Although cortisol gets a bad rap as the “stress hormone,” it’s actually crucial to overall health. It serves many functions in the body beyond just regulating the fight-or-flight response, including memory formation, blood sugar and metabolism regulation, and inflammation reduction.
Where things can go sideways, though, is when cortisol levels get too high. This can lead to a variety of undesirable long-term health issues and can also impact your quality of life.
Here’s how to recognize high cortisol levels and what to do about them.
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What do high cortisol levels mean?
Cushing’s syndrome is the term for too-high levels of cortisol in the body. These elevated levels can result from taking high doses of corticosteroid medications, but they can also simply result from your body producing too much cortisol.
High cortisol levels might mean a few different things, and following are some of the factors that can lead to high cortisol.
Stress and anxiety
Stress triggers your body’s adrenal glands, which release hormones including cortisol and adrenaline. The idea is that this physical response, which raises your heart rate and blood pressure and heightens your awareness, would help you respond quickly to an external threat.
However, if you experience chronic or frequent stress, this cortisol release doesn’t always turn off and allow your body to go back to normal as it’s supposed to. This can be bad because it means that any functions that aren’t directly tied to your fight-or-flight response are basically put on hold.
Pituitary gland conditions
Your brain’s pituitary gland controls the secretion of multiple hormones including cortisol. Problems with the pituitary gland can cause it to overproduce (or underproduce) hormones, and this can directly lead to elevated cortisol levels by stimulating overproduction of cortisol by the adrenal glands.
Side effects of medications
Some medications can actually contribute to high cortisol levels. This includes oral contraceptives as well as long-term or high-dose corticosteroids used to treat conditions like arthritis, asthma, and other inflammatory conditions.
Adrenal gland tumors
Tumors on the adrenal glands, which are responsible for producing cortisol, can be either benign or malignant and can lead to Cushing’s syndrome. These tumors are most commonly benign adenomas, and are found in 1 in 10 people who have an imaging test of their adrenal gland.
However, adrenal gland tumors are not usually the cause of high cortisol levels, so there is no reason to be alarmed. If you suspect that adrenal gland tumors are the cause of your cortisol issues, check other signs and symptoms and visit your doctor.
High estrogen levels
In people for whom estrogen is their primary sex hormone, one of the most common causes of high cortisol is actually high estrogen, which may result from pregnancy or estrogen therapy.
Long-term effects of high cortisol
We all know too much stress is bad for us. But what does it do, exactly? High cortisol can disrupt many different bodily processes and lead to various negative effects, including:
- Anxiety and depression
- Weight gain
- Thinning skin or easy bruising
- Memory impairment and brain fog
- Acne
- Mood swings
- Insomnia, or severe fatigue
- Digestive issues and headaches
- Muscle pain and weakness
- Heart attack, heart disease, stroke, or high blood pressure
These symptoms are pretty wide-ranging, and could also be linked to other underlying health conditions. The symptoms of Cushing’s syndrome are a bit more specific: weight gain and development of fatty areas in the face, gut, and between the shoulder blades; purple stretch marks; thinning skin; and slow-healing injuries.
Can you improve cortisol levels through diet?
Your nutrition can impact your cortisol levels. Eating poorly can lead to high cortisol while eating a healthy, balanced diet can help alleviate stress and regulate cortisol levels.
High quantities of added sugars may lead to elevated cortisol, but inversely can also interfere with the appropriate release of cortisol during actual stressful events, making it more difficult to handle high-stress situations. A healthy gut microbiome, supported by a balanced diet, is also tied to improved mental health and may lower experiences of stress and anxiety.
As for specific foods that can help regulate cortisol, these are a good place to start:
- Water: Dehydration can cause cortisol spikes.
- Whole grains: These support the microbiome better than refined grains.
- Probiotics and prebiotics: Found in foods like yogurt, kimchi, and foods high in soluble fiber, these are linked to improved gut health and, by extension, mental health.
- Green tea: The L-theanine in green tea can have a calming effect.
- Legumes and lentils: Their high fiber content supports a healthy gut and regulates blood sugar.
- Healthy fats: Eating healthy sources of polyunsaturated fats, especially omega-3s, is linked to better mental health. Fatty fish, seeds, and nuts offer high levels of healthy fats.
- Dark chocolate: The flavonoids in dark chocolate can reduce stress reactivity in the adrenal glands.
What supplements can help improve cortisol levels?
While there’s no cure-all pill for regulating cortisol, there are a few supplements and herbs that might improve cortisol levels:
- Ashwagandha: This ancient herbal supplement may improve resistance to stress and reduce cortisol levels when taken daily.
- Rhodiola: This adaptogen has been used for centuries to treat anxiety and fatigue. It’s thought to help users better respond to stressful situations.
- Lemon balm: While more research is needed, some studies indicate that lemon balm can alleviate stress and anxiety while boosting cognitive function.
- Chamomile: Many people drink chamomile tea before bedtime for its calming, gently sedative properties.
Lifestyle changes to improve cortisol
How you live affects how you feel. But you don’t have to turn your whole life upside down in order to address high cortisol levels! Here are some basic changes you can make to support a healthy stress response.
Get enough sleep
The first step here is to prioritize sleep. When possible, aim for seven to nine hours, ideally with regular sleep/wake times --- even on weekends. While it can be hard to choose sleep over things that feel more important, like socializing or having time for yourself, the reality is that it’ll be more difficult to enjoy those parts of life while deprived of sleep.
Exercise
This one sounds simple enough, but how and when you exercise actually makes a difference. Regular exercise can have a long-term positive effect on stress, sleep, and overall health. But you shouldn’t overdo it, as overly intense exercise can actually increase cortisol, nor should you exercise too close to bedtime, as that can interfere with sleep.
Practice meditation and mindfulness
Some research suggests that mindfulness meditation can actually lower cortisol levels in the blood. In general, practices that promote mindful breathing, like meditation, yoga, and tai chi, can stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system and bring about feelings of relaxation and calm.
Try therapy
Speaking to a licensed therapist can help you develop healthy strategies and coping mechanisms to deal with stressors. If you experience high cortisol related to chronic stress or general anxiety, therapy is worth considering.
How to monitor your cortisol levels
When it comes to your hormone levels, a one-time snapshot doesn’t offer the whole picture of your health. That’s why monitoring your cortisol levels over time is ideal --- so you can see which adjustments are working and which aren’t.
There are a few ways to monitor your cortisol levels over time, and you should choose an approach that best fits your needs. You can get in-person lab work done on a regular basis, or you can opt for a service like Base that allows you to easily monitor your levels of cortisol, and other hormones and nutrients, without leaving home or making appointments.
Base’s Stress Testing Plan makes it easy to take your health into your own hands with a data-driven approach. And beyond helping you track your cortisol levels, it’ll also give you tangible suggestions for lifestyle changes and supplementation, which means you’re actually equipped to act on the data you’re given and move toward your health goals.
Worried about your stress levels?
Take our quiz to build a bespoke testing plan that will help you understand your cortisol levels and de-stress.
