Cortisol levels, when out of balance, can have a profound impact on your physical and mental health. When faced with stressors, your body naturally releases cortisol, allowing you to prepare for immediate challenges.
However, in today's fast-paced world, where it feels like stress is lurking around every corner, chronic stress can set in leading to a continuous release of this hormone. This can set the stage for disturbances in sleep, weight gain, skin issues, and mood swings.
Let’s explore what cortisol is, the consequences of imbalanced cortisol, and how to balance cortisol levels to help you navigate stress more effectively and enhance the overall quality of your life.
What Is Cortisol?
Cortisol is a steroid hormone that is released by the adrenal glands which are situated at the top of your kidneys. It operates as part of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, a complex network that manages your body's stress response.
When your body perceives a threat or stressor, your brain signals the adrenal glands to release cortisol, triggering the "fight-or-flight" response. While this physiological reaction is critical for survival in the short term, chronic stress can lead to consistently elevated cortisol levels. This ongoing release of cortisol can wreak havoc on various body systems, affecting sleep, metabolism, immune function, and even mood.
While cortisol gets a bad rap, your body actually needs some cortisol to survive. Balanced cortisol levels play a key role in managing your blood pressure and blood sugar levels, reducing inflammation, and supporting your immune system. Recognizing this delicate balance is important when managing cortisol levels to promote optimal health.
Symptoms of Imbalanced Cortisol
Imbalanced cortisol levels can lead to a wide range of symptoms that affect not just your physical health but also your mental wellbeing. The following are symptoms of imbalanced cortisol levels:
Weight Gain
Imbalanced cortisol levels can impact metabolism, leading to weight gain usually around the midsection and face.
Severe Fatigue
A common symptom of cortisol imbalance is severe fatigue, often accompanied by difficulty in maintaining energy levels throughout the day.
Acne
Elevated cortisol levels can contribute to skin issues like acne, as high cortisol levels can increase the production of oil in your skin.
Sleep Disturbances
Since cortisol plays an important role in supporting your body’s circadian rhythm, having an imbalance of the hormone can result in insomnia, fragmented sleep, or difficulty falling asleep.
Muscle Weakness
Imbalanced cortisol levels can negatively impact muscle tissue repair, potentially causing muscle weakness and discomfort, particularly in your upper arms and thighs.
Irritability
Cortisol levels that are out of whack can affect your mood and lead to irritability, abrupt mood swings, and can even increase the risk of anxiety and depression.
How to Balance Cortisol Levels
Knowing how to balance cortisol is essential for maintaining your physical, mental, and emotional health. From healthy eating habits to adopting stress management techniques, there are many effective strategies and lifestyle changes that can help you get your hormones back in balance.
Eat a well-balanced diet
Research has found that a diet rich in whole foods, including a variety of fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, whole grains, and healthy fats, provides essential nutrients that can help naturally support your body's stress response. The fiber found in fresh fruits and veggies and whole grains can keep your blood sugar stable and also supports your gut health.
Having imbalanced cortisol levels can increase inflammation throughout your body. Therefore, it’s best to avoid foods that promote inflammation like highly-processed, sugary foods, and foods that are laden with unhealthy fats. These pro-inflammatory foods can all contribute to higher cortisol levels. Grab a copy of our Hormone Balancing Recipes
here!
Practice stress management techniques
One way to mitigate the effects of stress is by adopting stress management techniques into your daily routine. For example, practices like meditation, deep breathing, yoga, or mindfulness can help reduce your body’s stress response and help balance cortisol levels.
Studies suggest that stress management techniques like meditation may help reduce cortisol levels for people in stressful life situations. Researchers have discovered that the benefits of meditation interventions may last not only in the short term but over the long term as well.
Exercise
Engaging in some form of regular exercise will not only promote balanced cortisol levels but will also enhance your overall health and wellbeing. Exercise triggers the release of endorphins, which are natural mood elevators that help counteract the negative effects of stress by helping to reduce cortisol levels.
Additionally, exercise contributes to improved sleep quality, which further helps balance cortisol levels. A recent study found that exercise helped to not only decrease cortisol levels but also improved overall sleep quality for adults.
By making exercise a consistent part of your routine, you’ll only reap the physical benefits of improved fitness but also enjoy the psychological advantages of reduced stress and balanced hormone levels.
If you tend to have a high stress lifestyle, I highly recommend restorative exercises such as walking, yoga, pilates and other low intensity exercises that won’t spike your cortisol even higher. Strength training is also great for both men and women, and doesn’t tax your adrenals.
Limit caffeine and alcohol intake
Consuming too much caffeine can increase your body’s cortisol levels, and can also negatively impact your sleep quality. If you enjoy the effects of caffeine, try limiting your intake to the first part of the day to ensure that it doesn’t affect your sleep.
Research has also found a link between alcohol intake and increased cortisol levels. When you drink alcohol, your body may perceive it as a stressor, triggering the release of stress hormones like cortisol, as part of the fight-or-flight response. Alcohol can also disrupt your sleep, trigger inflammation, and impact blood sugar levels which can throw your hormones out of balance.
Find time to connect with others
Believe it or not, carving out time to connect with others can serve as a powerful remedy for cortisol imbalance. Engaging in conversations, laughing with friends, or simply spending quality time with loved ones triggers the release of oxytocin, a hormone that counters cortisol's effects and fosters feelings of happiness and calm.
Fostering these connections acts as a buffer against the negative impact of chronic stress and elevated cortisol levels. In fact, one recent study found that talking with friends can help lower cortisol levels, particularly for women across the lifespan.
Use Adaptogens and Nutrients to Reset Your Stress Response
By supporting your stress response system, you can improve communication between your brain, adrenals, ovaries and thyroid – getting optimal functioning back on track.
A good multivitamin with sufficient B vitamins and magnesium will provide what you need for daily nervous system support. Magnesium is a calming mineral and one that most of us are deficient in. Check my recommendations
here.
Adaptogenic herbs have a unique ability to help you adapt to the stress in your life. They do this by regulating your stress response – keeping you feeling calmer and more focused. Some of my favorites include ashwagandha, holy basil and rhodiola, as well as reishi mushroom and maca.
Here
are my favorite products for adrenal and hormone support.
Work with a professional
Working with a professional like a registered dietitian that specializes in functional nutrition, can help you understand the link between stress and cortisol, empowering you to implement strategies that can help get your cortisol back in balance. Functionally trained registered dietitians can provide evidence-based tools including suggestions for vitamins and herbs that lower cortisol to help restore balanced hormone levels.
At Eat Freely Nutrition, we offer one-on-one programs as well as self-paced online programs to help you balance your hormones and enhance your wellbeing. Not sure which is the best choice for you? Book a free 20-minute discovery call today to learn more.
The Bottom Line
While stress is a part of life, chronic stress and elevated cortisol levels don’t have to be. From healthy eating to implementing stress management techniques, there are many ways you can help balance cortisol levels to help pave the way towards restoring your health and wellbeing.
Working with a registered dietitian knowledgeable in hormone balance can help you get to the root of your cortisol imbalance and tailor supportive strategies that are designed to meet your unique needs.
References:
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