How too much cortisol makes you feel wacky
I believe CORTISOL is the peskiest hormone. Left to its own devices it causes a world of trouble. Yup, that’s right, cortisol is your stress hormone and stress is the number 1 cause of disease in the body. I would maintain that leaving high cortisol levels unchecked is tantamount to eating Twinkies for breakfast for the rest of your life.
Cortisol is designed to give you a quick boost of energy when you need to fight or flee a dangerous situation like running from a Saber-toothed tiger. In our modern chaotic society we often run around with our bodies reacting to everything as a threat. More and more cortisol is pumped inside us even though no tiger is chasing. Over time, this taxes our adrenal glands and creates a serious hormonal imbalance.
How does too much cortisol make you feel wacky?
It makes you dumb:Persistent stress and elevated cortisol causes a depletion of your feel-good chemical, serotonin. That is not a good thing because serotonin regulates mood, sleep, self-esteem, and appetite. With lower levels of your happy chemical you may find yourself overreacting to things while at the same time thinking, holy crap this isn’t me! (At one point in my life I was looking after my two sick parents and I crashed my car that same week. I was my wit’s end. The last straw was a parking ticket. I found myself screaming like a banshee at some poor traffic cop.) Low serotonin and high cortisol may also leave you foggy brained and forgetful. Now where the heck are my keys?
It redistributes fat to your belly: When you are in flight or fight mode your body thinks you are going to need excess energy for the inevitable time of famine or grief or whatever other evolutionary chronic stressor requiring fat storage is coming. Abdominal fat has four times the number of cortisol receptors so you get into a cycle of excess cortisol creating more body fat, which in turn gets stimulated by persistently high cortisol levels. Fun…wow ♪♫♪♫♪ da da da da…arrrrg.
It wakes you at 3:00 a.m. with a committee meeting in your head. Your inner voice plays the “wouldn’t it be awful if…” game and you think of all the comebacks you should have said to various people. You look at the clock and count the minutes before the alarm is going to ring, you notice phantom pains and suspect you’re dying. One thing for sure, you’re going to lose your mind if this keeps up.
Elevated cortisol can and does make you wacky when it’s out of balance.
Symptoms:
- Hair loss
- High blood pressure
- High insulin
- Anxiety
- Low sex-drive
- Depression
- Poor immune function
Fixes:
- Ditch the caffeine
- Avoid sugar and artificial sweeteners
- Refrain from processed foods especially refined flours
- Stay away from processed oils especially hydrogenated oils
- Add protein and healthy fat to every meal
- Meditate and practice mindfulness
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May 5, 2017 @ 7:55 am
Wait, twinkies for breakfast is a no no? Great article.
May 5, 2017 @ 8:34 am
Ha! 🙂