Cortisol is a stress hormone released by your adrenal glands when your body feels threatened. Find out how to reduce cortisol levels naturally in this article.
So, it is important to find out how to lower cortisol naturally so that your body doesn’t think it is constantly in a fight-or-flight situation. This guide from rosewellness.com will tell you that reduces cortisol and combats stress.
How to reduce cortisol levels?
Figure out your stress triggers
Stress and cortisol are closely interlinked. It could also be a pain, financial worries, relationship issues, or work-related problems.
Understanding your own triggers is vital if you want lower cortisol levels. You don’t have to go into detail, but make a note of what happened and consider why it made you feel bad.
Recognize stressful thinking
Thinking about the past or negative emotional thoughts can increase stress hormone cortisol levels. Two thought processes, in particular, are linked with negative health consequences: rumination and worry.
Get a good night’s sleep
A good night’s sleep is key to reducing stress. Cortisol and sleep are closely linked with the quality and duration of your slumber. Plus, the timing of sleep is also a contributory factor, meaning night-shift workers who sleep during the day usually have increased levels of cortisol.
Sleep hygiene tips for lower cortisol levels
- Go to bed at a regular time each night.
- Set an alarm to get you up at the same time each morning.
- Wash your bedding and night clothes regularly.
- Keep distractions, like noise, tv, and phones, to a minimum before bed.
Exercise
When you take part in physical activity, it places stress on the body, so cortisol levels usually increase in the short term as a result of intense exercise but will drop down again at night
Lower your cortisol levels and release stress with regular exercise, but avoid strenuous late afternoon and evening workouts, which are more likely to keep you awake.
Eat a healthy diet
Diet is an important factor in health, including lowering cortisol, but eating the wrong foods can trigger cortisol release, like sugar. Regularly consuming high levels of sugar can keep your cortisol levels elevated,
Foods that are naturally high in polyphenols lower the cortisol stress hormone. Eating plenty of foods that reduce cortisol and restricting your sugar intake will keep your stress response under control.
HOW DOES CORTISOL AFFECT HEALTH?
The body’s adaptations of high levels of cortisol to increase blood glucose levels and catecholamines may be a highly effective short-term strategy for dealing with stress, but what happens when this hormone is chronically elevated? Although high cortisol temporarily decreases inflammation, exposure to the hormone long-term will have the opposite effect.
In a sense, just as people can become insulin resistant from long-term exposure to high insulin levels, the same occurs with cortisol. Since cortisol fails to function as an anti-inflammatory in the presence of a stress stimulus, the result is a chronic state of inflammation in the body in the setting of the metabolic responses.
Conclusion
Chronic stress leading to continuous cortisol elevation is bad for overall health. Although many humans in Westernized societies are no longer running from wild animals or facing real dangers in everyday life, our bodies do not always realize this. Stress from work, family obligations, relationships, and overscheduling can still tell the brain that a flight or fight response is needed.
However, we have the power to control our responses to stress, thereby restoring the normal function of cortisol
