A Fine Balance - Part 1
Cortisol
In this section, we’re going to look at cortisol and its role in our body. We’ll take a look at the cortisol & insulin connection in part 2, and the cortisol & thyroid connection in part 3.
Cortisol always gets a bad rap due to its connection to stress, but it does so many things in the body that to only calling it a stress hormone would be undervaluing it immensely.
Yes, it does manage your stress response, and it also:
Manages how your body uses carbohydrates, fats, and proteins
Keeps inflammation down (at first, too much triggers inflammation)
Regulates your blood pressure
Increases your blood sugar (glucose)
Controls your sleep/wake cycle
Boosts energy so you can handle stress and restores balance afterward
Cortisol wakes you up in the morning and is the reason you can stand up, walk around, and have a conversation. Without cortisol, you would be comatose.
There are three main problems with your cortisol levels that can affect your body:
· You have too much cortisol
· You have too little cortisol
· You get hit by cortisol at the wrong time of the day (evening or night)
Balanced Cortisol levels should look should look like the photo above
Notice how it increases in the morning, spiking just before lunch. Then lowers throughout the afternoon, which allows for melatonin (your sleep hormone) to have the same kind of curve. Cortisol and melatonin dance together each day, each triggering the other.
When high cortisol forgets to come down in the evening…
High cortisol is usually a response to stress but can also be from too much caffeine. That afternoon cup o’ joe can bring your cortisol levels up when they should be heading down…and this can affect your melatonin and sleep.
High cortisol can also be inherited. It’s believed that stress hormones affect us in utero. If your mom was very stressed when she was pregnant with you, then your body’s stress hormone set-point can be high. This means that high cortisol might feel normal or even good in your body. You can reset your cortisol levels, don’t worry :)
Low cortisol looks like this:
Without a boost of cortisol in the morning, you can feel like you never woke up. You’re groggy and tired all day long. Your blood pressure may be low so you’ll feel dizzy or lightheaded if you stand up too quickly.
It can also create an interesting phenomenon. Instead of cortisol spiking at noon and then going down until bedtime, it stays low all day and spikes around 10pm. Instead of getting tired and going to bed, you feel like a million bucks. FINALLY, you have enough energy to think clearly and do all of the tasks that you were too tired to do all day.
Now you’re up until 1am or later cooking and doing laundry…making sleep even more difficult. It becomes a vicious cycle of feeling exhausted all day long and wide awake at bedtime.
Your cortisol levels can recover, but the most important thing is to get to bed before that energy bounce. You’ll sleep better at night and over time you’ll start to feel better. Licorice supplements are your best friend right now (email me if you’d like some info :)
Cortisol and Progesterone
Progesterone is an important hormone in our monthly cycle and is key for our fertility. During perimenopause (the 5 – 10 years before menopause), the first symptoms are usually caused by low progesterone. I would argue that our focus on estrogen is a tad short-sided, since low progesterone is much more common.
If we look at the dance between cortisol and progesterone it becomes obvious why low progesterone is so prevalent today.
For most of human history, a stressful time for the tribe would be a very bad time to be pregnant or have a young baby. It makes sense that the body would have an innate mechanism to make sure that fertility goes down during stress, and this is the dance between progesterone and cortisol.
The precursor for both cortisol and progesterone is the same, pregnenolone, which is made in the adrenal glands. Normally, this precursor is sent to the ovaries and becomes progesterone, allowing the body to be fertile. But, if stress levels are high, more of the precursor is made into cortisol and less progesterone is made. The production of cortisol literally robs our body of progesterone, by design.
In the past, stressful times were short and rare, but today in our busy lives, high cortisol has become the norm. Lots of stress + lots of stimulation (caffeine) = high cortisol and low progesterone. It’s not surprising then that collectively our fertility rates are going down and perimenopause symptoms are on the rise.
Symptoms of low progesterone:
- heavy bleeding and abnormal periods
- decreased sex drive
- bloating and water retention
- breast swelling and tenderness
- mood swings (irritability and depression most often)
- weight gain around waist and hips
- cold hands and feet
- premenstrual headaches
Natural ways to increase progesterone:
- wild yam cream (Dioscorea cream) - available through ND dispensaries, email me for a link if you’d like to try it
- Chaste Tree Berry (Vitex) - available at more health food stores
- Mindfulness exercises (yoga, Qi Gong, Tai Chi, etc)
- magnesium supplementation (bisglycinate or citrate, 300mg per day)
- pumpkin seeds, beans, whole grains, nuts
Bio-identical hormone creams are available through most naturopaths and can be helpful when natural solutions aren’t effective.
There’s more on progesterone and hormone balancing in our Hormone Masterclass.
What we need to remember about cortisol –
Cortisol isn’t a mean old ogre that only wreaks havoc in the body. Instead, it’s an important hormone that allows you to walk, talk, move, and think. But, too much cortisol is a problem and we live in a high cortisol culture (busyness, lots of caffeine, work that doesn’t stop).
High cortisol levels can feel good in the moment, I have to admit to loving that feeling in the past. But, balanced cortisol levels feel better…and all of the high cortisol problems balance out too.
So far, we’ve looked at how cortisol affects our sleep and progesterone, in the next two parts we’ll look at how it connects to our insulin and thyroid hormones.
If you have any questions, jump to our private Facebook Group or the Ask Lisa page :)