Balancing Your Cortisol Levels For Stress-Free, Healthier Living

If you’ve heard of “flight or flight,” the human response to stress, you’ve likely heard about cortisol. Often called “the stress hormone,” cortisol is produced by our adrenal glands when we encounter threats, real or perceived. It’s been hugely beneficial in the course of human evolution and even in responding to the real threats and challenges of modern day-to-day life. It’s what helps us run from lions, wake up in the morning, and nail high-pressure job interviews. 

Unfortunately, too much cortisol can be damaging to the body and mind. And with smartphones dinging, bright lights blaring, screens turned on into the wee hours of the night, long work hours, and a lack of stress-alleviators--many Americans suffer from cortisol much higher than healthy or helpful levels.

Understanding High Cortisol

While high cortisol can be caused by medical conditions or illness such as adrenal tumors, certain medications or even pregnancy, most suffering from high cortisol have their stressful lifestyles to blame. Common culprits of high cortisol include:

• Poor sleep hygiene 
• Frequent caffeine consumption
• Too much screen time (TV, phone, laptop)
• Stressful jobs
• inactivity/no daily movement routine
• Lack of fulfilling activities outside of work
• Lack of social and familial connections
• Frequent alcohol consumption

If any of these sound familiar, you may want to look at your cortisol levels and work towards healthier lifestyle choices that are more supportive of healthy stress and cortisol levels.

Symptoms of high cortisol can present in many ways including:

• Unexplained weight gain
• Changes to your skin appearance and health
• Muscle weakness
• Mood instability associated with anxiety, depression, and overall sadness
• High blood pressure
• High blood sugar
• Fatigue
• Trouble sleeping
• Headaches
• Upset stomach

If these symptoms sound difficult to pinpoint and hard to attribute to any one thing, it’s because they unfortunately are. The best way to determine your cortisol levels is through urine, blood, or sweat tests. 

As one of the first functional medicine telehealth clinics in the world, we provide webcam health consultations for people around the globe, which makes it easier to get to the bottom of what is going on in your body so you can make informed choices for effective changes.

But if you’re beginning your cortisol-managing journey on your own, there are a couple fool-proof ways to kick things off.

1. Increase Your Physical Activity

Being physically active every day is one of the best things you can do for yourself and your stress levels. (1) While hard-core HIIT workouts and fancy pilates classes totally count, some good old-fashioned walking and some low-cost resistance training will also do the trick.

The best way to hold yourself accountable for daily activity is to schedule it in advance, ideally in the morning. Make sure you have time set aside to be active. There are so many free online resources if you’re short on time or motivation. Walk, dance, run, kickbox, swim, take a group class, take an online class…as long as you’re moving you’re doing good things for your cortisol levels.

2. Optimize Your Sleep

Sleep is essential to get right when managing your cortisol. Being higher in the morning, cortisol plays a role in helping wake up in the mornings. Honoring our natural sleep cycles helps keep these hormonal balances in check throughout the day and overtime. (2)

For good sleep hygiene, you’re ideally going to sleep and waking up at roughly the time each night and getting enough sleep (6-9+) hours depending on your unique needs.

If you’re having trouble sleeping, you’re not alone. There are many ways to improve your sleep including supplements like magnesium, blue light blocking during the day, and getting natural sunlight first thing in the morning.