Short YouTube clip by JJ Virgin explaining what cortisol is, how chronic stress dysregulates its normal daily rhythm, the health consequences (raised fasting blood sugar, weight-loss resistance, reduced serotonin, sleep disruption, increased gut permeability, and adrenal exhaustion), and practical steps: test adrenal function (salivary cortisol panel), reduce/shift stressors, add restorative practices (meditation, restorative yoga), HIIT for resilience, and supplements (ginseng, holy basil, vitamin C, magnesium, fish oil).
Chapters
So how should cortisol be managed for optimal health? Well, first of all, what the heck is cortisol? It is a hormone produced by your adrenal glands, and it should come up in the morning to wake us up. And then it gradually tapers down in the afternoon and evening so we can fall asleep. It allows serotonin to come up, make melatonin. We sleep well when things are off kilter. When you're under chronic stress, it's like you have your foot on the gas pedal of your adrenal glands and they're just continuing to push out quercus cortisol when it should be coming back down again. What happens when this happens is a lot of bad stuff. Number one, your fasting blood sugar starts to rise up and stay up, which can contribute to weight loss resistance and belly fat. You start to lower your serotonin levels, so you start to crave sugar. Your gut gets more leaky, so you become more food intolerant along with the serotonin going down that interrupts your sleep patterns. So a whole lot of trouble here when cortisol is being pushed on. And if it gets pushed on too long, then your body can no longer keep up with those demands. And then you go from being wired to tired and wired just flat out tired. Those are kind of the stages of adrenal exhaustion. So what can you do? First of all, you could take an adrenal salivary index test to see where things are for you. And that's a really good way to test, you know, rather than guess at this. And the things that are really important is to really look at your lifestyle and identify if there's any stress that you can reduce and then what you can do to help your body become more resilient. High intensity interval training is great for that. Meditation and mindfulness and restorative yoga can be helpful. It's really finding the things that work for you to help blow off steam and relax and restore. So whatever that is, that works for you. And then some supplements can be super helpful as well. Things like ginseng and holy basil and vitamin C and magnesium and fish oil. So that is where you start. But again, identify where the stress is coming from, see what you can reduce, shift your perception on it, put some restorative practices in place to help you handle it, and then supplement as well.
