Has consumer interest in cortisol spiked? Why do you think that is?
It certainly appears to be spiking, based on what I’m seeing on TikTok! And I think the reason is pretty simple: People are beginning to be educated about 2 things. One, the effect of chronic stress on their physical and mental health, and two, the role cortisol plays in stress. (And, not coincidentally, in weight gain!)
Cortisol is an essential hormone, and you couldn’t live without it. The problem is, it’s like first gear on a car. Great for emergencies, not so great for cruising down the freeway at 80 mph.
Unfortunately, many people in an over-stressed society like ours go around with cortisol levels that are constantly elevated and that is a bad situation, much like driving in first gear all the time would be damaging to the car. That’s why consumer interest in cortisol (and cortisol management) is spiking.
What are the effects of having high cortisol all the time?
High cortisol has three basic effects, all of them bad. One, it puts weight around the middle, the worst place of all to store fat. Two, it suppresses your immune system – that’s why marathoners invariable get sick the week after that extremely stressful event. Three, it shrinks a portion of the brain called the hippocampus, which is involved in memory and thinking. Four, it breaks down muscle, your best ally in fat-burning. And five, it contributes to insulin resistance, which I consider the metabolic plague of the 21st century. Also known as pre-diabetes, insulin resistance underlies virtually every chronic disease we know of. And chronically high cortisol levels contribute to it.
What’s the connection between stress and sleep?
It’s huge. When your sleep is disturbed- especially chronically – the body sees that as a huge stressor and pumps out a lot of cortisol. And when you’re stressed, you don’t sleep well. Sleep deprivation heightens stress levels (and emotional reactivity – ever notice that?) And not sleeping enough makes it harder to recover from particularly stressful events. So the two really go hand in hand: Too little sleep, stress goes up. Stress goes up, you don’t sleep well. So you’re caught in a vicious cycle where your stress is messing up your sleep and your messed up sleep increases your vulnerability to stress. And your vulnerability to mood disorders like anxiety and depression. Neither too much stress nor too little sleep is conducive to the recovery and rejuvenation needed on a daily basis through good, restful, uninterrupted sleep.
There’s a “natural rhythm” to cortisol release – how does that work?
Well, cortisol begins to “peak” about ½ hour or so after you wake up. (This increases alertness and energy!) It begins its rise during the last hours of sleep, hits its peak about 45 min after, and then declines gradually throughout the day (that’s one reason many people feel an “afternoon slump”). By bedtime, cortisol levels are a lot lower, which is a good thing because it helps your body prepare for rest. Cortisol reaches its lowest level around midnight to early morning, allowing you to sleep more restfully, and then the cycle begins again. This, by the way, is one reason most doctors test cortisol via saliva at multiple times during the day (usually 3 or 4).
What kind of cortisol measuring/laboratory analyses would you recommend to consumers?
This really depends on the specific diagnostic purpose of testing. Many conventionally trained MDs will recommend blood tests, but a single blood test does not capture the natural rhythm of cortisol levels described above. Functional medicine practitioners will frequently use salivary tests which a client can easily do 4 times in one day which better captures cortisol rhythms. Some practitioners use urine testing, but this, like blood, has the disadvantage of being a one-time measure. It offers an “average” of cortisol levels over the last 24 hours, but isn’t as good as the saliva test for getting an instant reading on what cortisol is doing right now.
What food supplements or ingredients support cortisol regulation? What does science say?
Well, the science says that nothing beats meditation, restful sleep deep breathing and meaningful relationships. But that doesn’t mean food and supplements can’t help things along! For food, you want an anti-inflammatory diet, which means getting rid of, or at least reducing, your consumption of all the usual suspects like sugar and ultra-processed food. Just eat real food, and if you’re not sure if it’s real or processed, err on the side of safety – it’s probably the latter. (No one is confused about whether an apple, a broccoli spear or a steak is “real” food or not!) For supplements
As far as supplements, there are several that work either directly or indirectly. Omega-3 fats for one. Ashwagandha. Phosphatidylserine in doses of 100-300 mg, something I’ve known about since I was a student. Magnesium and vitamin C help as well. L-theanine – a relaxing amino acid found in green tea – produces a state of calmness for up to three hours, largely, it is assumed, by lowering cortisol levels.
One supplement I’m particularly excited about is ThymoQuin™ which is a patented form of Black Seed Oil, a “remedy” that’s been around for thousands of years and used for all sorts of things. A recent study was just published using athletes as subjects, largely because competitive athletes are under huge stresses, particularly during the week of their events. Dr. Shawn Talbott, a well-known stress researcher and nutritional biochemist, tested athletes over the course of a month, with the experimental group getting 500 mg daily of Black Seed Oil in the form of ThymoQuin™. In addition to improvement in a number of other metabolic parameters, the supplement lowered cortisol levels by a whopping 44%!
Jonny Bowden, PhD
