What is cortisol?
Cortisol is known as our stress hormone. It's released in response to a stressful situation, as part of the flight or fight response. There's an emergency and our body is flooded with cortisol.
The cortisol helps the body to cope with the immediate stress. It increases our alertness, it increases energy, it increases our focus, and it also helps to support other functions in the body. The problem is that if this cortisol level remains high all the time and it doesn't go down, that can cause an awful lot of problems.
Also, high cortisol levels can be caused by other issues that occur during the menopause - hormonal changes can put our body into a state of stress. If we're getting very little sleep, our body's going to be in a state of stress.
Then, if we're continually producing cortisol, it can create a whole load of imbalances in the body.
Key signs of high cortisol
So, how do you tell if your cortisol levels are too high? Here are some key signs and symptoms to look out for…
1. Weight gain (especially around the abdomen)
The really classic one is weight round the middle. Cortisol is used in stressful situations to promote the laying down of fat. Because the body thinks that this stress is going to continue day after day, it's going to use up a lot of energy. So the body has to store this energy somewhere, and it goes round the middle.
2. Increased anxiety, irritability, and mood swings
Excess cortisol can make us more anxious, more irritable, more kind of wound-up, more irritated. So your mood can change very quickly from one minute to the next.
3. Increased sugar or carb cravings
Cortisol increases our cravings for sugar and carbohydrate foods. And very often you'll find that if you've been in a really stressful situation, the one thing you want to do is eat something sweet. So if the cortisol is being produced day after day, you're going to have continual sugar cravings, which isn't going to help your weight at all.
4. Sleep issues
Excess cortisol can affect your sleep too. It can stop you falling asleep. You might find that you get a very broken sleep and you just can't relax at all.
5. Fatigue, low energy, tired and wired
It can also cause fatigue and low energy. It can make you feel tired and wired all the time, which can be so debilitating.
6. Loss of motivation
It can promote loss of motivation and make you feel emotionally and mentally exhausted. You've just got all this energy going on, and then suddenly you feel like you're a burst balloon.
7. High blood pressure
It can interfere with your blood pressure. Chronic stress and high cortisol levels can lead to increased blood pressure.
8. Brain fog and memory issues
Cortisol during stressful situations can make you more alert, but on-going high levels can cause difficulty concentrating or remembering things.
9. Weakened immune system
More frequent colds, infections, or slow healing are another classic sign that your cortisol levels are too high.
High cortisol symptoms and menopause symptoms
So, you can see already that all these symptoms of high cortisol are practically identical to ones that you can get in the menopause. And it can become this vicious cycle. So you've got lots of cortisol, which creates all these symptoms, which stresses the nervous system, which then creates more cortisol. And it's one of these situations that I always liken to being stuck in a deep pit and you can't get yourself out. So you need to do lots of things. You need to help yourself because this isn't something that will just go away on its own.
What you can do to help lower cortisol levels/keep them balanced
Lowering cortisol levels, especially during menopause, requires a combination of stress management, lifestyle adjustments, and dietary changes. Here are the best ways to naturally reduce cortisol:
Manage stress: So we're looking at dealing with stress itself. And I know that's easier said than done, and you will all be going, how can we, how can we do this? So it can be calming things. Remember, I always say 30 minutes 'me time' a day is absolutely vital. And it's known that relaxation and meditation can reduce cortisol levels quite quickly.
So, this is really worth its weight in gold, that 30 minutes 'me time'. You can look at doing things like yoga, deep breathing, and just trying to calm down generally, if at all possible!
Get quality sleep: It's about trying to improve your sleep. And I know that's another really difficult one, but there are lots of sleep lifestyle tips that you can employ just to help sleep that little bit more.
Balance blood sugar: Because of the blood sugar issue, because of the cravings, you need to look at eating little and often. Take magnesium. It's absolutely great for cravings, and it's lovely for helping to calm the nervous system down. You can look at herbs such as Siberian Ginseng and Avena sativa, and you can actually get a combination of both.
Try helpful herbs: So herbs like Siberian Ginseng are adaptogens, they help your nervous system to become more robust and cope with things much more easily.
Exercise appropriately: You can look at exercise, this is really important, but don't do too much. If you do aggressive exercising or exercise for over maybe half an hour at a time, your body thinks there's another stressful situation and it will produce the cortisol. So you need to temper exercise at this particular time.
Walking is probably the best form of exercise. There are also things like yoga. Swimming is another great exercise that you can do too.
Spend time in nature: Walking in nature is absolutely great. Forest bathing that the Japanese are so fond of can be absolutely fabulous.
Things to avoid: limit the bad things that rev up your nervous system. So that's things like caffeine, high sugar and high salt intake.
Stay hydrated: And remember the water, because dehydration will make absolutely everything worse as well.
So I hope you found this one helpful. It's such a common scenario and most of us will find ourselves in this cortisol vicious cycle.
I know I did and it took quite a few months just to resolve it with doing all these things and just making some minor changes in my life. If you have any questions on this, don't forget to ask. Tell me your stories. How did you resolve this?
How did you make yourself feel better and calm yourself down? Remember, I love to hear all your stories and tips.
Until next time, take care and have a lovely week.
Other topics that may interest you:
Relaxation tips to help ease menopause symptoms
