just a little
bit harder. This really does go to show it's not
just about feeling more anxious. It's not just about feeling
more stressed. It touches everything else in your life. It
is in everything disorder or on everything experience. And I
think I really feel, you know, I really feel for
people who start to piece that together and realize that
(25:14):
all of these interactions and things that are happening in
their body link back to this stress response they can't control.
So we're going to talk about how to navigate that.
Whether you're experiencing just low levels of stress slightly elevated
cortisol or extremely high levels of cortisol. What are some
of the lifestyle adjustments that might be recommended to you.
(25:38):
I think if you're going to get tips on how
to lower cortisol levels, the first people you want to
talk to or hear from are doctors or an endocrinologist.
Basically that's a doctor who specializes in hormones and the
endocrine system hormones like cortisol. But before you get to
that step, I do actually want you to make sure
that what we're describing applies to you. There is a
(25:59):
difference between heightened levels of stress, you know, the short
term and chronic stress that is causing elevated cortisol. And
if you think that this applies to you, please go
and see a doctor. They will be able to diagnose
it for you. They will be able to really see
what's happening below the surface through blood tests, through saliva tests.
But I really think that cortisol just regulation is not
(26:21):
something you can say, oh, yeah, I have that that
describes me, and I'm just gonna go with that diagnosis. Also,
because it can be linked back to really serious serious
problems like cushing syndrome or tumors or problems with your
pituitary glands. So if you are hearing this description being
like that's me, Oh my god, that's me, that's totally me,
(26:42):
go and speak to your doctor. I think whenever something
blows up online or on social media, like this idea
of you know, cortisol face and cortisol weight gain and
is it high cortisol, we really do find it very
easy to see ourselves represented in people's descriptions. It's very
easy to see something and say, oh my god, that's
totally me. And that's because that's intentional from them, Like
(27:04):
they want you to engage with their content, so they're
going to make it as general and broad as possible.
And I'm sure their intentions are pure, and if they're
trying to sell some tea or some supplement, maybe it
did work from them. But your health is really such
a valuable investment. And you know, if you wouldn't want
your mum or your sister, or your brother or your
(27:25):
partner getting all their health advice from people on social media,
don't do the same for yourself. People sharing their experiences
is so valuable and it does help us become more
educated about things that we didn't know about the human
body or ourselves, but for something like cortisol dysregulation, make
sure you get a doctor to confirm that. And with
(27:46):
that in mind, that's where I sourced all my information
from specialized professionals, because I understand cortosol from a psychological perspective,
but how it impacts us biologically and how an entrochnologer
or a doctor would recommend we address that That really
reigns supreme for me. Besides from addressing underlying medical conditions
(28:08):
that are causing elevated cortisol and addressing those through a
medical intervention, which DA would be the first step. The
biggest piece of advice I received for lowering stress and
therefore lowering chronic overexposure to cortisol is to pursue balance,
not extremes. Often extremes are what caused chronic stress in
(28:31):
the first place. Extreme work hours, extreme exercising in some instances,
extreme relationships, extreme sleeping patterns. Your best bet for reversing
the impact of high cortisol or chronic stress is to
try and return to your factory setting, to return to
how you were made to operate as a human as
(28:54):
best as you can given your circumstances. What that means
is get back to the most simplest foundations of health, sleep, nutrition, safety, connection,
outdoor time. Let's focus on sleep first. Obviously we spoke
about that morning anxiety and how sleep can be very
heavily impacted by cortisol. But the tip that I heard
(29:15):
that I thought was really, really amazing is that even
if you are not asleep, try and be in bed
for eight hours a day. Don't scroll, don't get up
and watch TV just because your body isn't listening to you. Yes,
you may have to lay in bed till two am
in the morning, but you're giving your body the best
chance at rest. It has around forty to forty to
(29:37):
sixty minutes before bed as well. Reduce your exposure to
bright and blue light. I personally did this. I was
finding that I had my phone in my bedroom, so
if I couldn't sleep after the first ten minutes, I
would get my phone, or I would watch parks and
recreation or something like that. But I have since bought
like an old fashioned alarm clock, and it's been a
game changer. It's been incredible. I spend less time in
(30:00):
bed in the morning, and my room is now associated
with sleep. It's not just like some fun place to
hang out, Like that's not where I go to scroll,
that's not where I go to watch movies, Like that
is my RESTful place, and that is all that I
want it to be kind of used for. Another basic
to get back to is regular movement, and movement in
a way that you enjoy, not in a way you
(30:24):
think you should be enjoying it or doing it. Now,
there's been a lot of information going around that high
intensity exercise should be avoided if you're trying to manage stress,
mainly because of a finding from a two thousand and
eight paper that essentially claimed an intense exercise increased cordisol levels.
Now that paper was correct, it did increase cordsol levels,
(30:45):
and it was actually published in the Journal of Antocrinological Investigation,
so their findings were accurate. But those levels of cortisol
actually ended up fading and reducing over the next four
to six hours. And that's because exercise is a form
of stress. It is stress on our bodies, but there
is a difference between short term stress and chronic long
(31:09):
term stress. Exercise triggers short term stress, which does cause
cortisol levels to rise, but actually when we keep up
with that regular movement and exercise, our body learns how
to regulate those spikes and cortisol fluctuations, and so it
becomes better able to regulate cortisol in general. So although yes,
(31:29):
you might experience a small spike in cortisol after you exercise,
you'll also experience a spike in endorphins. You'll also feel
more relaxed, and so it actually is for the better. Obviously,
if you are exercising at ninety percent effort seven days
a week, you're not giving your body a chance to
repair and balance things out. But pursuing the kind of
movement that our ancestors would is really beneficial. Moderate exercise
(31:54):
movement in whatever form works best for you, walking, lifting
the way we would have lifted for trees, children, rocks,
like I know it sounds so rudimentary and basic, but
if it's gotten us to where we are as a species,
where we are now, and if that's how our bodies
were designed to operate, I'm just assuming that that kind
of movement is really what our body is asking for.
(32:15):
The Next focus is what we're putting into our body,
the biggest one being caffeine. I'm sorry if that's not
what you wanted to hear, but truly, caffeine is not
doing you any favors. So I haven't drunk coffee or
really caffeine really for almost four years. At this point,
(32:37):
maybe I'll have the occasional diet coke because I can't
be helped. But I noticed such a huge shift in alertness,
energy levels, and anxiety. I was so reliant on caffeine
to make me alert, and then I would basically just
allow it would make me alert, and then I would
(32:57):
obviously it would fade away and I'd feel less alert,
and then I'd make myself a lot again, and you know,
by the time that I was ready for sleep, hopefully
the caffeine had faded. Like it was really controlling my
energy levels, and with that it was artificially controlling my
anxiety and stress levels. Like the times that I felt
most stressed in my day or in my week were
the times when I had consumed the most caffeine, thinking
(33:20):
that it was going to help me be more productive,
but actually it just made me feel more jittery. It
made me feel more almost like unstable in a way,
like every single thought just felt a little bit too
loud and a little bit too urgent, and when I
eventually quit, I found that I was so tired for
the first two weeks, like I cannot explain how tired
(33:42):
I was. But then I was actually able to regulate
energy using routine and actually utilizing like the natural circadian
rhythm and flow of my day and my wakefulness versus
sleepy hours, and noticing like peak kind of like peak
hard work times, of like peak inspiration motivation focus times
(34:06):
for myself. And it was a really important change. A
two thousand and eight study also showed caffeine stimulates cortisol secretion.
No matter how much caffeine you consume as well, you
were never able to build up a tolerance enough that
it would stop cortisol spikes from happening. So, if you
are sitting there being like I'm so stressed, I'm so anxious,
(34:28):
and you have not cut out caffeine, if you haven't
gone DCAF, if you haven't gone for a tea, if
you haven't cut down to just one coffee a day,
please before you consume a supplement, before you try and
do crazy ice plunges for your anxiety, just try it
and see if it works. The next best tip that
you will hear is to spend more time outside. Nature
(34:50):
is where your stress response is meant to operate, and
so it is there that it will be best regulated.
I'm going to say one more time. Nature was where
your stress response was meant to w op rate, So
it's there that it can be regulated. Time and time again,
you'll see studies showing us that nature has a positive
effect on stress by reducing carters or levels, even if
it's just for twenty to thirty minutes a day, that's
(35:13):
the time it would take to eat your lunch outside,
or if it's really cold, where you are eat your
lunch next to a window so that you can just
see nature even if you can't be in it. Some
scientists like to call it the nature pill because they
have suggested that outdoor time, like what we used to
have as children, should be something that they can prescribe
to people. You know, people who live very busy urban
(35:35):
lives could be prescribed like thirty minute nature prescription, the
same way that they would be prescribed antibiotics or painkillers. Hopefully,
so they take it seriously, so they find like they
finally realize that it should be a priority, that this
will help you, that this is actually a researched and
necessary medical intervention. One study found that people who made
(36:00):
nature a daily priority for themselves saw salvatory quarters or
levels and self reported stress dropped by almost half from
what they were previously experiencing. But it is a practice
that we largely ignore because we have become so detached
from our natural habitat as mammals and as humans. Another
resource that you have at your disposal right now, much
(36:21):
like nature, is your breath. It is the tool of
meditators worldwide for good reason, because controlled breathing helps stimulate
your parasympathetic nervous system that's known as our rest and
digest system compared to our fight or flight system, and
our fight or flight system is what activates quarters are released,
(36:44):
so activating your rest and digest system is the counterbalance
that you need. You have probably already heard of a
lot of the breathing exercises that people recommend. Belly breathing
in particular, if you've done a yoga class, you'll be
familiar with this. It's the in hold for four, six
out kind of breathing, So breathing for four, hold your
(37:07):
breath for four, breathe out for six, where you're kind
of focused on feeling your body expand like there's a
big cloud filling up that space. So if you feel
your you know, energy levels and your stress levels rising
in response to a deadline or something in your environment,
or just something you can't put your finger on, try
this technique and try it as a way to get
(37:29):
in front of your stress and then later on respond
more appropriately. There are other natural remedies as simple as
nature and breathing itself that are important. Laughter, tending to
your spirituality, spending time alone, giving yourself silent and alone,
space and time all really important for chronic stress. Looking
(37:49):
after a pet, looking after others great for managing anxiety
and worry. Mainly, I think that what I would want
to impress on people, particularly those of us in our twenties,
is that we are told, especially in this day and age,
that pushing ourselves, being disciplined, sacrificing for success is going
to give you the happiest and most fulfilled life you
(38:11):
could ask for. It's going to give you wealth, it's
going to give you accomplishment, praise, achievement, and yes, pushing
yourself maybe will get you those things. But if your
body is under immense chronic stress in order to get there.
I don't think one part of it will be worth it.
You won't be able to enjoy it, you won't feel good.
Your body will literally become sick, it will crumble, it
(38:33):
will feel terrible, you will feel miserable because you have
neglected your physical and mental health to get to that point.
I think what's even more important to notice that high
levels of stress from lifestyle factors like overworking, they are
going to make it harder for you to focus. They
impair executive functioning, mental clarity, brain health, motivation. So pace yourself,
(38:55):
go slow, take time for rest and to nurture your body.
And I actually think that it helps you get to
the place, or to your achievements in a more sustainable
and therefore faster way, and in a way that by
the time you get there, you can actually enjoy them,
rather than feeling like just everything around you is crumbling
(39:16):
and suddenly you've gotten to where you want to be
and you have to take time off just to get
the basics down, pat and look after yourself. So I
don't think anything should cost you your health. It's not
worth it. It's so hard to recover, So take care of
yourself and recognize chronic stress as just as a risk
to your health as anything else that you would be
(39:39):
scared of, as smoking, as loneliness, as dangerous driving. Even so,
I hope this episode has helped you. I hope that
you have learned more about the impact, the hidden impact
of cortosol. We've mythbusted some of these beliefs that some
people hold about cortosol being bad, that you shouldn't exercise intensely,
that you shouldn't eat so foods because a bad view,
(40:02):
that this can only be cured by supplements. Whatever it is.
Hopefully you have a better, more clear understanding. If you
did enjoy this episode, make sure you follow along on
Spotify or Apple podcasts, leave a five star review, leave
a comment as well if you made it this far.
I love engaging with you guys all that way and
getting to respond to you all and see what you've
felt about this episode, And make sure you are following
(40:24):
us on Instagram at that Psychology podcast to see further tips,
behind the scenes stuff and also some infographics about this episode.
Until next time, stay safe, be kind, be gentle to yourself,
manage your stress, and we will talk very very soon
Host
Jemma Sbeghen
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