Dr. Sara Gottfried's Top 3 Ways to Rehab Cortisol
The last couple of years have been stressful, which has wrecked cortisol for so many of us...
But first, what is cortisol and why does it matter?
Cortisol is a steroid hormone that is made in your adrenal glands, the endocrine glands on top of your kidneys. Its #1 job is regulating your body's stress response.
Cortisol helps control your body's use of fats, proteins, carbohydrates, and metabolism. Plus, it plays a key role in suppressing inflammation.
Obviously, these are all really important areas that directly impact health most of our health goals. This makes balancing cortisol extremely important if you want to lose weight, have a strong metabolism, and feel your best.
If you have high levels of cortisol, it is an indicator of chronic stress. This hormone is insidious in its effect on your body. High cortisol and chronic stress can make you gain weight or hang onto the weight you would rather say goodbye to. You can also feel more cranky, inflamed, or even age faster than necessary.
Mastering stress as a form of energy, rather than being bullied by it, is the key to health, longer life, and a happier day-to-day existence.
Dr. Sara Gottfried, MD explains that your health and longevity may hang in the balance of your honest responses to the questions below.
- Are you addicted to high stress?
- Do you consider yourself a workaholic?
- Do you feel chronically depleted from working so hard or giving so much?
- Do you experience wandering attention?
- Do you feel tired but wired at night and often get a second wind?
- Do you have drama in your life, such as your relationship with your partner or your mother or work colleagues?
- If you have a period of smooth sailing, do you feel bored? How do you feel after a break from work?
- Do you need to exercise to self- regulate? Do you feel out of sorts when you don’t get your gym time in?
- If you have a day where you are completely unscheduled, do you feel uneasy, maybe anxious—and rush to fill it in?
- How’s your sex drive? Is work more appealing?
If you answered "yes" to some of those questions, chances are your cortisol is out of balance. Here are Dr. Sara’s top 3 ways to rehab cortisol and find the cortisol sweet spot of not-too-high and not-too-low:
- Institute a morning practice of at least 7 minutes of deep, diaphragmatic breathing. It could be yoga, meditation, tai chi. Your choice.
2. Cut back on, or quit, caffeine and alcohol.
3. Master your sleep. When you’re off of caffeine, you may sleep an extra hour or two per night, which you need to perform the adrenal repair of high-stress living. Track your sleep.
Bonus Tip 4! Reset and reboot your cortisol hormone during the 21 Day Hormone Reset. It's the life-changing program developed by Dr. Sara Gottfried to help women rebalance and reset their hormone function without medications, HRT, or other extreme measures. In fact, using your food and your fork, you can create incredible change in a short amount of time. It's not too late to jump into the program, check it out here and enroll today.
