What is cortisol and what does it tell us about stress?
Cortisol is a hormone that most of us have heard of but what exactly is it and how does it affect our stress levels?
Cortisol is an essential hormone that helps us regulate many bodily functions and maintain health. It’s often thought of as the “bad guy” but it’s actually not….In fact, trying to control/blame/eradicate cortisol would be like trying to stop a fireman using water to put out a fire. Cortisol is simply there at the scene of the crime to help. Cortisol is essentially doing an important job in response to a stressful demand.
That said, it sometimes gets it slightly wrong (albeit by no real fault of it’s own). The problem with cortisol is that it can sometimes shows up at the wrong time and in the wrong amounts in relation to our exposure to stress and demand, and God know this is quite a lot in modern culture. As a result cortisol can be a permanent fixture in some people’s lives, showing up almost hourly. It would be a bit like ‘said fireman’ showing up every time someone lit a candle or house fire. So, whilst cortisol might be high in some people, the question needs to be less about WHY it’s high (and excessively high at times).
Why is there so much cortisol?
Well, to answer this question it’s important to understand a bit more about the natural flow of cortisol throughout the day.
Cortisol has a normal diurnal rhythm, meaning it goes up early in the morning waking us up, and declines as the morning goes on, rising again slightly around lunchtime and being at it’s lowest in the evening before we go to bed. This rhythm (called the Cortisol Awakening Response: CAR) is normal and necessary for good health and homeostasis.
Ongoing exposure to demands and pressurized situations throughout the day (which can be as simple as being late for an appointment, stuck in traffic and even includes things like what and how much we eat OR how much we move and exercise) will mess with this rhythm. The CAR is also affected by hormonal changes during the menstrual cycle.
Failure to turn on CAR in the morning is a problem and can mean we feel exhausted and sluggish on waking (queue coffee!). It also means that other systems that balance it such as the inflammatory response can over react (causing pain, inflammation, or allergic reactions/symptoms).
Failure to turn off the CAR because of ongoing relentless stress, demand, pressure and lack of rest and recovery negatively affects metabolism and is linked to weight gain, diabetes, heart disease, anxiety, depression and many other illnesses.
So, should we try to reduce cortisol?
It depends. If you’re not waking feeling refreshed, experiencing even energy throughout the day, struggling to get to sleep at night, it would suggest that your CAR is not as optimal as it should be. In this case, it would be a good idea to try and recalibrate so that cortisol is back to it’s normal diurnal rhythm (high in the morning, low at night).
There are many ways to achieve this. So the first step is to do a stress audit. Sit down and try to identify what your challenges, demands, stressors are throughout the day.
It’s fair to say that the worst stressors are unpredictable (in which case it would be important to get some help with how to manage emotional response to a stressful situation) HOWEVER we also bring a lot of unnecessary stress (and elevated cortisol) upon ourselves throughout the day based on our lifestyle choices and habits. Even the smallest, simplest change can have a significant impact.
If you’re wondering where to start and what to change and it’s overwhelming…stop! Don’t try to change old habits, it can actually be stress inducing (not exactly the idea after all!). Simply start by adding in new habits. Such as what? I hear you say! Well, the most important thing you need to add in is spending as much time as you can resting, breathing mindfully, being creative, doing something calming and laughing more. I’m talking minutes, moments in fact. Start there with these things and it will encourage your nervous system to be in a more relaxed state throughout the day, therefore reducing cortisol at the time of day when you really want it to be lowest so that you can start to wind down for really deep meaningful sleep.
What’s the nerdy science/evidence behind this article?
Check out this paper by Bruce S. McEwen published in 2019.