10 Warning Signs Your CORTISOL Is Way Too High!

Hello Health Champions today we're going to talk  about the top 10 signs your cortisol is too high,  

Now cortisol is often called the stress hormone  and they're mentioned together so much that people  

think that stress and cortisol are the same thing  and that's not the whole picture because stress is  

a much bigger picture stress is a neurological  adaptation where your body shifts so basically  

if you're in a relaxed state called feed breed  and then you encounter something that your body  

finds dangerous whether it's a real or imagined  danger now you get into the fight flight response  

and now your body starts shifting priority you  start shifting resources so first of all a few  

things happen is that your pupils dilate so you  can take in more light and see more of the danger  

that's going on so pupils will dilate then your  blood pressure will increase your heart rate will  

increase your muscles will tense up and all of  this is so that you can get ready for that fight  

flight so that you can fight or run away you're  going to need more blood in the muscles you need  

tension in the muscles and so forth and then your  body also needs some fast emergency Fuel and this  

is where the cortisol comes in because cortisol is  a hormone that its purpose is to raise blood sugar  

so that's the fight flight response and that takes  a lot of resources so if we send more resources to  

the fight flight response than all of the things  that normally are handled by our feed breed or  

our relaxation response like digestion are going  to go down our immune system is going to go down  

our reproductive function is going to go down our  healing and repair is going to go down so we need  

to understand that if we truly understand this  picture digestion immunity cardiovascular disease  

high blood pressure etc etc then that pretty much  encompasses all disease there are very few things  

that wouldn't fit in to that picture so if we were  to do a video on stress the signs of stress they  

would include basically everything and we could  call that video 10 000 signs of stress now don't  

worry I'm not going to do that video would be  here forever the cortisol is a part of that it's  

only the portion it's a chemical messenger it's a  hormone that raises blood sugar primarily but also  

has some other effects that we're going to talk  about and it's one hormone among several and it  

is part of this stress response Cascade so in this  video we're not going to talk about the stress  

response as a whole we're going to hone in on the  specific things that have to do with cortisol and  

sign number one is weight gain and how does that  come about especially around the abdominal area so  

this is often called an apple shaped weight  gain you can have a pear-shaped weight gain  

where you gain it mostly on the hips or you can  have a little bit all over but if you gain it  

mostly around the middle in an apple shape that is  especially bad because that's because of visceral  

fat intra-abdominal fat and if the weight happens  to be there specifically it's usually associated  

with cortisol and now it's not just fat but  it's associated with a lot of different diseases  

and what happens with cortisol we said  that it raises blood sugar it's the  

purpose is to generate glucose and there's  different ways we're going to talk about  

when glucose goes up then insulin goes up and if  this happens chronically like you're chronically  

stressed chronically High cortisol now we  get a increased level of insulin resistance  

and if you have stubborn weight then it could  be that you've done a lot of different things  

you're doing some exercise you're doing some  dietary changes but if that cortisol is there  

to trigger insulin then that could be the reason  that that stubborn weight won't let go and number  

two is blood sugar imbalances we just said that  the purpose of cortisol is to raise blood sugar  

and that's because blood sugar is the emergency  fuel the body prefers to burn fat for the Baseline  

for a nice steady energy Supply but if we need a  little extra energy like we're being chased by a  

wild animal now we're going to need sugar so  we can break that down when we can't breathe  

fast enough to oxidize and burn that fat we're  going to need just a little buffer and that's  

what the glucose is the emergency fuel but the  problem with modern society is that our stresses  

are more mental they're more more imaginary we  don't have wild animals chasing after us if we  

did we would use up all that energy so the body  generates glucose but we burn through it when the  

stress is emotional now we're not expending extra  energy we're just raising that blood sugar so now  

that glucose goes up that insulin goes up and if  that becomes chronic now that can contribute to  

increased insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes  Now this could be cortisol from stress or it  

could be a synthetic version called cortisone  or corticosteroids so oftentimes when people  

are extremely stressed during a period of time  or they go on a course of corticosteroids then  

that could be the thing that tips the scale it  is rarely The Thing by itself in addition to  

good genetics and a perfect diet that's going to  cause diabetes but if you're already heading that  

way then it could very well tip the scale sign  number three is that you might experience Cravings  

or changes in appetite so again the purpose of  cortisol is to raise blood sugar but how does  

the body do that so there's three different ways  basically one is to break down glycogen you have  

a little bit of carbohydrates stored in the liver  and the muscles that you can start breaking down  

that's one way second is to turn something else  like glycerol or protein amino acids into glucose  

so that's number two but number three that's  the most powerful is to eat some more carbs and  

that's called cravings and that's why there's a  vending machine on every corner in every building  

in every school and every gas station and that's  why they're loaded with nothing but sugar so that  

stressed people can go and get their fix so the  body is going to do all three of these but even  

if you do the first two to some degree you're very  likely to still get some cravings for carbs and  

sugar but there's one more type of craving that  we can develop and that's because stress affects  

the adrenal glands whenever we have stress the  adrenals that sit on top of the kidney they're  

the glands that have to produce the hormones  they have the work load the burden of actually  

making the adrenaline and the cortisol among other  things so when we're working the adrenals harder  

and having them do all this cortisol then some  other things can fall by the wayside and as a  

result we can lose some minerals in the process  and that's why a lot of times when people are  

stressed they also crave salt and minerals number  four is frequent infections are you one of those  

people who catch every cold and flu that comes  around when it's cold and flu season or maybe  

you catch everything that your kids bring home  and a lot of people that start improving their  

health status they notice that they may not catch  everything that the kids bring home anymore and  

this fits in with what I just drew on the glass  there that when our stress levels go up we're  

using resources for other things so our immunity  takes a step back so that stress response is about  

surviving in the moment whereas the relaxation  response and the immune system is about surviving  

long term so surviving the moment that's about  identifying and defending yourself or fleeing  

from big stuff outside of you dangers that could  kill you in a moment or threaten your survival  

whereas digestion and immune function and repair  have to do with the really small stuff inside and  

when it's about survival the short-term survival  always comes first because if you don't survive  

this second then there's no point in having  a good immune system tomorrow number five is  

that women may find their menstrual period become  erratic or go away all together and the reason is  

that the stress response starts at the level of  brain and hypothalamus and hypothalamus is your  

master regulator so it tells basically all the  other hormone organs what to do and it releases  

something called corticotropin releasing hormone  and that's the start of the stress response that  

ends up the cortico sounds a lot like cortisol and  that's exactly what it is and when the crh goes  

up then the gonadotropin releasing hormone goes  down so anything that has to do with stimulating  

the reproductive system is going to be inhibited  by that stress response and that also makes sense  

because if you're in a battle Zone if your body is  perceiving if your brain is perceiving that it's  

really dangerous it's really stressful out here  in the world then it might say it's too dangerous  

to have a baby and reproduce right now so we're  just going to turn off that function until things  

get safer number six is something that a lot of  people are concerned with osteoporosis so there's  

many many different ways that cortisol affects  this cortisol directly inhibits turns off the  

osteoblasts the cells that build bone and they  increase the activity of the osteoclasts that  

break down bone so it's a double whammy there but  it comes keeps going it also decreases calcium  

absorption even if you're eating it you can't  use it as well and it increases the excretion  

so you get you lose more calcium in the urine  and even more the mechanism we just talked about  

for the menstrual period for men this happens  specifically when your corticotrophone releasing  

hormone goes up your gonadotropin releasing  hormone goes down and in men this is known as  

hypogonadism so you can have an decreased function  of your reproductive organ and this is associated  

with osteoporosis in men number seven is muscle  weakness and we're not just talking about a little  

bit of weakness maybe temporary on one side so in  my office for example I test muscles and we find  

different ways of adjusting and turning them back  on but this type of muscle weakness we're talking  

about a loss of muscle mass something that goes on  for years and years where the muscle actually goes  

away and part of this mechanism is gluconeogenesis  when cortisol levels are high we're looking  

to make sugar blood sugar and we increase  the gluconeogenesis but if this is chronic  

then we're going to get it from breaking down  protein to some degree it's not the only way  

but if it happens long enough there will be some  protein breakdown and just like we said before  

the purpose is to generate emergency energy but  if you're not running from something if you're  

just sitting at your desk and being tense or if  you're just sitting in traffic with White Knuckles  

you're having a stress response but you're not  expending the energy so what happens now is you  

get a big belly and a flat butt you're breaking  down the muscles in your large muscle groups  

around your butt and your legs so you get a flat  butt skinny legs and you get a big belly because  

that extra glucose now turns right back into fat  and if there's cortisol in the equation then it's  

typically going to end up in the midsection so  this is just one more reason I talk so much about  

stress and why it's such a good idea to take it  seriously number eight is easy bruising if you hit  

something and you get a bruise almost every time  then that could be high cortisol because cortisol  

like we just said it breaks down protein in large  muscle groups but it also breaks down protein in  

connective tissue so tissue becomes more fragile  so when you hit it now you get some bleeding  

and what about things like cortisone shots well  that's sort of the same thing Cortisone and  

cortisol it's the same stuff except they inject  it and it will reduce inflammation but it will  

also make tissue more fragile so you want to be  really careful with these cortisone shots and if  

you feel desperate and you got to do it then do  it maybe once because if you do it over and over  

and over chances are that these tissues they're  injecting into will become more fragile and you  

increase your risk of future injury number nine  is that high cortisol may slow down healing and  

cortisol inhibits inflammation and again cortisol  corticosteroids cortisone it's all the same stuff  

and the reason we took that cortisone shot was  to inhibit inflammation but inflammation is also  

really important the body does it for a reason the  only time it becomes a problem is when it's out of  

balance but that inflammation is the first step of  healing the first stage and if we don't have that  

first stage very often healing doesn't complete  so as a result we can get poor wound healing and  

we might have slow recovery from various forms  of injury from cuts and scratches or even from  

surgeries number 10 is insomnia poor sleep and  this is becoming so common I think 50 percent of  

everyone coming into the office has this as one of  their main concerns and there's something called a  

pineal gland the name pineal comes from the name  it's shaped like a pine cone it sits right at the  

back of the brain stem and it makes a hormone  called melatonin and this melatonin regulates  

your sleep and wake cycle your circadian rhythms  and when it's time for you to sleep the pineal  

gland makes more melatonin and puts you to sleep  then when it's time to wake up then there are two  

things that are going to reverse the activity  that's going to turn off that melatonin and one  

is light and that makes good sense we're supposed  to sleep when it's dark when the light hits the  

eye then that light stimulates various processes  and turned off that melatonin the other thing that  

turns off melatonin is cortisol and that also  makes sense because if you are sleeping in your  

cave and you have a tiger come in and growl  then you should wake up really really fast so  

that tiger triggers a stress response that stress  response triggers cortisol and that cortisol shuts  

off that melatonin like nothing else so what are  some of the solutions to this well there are some  

lifestyle changes that you can make obviously I  often recommend meditation because that's one of  

the strongest most powerful ways to turn off that  worrisome chatter that we all have running around  

in our heads as modern human beings and meditation  takes a while to learn but I think it's well worth  

it and we're going to talk about some other  tools but they're not instead of meditation so  

there are these lifestyle changes you definitely  want to incorporate anyway exercise is another  

one because if you play hard you sleep better and  also exercise stimulates the brain it activates  

the frontal lobe and the frontal lobe the better  the frontal lobe can fire and work the better it  

can turn off that stress response so here are  two super powerful ways to reduce and control  

your stress and one more way obviously I have  been going on and on and on about how cortisol  

raises blood sugar well if you stabilize blood  sugar to start with by eating less sugar less  

carbohydrate more protein and fat and getting your  carbohydrates from leafy greens and non-starchy  

vegetables now your blood sugar is going to be  rock solid and stable it's not going to fluctuate  

by more than a few points and the need for  cortisol goes way way down so this is something a  

lot of people don't understand they know that it's  stressed they don't understand that unstable blood  

sugar is one of the most powerful forms of stress  so these lifestyle changes are something that you  

absolutely want to do there is no substitute for  it however there are some very powerful tools that  

you can add on to make life simpler and one is  called brain tap it's something we use in the  

office a lot and we've seen some tremendous  results it's basically an induced meditation  

you put the headset on you play a recording for  15-20 minutes and the blinking frequencies calms  

down your brain so it gets you like halfway toward  where you want to be and then you meditate and you  

get the rest of it so this one works whether you  have any skills or not you can fall asleep and it  

does the job but it's not instead of meditation  because you still need to develop some internal  

skills in turning things off but this does a  tremendous job of getting you part of the way  

the next thing is you want to support your  adrenals there is so much adrenal fatigue  

out there and the supplement we use is called  Drenamin it is from standard process and has a  

lot of components it's a whole food supplement  and it has some things in it that you can't  

find in any other supplement on the market and  that's why we use it and if you have a problem  

with minerals if you are stressed and your  adrenals can't quite generate the hormones  

to hold on to and and balance minerals properly  then you want to supplement those and I made a  

powder an electrolyte powder called euLyte just  for that purpose and I formulated it to be the  

most comprehensive electrolyte but it's also sort  of like a four in One supplement to take care of  

all those minerals so if you want to check that  out I'll put some information down below for all  

of those things if you enjoyed this video you're  going to love that one and if you truly want to  

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