digest
Introduction: How to lower cortisol naturally
There's a really great tea that you could consume on a regular basis. In fact, you only need to drink a half a glass of it per day to create some really significant effects, especially on cortisol. As you may already know, cortisol is the main stress hormone, and a lot of people are being exposed to a chronic amount of high level cortisol.
And here's the problem. When you're exposed to cortisol over a long period of time, it's like being exposed to insulin over a long period of time. Your body starts developing cortisol resistance, just like insulin resistance, and that's a situation where there's a feedback loop problem. In other words, the receptor is blocked. So the signals don't get back to turn off things, and so the cell actually is suffering from a cortisol deficiency, and so then the adrenals just start pumping out more and more and more and more. So you have a situation where you have a lot of cortisol in the body, yet it's not working. So you have all sorts of problems: inflammatory problems, stress problems, weight problems, etc., etc.
But this problem can actually come from two different ways. One is through stress, but the other is not through stress, but just by having a genetic problem with that enzyme. You can either have two situations. One is that the enzyme is turned up too much. So just the tiniest bit of stress, you get this high level of cortisol and a lot of problems that are connected to it. On the flip side, if you have this enzyme turned down because of some genetic weakness or whatever, then it could be the opposite. You go through stress, but you don't get the benefit of cortisol. So it's kind of like having cortisol resistance. So both of these problems really give you the same bad problems.
The where I got this information is I was recently, for fun, reading this book called Natural Products and Their Drug Discovery. It's a textbook of all sorts of research on how they develop drugs. And what's interesting is that about 50 to 70% of drugs that were developed were derived from plant compounds. And so I was looking in the area of stress and I found this one phytonutrient that had some significant potent effects. Some of the comments in the book were like, "This could be a therapeutic target to replace some drugs that do this with virtually no side effects." And of course, it's not going to happen because there's no money in it and you can't patent this. But I'm going to make you aware of this one phytonutrient that can potently help you reduce cortisol.
I first want to just mention all the effects that can happen if you have too much cortisol in the body, whether you're experiencing stress or have a problem with this gene. So number one, you could experience depression and anxiety. You can also experience more belly fat, okay? Because these receptors for cortisol are in the belly as well. So you could be just pumping out all this cortisol and getting fat. The medical term for cortisol is called glucocorticoids, because it's involved with glucose. So when you're in a state of stress, your body is not going to be running on fat. It's going to be running on glucose, like quick energy. Cognitive problems relating to your focus, memory, and concentration also occur, and this is related to metabolic syndrome. That's a combination of midsection fat, high blood sugars, which is kind of diabetes or pre-diabetes, and then also hypertension, and then also high lipids like LDL cholesterol, things like that. All of that comes from high cortisol and high sugar.
Another one is polycystic ovarian syndrome, which is an androgen problem in females where they're getting facial hair, midsection weight, and a deeper voice. It is really coming from high levels of cortisol. It could come from a diet problem by consuming too many carbs or experiencing too much stress.
Now, another problem that's actually quite common is bone loss after you go through menopause. That could come from either this genetic problem or high levels of cortisol. Cortisol is very destructive to your bones, so that's going to put the person at risk for fractures. And of course, the person also is going to develop insulin resistance, not necessarily from sugar, but from the stress.
So what is this vital nutrient? It is EGCG in green tea. So green tea is what you need to start drinking on a regular basis. You just need a little bit, but consistently, just drink it every day. It's an inexpensive thing, it's easy to do, and it can greatly help you reduce cortisol in a potent way. There are a few other things mentioned in this book that can also inhibit that enzyme called 11 beta hydroxy steroid dehydrogenase type 1: licorice, curcumin, which is good for just about everything, and also emodin in Japanese knotweed.
So there you have it: some really great information on a natural way to lower cortisol without all the side effects. If you have not seen my video on the acupressure technique to lower cortisol, you have to check that one out next, and I put that video up right here.
Cortisol resistance
(Transcript text for this chapter is included in the Introduction section above, as the provided transcript does not contain a separate chapter break at this point.)
How to decrease stress and cortisol
(Transcript text for this chapter is included in the Introduction section above, as the provided transcript does not contain a separate chapter break at this point.)