[00:00:00] I'm so glad you're here today because we are going to be continuing on with the Hormone Series. I know, I know. It's been a hot minute since I started the Hormone Series, but December happened and December is an event in itself. The whole month. It's chaos. So I didn't get to record a Hormone episode that month for the series.
So, we're picking back up in January. If you're wondering what I'm referring to, if you go back a couple of episodes to episode 160, I started a hormone series and that episode was on high estrogen. I plan to do a hormone episode almost every month and just cover a different hormone and explain what it is, how it works, and what you can do to help balance it naturally.
So go back, listen to that episode, and then come back and listen to this episode on cortisol. Because today we're going to be covering what cortisol is, what it actually does for us, how it's made, what we can do to balance it and help it kind of neutralize on its own, And [00:01:00] then also some supplements or vitamin deficiencies that we should be aware of that can also help balance it out. And if you find this episode helpful, don't forget to share it. Take a screenshot of the episode and tag me. I love to look for those. It helps me feel like I have a community and we are just friends. Talking about hormones. Don't forget to share it with your friends, with your family, with anyone who you think it would be helpful for, or let me know in a review what you learned from it, what you want me to do different or anything.
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Today, our show sponsor is actually my own company DFH training. As you guys know, I obviously do nutrition coaching and workout coaching. We are in the process of fully creating a new app, but one of the things that I [00:02:00] still do all the time is nutrition coaching where I help balance people's foods intake, which obviously helps with their hormones and we adjust things based on their goals and needs.
I'm definitely not about starving people. I'm about teaching people how to have awareness, balance, variety, and moderation, because everyone knows we can't be perfect. We have to figure out how to make it a lifestyle. And I try to teach you about food and then my coaches help answer your questions and we work as a team.
Right now something really cool I'm doing for a limited time in January is when you sign up for nutrition coaching right now When the app launches for workouts, you're gonna get 30 days free in the app So it's just as special for current nutrition clients signing up. Don't miss out because those spots are limited We only take so many clients at a time because it is hands on I am directly answering your emails and I'm directly looking at your information to tailor your nutrition So they are limited but yes
When you sign up for Nutrition Coaching this month, you [00:03:00] will get one month free in the app when it launches later this month. And we are getting closer and closer to that app, which is really exciting. We're just finishing up beta testing now.
I will add a link in the show notes for you to sign up for coaching if you feel like you would like help with your nutrition. And that one month free will be automatically added when we launch. So one thing I got to start with when we're going to talk about cortisol is cortisol honestly gets a really bad rap. The only time we hear about cortisol is when we are talking about it negatively and cortisol actually does a lot of really great things in our body. It actually has a lot to offer.
So yes, of course, it's known commonly as [00:04:00] a stress hormone, but there are so many other things that it does. So first, let me explain what cortisol is and how it works. Cortisol is a hormone produced in two adrenal glands, which are located at the very top of the kidneys. So the pituitary gland, which is in the brain, basically regulates your cortisol production.
All cortisol production is regulated by the HPA axis. HPA axis simply means the interaction between the hypothalamus, the pituitary gland, and the adrenal glands. So basically this interaction regulates that cortisol and distributes it for Mental or physical stressors. And that is helping create that stress response, that fight or flight.
That is the main role of cortisol, but it is so much more than just the stress response hormone
cortisol actually helps control our sleep and awake regulation cycle. So this is actually pretty cool. Cortisol is produced the highest. in the morning. So between [00:05:00] six and eight a. m. it's when it's the highest. We basically get this quick boost of cortisol and it takes about 30 to 45 minutes to boost. The purpose of this is it's supposed to help wake us up and create that surge of energy, which is called cortisol awakening response.
Some people call it CAR for short. So first thing in the morning, cortisol increases and that is part of what wakes us up. the crazy thing is this large peak of cortisol in the morning should normally equate for about 50 percent of a person's total cortisol production and then it's slowly supposed to go down during the day. As cortisol decreases, the hormone melatonin increases because that is our sleep initiator. So in the evening, cortisol should be lower.
Melatonin should be higher. That helps us go to sleep, and then it reverses, obviously, again in the morning, your cortisol should be at its lowest levels between 8 and 10 p. m. So melatonin can take over and help you go to sleep.
So [00:06:00] cortisol definitely has a purpose there. It helps. Get us up in the morning and help us feel awake. Cortisol also helps with blood sugar regulation. So cortisol basically counterbalances the effect of insulin on the blood sugar. Cortisol helps raise blood sugar by releasing stored glucose, while insulin basically helps lower blood sugar. So in a stressful situation, cortisol is going to help provide the body with glucose by tapping into protein stores, which is called Glucco, neogenesis. Cortisol also helps suppress inflammation in small levels.
I know that might sound weird because we know that high levels of cortisol can obviously suppress our immune system, but normal levels of cortisol, small levels, actually help boost our immunity by limiting inflammation. This is basically why people use cortisone creams when they are treating a mild skin condition.
I know that's obviously a synthetic version, but it still acts as an inflammatory factor, [00:07:00] which is similar to cortisol. It's the same reason why people get cortisone shots, because it helps reduce inflammation. So, cortisol isn't all bad in normal amounts. It can actually help be an anti inflammatory factor in your body.
Cortisol also helps with digestion and it does this by helping stimulate gastric acid secretion. So it basically helps your stomach get that acid going to help digest the food. And it also helps in controlling your body's use of fats, proteins, carbohydrates for your metabolism. The last one I want to point out is that cortisol actually helps your body uphold against resistance from physical or mental stressors. It can help with emotional suffering, infection, physical pain, temperature excess, and just helping maintain a healthy mood and emotional stability.
It really does counteract a lot, but obviously when it's off, it causes major problems. Cortisol basically affects [00:08:00] tons of organs in the body. It's crazy. It basically affects everything. It affects your nervous system, your immune system, your cardiovascular system, your respiratory system, your muscle skeleton system, and I It also helps with your integumentary system, which helps control your skin, hair, nails, glands, and nerves. So truly, when I say that your cortisol affects everything, it affects everything. And when the cortisol levels are disrupted and they are high or low, obviously it's going to cause you major problems.
So as we talk about cortisol today, I'm going to be referring to and focusing on high cortisol and some symptoms that your cortisol might be high are rapid weight gain, especially in your face and your stomach,
muscle weakness, especially in your upper arms and thighs. You can have high blood pressure. The crazy thing is cortisol actually does help regulate your blood pressure as well. So that's why obviously when it's [00:09:00] off, it can create some high blood pressure. Really wide purple stretch marks on the abdomen can also be a sign of high cortisol.
A fatty lump between your shoulders can also be a sign, weak bones, mood swings and anxiety and depression all can be caused by high cortisol among other factors, memory issues, impaired cognitive function, which basically means you have brain fog, your mind is kind of foggy and it can dampen your thyroid function.
The tricky thing about cortisol is oftentimes people don't even realize that that might be the issue because we don't necessarily see it as something we can always control or we don't recognize it as a problem because we've become so used to the situation where we have really high cortisol or high stress in our lives.
So I'm going to give you a couple of ideas of how you can naturally try to balance your cortisol. And if you think your cortisol is out of control. [00:10:00] As always, I'm going to suggest that you see a doctor. I'm actually having a hormone doctor on the podcast just in a couple of weeks. I've already booked the appointment and she's great.
She sees people online as well. So I'm going to give you some referrals there, but you can always look up a endocrinologist in your area or someone who just does integrative medicine in your area to help with your hormones. But here are going to be a couple of ideas of how you can adjust it on your own.
The first factor is sleep. You need to improve your sleep because that is going to improve your cortisol levels. You have to have quality sleep to be able to calm yourself down, allowing that melatonin to come up and then obviously increase the cortisol for the normal awakening in the morning as we talked about earlier.
If your cortisol levels are high, obviously that's going to Hinder your ability to sleep. This is why people say wired and tired at night because they're stressed at night Which we're gonna get into how to kind of reduce stress before you go to bed because [00:11:00] I need you to fall asleep I don't want your mind racing at night.
I've been very open on the podcast about how my mind races at night And so I make an effort to kind of calm my mind before I go to bed. I do use CBD sleep gummies sometimes to help I will add a show note link for those. I love them. They just have the cannabidiol, which helps you calm down, obviously no THC, but the sleep is a huge one for you to be able to regulate your cortisol levels.
A lack of sleep, either short term or long term is going to disrupt your circadian rhythms. That is like the balance, obviously your sleep rhythms and that balance as well between melatonin and cortisol. And any disruption is going to change the body's feedback mechanisms, which is going to obviously make cortisol levels unregulated.
So. My goal for you is to try to sleep more, not only more, but to wind down earlier in the evening before bed. I need you to get off your phone before you go to bed. I need you [00:12:00] not watching stressful shows or reading stressful emails. Let's try to not fight with our spouses or our partners in the evening because we all know that's the best time to fight with your spouse, especially because most of the time you're tired and they're tired and it's not always logical.
I need you to avoid those conversations in the evening, not just because, yeah, it makes it hard, you know, that you're fighting, but two, it's raising your cortisol before you go to bed, which is going to make it hard for you to go to bed. Which is going to affect your hormones and your cortisol levels. So calming in the evening.
I'm going to highly suggest you go back to the episode on sleep with Meredith Broderick.
Episode 53. It's from October of 2021. It's titled the sleep guru with Meredith Broderick. It's going to help give you a ton of ideas to calm yourself down at night to go to sleep because we need that cortisol level dropping in the evening, Not only for your health, obviously, in general, but to help you go to sleep because sleep is going to help reduce your cortisol [00:13:00] overall.
Next, we can talk about diet and how diet is affecting your cortisol levels. When we poorly manage our blood sugar and have high levels of inflammation, that is going to contribute to higher levels of cortisol and other hormone imbalances. So cortisol, as I mentioned, attempts to regulate the blood sugar levels and foods when they are consumed that have a very high glycemic index.
And by high glycemic index, I'm just referring to foods that are typically carbohydrates that are broken down very quickly. So things like sugars or simple starches, things like that. When you are having a ton of foods that have a high glycemic index, it's going to cause an increase in cortisol levels because it's trying to regulate that blood sugar. now with that said obviously this doesn't mean that you can never have foods that have sugar or starches in them I'm all about moderation, but the goal is that we are not overdoing them because if we are overdoing them, then it's going to raise our cortisol levels, which we're [00:14:00] trying to avoid.
So the key truly is moderation, not perfection. And that is going to help your cortisol levels
to help balance your cortisol levels. Honestly, the best thing you can do is to have an anti inflammatory diet that has a lot of Low amounts of processed foods and high antioxidants. So, again, low amounts, high antioxidants. It's not 100 percent perfect. It's about what you're doing majority of the time.
Typically, foods that are anti inflammatory are vegetables, fruits, coconut or olive oil, nuts, seeds, lean proteins such as eggs, wild caught fish, grass fed beef, Legumes such as chickpeas and black beans, Greek yogurt, and also having probiotic rich foods. A simple example is kefir.
All of those are going to help with an anti inflammatory diet and it's going to help with the antioxidants, which is going to help your cortisol levels. The other thing I want you to think about when it comes to your diet is if you think your cortisol levels are really [00:15:00] high, you're going to need to limit or avoid kefir.
Caffeine. I know, I know, you about fell out of your chair when I said that. Don't slam on your brakes. Wherever you are, it's going to be okay if you have less caffeine. But let me explain why. Caffeine is a stimulant. Okay? Cortisol is also boosting, creating that stress response. It obviously wakes us up. So in some ways you could technically call it a stimulant hormone.
I know that's not correct verbiage but it's a similar idea is what I'm trying to point out. so when we have caffeine, it basically is triggering that stress response by forcing the adrenal glands to ramp up and squeeze out all of the cortisol it can to basically hype you up.
Now obviously that hype up is sometimes really needed. But the problem is that hype up is very short and it's not long lasting. And in the long run, it's actually causing you problems. So if you have high cortisol, I'm going to highly suggest that you try to limit [00:16:00] and avoid caffeine, especially caffeine in the afternoon or the evenings.
Remember your cortisol levels are supposed to go down in the afternoon or the evenings. And if you're popping caffeine at 6 PM, that's going to be a problem. I actually make sure to never have caffeine anywhere past mid afternoon because I'm like, nope, I don't need a stimulant in the evening. I need to be calming.
I need that going down. I need to be relaxing. And it might seem foreign because you're like, 2 o'clock, 3 o'clock, that's not that late. But it does add up in the long run. So, you really want to limit it, especially in the afternoon so that we can calm ourselves and go to sleep in the evening and really keep those circadian rhythms good as well.
The next one that's going to help your cortisol levels naturally is exercise because exercise actually does regulate cortisol levels in your bloodstream. Regular exercise basically provides a mini workout for your automatic nervous system and your nervous system is what controls that stress [00:17:00] and relaxation response. But here's the thing to think about. Obviously it is useful, but if you are excessively working out, it can have a very negative effect on your cortisol.
This is where I laugh because with hormones in general, it's pretty much always a Goldilocks situation. Too little is bad. Too much is bad. We want it just right. And that's almost that way. When I talked about estrogen in the last episode, too little of a lot of things or too much of those same things are also bad.
I actually kind of feel like that's life in general if you think about it, but we kind of want that middle ground. And with exercise, if we are excessively exercising and overtraining, then we are creating stressors on the body and it is actually turning on cortisol levels and increasing them. This is really common for endurance athletes or high intensity type training sports.
So, if you feel like your cortisol [00:18:00] levels are really high, you're probably not going to be wanting to do a HIIT workout five to six days a week because that's really high intensity. Now, adding some
Lower workouts like strength training or yoga or Pilates and still mixing in some of those high intensity is okay But if you're overall doing that or overall endurance training and you're feeling a lot of cortisol You're probably gonna want to change how you're training It's gonna make a huge difference in helping to balance your cortisol one way to really know if you are over training and if you're having problems with the exercise and it's actually not helping you, but it's hurting you is if you are constantly feeling ill or run down, you're losing lean muscle mass, you're gaining body fat, and you're just always feeling exhausted.
Those are all signs that you are overtraining and you need to change your training schedule. Maybe take out some high intensity, maybe do some lower things, and to be honest, take more rest days. We have had a couple of different hormone experts on the [00:19:00] podcast already, which I will link in the show notes, but almost all of them have pointed out that recovery and rest is crucial for our hormones. So you do not want to be excessively. Over training because honestly it's too much and you're hurting yourself and you need your cortisol levels to come down So we need to recover properly
Something else to think about when it comes to diet and exercise is that managing a healthy body? Composition can also help level out and maintain healthy levels of cortisol Now, notice I didn't say being as lean as possible. That is not the key. That is not the trick. In fact, often people are over exercising when that happens, but we're trying to find a balance with that body composition.
So research has shown a ton that people who are obese or overweight secrete larger quantities of cortisol following the intake of food. So basically, if you are obese, then you're going to be creating more cortisol. [00:20:00] After meals,
I basically suggest to people to not go off weight alone, because weight doesn't take into account your muscle mass. It's the same reason why I don't really like the scale. I mean, the rock, if you did his BMI, they would consider him obese. And obviously the rock is like a giant rock of muscle. So when I'm talking about Obese or overweight, why I focus on body composition is because your weight doesn't matter as long as your body composition, you have a decent amount of muscle on your body compared to fat, that is what you want to adjust, but if majority of the weight on your body is from fat, it can mess with your cortisol levels because more cortisol will be released.
Exercise and diet is going to help balance those out. So not only the benefits of the movement of exercise and the anti inflammatory diet, but in general keeping a moderate body composition is going to help balance your cortisol levels.[00:21:00]
Okay, the last thing you're going to do naturally to help balance them before we get into supplements and deficiencies we need to be aware of is obviously stress. Stress, we know cortisol as the stress hormone. Stress affects your cortisol, obviously. So we need to control those stress factors because they are constantly turning on the fight or flight response.
Even simple daily stressors can cause issues. And the problem is our body really isn't in danger.
the point of the stress response system is to notify us of dangers, but the world is so busy and we're running a soccer practice and we're doing this and we're trying to figure out how to save money and we're trying to get this here and we're trying to do a million things that our stress levels are really, really high, which is increasing the cortisol levels and large amounts in your body.
And when this happens over a long period of time, cortisol is going to suppress a lot of functions to try to combat this stress. Even one of those function is attempting the [00:22:00] protection of your body tissue. So your muscle, it stops protecting it. A lot of different things going on when that cortisol level is really high.
So you need to focus on scheduling in time to relax and de stress. I'm going to be really honest here. This is hard for me. And I know this is hard for a lot of people because I am a busy body. I am go, go, go. As soon as I finished one assignment, I instantly jump into the next thing and the next thing and the next thing.
And I think that is really common for a lot of people. It's really common for moms. They got a lot on their plate. It's really common for people who are working and trying to balance a family. It's just common in general. And that's because there's just so much going on.
But even with that said, self care is so much more than just about finding me time. It's literally what your body needs to regroup and calm itself down. So this is something That I worked on heavily in [00:23:00] 2023 and I'm slowly getting better at it. I will never pretend I have it all together. I definitely don't, but this is something I've slowly improved and try to find windows where I literally schedule in time for nothing because otherwise my brain's going to go a million miles an hour and I need time to relax and distress.
When you take this time to calm the body down, it shows that you can relax, which turns off the sympathetic nervous system, which controls the fight or flight. It gives you a sense of control and it helps produce lower levels of cortisol and it increases the feel good hormone dopamine and endorphins.
This is also going to signal to the body that you can go into your parasympathetic system, which is your rest and relax phase. It's like the calm phase. But we sometimes have to get our body out of fight or flight and into this rest and relax, and we do it by trying to calm ourselves down in a healthy way.
Here are a couple quick tips to help you be able to do that because [00:24:00] I one time was joking when we had someone on the podcast and she was talking about taking time to like calm down and meditate and I was like, I'm going to set a timer and then I'm going to do it. And she was like, no, that's just going to create more stress in your life.
And I was like, Oh, I didn't even realize that. But we need to find little windows of time to really just calm our minds and calm our bodies. We can do this by reading. Praying, meditating. I honestly suggest you do at least one of the three every day. I wake up first thing in the morning and I take time to do all three.
You can choose one of them just to take time to be in your body and to think without thinking about all the things on your plate, but just to relax. Taking a walk outside or just being outside in general has been shown to help your stress levels. I linked a study in the show notes which explains how being in nature helps lower cortisol levels and decreases your overall heart rate.
Walking in nature can also help ease depression and [00:25:00] anxiety. So, It's not only helping obviously your stress levels, but it's going to help in general with that anxiety and depression and just reducing physical and mental stress levels.
I have a space in my yard and I highly suggest if you have the space in your yard, I have a little nook. Where I often go and sit, you can have anything in that nook, put a plant there, put a chair there. I don't even care if it's facing a corner, if it's facing a little bit of grass, or if you have a tiny bush there, just get outside and sit or you can go on a walk.
I tend to go on walks a lot when I'm stressed. Luckily, I live in Arizona and we can pretty much walk outside year round. In the summertime, it's a little brutal. You got to go early, but we can get outside. Even if it's cold where you live, go outside for three minutes. Three minutes. And it's going to help reduce your cortisol levels.
Something else you can do which can be simple and can be done from anywhere if you can't get outside is grounding exercises. These are [00:26:00] basically exercises that help you refocus on the present moment to distract you from anxious feelings or just in general reduce your stress. I linked in the show notes a page I found that had 30 grounding exercises on it so I promise you can find one in there that works for you but I'm just gonna list a couple that might be helpful.
Some examples are breathwork, touching objects around you and paying attention to how they feel, paying attention to what you hear, smell, or see. One of my favorite methods is the 5 method. So when I'm feeling overwhelmed, anxious, really high stress, it's easy to think, okay, five, four, three, two, one method.
This helps you kind of tap into your senses. So you're going to pick five things you hear. Anything. It can be like silence, it can be the air conditioning, it can be, you know, a kid's iPad up in the corner, whatever it is, just five things you hear, four things you see, three things you can touch where you're sitting.
That can be so simple as rubbing your hand along the table. Are [00:27:00] there ridges there? Is it smooth? What's the texture like? Anything, anything can help you come into the present. Two things you can smell and one thing you can taste. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. You got it. Hear, see, touch, smell, and taste.
And a couple other ways to really try to relax is yoga, stretching, calming music, and yes, even lovemaking. All of those can help level and bring down those cortisol levels. So those are just a couple of quick ideas. And if you're looking for more, check the show notes for those 30 grounding exercises.
Alright, those are all of the ideas and things you can do naturally just by your habits, by changing a couple things you're doing. Let's talk about some supplements and some deficiencies that might be causing high cortisol or if we can balance those it might help reduce high cortisol. So first, let's talk quickly about magnesium. Magnesium has a very calming effect. It is amazing. [00:28:00] And if you have really high stress, chances are your magnesium is really depleted. So you may want to look into a magnesium supplement. I will link a supplement I have in the show notes. It has multiple different kinds of magnesium supplements within it.
I really like it, but you can also just find your own magnesium supplement. I don't really have a link or anything to it as in like, I'm not an affiliate. It's just the kind I use, but magnesium is going to help. You want to make sure you're getting enough magnesium if your cortisol is high. Zinc. We want to make sure we're getting enough zinc in our diet because zinc can help lower excess cortisol levels. It does this because it helps stimulate and produce some of those calming neurotransmitters such as serotonin and gaba gaba.
So zinc is used to make Those calming neurotransmitters. We want those in our body when we have high cortisol. So make sure you have enough zinc. The next one is making sure that we have enough sodium and potassium. . And when the HPA axis is dysfunctioning, both [00:29:00] potassium and sodium minerals can be imbalanced, which is going to cause more problems. so we want to make sure that we're consuming enough sodium and potassium in our diet to help balance this out, which is going to help with our HPA access function when we're trying to bring down those high levels of cortisol.
And the last thing that I want you to be aware of for supplements or possible vitamin deficiencies that we want to avoid is you can add in adaptogenic herbs.
Adaptogens are herbs, roots and other plant substances like mushrooms that help your body manage stress and restore balance after a stressful situation.
So basically, the adaptogenic herbs interact with the HPA axis. That's the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis. And that axis initiates your body's stress response and plays a huge role in keeping your body in balance.
Research has shown that the adaptogens help your body regulate in a lot of different ways including your [00:30:00] mood, balancing hormones, fighting fatigue, and boosting your immune system.
so the top herbs that help with cortisol are holy basil, ginseng, ashwagandha, lion's mane.
And to be clear, when I say Lion's Mane, the very first time I was taking a course on this, I was like, Lion's Mane? It is just a mushroom. So it sounds fancy, but Lion's Mane is honestly just an edible mushroom. CBD oil helps. Not the THC, obviously, the part that gets you high, but in CBD oil, it has the cannabidiol, which is the calming mechanism.
But remember, that is a plant. CBD is a plant. Rhodiola rosa, Painax, And ginseng. those are all adaptogenic herbs which are going to be super helpful for you in trying to balance out those high levels of cortisol.
I know some of the symptoms that I explained that come along with high cortisol are very, very discouraging. I want you to know that I do see you on those and it can be hard, but I do want to point out that all is not lost. We can [00:31:00] always work on our hormones. You are never stuck. So if you have high cortisol, Let's focus on doing some of the things in this episode.
See if you can bring it down. And again, it never hurts to see a doctor on this, but there are things within our control that we can try to work on. We cannot always control every factor. That just isn't the way that life works, but there are always some that are. So I encourage you to try to adjust some of these things or add them in, or even take away some of the things that we talked about.
All right. That's it for today. If you want a hormone that you want me to cover in the hormone series for next month, please let me know. I am always all ears. And as always, you are doing so much better than you think you are. We'll chat next week.