No, You Don’t Need A Cortisol Detox

Tired of hearing that a “cortisol detox” will fix everything? Let’s set the record straight and rebuild your stress resilience with simple, science-backed habits. We dig into what cortisol really does for your body, why rhythm matters more than a quick fix, and how to move from wired-and-tired to steady energy with practical changes you can keep for life.

We start by breaking the biggest myths: cortisol isn’t the enemy, and not all stress is bad. You’ll learn how skipped meals and coffee-only mornings trigger stress chemistry, why protein at breakfast smooths your blood sugar curve, and how a basic plate—protein, fiber-rich vegetables, and smart carbs—can anchor your day. We get real about sleep as the non-negotiable reset, covering how late caffeine, screens, and tense nighttime conversations push your cortisol high when it should be low, and how a simple wind-down routine restores your circadian rhythm.

Training talk gets honest too. High intensity every day with low calories and poor sleep is overload, not discipline. We share how to periodize workouts, use active recovery, and protect muscle—especially if you’re on GLP‑1 medications—so weight loss doesn’t come at the cost of metabolism. For women in perimenopause and menopause, we outline why strength training and adequate protein are key to preserving bone density, mobility, and long-term independence. Rounding it out, we offer a daily reset toolkit: morning sunlight, walks after meals, hydration, capping caffeine after 1 p.m., and clearer boundaries that make room for real rest.

If persistent symptoms still don’t add up—like severe fatigue, unexplained weight shifts, or muscle wasting—we explain when to bring in a specialist for proper testing. Your body isn’t broken; it’s asking for rhythm, fuel, and recovery. Hit play, try one change today, and tell us what you’ll start with. If this resonated, subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a quick review to help others find the show.

Health Professionals I trust:

Endocrinologist: Dr. Chhaya Makhija 

Gastroenterologist: Dr. Tejal Pandya 

Primary Care and Sleep specialist: WiseCare 

Women's Menopause/Perimenopause care: The Gyn Lounge

Inclusive medical care: Fresno Inclusive 

Fitness for elderly and cancer survivors: RhoFit 

Thank you for listening. Please subscribe to this podcast and share with a friend. If you would like to know more about my services, please message at fueledbyleo@gmail.com

My YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0SqBP44jMNYSzlcJjOKJdg

Transcript

What Cortisol Actually Does

Myth Busting The Stress Stories

Blood Sugar And Cortisol Link

Sleep Rhythm And Recovery

Training Smarter, Not Harder

GLP‑1s, Protein, And Muscle

Practical Nutrition That Calms Stress

Lifestyle Reset For Resilience

When To Seek Medical Support

Closing Notes And Encouragement

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Hey hey! If you ever Google cortisol belly, cortisol detox, or how to lower cortisol fast, this episode is for you. Because in 2026, we are still blaming cortisol for everything and we're still oversimplifying stress. Welcome back to another episode of the Simple Nutrition Insights podcast. I am your host, Yonila Campos, Registered Dietician. And I'm really excited to bring these podcasts back. As I mentioned, I did these podcasts back in 2025, I want to say, and it's been one of my most downloaded episodes. So that told me something very important. We are stressed and we are also confused because everywhere you look right now, it's cortisol belly, adrenal fatigue, you need a cortisol detox, your hormones are broken. So today we're doing cortisol 2.0. This is the updated, more nuanced, more science-based, less dramatic version. And I promise you, your body is not broken. Full disclaimer: I am recording this episode on a Sunday, and obviously my family's here. You might hear my children or someone come in into my room to ask me a question. That's okay. I usually record these my episodes during the week in the morning when I'm alone. But we're making it happen here, guys. So let's start here. What is actually cortisol? Cortisol is not bad. Cortisol is a hormone made by your adrenal glands. It helps you regulate blood sugar, it helps regulate blood pressure, it helps control inflammation, helps you wake up in the morning, and helps you respond to stress. Without cortisol, you cannot survive. So the problem isn't cortisol, the problem is chronic stress without recovery. And even more specifically, what I'm seeing clinically is not always high cortisol. It's dysregulated cortisol rhythm. Meaning you're exhausted in the morning, wired at night, craving sugar mid-afternoon, running on caffeine, not sleeping deeply. That's a rhythm issue, not a detox issue. So while we are still getting wrong, let's start with some of the myths here. Myth number one. Yes, chronic stress can influence abdominal fat storage, but so can under eating protein, skipping meals, poor sleep, insulin resistance, menopause, overtraining, sitting 8 to 10 hours a day. Cortisol is often the messenger, not the villain. If your body feels stressed, it holds onto energy. That's survival physiology, but blaming cortisol for everything oversimplifies what is often a lifestyle problem or a lifestyle pattern problem. So I want you to keep these myths in mind as we go through them, and I want you to reflect and see where it is that where is it that we need to make some changes. Myth number two, you need a cortisol detox. There's no juice to cleanse the lowest cortisol, there's no magic tea that resets your adrenals, there is no seven-day fix. Adaptogens? Sure, something's helpful. But supplements without lifestyle structure are like putting a band-aid on a broken sleep schedule. And this one is hits me really hard because I often see clients that have, you know, a cabinet full of supplements that either they research on, they saw on TikTok. Please don't buy supplements on TikTok. That number one, not backed by science. Number two, they're not FDA. Well, all supplements are not FDA approved, but they're not third-party tested, they're not MSM approved. And you have no idea if whatever they're selling you is actually what they're selling you, right? Because there's no way to test it if they're not doing that on their end. So please don't waste your money. Please be safe. Don't buy things on TikTok because, you know, you saw someone that was like, oh, you know, I promise you this works because it worked for me. It's probably just nonsense. But the other thing, too, that I'm seeing some, you know, with when my clients come to see me is that they ask me, you know, is there a juice that can help me, right? Is there a tea that I can drink, right, to help me? And the answer is no. It can give you some potential benefits, right? Like if you're drinking more tea, you're more hydrated. That's wonderful. But if you're drinking a juice cleanse, right, and those that's all you're doing, that can actually bring some deficiencies as well, right? So sometimes the people that fall into these myths, right, are unfortunately the people that are struggling the most. So we're trying to find anything and everything that is gonna help us. But oftentimes those are not the best solutions. Myth number three. Three. You can hear my accent there. All stress is bad. No. Exercise raises cortisol, deadlines raise cortisol, public speaking raises cortisol, growth raises cortisol. That's not dysfunction, that's adaptation. The goal is not zero stress, the goal is stress and recovery. And that's where most people are missing the second half, right? We are just living in a stressful environment, chronic stress. There's no break, right, for your body to rebalance, right? To come back to um you know, rhythm essentially, to have that balance and have that break. But stress mean is beneficial, uh, just not chronic stress. So what what's what am I seeing in the updated research, right? Here's where we really have to pay attention. Blood sugar and cortisol are deeply connected. When you skip meals, when you undereat, when you only have coffee for breakfast, your blood sugar drops. Your body responds by releasing cortisol to bring blood sugar back up. So if you're constantly underfueling, you are constantly triggering stress chemistry, that's where you're seeing those huge surges, right? And so we don't have to complicate things. We can just keep it very simple. And I have an episode and I should do another one probably coming up soon on just what I teach my clients from basic stuff, not complicating things. You know, just I call it the 3 2 1 nutrition method, right? So aim for at least three ounces of protein with your meals, about two cups of vegetables and one serving of carbohydrates, right? That's gonna keep you stable. And it's not complicated, right? We're not underfueling ourselves. Um, and we're gonna see in, you know, as a dietitian, I'm gonna see these more often, you know, as we go into these phases of weight loss or yo-yo dieting, or if we're just, you know, we're using the the our GLP1 medications and we're not nourishing ourselves properly, right? Even with as we've seen weight changes, right, we might still have these high cortisol surges without a break, which are also not going to be beneficial. So we want to make sure that we're stabilizing and reducing stress signals, right? And balanced meals are cortisol regulating because you're providing your body with that fuel that it needs to number one, recover and repair, but also to let your brain know, hey, we're we're okay, right? We are not starving, excuse me, we are not um underfueling, we're getting the nutrients that we need, right, to survive. Sleep is non-negotiable. Poor sleep elevates evening cortisol. So scrolling the teeth at 10 p.m., late caffeine, heavy stress conversations at night. That disrupts your cortisol rhythm. You should be highest in the morning, lowest at night. I think this is also confusing. Sometimes, you know, I see posts on Facebook or on social media, and they're like, oh, I check my cortisol and it's really high in the morning. It's supposed to be high in normal morning, right? Because it's your body's trying to wake you up. Your body's trying to send those, you know, endorphins and trying to make sure that you're, you know, you're ready for the day. And it should be lowest at night, right? Because you've already went through everything, your body's trying to calm down, that's when melatonin is gonna kick in so we can go to sleep. And so that's essentially right, quote unquote, a normal, a normal range of iforcortisone. So if you're wired at 11 p.m. but exhausted at 7 a.m., that's rhythm dysregulation. And no supplement replaces seven to nine hours of consistent sleep. So if you're struggling with sleep, and this is a question that I always ask my clients, right, every single time that I see them, it's probably like she's a broken record, but it tells me so much information, right? Because if you're not sleeping well, number one, okay, are we getting seven to nine hours of sleep, right? If the answer is yes, okay, wonderful. Are those hours good quality sleep? Right. Meaning that we have multiple cycles of REM, multiple cycles of deep sleep, where our bodies are truly recovering, repairing things to balance out. Sleep is where the magic happens, right? That's where everything balances out. That's where the opportunity for your body to really heal, for your brain to get rid of memories that you don't need, make some space, right? For your brain to heal. So if that's not happening, right, makes sense that we're gonna be waking up tired and we're dysregulated. So asking yourself these questions, right? Number one, am I getting enough sleep? Yes. Number two, is my sleep good quality, right? If the answer is no, okay, why is that? Is it because I'm going to bed really late, I'm scrolling on my phone, watching TV, having that blue light that it tells your brain, hey, I don't think it's time to go to sleep, right? Let's not increase those melatonin levels because somehow we're still getting a lot of light, right? That maybe there's still daylight when there's that's not the case. Are we having, you know, special conversations for hard conversations at night that now our brains are like thinking about a million things, right? Are we worrying about things? Are we going to bed stressed, right? So we have to really look into our patterns, right? Our lifestyle and look at, okay, why is it that I'm not getting good sleep? Oftentimes it's not like, oh, because I can sleep. Oh, yes, but why? Right? Why can you not sleep? And if it's, you know, um more clinical where you need to have uh sleep studies to test, right? Not only because there might be sleep apnea issues, but could it be other issues, right? So, and there's so many amazing providers, and I am going to make sure that I add all these providers, even though they're local here in Fresno and their Central Valley area, you can always reach out to them. And if they're not able to support you, I'm sure they'll have colleagues that they can refer you to. But if there is an issue with sleep, I always encourage my clients, hey, maybe do a sleep study test, right? Maybe talk to a sleep specialist to help you figure out why this is. Because again, this is where the magic happens. Overtraining is real, especially in high achievers. I see this in professionals, I see this in moms, I see this in women trying to lose weight, high intensity workout every day, low calories, high stress job, minimal sleep, that combination is inflammatory. Even as someone who strength trains and runs regularly, I periodize intensity. I respect recovery. Intensity without recovery is not discipline, it's overload. And I I have a few athletes, right? And I encourage recovering, right? Make sure that even if you're doing acting recovery, that you're not pushing yourself, right? Because you might be so competitive, but you have to listen to your body, you have to give your body a break. And I see that in myself sometimes, right? Where I've been training six days a week, right? Cross-training, swimming or running or strength training. And then Sunday comes around and I'm like, I feel really good. Maybe I'll go for a run. And so I have to remind myself, no, this is a time for your body to heal, right? Do some stretching, do some foam rolling, and I'm gonna show up better, right, in the next week. I'm gonna, my workouts are gonna be better, right? Because I gave my body that break. And so it's important that, you know, we look at our training, right? But we also look at our nutrition around our training, right? Are we eating enough, right? Making meals balanced, right? Enough, nutrients. And I and I talk about this with my clients that are athletes, endurance runners, triathletes, or strength training. And we talk about, okay, how are you recovering, right? How are you during your trainings? How are you as you're gonna start your training? How about afterwards, right? Because all of that matters. And we are all interconnected, right? And so if we're not sleeping well, your training is not gonna be the best. If you're not hydrating well, your training is not gonna be the best. You're gonna be cramping, you're also not gonna recover well, and there's so many other factors too. You gotta know yourself. Now let's talk about the GLP1 conversation. This is newer, right? Not so much that the medications are newer because they've been around for a long time, but the focus on using them for weight loss, right? Most people on GLP1 medications are undereating protein and calories, right? Because the medication doesn't make them as hungry. So they're losing weight too, but they're also losing muscle. Low protein, low calories, poor sleep does stress physiology. Weight loss without muscle preservation is not metabolically health. We have to support the nervous system while improving body composition. And this one I've had this conversation with other dietitians, with my interns, and also with my clients, right? That I actually had this conversation with a client recently where we were talking about the difference between losing weight and losing body fat, right? Because when we have a goal of weight loss, right, we forget that what we are actually trying to lose is body fat, right? No, both body fat and muscle mass. So we have to really understand, like, okay, if my goal is to do body recomposition, which is lose body fat, but maintain or gain some muscle mass, that I have to nourish myself enough, right? That it's not going to be just, you know, low calories and or eat whatever I want, right? Because I can only eat a small amount and forget about the protein, because we are going to lose muscle. And muscle is metabolically active, meaning that it's going to help our metabolism. So the more muscle you have, right, essentially the more the higher your metabolism is. But on the same token, right, as you're losing body fat and you're maintaining or increasing your muscle mass, that's going to help you to sustain that weight loss, right? The body fat loss. So if for some reason you stop the medication or you stop your your healthy habits, which I hope you don't, you're able to maintain that, right? That body fat loss or that the body fat that you have lost versus like, okay, now that I've started stopped everything, now I can see the weight come back, right? Because we didn't have enough muscle mass. But the other super important thing that that is necessary to talk about is that as women, right, as we go into perimenopause, as we go into menopause, we're already losing muscle mass. We're already losing bone density. And what's gonna help us to maintain that, right, is strength training, eating enough protein, eating enough calories. Otherwise, we're gonna continue to lose that, which is as we get in, you know, into our 60s, 70s, 80s, we're going to start seeing issues with mobility, right? With flexibility. Um, and we don't want that, right? Because then that's where we lose our independence. If something happens to us, right? If we are losing our mobility and our gait, and for some reason we trip and we fall, and now we have to have surgery, that recovery period is gonna be even longer, right? Because number one, we have lost muscle mass. Number two, maybe we're not eating enough protein. Those two are essential for recovery. So think, really think about these, right? If you are on a GLP1 medication and you haven't worked with a dietitian, please work with a dietitian, work with a personal trainer, even if you hate exercise, don't see exercise in this situation as something that it's okay if I don't do it. No, this is necessary, right? If we didn't think about it when we didn't have this option of our GLP1 medication, now it's something that you have to do, right? Don't see it as like, oh my God, I hate exercise. See it as, okay, how can I help my metabolism? How can I help myself as I age, right? That I do it in a way that is healthy and safe. And that is adding strength training, right? Resistance training. And I'm not telling you you have to go to the gym for two hours. I don't even have two hours, but you have to start somewhere. And usually as you start, right, as at the beginning stages, you don't need much. You just need your body. And you get stronger, and then you can continue to add, you know, resistance training. And I'm working with a client right now. And I love that when she came to see me, it's, you know, we were working on other things, but in our last session, she said, I think I'm ready to exercise. And I really appreciated that, right? She's ready and she's like, you know, I want to start doing five minutes, you know, every other day. And I said, That's wonderful, right? Because it's not about the time. Right now, when you start something new and something new that you're not used to, something new that you might not want to do, the time is what's going to help us with the consistency, right? So if five minutes in your mind is like, I can totally do five minutes, and you do that consistently for the next two to four weeks, you're establishing a routine, right? Then you can increase it to 10 minutes, then you can increase it to 15 minutes until you'll feel that you're like, okay, this is doable. I can maintain it here, right, for a while. I'm getting stronger. Um, and then you can move on to something else. And there's so many resources now. I'll link some resources in the show notes too about movement. If you're in town, Rhonda's fitness is great, right, for beginners. She's gentle, she's worked with elderly and also cancer survivors, as she is a cancer survivor. But there's so many other alternatives too that you can try if you want to do online. My goodness, there's like endless opportunities there. But really, really look into that, right? We don't want to just lose weight. You want to maintain your muscle mass. And strength training is going to help you with that. Eating enough is going to help you with that too. So here are some practical nutrition tips to help you with this cortisol and balancing things out. Let's make these simple because this is what I actually recommend in real life. So try to eat within 60 to 90 minutes of waking up, right? You might think, okay, what if I like fasting? Or what if I like I'm not hungry? Okay. But once you start fueling your body, digestion also increases your metabolism. So, yes, you are going to be hungry once you start eating breakfast. And this is something that I hear often. Well, you know I don't like it because when I eat breakfast, then I have to eat three to four hours later. Yes, that's normal. Because that's digestion, right? You're gonna be digesting your food within those three to four hours, and it is normal to feel hungry at that time. But you're starting your metabolism early, and you are also not going to be starving or hangry by the time you know you go home, and then continue to be hungry throughout the evening, throughout the night. So see sometimes by shifting those times is going to help you to have better eating habits. Protein first. Now, this is a huge one too, because oftentimes when we think about okay, breakfast, well, I can start my breakfast with a pastry or a muffin or something sugary. But what that's gonna do, right, when you're raking your fat, is going to increase your blood sugars really fast because we have all the sugar rush and now we have to have insulin, right, come in to do its job and take the sugar into our muscle cells, our liver. So, but then we're gonna be hungry again, right? So we want to essentially be gentle, right, with what we add for our first meal to break our fast. And protein is going to help us with that, right? Protein is not going to increase your blood sugars as something that is sugary, right? It's actually going to help you to maintain them, but it's also gonna help you to stay satiated longer. And protein is not only for breakfast. You want to have protein every time you have a meal, right? It helps again with satiety, it helps you with blood sugar regulation, and not to have like these dips of energy. So don't just drink coffee or you know, your coffee with like a million things in it. If you want to have coffee and protein together, great. That sometimes works out really good. But try to have protein in something with like a fiber berries, or if you want to have egg whites with chopped vegetables and some berries, that also helps. Tofu scramble, with some avocado and some berries, if you're plant-based. So aim for about 25 to 30 grams of protein per meal. That's more or less, right? Your goals really depend on what you want to do. That's why working with a dietitian is paramount. Um, adding that protein first thing in the morning reduces stress reactivity, right? Because you're not going, you're not starting your day on the field, right? And now the stress kicks in. Because believe me, mornings can be chaotic. If you're a parent and you have to take children to school, holy moly, that's like really stressful time, right? I talk for personal experience. I feel like my heart is racing and like I'm still working out and I'm telling my kids, let's go, we're gonna be late. So prioritize, make sure that you're um that you're giving yourself the nourishment that you need in the mornings because you don't want to go into, you know, fasted or not having anything, and then you have this rush of cortisol, right? Because and these adrenaline hormones because the morning is stressful. Do not fear carbs, man, poor carbs, are coming back to becoming like the the bad, uh the enemies. But we still need them for energy. Carbohydrates can support serotonin and that can help with better sleep, right? So adding them um to your dinner, of course, if you have, if you have insulin sensitivity, you have diabetes, we have to be more cautious about these. But it doesn't mean that we have to eliminate them, right? We can still add whole grains, quinoa, barley, wild rice, sweet potatoes that are still gonna give us those carbohydrates that we need for fueling. And then if you pair them with protein and fiber, boom, you have a really well balanced meal that is. To sustain energy, but it's also going to help you as you recover and repair a night. Hydrate. Dehydration is also a stress signal. So if you're dehydrated throughout the day, you're like, I don't like water. Well, I'm sorry to tell you, but you need water to survive, right? You have to find ways to add water throughout the day. If you don't like it, you can add, you know, you can infuse it with fruit, you can add some of those squeezy to uh to add some hind flavor. You have to find a way to stay hydrated because dehydration affects not only your cortisol and the stress signals, it also affects your blood sugar and it affects your kidneys. So we want to make sure that you are mindful of those things. But emit caffeine after 1 p.m. And you might think, well, you know, I've had coffee in the past and it doesn't affect me. Well, you might not see it affecting you, but it will definitely affect you into your quality of sleep, right? And if you're waking up exhausted and eating caffeine immediately, that's also a clue, right? Not a character flaw. Sometimes when I hear my clients say, oh, I drink several cups of coffee throughout the day, or I need an energy drink, oftentimes that's not because we're we don't have natural energy. It's a combination of different things, right? Number one, we probably are not eating enough. And if we are, the balancing the meals, right, is probably not adequate. We're not having good quality sleep or enough sleep, or we're also dehydrated. So once if we start fixing these things, we can see a change and we probably we won't need extra caffeine, right? I've had clients that said, now I don't need to add, you know, three to four cups of coffee. One coffee in the morning, I'm good, and I have sustained energy, right? That's what you want to do. You want to be able to nourish your body to the point where it has its own energy source, right? Sustained energy, and you don't need to add extra or from outside sources. Let's talk about lifestyle reset. If you want to lower quote unquote, lower cortisol, here's what actually works. Walk after meals. And this is also so essential for blood sugar regulation, blood sugar management. Because whatever you you ate, right, you're gonna use some of that for some for energy to power your legs, to power your arms. If you cannot go outside and walk, pace around your house, right? Sometimes when I'm really busy and I've noticed okay, haven't I haven't gone outside to walk, right? And I don't, I won't be able to. Maybe I only have five, ten minutes. I walk around my house, right? Inside, around the living room, the kitchen, I come to the room, and it's just enough to get my blood the blood flow going and to get my body moving. You want that, right? It's it's also helpful because your body is able to decompress a bit. Whatever you need to do, right, to move your body, dancing. I have some clients that like they put on some songs and they start dancing, amazing, right? Find what's gonna really help you. Lift weights two to four times per week. Resistance training, body weight, whatever it is that you want to start with. But this is again a non-negotiable. You have to be able to get there and you have to be able to add these. And don't see it as a chore, right? See it as again a way to support your body as it gets older, because you're not getting younger. We're all getting older. So we have to be able to do these things to keep our bodies young. Um and age gracefully. Get morning sunlight. Even if you think that okay, there's no sun outside, right? It's been foggy, like the days that we had so much fog here in Fresno or the days that were raining, but even stepping outside of your house, just in the breezeway, or just outside of your door, and just letting some of that, you know, those sun rays hit you a little bit, right? It helps with your circadian rhythm, which is going to help you with with energy too. Create a wind-down routine. This one is so important because again, if your routine is like whatever, you know, we watch TV until whenever we want to. Um, I don't go to bed until like two in the morning, and then I have to wake up really early to go take the kids or whatever it is. That, you know, you're creating these unhealthy habits, right? And then we're asking ourselves, why is my quarter so high? Right? Why is my stress so high? And it's because of these, these patterns, these behaviors that we have, right? So do a uh a wind-down routine, right, that's gonna help you. Okay, for example, you know, I need I need an hour to, you know, wash my face, do my face routine, whatever it is that you need to do. And I want 30 minutes of just my time, right? Or my time with my partner. There are routine that's gonna help you with that. If you have younger kiddos, that is hard. You know, I have a younger child and he just wants to be next to me all the time. But I know that it's not going to be forever, right? But I still can add it as my routine. You know, if I need some alone time, some reading time, or if I need to get things, you know, wind winding down. Because you want to get your body ready and your mind ready, right, to be able to get into this good sleep routine. I also suggest you not to stop using your phone, right, to at least two hours before you go to bed. I know this is hard, but try charging your phone in a different room, right? Get a watch, an alarm that you can have in your room so that you're not getting disturbed, right? If you're like, nope, that's not gonna happen, then put your your phone and not do not disturb. You're able to manually check if someone, if you need, you know, if there's a phone number or a phone call that no matter what you need to get, family or whatever, you can select that, right? But everything else, notifications for like social media and emails, you know, it's like having a million tags open all the time, right? Your brain is like, I'm trying to sleep, but I'm hearing my phone, or you know, I'm feeling my phone. That's not gonna help you, right? So the best thing is, you know, charging your phone in a different room, stopping using it for two at least two hours before bedtime just to help your brain, right? Get ready for bed. I mean, you can put something calming or a tea, whatever it is, it's gonna help you, right? But it has been proven to help. And definitely stop answering emails at 10 p.m. or earlier, right? If an email comes in and you're all wired up or you're upset, that's most likely a night that is not going to be a restful night. And say no more often. So if you're always saying yes to everything, you're saying no to something that is you, right? If you say yes to, you know, activities or things that you have to do, uh, then that means that you're saying no to exercise, right? Or healthy eating or decompressing or whatever it is, and you're not getting that time to recharge yourself. It's okay to say no. Yeah, people might get upset, but they're gonna they'll have to get over it. Lowering cortisol isn't about removing stress, it's about improving resilience. So it's important to again know yourself. So if you're noticing, okay, I'm trying all these things and I feel like I still don't feel like myself, right? I encourage you to talk to an endocrinologist. I have an amazing person that I can refer you to, Dr. And she's awesome. So if you're having, and there could be some syndromes, like right, cushion syndrome or addison disease that are rare or but real, um and you want to be tested, or you're noticing, okay, my hormones are just, you know, I I don't feel like myself. And I have seen this more in my perimenopause and menopause women. And so that's when I encourage them to talk to someone about checking their hormones, right? And seeing what their options are, because we want to make sure that even though we're working on all these other lifestyle behaviors, we're also seeing looking into the clinical things that could be happening. You know, if you're noticing that you have severe unexplained weight gain, purple stretch marks, muscle wasting, extreme fatigue, or just major prep blood pressure changes, these are not things that are just happening, right? Like there we have to look into the root cause of it. Please don't get your answers from TikTok. This is not regulated unless, right, if you can trust the person because maybe it's a legit doctor, not someone that maybe calls themselves doctors. So please be careful where you get your information from. Okay, if you if this episode was helpful, please share it, tag me, send it to someone who needs it. And remember, your body is working for you, not against you. Okay, my friend, thank you so much for your time. Take care, stay safe, and I'll talk to you soon. Bye bye for now.