270. Is Cortisol Really the Villain?

So as I'm watching this conversation, and honestly I'm also participating in this conversation about cortisol and hormones in general and age, I'm seeing some information that is really solid and some that is just simply being misunderstood.

And I can even admit that in some of my episodes I have probably fed into or created some of that confusion because I'm explaining a negative aspect about cortisol.

But that does not mean that cortisol across the board is negative overall.

As I said before, fitness is not always black and white.

There is a lot of gray with it.

And this is why this matters, because you should be paying attention to what you should personally be doing, and you should even, if you need the support, be thinking about a personal coach to help you on your journey to make sure that you're aware of what information affects you, what information you can kinda sift through, because a lot of things are thrown out as just blanket statements or just niched down to a certain audience, and it's not fair across the entire population based on different factors, different levers that we're gonna talk about.

So today I'm gonna break down what cortisol actually is, why you need it, and what happens when it gets stuck too high, and the things to be aware of when we are labeling cortisol as bad.

Because as I said Even I have participated in explaining a piece of cortisol where when it gets stuck, it is considered, quote-unquote, bad, but that does not mean that cortisol is the villain overall.

You just have to understand how it works for you and how it works against you.

And when you learn to understand that, it makes everything different.

So first let's talk about the benefits of cortisol, because I already know you know a lot of the negative pieces, which we're gonna get into, but I wanna break that stereotype so you understand that there are benefits to cortisol.

So first, cortisol is a hormone produced by the adrenal glands, and it is absolutely essential for life.

Like, literally, you cannot function without it.

You definitely need it.

Cortisol actually helps wake you up in the morning.

It is literally made to help you rise.

Like, it helps you open your eyes in the morning because you're getting a cortisol spike.

This is what gives you the energy to actually get out of bed and start your day.

I'm gonna link an episode in the show notes.

I'm gonna link a couple episodes, but my episode 224, Three Tips for Improving Your Circadian Rhythm to Improve Your Sleep, I talk all about how cortisol has a purpose.

It works together with your melatonin.

It should rise, it should fall, and it's helpful for you to actually go to sleep.

It needs to rise in the morning to get you out of bed and to get you going, and it needs to lower at night.

So that is definitely a benefit.

If you are waking up and, like, can't move and can't function, you might have an issue with even low cortisol, which I'll touch base on later.