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The Role of Cortisol in The Body
Health | February 14, 2015
What is Cortisol?
Cortisol is a naturally occurring hormone in our bodies. Technically speaking, it’s classified as a glucocorticoid – natural steroids found in all mammals (including us!) – and is produced in our adrenal glands.
What Does Cortisol Do?
Our bodies release the hormone cortisol when confronted with stress. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Even when working out our bodies can release cortisol. In general, the release of cortisol is a perfectly normal response to help us biologically manage stress. Think of cortisol secretion in terms of our fight-or-flight response when in danger. Ideally, it’s supposed to help us manage stress.
Cortisol is also a natural anti-inflammatory agent in our bodies. Some of you may have even been prescribed synthetic steroids similar to cortisol to combat inflammation at some point.
Chronic Stress and Cortisol
Here’s where things get bad. Chronic stress due to variety of causes including depression, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders, constant fatigue, etc., causes a sustained and elevated level of cortisol to remain in our bodies. This is not good and can have serious consequences. Elevated levels of cortisol means the body can no longer manage stress effectively or efficiently. Instead, the body ends up secreting a constant level of cortisol out of desperation. Over time, this starts to add a lot of wear and tear on our body and can even impact the choices we make regarding our health and wellbeing. It’s no secret that those burdened with chronic stress often make poor lifestyle choices such as eating and drinking too much.
Belly Fat and Sustained Cortisol Levels
Some studies have demonstrated that sustained or elevated levels of cortisol can increase abdominal fat, especially in women. The academic journal, Psychosomatic Medicine published a study that found elevated levels of stress alongside sustained secretion of cortisol increased belly fat in women. More importantly, belly fat was also seen to be an indication of chronic stress and abnormal levels of cortisol. While the findings are not conclusive the relationship between belly fat, stress and cortisol – especially in pre-menopausal women – is something to take into serious consideration.
Private Member |
Great article Z! Would you tell us more about the control birth pill and its possible influence on fat deposits and difficult do gain lean muscles?
What dou you know ybout it?
Beijos :*
Private Member |
The best 100% natural birth control without any artificial hormones I ever had is Lady-Comp. I love being my “real” self, without any outside hormones affecting me. I really warmly recommend this to all women in the world! Check google for Lady-Comp. I have no business in this, I’m just a very happy user 😀
Private Member |
I use The LadyComp too for almost 2 years now and love it.
Private Member |
Z, thank you for this article. It’s so nice of you that you listen to our requests for articles 🙂
Busy Zuzka, just don’t overwork yourself <3
Private Member |
Thanx so much …shared.
Private Member |
seattle, washington
I guess the questions becomes. How do you know you are continuously putting out cortisol? And how do you lower your levels if you are?
Private Member |
Im also.curious for advice. I have it out of control
Private Member |
seattle, washington
A swim and/or time in a sauna helps me to de-stress, Elena.
Private Member |
Fine and when i already face this problem how should i get the stress again under control?
What does help you Guys?
thanks for advice 😉
Private Member |
Hi Zuzka
I wanted to ask you about milk products vs diet. Is good idea to drink milk ?? How much if you want to be lean? , orher products like cheese and yogurts any hints??
Private Member |
I’m glad you’re writing about cortisol 😀
I thought you might be interested as well that cortisol is a very important component of metabolism regulation (maybe you already know this…). Cortisol release in response to immediate threat or short-term stress helps to mobilize your energy stores for use (i.e. fight or flight). I haven’t read enough about why chronic stress would lead to greater body fat accumulation (even though I completely believe you) – it probably does it indirectly by affecting mood and sleep (which on their own also influence feeling of hunger, habit-related behaviours, etc).
The effects of cortisol on anti-inflammatory responses are also interesting. Like you said, reduction of inflammation can be good, but in the long-term this can lead to suppression of other immune responses as well (since inflammation is part of our immune response). In other words, chronically high levels of cortisol could suppress other aspects of immune function – which is why people who are stressed (or have been stressed for a while) can be more likely to get sick.
Last fun fact about cortisol is that it also has effects on your ability to learn and remember things. Again, this depends on whether the stress is acute or chronic (and when learning occurs). This can be explained by how cortisol works in your brain – stress can initiate a “memory formation” mode, which over the course of hours turns into “memory storage” mode.
So if you suddenly experience something stressful, your memory of the events around that time are usually quite good because your brain was switched to “memory formation” mode and then these memories are stored in the “storage” mode (have you heard of ‘flash-bulb memories’ ?). However, if you are chronically stressed, then your ability to remember things seems to decrease because your brain is already in “memory storage” mode (which makes making new memories harder). At least this is what researchers seem to think right now).