Cortisol is the latest trend in discussion on health and in social media. It seems more and more people are believing cortisol is the magic evil wizard to control in order to overcome stubborn weight that refuses to respond to normal weight loss techniques. But what exactly is cortisol and is it truly the evil villain stomping out our weight loss hopes? Or is it just another distraction from the big pharma industry offering more false hope diet results?
What is Cortisol?
Before we can dissect the level of evilness around cortisol, its good to actually understand what it is and how it works in the body. We've always had cortisol in the human body but now it seems under attack and believed to expanded out of its desired space resulting in unexplained weight gain and the struggle to lose it. Has cortisol really gone rogue?
Hormones, of which cortisol is one type, are simply messengers going through the body from the adrenals to provide information. They can become "imbalanced" which means there are too many or too few based on the body's ability to receive, decode, and apply the message being that hormone is sending. In this basic description, it would provide a visual explanation that if cortisol hormones are higher then the body is not doing what it needs in response to that cortisol message and therefore the adrenals continues to send more of it. Think of this like the louder and louder alarm clock that keeps going off until you stop hitting the snooze button ignoring it.
The Jobs of Cortisol in the Body
Cortisol has two primary jobs in the body. The one is believed more influential over stubborn weight. It is also a hormone that has acute (short-term) and chronic (long-term) elevation points that influence the body's responses.
While cortisol is just another hormone produced by the adrenals, this particular hormone is a steroid that is often nicknamed the "stress hormone." It has this nickname because the adrenals produce cortisol when the body's signals a stressful situation occurring. This can be as simple as a surprise of someone jumping out to scare you or something more significant like a string of really tough days at work. Cortisol is the response to stress to help the body take the action it needs to resolve the stress being encountered. Cortisol's message job is to signals the body's fight or flight responses to mobilize energy. It does this by increasing glucose availability through the liver, enhancing brain function to think of solutions, and aiding in tissue repair from the stressful wear and tear occurring.
In cortisol's other job, it is a hormone that is involved in the body's regulation of two primary systems - metabolism and immune response. In the metabolism regulation focus, cortisol helps control how the body uses fats, proteins, and carbohydrates for energy production. This plays into the body's ATP process at a cellular level.
The immune response modulation process is also influenced by cortisol levels. Here, the hormone plays a role in suppressing inflammation and regulating immune responses. The trouble is if your body is under high stress (chronic and frequent) then the body shifts focus to support the stress response and it lessens the support it can give to the immune response modulation. This is why we can often find ourselves with a "dieter's cold" when starting a new harsh diet or workout that is stressing the body, get sick following a high stress life situation or traumatic experience.
Cortisol is highly context dependent meaning the levels of it in the body are normal and necessary for our very survival and chronic, long-term elevation of it can have detrimental effects on health in many ways. This can include recurring illnesses, depression, burnout, fatigue, and even diseases.
Cortisol and Weight Gain: The Connection
With the basic understanding of cortisol's role you can start to see where it may be possible to have weight challenges with elevated cortisol. There's actual physical and psychological symptoms we can observe when this is occurring:
Cortisol Link to Increased Appetite and Cravings
When stress responses are triggered and not relieved after a short time (acute lasting from a few days to few weeks), then stress becomes chronic to the body. The production for cortisol keeps at an elevated state to support the perceived stress state the body is in. Due to the increased energy pull for this circumstance, there is a high tendency for increased appetite particularly high calorie, sugary and fatty foods. This happens because cortisol increases insulin levels in its quest to support stress responses, which in turn lowers blood sugar levels resulting in cravings for certain foods.
The worst time to go on a diet to lose weight is when your life is in a high stress mode. That simply adds to the stress your body is responding to which increases cravings even further. It is just a formula for frustrating disaster. - Amy Kramer, Naturopathic Doctor.
Cortisol Relationship to Metabolism Slowdown
The next area where cortisol plays a role in weight management is in metabolism function. Prolonged elevated cortisol levels result in the body's inability to burn energy optimally. When you are under stress, energy is burned at an above normal level that the body cannot maintain. This creates an imbalance in our metabolism function where the body is trying to support the increased demand for energy but it is not seeing calories burn at the same rate. In fact, calorie burn is lower ironically in this situation because when you are under stress the body digests food differently resulting in stored calories contributing to weight gain and insulin resistance.
Certainly as we age our metabolism naturally changes and slows down. When stress also does not slow down or becomes elevated this further complicates the metabolism function and cortisol's role. Maintaining your metabolism function for as long as possible is key but there are a lot of dynamics that play into this of which stress management needs to be addressed.
Cortisol and Fat Storage
With a slow down of metabolism function we also start to see fat distribution around the body change. Elevated cortisol levels is directly related to the amount of visceral fat that is also linked to metabolic disorders. Visceral fat is particularly attracted to cortisol because it has a higher density of cortisol receptors by design. For awareness, visceral fat surrounds the organs and can influence their functionality. This is the concern for things like fatty liver disease which quickly derails the livers ability to detox the rest of the body.
Again, as we age the amount of visceral fat increases, specifically for women during menopause. This is tricky though to manage because decreasing fat in the diet is directly linked to several health issues including cognitive function and dementia related diseases.
When dealing with cortisol and fat storage it is highly recommended to seek the support of a trained professional and not rely on trending diets and pills.
Cortisol and Muscle Breakdown
Elevated cortisol also leads to muscle breakdown over time resulting in loss of muscle mass. This is due to the fact muscle burns more calories at rest than fat tissue because muscle tissue is more metabolically active. When cortisol is elevated this happens at an even faster rate. This further slows metabolism and makes weight loss more challenging. It is also where we often find the challenge of getting back into shape through exercise. We often feel fatigued, low energy and less motivation to get started and it can feel incredibly hard to get started.
Cortisol and the Psychological Impact
There is another side of cortisol that is often over looked but has a significant role in how cortisol is influencing our weight. When we are stressed, there is a higher tendency to eat more as a coping mechanism or as a result of feeling more hungry due to the strain of stress. The body is looking for soothing support and food is one way that is provided under stressful circumstances.
Combine this with emotions, trauma, and depression related co-existing with stress then you have a formula for elevated cortisol that leads to sugar cravings. See the notes above about sugar's appeal to cortisol. This creates a vicious circle of stress, sugar, and cortisol all feeding off each other and growing into an even larger health problem.
Cortisol and Stroke Risks
Acute stress creates a series of events that work to increase cortisol production. This is intended to help restore balance to the body from stress interruption and is a normal process. When stress however starts to interrupt our circadian rhythm of sleep it creates spikes in cortisol that affect our physical and psychological stress responses. This further creates increased cortisol levels.
There is a direct link between blood pressure and salivary cortisol from stress. This is one of the contributing factors in high blood pressure in acute stroke situations. What you see here is the effects of ongoing stress impairing the body's ability to optimally respond resulting in severe implications to our overall health.
Often when it comes to weight loss, our emotions are the heaviest to lose. The body will adapt to healthy lifestyle routines much faster and easier than our minds and emotions which is why we have to personalize the experience of losing weight to the individual. - Amy Kramer, Naturopathic Doctor.
Is Cortisol an Evil Mastermind Behind Weight Problems?
There is a point where cortisol can be a factor for why we are carrying extra weight but it is not the only thing occurring here. Remember cortisol is just a hormone delivering messages for the body to do something in response to something else happening. With any health situation, it is necessary to trace the path of these events to the original cause and work to improve health from that point all the way through what we are experiencing.
If we only fix the cortisol problem we are missing other elements to the problem that are affecting our health. For example, if we take a pill to control our hormones but we don't address stress, diet, sleep, and lifestyle then when we stop taking that pill the problems will still be there.
What I recommend is a multipronged approach aligned to the individual. Each of us is unique and our health healing path is going to be different. The actual source of the issue for our weight can be very different. Aligning the right solutions and support based o your needs is where we see progress occur as well as managing the symptoms and balance of cortisol in the process.
Instead what usually happens though is we hear its trendy to do some new diet that balances our cortisol and we see some relief, lose a few pounds and feel better. We go with this for a while and continue to see some results. When we stop doing this though the body starts to regain weight, we have a hard time getting back on the program, and weight gets even harder to lose next time. This is because fat gets smarter each time to our tricks about how to lose weight. The toxins stored in the fat get stronger because they were not eliminated through the trendy diet and now that we're not following that diet anymore, cortisol elevates, toxins take over again, and our weight goes up seemingly out of our control.
The bottom line, is I don't professionally believe cortisol is the magic weight loss bullet alone. There are other things at play here that need to be supported alongside cortisol management. Getting that formula right for you is where true balance of cortisol occurs and your body has the opportunity to heal and lose weight.
Managing Cortisol for Weight Control
This section is for those of you who just read the prior section and are still looking for that magical cortisol weight loss bullet. Weight loss is the number one thing people seek help for and we all want that answer for how to achieve it in the least painful, fastest way. I get it.
So, for those of you still looking for that single solution, here's what you should know.
Setup time with a naturopathic doctor, holistic nutritionist or holistic health professional. They will start to break down the issues occurring and help you map out a personal way to start to lose weight naturally right for you. I offer virtual and in-person appointments for this type of work.
Healthy Diet. This does not mean dieting. It means eating a clean diet that includes ample real food consisting of vegetables, fruits, proteins, dairy, and carbs that regulate blood sugar levels and reduce cortisol spikes. Eating in this order at your meals also helps: vegetables first, then proteins and dairy, then carbs (last). This allows your body to fill up on nutritious foods first, and get the protein digestive processes started. If you still have room for carbs save them for the last thing you eat in your meal. This eating approach reduces the glucose spike.
Sleep! If you are getting less than 7 hours of sleep regularly you are experiencing cortisol elevation. We need sleep as this is where the body does the detoxing, repairing, and resetting of your day. It cannot do this work in less than 7 hours.
Stress Management. We simply have to stop downplaying the seriousness of stress. We have to honor our boundaries, rebalance stress roles in our life, and have meaningful outlets for how it is addressed. Stress causes more diseases, illnesses, and weight problems than any other toxin in our world.
Social Support. Building relationships with other people and having that network available is one of the best ways to support our mental health, relieve anxiety and lower cortisol from stress. Humans are social beings and we need to reconnect with the human inside and around us to real human relationships that give value to our lives.
There are many herbs I believe effective at helping this process of healing with cortisol. My favorite is Ashwagandha. A quality Ashwagandha herb does wonders on many fronts in our health and provides that daily balance support for cortisol. It however again cannot work single handed in fixing all the problems associated with cortisol. We must deploy a multipronged approach designed for our specific needs while adapting true healthy changes in our lives.
I believe the war against cortisol is like most trendy diets. It is well intentioned but misses the full story. A "cortisol cocktail" may help kickstart but if you are only using it and not changing anything else, then your results will be limited and you will further complicate the hormonal balance in your body. Cortisol is not your enemy or some evil mastermind behind weight problems. It is responding to other circumstances occurring in your body and life so you can be protected. The real culprit behind cortisol being elevated and your pants no longer fitting well lies deeper and is using cortisol to get your attention for support.
Let's work together! Virtual and in-person sessions available at www.dragonspitapothecary.com
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