7 Ways To Balance Cortisol Levels

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7 Ways To Balance Cortisol Levels

If you are like most people in our society, you are under some form
of stressevery day. Everything from busy lifestyles, poor sleep,
environmental toxins, to poor emotional health put an excess demand on
our bodies. Typically when this happens, your body will be producing
elevated levels of cortisol from the adrenal glands.
Cortisol is your bodys way of boosting your energy so that you can
overcome your stressors. When it becomes dysregulated however,
chronic cortisol elevation can have health consequences. With the
increased demands of today, it is important to balance cortisol levels for
optimal health.
What Is Cortisol?
Cortisol is notoriously referred to as the stress hormone. Over the years,
various media sources have deemed cortisol the bad guy, claiming that it
is bad for the body. What most people dont realize however, is that
cortisol is an essential part of how your body works.
Our ancestors often lived in hostile environments with immediate threats
to their lives. In these situations, we needed a way to quickly maximize
our energy and highten our senses to improve the chances that we could
evade an immediate threat.

The cortisol response is essentially our way of increasing our ability to

survive in a dangerous situation. When your brain perceives stress or an
immediate threat to your wellbeing, it releases cortisol. When cortisol is
released, it acts as a mild pain releiver and signals the release of stored
sugars into the blood for immediate energy.
When there is a physical threat in our immediate environment, this is a
very useful action from the body. However, in todays culture many
people get small cortisol releases throughout the day from stressors that
do not get resolved or are simply derived from stressful thinking. A
repeating cycle of this can cause many problems in the body.
High Cortisol
Most people who are under chronic stress will have elevated cortisol
levels. This is because the body is trying to ramp up its ability to deal
with an excess demand. While high cortisol levels are not a problem in
of themselves, chronically elevated cortisol can be.

One of the big problems with chronic cortisol elevation is that we often
see blood sugar imbalances. These are one of the most insidious robbers
of our health. Blood sugar imbalance increases inflammation which puts
more stress on the adrenals and begins a vicious cycle as they continue
to make each other worse.
If continued long enough, this chronic elevation of cortisol can also
throw off sex hormone balance and contribute to weight gain, brain fog,
low energy, and an overall lowered vitality.
Chronically elevated cortisol (sometimes diagnosed as Cushings
Disease/Syndrome) is often the beginning of adrenal dysfunction if
nothing is done to restore balance (1).
Low Cortisol
Adrenal fatigue, or more accurately HPA axis dysfunction, is often
characterized by a chronically low cortisol level. These people tend to
feel tired and unable to handle daily stressors of life. Other symptoms
could include weight gain, hormone imbalance, anxiety, insomnia,
depression, and frequent crashes in energy.
This often occurs after a prolonged period of high cortisol and why it is
so important to learn how to balance your own.

Low cortisol is often a sign that the body has been under elevated stress
for an extended amount of time and can no longer handle the demand of
its environment. This is when someone begins to progress through the
various stages of adrenal dysfunction as cortisol output continues to
decline.

This state can also be induced by Addisons disease. Addisons is

an autoimmunecondition in which the immune system begins to attack
the adrenal glands, hindering its function (2).
Strategies To Balance Cortisol
The demands of today are not changing and our health is a reflection of
that. Now, more than ever, it is critical to employ strategies to balance
cortisol. This will ensure the body remains in an adaptive state rather
than a maladaptive one. This will also ensure that you have the energy
and mental clarity you need to have a deep experience of life.
When it comes to balancing cortisol and optimizing hormone balance,
these are the strategies you must follow.

Anti-Inflammatory Healing Diet

One of the most foundational principles of balance in almost any body
system is having a healthy blood sugar balance. This is because blood
sugar imbalances can contribute to inflammation which throws off more
processes in the body than one can count.
This means cutting out sugar, processed carbohydrates, and grains from
your diet. These should be replaced with healthy fats from coconut,
avocado, olives, grass-fed meats, wild caught fish, and dairy products
from pasture-raised animals. Small amounts of nuts and seeds such as
macadamia, sprouted almonds, and sprouted pumpkin seeds can also be
a great addition.

Finally, you want to complete your meals with moderate amounts of

protein from pasture-raised animals or wild-caught fish, along with lots
of fibrous veggies. Because this aspect of health is so important, it is the
basis for all of my health protocols. You can read more about the
benefits of this style of eating here.
Reduce Stress and Promote Peace
When we are constantly grinding sometimes we forget how to relax. For
example, many people who come to me with adrenal dysfunction often
feel chronically tired, yet wired at the same time. If you dont take time
out to train your ability to relax, stressed out can become your default
state.

This is why it is important to balance your stress with relaxation. This

can be done in many ways. From a daily perspective, it can be super
helpful to spend time in prayer, meditation, deep breathing,
stretching, taking a healing bath, or gratitude journaling upon waking or
before bed.
Additionally, you want to reflect on your life and see if their are areas of
stress that you can cut back on. This could mean removing stressful
people, surrounding yourself with uplifting friends, finding a way to
reduce that long commute, improving communication skills (great for
reducing stress in relationships), and anything else you can think of.
Find those areas of your life that are robbing your energy unnesecarily
and do what you can to improve them.
Sleep Well
As I said, it is critical to balance your stress with relaxation so that your
body can rejuvenate and adapt for a stronger tomorrow. This is
especially important when it comes to sleep. Getting high-quality, deep
sleep on a regular basis can be just as much of a game changer as
balancing blood sugar.

This is because deep sleep rejuvenates the brain and restores balance to
the whole body in so many ways. Unfortunately, our modern-day
environment is really messing with our ability to sleep.
On top of being under chronic stress, we are surrounded by blue
light from electronic devices, EMF from phones and wifi, and we dont
spend time in the sun as much anymore. These are all things that control
our brains internal clock that tells us when to sleep.
Deep Breathing
Deep breath work is a great way to quickly pull your body out of a
stressed state. This is because, done correctly, it can activate the
parasympathetic branch of your nervous system which is responsible for
inducing a state of relaxation.
One common and effective way of doing this is to perform what is called
the box breathing technique. This is a simple technique where you
breath in, hold, breath out, hold, and repeat in increments of 5 seconds
each. So breath in for 5 seconds, hold for 5 seconds, etc.
Many people will notice that this technique is great for grounding during
a time of stress and quickly reduces any anxiety they are feeling. You
can also employ an active form of this technique when you are walking
somewhere. Following the same pattern, breath in, hold, breath out, and
hold in increments of every 5 steps. This can be a great mindfulness
strategy when you dont have time to sit and meditate.
Grounding
Modern humans have largely separated themselves from the earth in
many ways. We spend much of our time indoors and as a result we no
longer receive regular sunlight or contact with the bare ground. These
are both actually very important for our health. Our bodies are optimized
to work with the light and magnetic forces that are put out by the earth
and sun. When we do not receive these things, we experience
consequences.
Studies have actually shown that getting barefoot contact with the earth
can lower inflammation and improve stress levels in humans (3). To take
these benefits a step further, I would recommend doing so in the sunlight
with skin exposed. The best times of day to perform these activities are
sunrise, midday, and sunset, this way your brain will reset with the
circadian cues of the environment that tell us when to sleep.

Magnesium
Stress increases our need for magnesium while also rapidly depleting it
from the body. Because magnesium is used for so many processes in the
body, including energy production, a deficiency could make your stress
more detrimental to your health. This can lead to a downward spiral of
health consequences if it is not addressed.
While some people may be able to get away with
consuming magnesium-rich foods, I often recommend supplementation
as a way of topping off your bodys stores and improving your resilience
to stress.
Specifically Brain Calm magnesium gets consistent results improving
mood, promoting relaxation, improving sleep, improving blood sugar,
and improving ability to adapt to stress. These effects collectively can
help cortisol levels tremendously.
Adaptogenic Herbs
For additional support that can be easily implemented into a busy
lifestyle, adaptogenic herbs can be powerful. These are herbs that
strengthen your ability to handle stress by improving stress hormone
signaling (4).
Improving stress hormone signaling is important to help with blood
sugar and sex hormone imbalances which contribute to many health
problems on their own.
One of the best herbs I have found for this is ashwaganda, which
provides beneficial effects for both cortisol and DHEA (a sex hormone
precursor). It has also been shown to lower subjective reports of stress
and improve cognitive function.
Introducing Cortisol Defense
Other herbs that provide similar benefits are Magnolia of cinalis and
Phellodendron amurense. Together these herbs help to improve cortisol-
DHEA balance and improve perception of stress.

I have been working on a new supplement that incorporates these herbs,

along with other powerful cortisol stabilizing compounds, to help
combat the negative effects of chronic stress. Cortisol Defense is the
result.
It is a powerful formula containing clinically tested extracts of these
herbs that outperform all others. In addition to the lifestyle strategies
outlined above, Cortisol Defense can help you conquer your stressful
lifestyle once and for all.
Sources For This Article Include:
1. Tritos, N. A., & Biller, B. M. K. (2014). Cushings disease. Handbook of Clinical Neurology, 124,
221234. PMID: 25248590
2. Husebye, E. S., Allolio, B., Arlt, W., Badenhoop, K., Bensing, S., Betterle, C., Pearce, S. H.
(2014). Consensus statement on the diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of patients with primary
adrenal insufficiency. Journal of Internal Medicine, 275(2), 104115. PMID: 24330030
3. Oschman, james l. (2015). the Effects of Grounding on Inflammation, the Immune Response,
Wound Healing, and Prevention and Treatment of Chronic Inflmammatory and Autoinmmune
Diseases. Journal of Inflammatory Research, 8, 8396. PMID: 25848315
4. Panossian, A., & Wikman, G. (2009). Evidence-based efficacy of adaptogens in fatigue, and
molecular mechanisms related to their stress-protective activity. Current Clinical Pharmacology, 4(3),
198219. PMID: 19500070
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