Speaker 1: Hello everybody, Welcome back to the show. Welcome back to
Speaker 1: the podcast, new listeners, old listeners. Wherever you are in
Speaker 1: the world, it is so great to have you here.
Speaker 1: Back for another episode as we, of course break down
Speaker 1: the psychology of our twenties. Today we're going to be
Speaker 1: talking about cortisol. We're going to be talking about the
Speaker 1: hidden and in depth impact that this stress hormone has
Speaker 1: on our bodies, on our minds, our cognition, and even
Speaker 1: things that you might not think about, like your emotional intelligence,
Speaker 1: our creativity, our relationships. You have probably been hearing a
Speaker 1: lot about cortisol recently, and your interest may or may
Speaker 1: not be piqued. So I want this episode to be
Speaker 1: a bit of a one oh one psychology guide to
Speaker 1: a what cortisol is be, what it does, and why
Speaker 1: it's important, see what happens when it becomes disregulated, and
Speaker 1: more importantly, how to sustainably your stress response and lower
Speaker 1: your risk of chronic stress so that dysresgulated cortisolt hopefully
Speaker 1: doesn't become a problem for you. There is a lot
Speaker 1: of stress to be experienced in our twenties. I'm sure
Speaker 1: I don't need to tell you that because you know,
Speaker 1: this period of our life is so uncertain and at
Speaker 1: times unstable, but it also feels very unnecessarily urgent, as
Speaker 1: if we have to have it all figured out right now.
Speaker 1: This instant and all of these expectations in this external
Speaker 1: but also internal pressure creates the perfect conditions for us
Speaker 1: to be in emergency mode, maybe more often than we
Speaker 1: need to be, and so understanding what happens to our
Speaker 1: bodies when that's the case, or also when we experience
Speaker 1: great environmental stresses like illness, like a breakup, like something
Speaker 1: terrible or traumatic, it's really important to know what's going
Speaker 1: on behind the scenes when it comes to your stress
Speaker 1: response so that that doesn't become the dominating state for you.
Speaker 1: There's also a lot of misinformation online about cortisol that
Speaker 1: I want to break down. Some of the myths I've
Speaker 1: heard recently are that cortisol is always bad for you,
Speaker 1: that you shouldn't do intense exercise because it increases cortisol.
Speaker 1: Your cortisol levels, you know, they can be controlled by
Speaker 1: processed sugar, You need to cleanse, you need supplements, etcetera, etcetera.
Speaker 1: But I think that the answer is a lot more simple,
Speaker 1: and the more you know about just the very basics
Speaker 1: of cortisol, the more you can make informed choices. So
Speaker 1: that is our plan for today. Let's talk all things
Speaker 1: cortisol and the experiences you may or may not know
Speaker 1: are associated with there's widely talked about but often misunderstood hormone,
Speaker 1: but also how you can manage your stress levels in
Speaker 1: the most simple, basic ways in your twenties. All of
Speaker 1: that and more on the psychology of cortisol without further ado,
Speaker 1: Let's get into it. Let me start out by saying
Speaker 1: something maybe rather obvious, and that is that cordosol gets
Speaker 1: a bad rap. Truly, it is demonized by people for
Speaker 1: so many things, especially online, where people talk about cortisol face,
Speaker 1: cortisol weight gain, how to reduce your cortisol using oranges,
Speaker 1: or some secret herbal recipe that only they can sell
Speaker 1: to you. I even saw a video the other day
Speaker 1: titled how to get your Cortisol levels to Zero, which
Speaker 1: honestly it made me laugh. I sent it to a
Speaker 1: few friends because that is the complete opposite of what
Speaker 1: you want. You know, there is just so much misinformation
Speaker 1: around this hormone. So let's quickly myth bust this idea
Speaker 1: that Cortisol is singularly bad for you. Cortisol actually plays
Speaker 1: a really essential role in your body, a vital one. Obviously.
Speaker 1: It's known as the stress hormone because of its part
Speaker 1: in helping us feel alert and energized and able to
Speaker 1: respond to danger like a car racing towards you, or
Speaker 1: a vicious dog, or some deadline, or even internal stresses
Speaker 1: like repetitive thoughts and a fear of failure. Cortisols association
Speaker 1: with stress, which we typically see as bad, is probably
Speaker 1: why it gets a bad reputation, and you know why
Speaker 1: it's demonized, But it actually is really important in helping
Speaker 1: us handle the big, scary, nerve racking things that we
Speaker 1: encounter in our daily life, and without it, we would
Speaker 1: not be able to act or respond to really anything
Speaker 1: in our environment in a way that was appropriate. Some
Speaker 1: people often the second misconception is that adrenaline and cortisol
Speaker 1: are the same, because they do work pretty closely together
Speaker 1: when it comes to arousal and our stress response. But
Speaker 1: the main difference is that adrenaline is what triggers your
Speaker 1: flight or flight response. It is the first responder, It
Speaker 1: is the police car at the scene. It gets your
Speaker 1: heart pumping your pupils dilated, your blood pressure up. But
Speaker 1: cortisol is what comes in, is backup. It's the paramedics,
Speaker 1: it's the ambulance. Your cortisol is there for the recovery,
Speaker 1: it's there for the long game. It's there to make
Speaker 1: sure that your response to whatever situation is alarming you
Speaker 1: is sustained. So really what it's responsible for is the
Speaker 1: long term stress response, so your hypervigilance, making sure you
Speaker 1: are still alert to potential new threats, making sure your
Speaker 1: body can get enough glucose and can use that glucose
Speaker 1: helping your body break down fats, protein carbs, which essentially
Speaker 1: is what allows you to have energy, not just in
Speaker 1: the aftermath of a crisis, but during your day to day.
Speaker 1: So what I'm really trying to say is that we
Speaker 1: really actually need it. Let's imagine you did lower your
Speaker 1: cortisol levels to almost zero, as that video I saw
Speaker 1: the other day was suggesting. You know, if you didn't
Speaker 1: have enough cortisol available in your body, I've really just
Speaker 1: put it quite frankly, you would die. Like that's it.
Speaker 1: It's called a drenal insufficiency, and it's life threatening, like
Speaker 1: you would go into shock, you wouldn't be able to move,
Speaker 1: you wouldn't really be able to respond to anything. So
Speaker 1: you do need cortisol, plain and simple, Even though it
Speaker 1: has that negative association with stress. We also know that
Speaker 1: stress isn't wholly bad either. But the problems begin to
Speaker 1: occur when your body cannot regulate the level of cortisol.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about what that does to your body in
Speaker 1: a second, but we need to discuss why it happens.
Speaker 1: So the biggest culprit here is chronic stress because it
Speaker 1: causes how cortisol levels to remain high even when the
Speaker 1: thing in our environment or the internal stress that has passed.
Speaker 1: So chronic stress is like a rather broad descriptive here.
Speaker 1: It contains many events, situations, things, But I want to
Speaker 1: give you some examples of what could cause us to
Speaker 1: be in this state. A big one is long term
Speaker 1: financial problems. Maybe there was a study from twenty thirteen
Speaker 1: that found that financial strain increases daily cortisol output. And
Speaker 1: you know a lot of us are experiencing the cost
Speaker 1: of living crunch. That's likely making our baseline level of
Speaker 1: stress increase. If you have a demanding, high pressed job,
Speaker 1: that's also going to contribute or even not having a
Speaker 1: job at all. On the other side of the spectrum,
Speaker 1: you can see why that sometimes might feel tricky to navigate.
Speaker 1: What's another few examples tense and difficult relationships, whether that's romantic, platonic, familial,
Speaker 1: that can bleed into your mental health and increased cortisol
Speaker 1: levels because you feel stressed in response to your emotional
Speaker 1: social environment. Even health problems like if you have a
Speaker 1: chronic illness or a serious injury that has impacted your
Speaker 1: physical functioning, that's going to increase cordisol. And major life
Speaker 1: events so death, divorce, a breakup, all of those have
Speaker 1: a lingering emotional impact act that can disturb our emotional chromeostasis.
Speaker 1: So the one important thing to remember is that stress,
Speaker 1: although it sometimes helps motivate us, it helps us get
Speaker 1: shit done, it is not meant to be experienced constantly.
Speaker 1: And when it is, this means that the system in
Speaker 1: our body responsible for secreting all types of hormones, it's
Speaker 1: called the HbA axis, it remains overactive and it's not
Speaker 1: necessarily getting the cues from our body to slow down
Speaker 1: to pump the brakes. Over time. What this does is
Speaker 1: it desensitizes cortisolv receptors and it disrupts the body's natural
Speaker 1: feedback mechanisms. So a feedback mechanism is basically there are
Speaker 1: little I don't know how to explain it, like there
Speaker 1: are little watch towers, little gates in our body that
Speaker 1: are meant to be like, oh okay, we've got too
Speaker 1: much here, send it back, send it back, lower it down, increase,
Speaker 1: like almost like markers, little test areas that your body
Speaker 1: is able to use to respond to levels of cortisol.
Speaker 1: But when they become too desensitized or whatever it is,
Speaker 1: they don't start giving the right feedback. So that can
Speaker 1: either result in something called hyper secretion, so too much cortisol,
Speaker 1: or the opposite low low levels, which is hypo secretion,
Speaker 1: so hyper versus hypo. How I really like to imagine
Speaker 1: hyper secretion, which is really what we're focusing on today.
Speaker 1: It's like you're behind the wheel of a car and
Speaker 1: your shoe gets jammed over the accelerator and you're trying
Speaker 1: really hard to keep your eyes on the road. You're
Speaker 1: going so many miles an hour. You're trying to navigate
Speaker 1: traffic lights, navigate, you know, navigate, stop science and there's
Speaker 1: a bus full of children. You want to avoid that
Speaker 1: there's a lake, you don't want to fall into it.
Speaker 1: You're trying to keep your eyes focused on what is
Speaker 1: actually happening, whilst also trying to get your shoe unjammed.
Speaker 1: And that's the impossibility of dealing with high cortisol injuiced
Speaker 1: chronic stress. You have to both deal with the impacts
Speaker 1: of high cortisol whilst also trying to reduce the stress.
Speaker 1: At the same time. You have to try and keep
Speaker 1: your eyes on the road, but also you know, look
Speaker 1: down to try and get the shoe off the pedal.
Speaker 1: So some other causes of high and dysregulated cortisol include
Speaker 1: an overactive pituitary gland. This one's actually very very common.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it can be due to tumors or growths, but
Speaker 1: also medications like steroids, also some form of birth control.
Speaker 1: I actually looked into this because I hadn't heard of
Speaker 1: that before. I hadn't heard about the relationship between birth
Speaker 1: control and cortisol, and there definitely needs to be more
Speaker 1: research done on it. But there was a twenty twenty
Speaker 1: four case study conducted by a doctor at UCLA that
Speaker 1: found that some oral contraceptives increase cortisol level in patients.
Speaker 1: He measured this by testing cortisol levels before and after
Speaker 1: the use of an oral contraceptive for two months, and
Speaker 1: found that there was an almost three one hundred percent
Speaker 1: increase twenty six milligrams over the normal range after this
Speaker 1: person began to go back on their birth control. So
Speaker 1: it doesn't mean to go off your pill right away,
Speaker 1: or that your pill is making you stressed, although I
Speaker 1: think a lot of women would tell us like, there
Speaker 1: are huge emotional differences that I notice because the pill
Speaker 1: is influencing hormones and that is what cortisol is. But again, yes,
Speaker 1: not about trying to convince you to just go cold
Speaker 1: turkey on something that's very, very important for your health
Speaker 1: and your reproductive health in other areas. But it is
Speaker 1: an important factor to really think about. If you have
Speaker 1: just gone on the pill and you've noticed anxiety spiking,
Speaker 1: could this be a contributor. But also if you are
Speaker 1: already prone to chronic stress, and you already work in
Speaker 1: a really intense industry, you're drinking three to four coffees
Speaker 1: a day, you can only really unwind with alcohol, all
Speaker 1: of these things are going to be compounding. They're going
Speaker 1: to be compounding factors. On your mental emotional, cognitive state.
Speaker 1: And the reason why is because of the influence they
Speaker 1: have on cortisol and the influence they have on how
Speaker 1: our body responds to stress. Some other factors that contribute
Speaker 1: to high cortisol conditions, like depression and anxiety, have also
Speaker 1: been associated with elevated cortisol levels. However, it's important to
Speaker 1: note the direction of this relationship. It's kind of hard
Speaker 1: to pin down, right, how do we know whether you
Speaker 1: are anxious because you have elevated cortisol or your anxiety
Speaker 1: is causing cortisol levels to spike, right, It's very hard
Speaker 1: to tell. Most researchers would say, actually, it's a very
Speaker 1: intertwined system anxiety high cortisol. Although we don't know the relationship,
Speaker 1: we do know they often go hand in hand. This
Speaker 1: is kind of a very quick summary of what contributes
Speaker 1: to a spike in this stress hormone, and it's important
Speaker 1: to know that there is no way of escaping the
Speaker 1: impact this will have on your body. Humans are very
Speaker 1: strong creatures, but we are also still creatures, and no
Speaker 1: creature can survive under conditions of acute stress for a
Speaker 1: long period of time. Health does decline. Mental wellbeing does decline.
Speaker 1: You even see small things like hair and skin quality
Speaker 1: start to fade, Like you start to see someone's skin
Speaker 1: become quite grayish, their hair starts to fall out, all
Speaker 1: signs of like a sickness, and that sickness in this
Speaker 1: instance is coming from stress. Obviously, those are some intense examples.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about what the hidden impact of excessive cortisol
Speaker 1: might look like on a smaller scale. Firstly, I'm going
Speaker 1: to touch on some of the non obvious effects that
Speaker 1: you may not have heard about yet. The first big
Speaker 1: one is that high levels of cortisol dampen your emotional intelligence,
Speaker 1: so you're less able to respond not only just to
Speaker 1: your own emotional states, but also you're less able to
Speaker 1: recognize and appropriately respond to others. It's why you may
Speaker 1: become snappy. You may suddenly realize you're saying things you
Speaker 1: don't mean, and you didn't quite realize that you were
Speaker 1: saying them. That you're just exhausted and tired and sad.
Speaker 1: And if someone asks you why, you can't tell them
Speaker 1: because you haven't been able to see or notice any
Speaker 1: cause and effect between situations and your emotions, because your
Speaker 1: emotional intelligence has been compromised. Here's another interesting impact. There
Speaker 1: was a twenty fourteen study that found that elevated cor
Speaker 1: result actually shifts our response to risk so that we
Speaker 1: become more cautious and guarded when it comes to anything
Speaker 1: from financial decisions to Korea to relationship decisions. It can
Speaker 1: make it so that when we see opportunity, we feel
Speaker 1: like the likelihood of that opportunity being realized is is reduced,
Speaker 1: so we're less likely to take risks, We're less likely
Speaker 1: to bet on ourselves. It's why people who are in
Speaker 1: chronic stress states find it harder to you know, take
Speaker 1: the leap to start a business, or to go back
Speaker 1: to school, or to try something new. Stress intertwines not
Speaker 1: just with health, but with decision making as well. Here's
Speaker 1: another you know, kind of scary realization or impact of
Speaker 1: high courts all it makes us more pessimistic and it
Speaker 1: makes us less creative. So if you are someone who
Speaker 1: loves making art, you love creating things, that important creative
Speaker 1: process and that ability to come up with new ideas
Speaker 1: spontaneously and execute them, it will decline when you are
Speaker 1: in a stressed state, because you cannot thrive during acute stress.
Speaker 1: It's why the secret to being more creative is and
Speaker 1: always will be rest and novelty over discipline and routine
Speaker 1: and overworking, because in the former ladder, in the latter conditions,
Speaker 1: there is just not enough room for your brain to
Speaker 1: explore different areas of itself. So those are some of
Speaker 1: the impacts you may not have heard of, but here
Speaker 1: are some of the ones that you may already have
Speaker 1: a sense might occur to someone who's experiencing high cordisol levels.
Speaker 1: The first one is rapid weight gain. So high cortisol
Speaker 1: levels triggered by chronic stress, they increase our appetite and
Speaker 1: cravings for high calorie fatty foods by stimulating the release
Speaker 1: of appetite regulating hormones. So let's talk about why this
Speaker 1: is the case. Obviously, cortisol is released in response to stress,
Speaker 1: and if the body is stressed, it's thinking this is
Speaker 1: an emergency situation. This is a situation that we want
Speaker 1: to endure and survive. And if we're going to survive
Speaker 1: it, it means we should have as many resources as possible,
Speaker 1: including the energy stores that are necessary. How do we
Speaker 1: bulk up or increase energy stores as a resource by
Speaker 1: eating more? So your body is literally saying almost like
Speaker 1: almost preparing for like not hibernation, but the opposite, like
Speaker 1: preparing to fight, to run away, preparing to hunger down
Speaker 1: and endure whatever chronic stress is currently playing out in
Speaker 1: your life and on your mind. It can also lead
Speaker 1: to what we call food noise. This is like an intrusive,
Speaker 1: constant thought about food because your body is of course
Speaker 1: trying to consume more energy and trying to find a
Speaker 1: way to motivate you or influence you to do so.
Speaker 1: Here's another a third effect of this, a third reason
Speaker 1: why people who are experiencing chronic stress often complained about
Speaker 1: weight gain. It's the cortisol promotes fat storage, especially in
Speaker 1: the abdominal region, by increasing insulin resistance and altering how
Speaker 1: fat is distributed in the body. Again, your body is saying,
Speaker 1: we need this. This is def Con one. We're in
Speaker 1: an emergency situation. Let's get our stocks up. Elevated cards
Speaker 1: and levels also slow down the metabolism. So together these
Speaker 1: effects create a cycle of stress induced weight gain. It's
Speaker 1: so hard when I hear people or see people talking
Speaker 1: about their experience of just almost suddenly gaining weight for
Speaker 1: no reason and in such an unfair way, like they're
Speaker 1: doing everything that they think they should be doing. They're
Speaker 1: really healthy people, they eat really well, they have a
Speaker 1: really active lifestyle, and they're still gaining weight in a
Speaker 1: way that feels like their body is working against them.
Speaker 1: And you know, weight gain isn't a terrible thing. It's
Speaker 1: not a bad thing. It's not something that should be
Speaker 1: avoided at all costs. But when it just appears to
Speaker 1: happen sporadically and spontaneously and nothing about your lifestyle has changed,
Speaker 1: it can be rather frustrating. It's why anytime I see
Speaker 1: someone like getting trolled on Instagram or TikTok for weight gain,
Speaker 1: you best believe like I'm leaving a comment on their behalf,
Speaker 1: because you really have no idea what's happening in their
Speaker 1: life to cause that, let alone suggesting that you know,
Speaker 1: suddenly they should feel a shame because their body is
Speaker 1: responding to perhaps a really intense situation or an emotional
Speaker 1: or external environment of intense stress or loss or grief
Speaker 1: or whatever it is they're going through. The human body
Speaker 1: is so much more complex than just calories in and
Speaker 1: calories out. And I don't know when we as a
Speaker 1: society will really start to understand that. You may also
Speaker 1: experience this as kind of in a similar vein a
Speaker 1: bit different increased inflammation, especially in the face. And this
Speaker 1: is this idea that you may know of as moonface.
Speaker 1: That's where this has come from. So moon face is
Speaker 1: kind of like a colloquial way to describe the puffiness
Speaker 1: and appearance that our face gets when cortisol has just
Speaker 1: regulated has been dysregulated for too long, so you often
Speaker 1: will begin to lose definition and features. It looks like
Speaker 1: your face is literally swelling up and looking like a
Speaker 1: big round moon. And this occurs because our body is
Speaker 1: holding onto more fluid and salt because cortisolt is not
Speaker 1: properly regulating these deposits, or is not properly regulating our
Speaker 1: insulin levels, which is causing us to hold onto fat
Speaker 1: in these stores in our face. Again, this can become
Speaker 1: a big point of insecurity for people, especially since you know,
Speaker 1: our face is often the first thing people see, and
Speaker 1: so when we can't recognize it anymore and we experience
Speaker 1: a drastic change, that can cause a lot of insecurity,
Speaker 1: sometimes even a bit of an identity crisis. I don't
Speaker 1: think that's a vain thing to experience. Our physical form
Speaker 1: and our characteristics do help us define ourselves. So when
Speaker 1: they suddenly change without us really realizing how or why,
Speaker 1: and we get this puffiness, we can really struggle. Those
Speaker 1: are just some of the first con sequences or impacts
Speaker 1: that come to mind. I'm going to take a quick
Speaker 1: break here because I feel like I've just been throwing
Speaker 1: information at you. When we return, we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about some of the further impacts on things like sleep,
Speaker 1: like our relationships, like our of course anxiety levels, but
Speaker 1: also how we can address this and some of the
Speaker 1: lifestyle changes that maybe floate at to you by a
Speaker 1: doctor or by a psychologist. Alright, I want to touch
Speaker 1: on one final consequence or impact of high cortisol that
Speaker 1: we may notice in ourselves before we get into my
Speaker 1: tips and advice. And this big consequence is the impact
Speaker 1: of high cortisol on sleep, specifically something we call mourning anxiety.
Speaker 1: Morning anxiety has to be one of the worst forms
Speaker 1: of anxiety. You know, all of them are actually pretty bad,
Speaker 1: but morning anxiety. You know, if I had to choose
Speaker 1: my favorite or only favorite, it definitely takes the cake.
Speaker 1: So imagine you're RESTful, you're in bed, you're cozy, you're
Speaker 1: dreaming nice dreams. You're asleep, you're just feeling very, very peaceful,
Speaker 1: and then suddenly you are wide awake, heavy breathing, racing heart.
Speaker 1: You instantly feel uneasy for no particular reason, and it's like, okay,
Speaker 1: here we are battling through another day of this. That
Speaker 1: is morning anxiety is going from being RESTful to just
Speaker 1: being completely anxious. And I don't even know how to
Speaker 1: explain it. Like you wake up and your body is
Speaker 1: almost shaking, and it feels like you're just waking up
Speaker 1: to a completely energized body that you had no awareness of,
Speaker 1: and suddenly you're like fifty percent dipped into like a
Speaker 1: boiling pot of water, and you have no idea how
Speaker 1: you got there. That's what morning anxiety feels like. And
Speaker 1: being alert when you wake up isn't a bad thing.
Speaker 1: In fact, that's one of Cortoso's useful functions. It's meant
Speaker 1: to actually peak or spike in the morning to help
Speaker 1: you get out of bed and to help you get
Speaker 1: up and active and ready. But sometimes that cordso awakening
Speaker 1: response can become skewed and not work properly. Chronic stress
Speaker 1: obviously contributes to that. It leads to elevated corterisol levels
Speaker 1: at night because we feel like we can't switch off,
Speaker 1: which then has lingering effects till the morning. So not
Speaker 1: only are you not going to get good sleep, but
Speaker 1: you're also going to feel a sharp cortisol spike right
Speaker 1: before you wake up, and that's going to create not
Speaker 1: just you know, take that natural alertness that you're meant
Speaker 1: to feel in the morning and turn it into anxiety.
Speaker 1: And of course, like the ball doesn't even stop there.
Speaker 1: Twenty eighteen study found that when you have a bad
Speaker 1: night's sleep, you already are at risk of higher levels
Speaker 1: of anxiety the next day, which you guessed is going
Speaker 1: to make it so much harder to sleep the next night,
Speaker 1: and it's just becomes a cycle of Okay, I can't
Speaker 1: sleep because I'm anxious, but then when I finally get asleep,
Speaker 1: my sleep isn't any good. And then I wake up
Speaker 1: really anxious the next morning because those quarters or levels
Speaker 1: have carried over, but also because I had a bad
Speaker 1: night sleep, so I'm extra anxious. How do you think
Speaker 1: that's going to help you or help your body? It doesn't,
Speaker 1: and it honestly has such lingering effects in all other
Speaker 1: areas of your life. You're cranky, you have that mild
Speaker 1: feeling of irritability constantly, you can't process information as well,
Speaker 1: you feel slow. In a study from twenty thirteen, research
Speaker 1: is observed people's IQs after a good night's sleep versus
Speaker 1: a terrible night's sleep, where they periodically woke up their participants.
Speaker 1: Those who had been woken up their IQ dropped on
Speaker 1: average ten points the next day following sleep deprivation. It
Speaker 1: might seem small, but if that is a consistent impact
Speaker 1: that you are noticing caused by high quisol, it's just
Speaker 1: going to feel like everything else is just a little
Speaker 1: bit harder. This really does go to show it's not
Speaker 1: just about feeling more anxious. It's not just about feeling
Speaker 1: more stressed. It touches everything else in your life. It
Speaker 1: is in everything disorder or on everything experience. And I
Speaker 1: think I really feel, you know, I really feel for
Speaker 1: people who start to piece that together and realize that
Speaker 1: all of these interactions and things that are happening in
Speaker 1: their body link back to this stress response they can't control.
Speaker 1: So we're going to talk about how to navigate that.
Speaker 1: Whether you're experiencing just low levels of stress slightly elevated
Speaker 1: cortisol or extremely high levels of cortisol. What are some
Speaker 1: of the lifestyle adjustments that might be recommended to you.
Speaker 1: I think if you're going to get tips on how
Speaker 1: to lower cortisol levels, the first people you want to
Speaker 1: talk to or hear from are doctors or an endocrinologist.
Speaker 1: Basically that's a doctor who specializes in hormones and the
Speaker 1: endocrine system hormones like cortisol. But before you get to
Speaker 1: that step, I do actually want you to make sure
Speaker 1: that what we're describing applies to you. There is a
Speaker 1: difference between heightened levels of stress, you know, the short
Speaker 1: term and chronic stress that is causing elevated cortisol. And
Speaker 1: if you think that this applies to you, please go
Speaker 1: and see a doctor. They will be able to diagnose
Speaker 1: it for you. They will be able to really see
Speaker 1: what's happening below the surface through blood tests, through saliva tests.
Speaker 1: But I really think that cortisol just regulation is not
Speaker 1: something you can say, oh, yeah, I have that that
Speaker 1: describes me, and I'm just gonna go with that diagnosis. Also,
Speaker 1: because it can be linked back to really serious serious
Speaker 1: problems like cushing syndrome or tumors or problems with your
Speaker 1: pituitary glands. So if you are hearing this description being
Speaker 1: like that's me, Oh my god, that's me, that's totally me,
Speaker 1: go and speak to your doctor. I think whenever something
Speaker 1: blows up online or on social media, like this idea
Speaker 1: of you know, cortisol face and cortisol weight gain and
Speaker 1: is it high cortisol, we really do find it very
Speaker 1: easy to see ourselves represented in people's descriptions. It's very
Speaker 1: easy to see something and say, oh my god, that's
Speaker 1: totally me. And that's because that's intentional from them, Like
Speaker 1: they want you to engage with their content, so they're
Speaker 1: going to make it as general and broad as possible.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure their intentions are pure, and if they're
Speaker 1: trying to sell some tea or some supplement, maybe it
Speaker 1: did work from them. But your health is really such
Speaker 1: a valuable investment. And you know, if you wouldn't want
Speaker 1: your mum or your sister, or your brother or your
Speaker 1: partner getting all their health advice from people on social media,
Speaker 1: don't do the same for yourself. People sharing their experiences
Speaker 1: is so valuable and it does help us become more
Speaker 1: educated about things that we didn't know about the human
Speaker 1: body or ourselves, but for something like cortisol dysregulation, make
Speaker 1: sure you get a doctor to confirm that. And with
Speaker 1: that in mind, that's where I sourced all my information
Speaker 1: from specialized professionals, because I understand cortosol from a psychological perspective,
Speaker 1: but how it impacts us biologically and how an entrochnologer
Speaker 1: or a doctor would recommend we address that That really
Speaker 1: reigns supreme for me. Besides from addressing underlying medical conditions
Speaker 1: that are causing elevated cortisol and addressing those through a
Speaker 1: medical intervention, which DA would be the first step. The
Speaker 1: biggest piece of advice I received for lowering stress and
Speaker 1: therefore lowering chronic overexposure to cortisol is to pursue balance,
Speaker 1: not extremes. Often extremes are what caused chronic stress in
Speaker 1: the first place. Extreme work hours, extreme exercising in some instances,
Speaker 1: extreme relationships, extreme sleeping patterns. Your best bet for reversing
Speaker 1: the impact of high cortisol or chronic stress is to
Speaker 1: try and return to your factory setting, to return to
Speaker 1: how you were made to operate as a human as
Speaker 1: best as you can given your circumstances. What that means
Speaker 1: is get back to the most simplest foundations of health, sleep, nutrition, safety, connection,
Speaker 1: outdoor time. Let's focus on sleep first. Obviously we spoke
Speaker 1: about that morning anxiety and how sleep can be very
Speaker 1: heavily impacted by cortisol. But the tip that I heard
Speaker 1: that I thought was really, really amazing is that even
Speaker 1: if you are not asleep, try and be in bed
Speaker 1: for eight hours a day. Don't scroll, don't get up
Speaker 1: and watch TV just because your body isn't listening to you. Yes,
Speaker 1: you may have to lay in bed till two am
Speaker 1: in the morning, but you're giving your body the best
Speaker 1: chance at rest. It has around forty to forty to
Speaker 1: sixty minutes before bed as well. Reduce your exposure to
Speaker 1: bright and blue light. I personally did this. I was
Speaker 1: finding that I had my phone in my bedroom, so
Speaker 1: if I couldn't sleep after the first ten minutes, I
Speaker 1: would get my phone, or I would watch parks and
Speaker 1: recreation or something like that. But I have since bought
Speaker 1: like an old fashioned alarm clock, and it's been a
Speaker 1: game changer. It's been incredible. I spend less time in
Speaker 1: bed in the morning, and my room is now associated
Speaker 1: with sleep. It's not just like some fun place to
Speaker 1: hang out, Like that's not where I go to scroll,
Speaker 1: that's not where I go to watch movies, Like that
Speaker 1: is my RESTful place, and that is all that I
Speaker 1: want it to be kind of used for. Another basic
Speaker 1: to get back to is regular movement, and movement in
Speaker 1: a way that you enjoy, not in a way you
Speaker 1: think you should be enjoying it or doing it. Now,
Speaker 1: there's been a lot of information going around that high
Speaker 1: intensity exercise should be avoided if you're trying to manage stress,
Speaker 1: mainly because of a finding from a two thousand and
Speaker 1: eight paper that essentially claimed an intense exercise increased cordisol levels.
Speaker 1: Now that paper was correct, it did increase cordsol levels,
Speaker 1: and it was actually published in the Journal of Antocrinological Investigation,
Speaker 1: so their findings were accurate. But those levels of cortisol
Speaker 1: actually ended up fading and reducing over the next four
Speaker 1: to six hours. And that's because exercise is a form
Speaker 1: of stress. It is stress on our bodies, but there
Speaker 1: is a difference between short term stress and chronic long
Speaker 1: term stress. Exercise triggers short term stress, which does cause
Speaker 1: cortisol levels to rise, but actually when we keep up
Speaker 1: with that regular movement and exercise, our body learns how
Speaker 1: to regulate those spikes and cortisol fluctuations, and so it
Speaker 1: becomes better able to regulate cortisol in general. So although yes,
Speaker 1: you might experience a small spike in cortisol after you exercise,
Speaker 1: you'll also experience a spike in endorphins. You'll also feel
Speaker 1: more relaxed, and so it actually is for the better. Obviously,
Speaker 1: if you are exercising at ninety percent effort seven days
Speaker 1: a week, you're not giving your body a chance to
Speaker 1: repair and balance things out. But pursuing the kind of
Speaker 1: movement that our ancestors would is really beneficial. Moderate exercise
Speaker 1: movement in whatever form works best for you, walking, lifting
Speaker 1: the way we would have lifted for trees, children, rocks,
Speaker 1: like I know it sounds so rudimentary and basic, but
Speaker 1: if it's gotten us to where we are as a species,
Speaker 1: where we are now, and if that's how our bodies
Speaker 1: were designed to operate, I'm just assuming that that kind
Speaker 1: of movement is really what our body is asking for.
Speaker 1: The Next focus is what we're putting into our body,
Speaker 1: the biggest one being caffeine. I'm sorry if that's not
Speaker 1: what you wanted to hear, but truly, caffeine is not
Speaker 1: doing you any favors. So I haven't drunk coffee or
Speaker 1: really caffeine really for almost four years. At this point,
Speaker 1: maybe I'll have the occasional diet coke because I can't
Speaker 1: be helped. But I noticed such a huge shift in alertness,
Speaker 1: energy levels, and anxiety. I was so reliant on caffeine
Speaker 1: to make me alert, and then I would basically just
Speaker 1: allow it would make me alert, and then I would
Speaker 1: obviously it would fade away and I'd feel less alert,
Speaker 1: and then I'd make myself a lot again, and you know,
Speaker 1: by the time that I was ready for sleep, hopefully
Speaker 1: the caffeine had faded. Like it was really controlling my
Speaker 1: energy levels, and with that it was artificially controlling my
Speaker 1: anxiety and stress levels. Like the times that I felt
Speaker 1: most stressed in my day or in my week were
Speaker 1: the times when I had consumed the most caffeine, thinking
Speaker 1: that it was going to help me be more productive,
Speaker 1: but actually it just made me feel more jittery. It
Speaker 1: made me feel more almost like unstable in a way,
Speaker 1: like every single thought just felt a little bit too
Speaker 1: loud and a little bit too urgent, and when I
Speaker 1: eventually quit, I found that I was so tired for
Speaker 1: the first two weeks, like I cannot explain how tired
Speaker 1: I was. But then I was actually able to regulate
Speaker 1: energy using routine and actually utilizing like the natural circadian
Speaker 1: rhythm and flow of my day and my wakefulness versus
Speaker 1: sleepy hours, and noticing like peak kind of like peak
Speaker 1: hard work times, of like peak inspiration motivation focus times
Speaker 1: for myself. And it was a really important change. A
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight study also showed caffeine stimulates cortisol secretion.
Speaker 1: No matter how much caffeine you consume as well, you
Speaker 1: were never able to build up a tolerance enough that
Speaker 1: it would stop cortisol spikes from happening. So, if you
Speaker 1: are sitting there being like I'm so stressed, I'm so anxious,
Speaker 1: and you have not cut out caffeine, if you haven't
Speaker 1: gone DCAF, if you haven't gone for a tea, if
Speaker 1: you haven't cut down to just one coffee a day,
Speaker 1: please before you consume a supplement, before you try and
Speaker 1: do crazy ice plunges for your anxiety, just try it
Speaker 1: and see if it works. The next best tip that
Speaker 1: you will hear is to spend more time outside. Nature
Speaker 1: is where your stress response is meant to operate, and
Speaker 1: so it is there that it will be best regulated.
Speaker 1: I'm going to say one more time. Nature was where
Speaker 1: your stress response was meant to w op rate, So
Speaker 1: it's there that it can be regulated. Time and time again,
Speaker 1: you'll see studies showing us that nature has a positive
Speaker 1: effect on stress by reducing carters or levels, even if
Speaker 1: it's just for twenty to thirty minutes a day, that's
Speaker 1: the time it would take to eat your lunch outside,
Speaker 1: or if it's really cold, where you are eat your
Speaker 1: lunch next to a window so that you can just
Speaker 1: see nature even if you can't be in it. Some
Speaker 1: scientists like to call it the nature pill because they
Speaker 1: have suggested that outdoor time, like what we used to
Speaker 1: have as children, should be something that they can prescribe
Speaker 1: to people. You know, people who live very busy urban
Speaker 1: lives could be prescribed like thirty minute nature prescription, the
Speaker 1: same way that they would be prescribed antibiotics or painkillers. Hopefully,
Speaker 1: so they take it seriously, so they find like they
Speaker 1: finally realize that it should be a priority, that this
Speaker 1: will help you, that this is actually a researched and
Speaker 1: necessary medical intervention. One study found that people who made
Speaker 1: nature a daily priority for themselves saw salvatory quarters or
Speaker 1: levels and self reported stress dropped by almost half from
Speaker 1: what they were previously experiencing. But it is a practice
Speaker 1: that we largely ignore because we have become so detached
Speaker 1: from our natural habitat as mammals and as humans. Another
Speaker 1: resource that you have at your disposal right now, much
Speaker 1: like nature, is your breath. It is the tool of
Speaker 1: meditators worldwide for good reason, because controlled breathing helps stimulate
Speaker 1: your parasympathetic nervous system that's known as our rest and
Speaker 1: digest system compared to our fight or flight system, and
Speaker 1: our fight or flight system is what activates quarters are released,
Speaker 1: so activating your rest and digest system is the counterbalance
Speaker 1: that you need. You have probably already heard of a
Speaker 1: lot of the breathing exercises that people recommend. Belly breathing
Speaker 1: in particular, if you've done a yoga class, you'll be
Speaker 1: familiar with this. It's the in hold for four, six
Speaker 1: out kind of breathing, So breathing for four, hold your
Speaker 1: breath for four, breathe out for six, where you're kind
Speaker 1: of focused on feeling your body expand like there's a
Speaker 1: big cloud filling up that space. So if you feel
Speaker 1: your you know, energy levels and your stress levels rising
Speaker 1: in response to a deadline or something in your environment,
Speaker 1: or just something you can't put your finger on, try
Speaker 1: this technique and try it as a way to get
Speaker 1: in front of your stress and then later on respond
Speaker 1: more appropriately. There are other natural remedies as simple as
Speaker 1: nature and breathing itself that are important. Laughter, tending to
Speaker 1: your spirituality, spending time alone, giving yourself silent and alone,
Speaker 1: space and time all really important for chronic stress. Looking
Speaker 1: after a pet, looking after others great for managing anxiety
Speaker 1: and worry. Mainly, I think that what I would want
Speaker 1: to impress on people, particularly those of us in our twenties,
Speaker 1: is that we are told, especially in this day and age,
Speaker 1: that pushing ourselves, being disciplined, sacrificing for success is going
Speaker 1: to give you the happiest and most fulfilled life you
Speaker 1: could ask for. It's going to give you wealth, it's
Speaker 1: going to give you accomplishment, praise, achievement, and yes, pushing
Speaker 1: yourself maybe will get you those things. But if your
Speaker 1: body is under immense chronic stress in order to get there.
Speaker 1: I don't think one part of it will be worth it.
Speaker 1: You won't be able to enjoy it, you won't feel good.
Speaker 1: Your body will literally become sick, it will crumble, it
Speaker 1: will feel terrible, you will feel miserable because you have
Speaker 1: neglected your physical and mental health to get to that point.
Speaker 1: I think what's even more important to notice that high
Speaker 1: levels of stress from lifestyle factors like overworking, they are
Speaker 1: going to make it harder for you to focus. They
Speaker 1: impair executive functioning, mental clarity, brain health, motivation. So pace yourself,
Speaker 1: go slow, take time for rest and to nurture your body.
Speaker 1: And I actually think that it helps you get to
Speaker 1: the place, or to your achievements in a more sustainable
Speaker 1: and therefore faster way, and in a way that by
Speaker 1: the time you get there, you can actually enjoy them,
Speaker 1: rather than feeling like just everything around you is crumbling
Speaker 1: and suddenly you've gotten to where you want to be
Speaker 1: and you have to take time off just to get
Speaker 1: the basics down, pat and look after yourself. So I
Speaker 1: don't think anything should cost you your health. It's not
Speaker 1: worth it. It's so hard to recover, So take care of
Speaker 1: yourself and recognize chronic stress as just as a risk
Speaker 1: to your health as anything else that you would be
Speaker 1: scared of, as smoking, as loneliness, as dangerous driving. Even so,
Speaker 1: I hope this episode has helped you. I hope that
Speaker 1: you have learned more about the impact, the hidden impact
Speaker 1: of cortosol. We've mythbusted some of these beliefs that some
Speaker 1: people hold about cortosol being bad, that you shouldn't exercise intensely,
Speaker 1: that you shouldn't eat so foods because a bad view,
Speaker 1: that this can only be cured by supplements. Whatever it is.
Speaker 1: Hopefully you have a better, more clear understanding. If you
Speaker 1: did enjoy this episode, make sure you follow along on
Speaker 1: Spotify or Apple podcasts, leave a five star review, leave
Speaker 1: a comment as well if you made it this far.
Speaker 1: I love engaging with you guys all that way and
Speaker 1: getting to respond to you all and see what you've
Speaker 1: felt about this episode, And make sure you are following
Speaker 1: us on Instagram at that Psychology podcast to see further tips,
Speaker 1: behind the scenes stuff and also some infographics about this episode.
Speaker 1: Until next time, stay safe, be kind, be gentle to yourself,
Speaker 1: manage your stress, and we will talk very very soon