A Hormone that Packs on the Belly Fat….

​Stress, the secret ingredient that’s keeping you from your health goals...

Cortisol is a steroid hormone your body produces from cholesterol in the two adrenal glands on top of your kidneys. It is a good hormone, something you need to make it through the difficulties faced in life. It’s released when you wake up, when you exercise, when you experience external pressures throughout your day. It’s normal. It even helps regulate energy by helping select which macronutrient the body needs at a specific moment (carb, protein or fat) for fuel. It really is a good hormone.

HOWEVER, when a body has chronically high levels of cortisol (due to chronically high levels of STRESS) there are harmful effects on immune function, risk for chronic disease and WEIGHT. In normal stressful situations humans encountered thousands of years ago like chasing an animal in a hunt, the hunt would eventually end. Subsequently your body would send out other hormones to decrease cortisol levels. Remove the stressor and lower the cortisol.

Today our lifestyles are very different. Many work long days, coming home to families, with the stressors of finances, relationships, traumatic events, media streams of terror that never seem to end. We lead over-stressed, fast-paced lifestyles and our bodies are pumping out cortisol nearly constantly.

What does cortisol do?

1. Cortisol helps tap the bodies energy stores in the liver providing excess glucose(sugar) to the blood. It also thwarts the effectiveness of insulin, essentially rendering the cells insulin resistant during stress. This is not good news for individuals already struggling with diabetes or those at high risk for the disease.
2. Cortisol can also mobilize triglycerides from storage and helps them relocate (redeposit) themselves in the adipose (fat) tissue in the abdomen. It also helps fat cells to mature.
3. Constantly high levels of blood sugar and cells that aren’t receptive to insulin leads to starved cells and to regulate that, your body starts sending signals to your brain that you are HUNGRY. This can lead to overeating, which people certainly are prone to do under stressful situations. Studies have shown that high cortisol levels lead to individuals choosing foods higher in fat and calories.
4. High cortisol levels effect inflammation in the body and lead to suppressed immune function leaving an individual more prone to common colds, developing food intolerances, and an assortment of gastrointestinal issues.
5. High cortisol constricts blood vessels leading to higher blood pressure. Over time this can lead to vessel damage.

Don’t worry it’s not all doom and gloom. There is much we can do for ourselves to slow this path to over-stressed and less than ideal health.

Here are just a few recommendations:

1. Sleep more! A good nights rest helps to lower cortisol levels and also gives you the best opportunity to handle what difficulties you are faced with during your days.
2. Eat an anti-inflammatory diet, inflammation leads to higher cortisol levels. A meal plan would emphasize, alcohol in moderation, whole plant foods to maximize fiber, antioxidants and phytonutrients, nuts, seeds, lower glycemic load(less white food), elimination of trans fats.
3. Regular physical activity/exercise. This increases oxygen to the body and while temporarily increases cortisol (that is natural), the many stress relieving benefits of exercise far outweigh the temporary natural response.
4. Make more time to be quiet. Turn off the many devices you have, teach your children to respect and enjoy quiet time, spend time reading a book or simply sitting outside and enjoying nature.
5. Find a friend or family member you can talk things over with and who assist in alleviating stress, rather than fanning the flame.
6. And my favorite piece of advice, PRAY. I don’t have clinical evidence on prayer and it’s effect on cortisol levels, but from my own private experience, it works on lowering stress levels.

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While our bodies are quite fascinating with untold numbers of physical processes we barely understand, and complicated cascades of enzyme interactions that work together so harmoniously to make us live and thrive, there are less complicated and less complex therapeutic diet and lifestyle changes we can make to strategically lower stress in our bodies and experience the extraordinary healing power inherent in these bodies when provided the right environment and necessary resources.