Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsSigns of High CortisolImpact of CortisolTips for Controlling Cortisol and StressChallenges
Table of ContentsView All
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Table of Contents
Signs of High Cortisol
Impact of Cortisol
Tips for Controlling Cortisol and Stress
Challenges
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A brain structure known as theamygdalaalerts the hypothalamus, which then signals a range of responses including the release of hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol.
When cortisol levels stay too high, you might experience a range of unwanted symptoms. Higher and more prolonged levels of cortisol in the bloodstream (such as those associated with chronic stress) have been shown to have negative effects, such as:
2:04Watch Now: 5 Ways Stress Can Cause Weight Gain
2:04
Watch Now: 5 Ways Stress Can Cause Weight Gain
These negative effects also often come with their own consequences. For example, increased abdominal fat is associated with a greater amount of health problems than fat deposited in other areas of the body. Some of the health problems associated with increased stomach fat include an increased risk for heart attacks, strokes, metabolic syndrome, higher levels of “bad” cholesterol (LDL), and lower levels of “good” cholesterol (HDL).
Cortisol is important for your body to function normally, but too much cortisol can be bad for your health.
Chronic high cortisol levels can also lead to a condition known as Cushing syndrome. Causes can include adrenal tumors or the prolonged use of glucocorticoids. Symptoms of Cushing syndrome can also include high blood sugars with increased thirst and urination, osteoporosis, depression, and more frequent infections.
How Stress Can Cause Weight Gain
Cortisol levels naturally fluctuate at different times in the day. For example, normally, cortisol is present in the body at higher levels in the morning, and at it is lowest at night. The cycle repeats daily.
Cortisol levels can also fluctuate based on what a person is experiencing. For instance, although stress isn’t the only reason that cortisol is secreted into the bloodstream, it has been termed “the stress hormone” because it’s also secreted in higher levels during thebody’s stress responseand is responsible for several stress-related changes in the body.
Small increases of cortisol have some positive effects:
Some people experience a greater spike in cortisol than others when they experience stress. It is also possible to minimize the amount of cortisol you secrete in response to stressors. Stress management techniques are one way that you can manage how you experience stress and possibly reduce cortisol levels in your body.
To keep cortisol levels healthy and under control, the body’s relaxation response should be activated after the fight or flight response occurs.You can learn to relax your body with various stress management techniques, and you can make lifestyle changes in order to keep your body from reacting to stress in the first place.
Many find the following strategies helpful in relaxing the body and mind, which assist the body in maintaining healthy cortisol levels:
Getting more information on stress and resources to help you to manage it can help you to build habits that can help you to cope with stress once your stress response is triggered.
If you’re more sensitive to stress, it’s especially important for you to learn stress management techniques and maintain a low-stress lifestyle. This is a great way to get cortisol secretion under control and maintain a healthy lifestyle at the same time.
18 Effective Stress Relief Strategies
Unfortunately, it may not always be possible to keep cortisol levels in check. Some other possible problems:
While cortisol is an important and helpful part of the body’s response to stress, it’s important that the body’srelaxation responsebe activated so the body’s functions can return to normal following a stressful event. Unfortunately, in our current high-stress culture, the body’s stress response is activated so often that the body doesn’t always have a chance to return to normal, resulting in a state ofchronic stress.
If you are struggling to manage stress or are experiencing signs of chronically high cortisol, don’t hesitate to look to your doctor for help.
11 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.National Cancer Institute.Cortisol.Van der Valk ES, Savas M, Van Rossum EFC.Stress and obesity: Are there more susceptible individuals?.Curr Obes Rep. 2018;7(2):193-203. doi:10.1007/s13679-018-0306-yHarvard Health Publishing.Understanding the Stress Response.Wippert PM, Rector M, Kuhn G, Wuertz-Kozak K.Stress and Alterations in Bones: An Interdisciplinary Perspective.Front Endocrinol (Lausanne).2017;8:96. doi:10.3389/fendo.2017.00096Hewagalamulage SD, Lee TK, Clarke IJ, Henry BA.Stress, cortisol, and obesity: A role for cortisol responsiveness in identifying individuals prone to obesity.Domest Anim Endocrinol.2016;56 Suppl:S112-S120. doi:10.1016/j.domaniend.2016.03.004Chaudhry HS, Singh G.Cushing Syndrome. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing. Updated December 14, 2019.Hannibal KE, Bishop MD.Chronic Stress, Cortisol Dysfunction, and Pain: A Psychoneuroendocrine Rationale for Stress Management in Pain Rehabilitation.Phys Ther.2014;94(12):1816-1825. doi:10.2522/ptj.20130597Bhasin MK, Dusek JA, Chang BH, et al.Relaxation response induces temporal transcriptome changes in energy metabolism, insulin secretion and inflammatory pathways.PLoS ONE. 2017;12(2):e0172873. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0062817Ma X, Yue ZQ, Gong ZQ, et al.The effect of diaphragmatic breathing on attention, negative affect and stress in healthy adults.Front Psychol.2017;8:874. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00874Thirthalli J, Naveen GH, Rao MG, Varambally S, Christopher R, Gangadhar BN.Cortisol and antidepressant effects of yoga.Indian J Psychiatry.2013;55(Suppl 3):S405-S408. doi:10.4103/0019-5545.116315Yau YH, Potenza MN.Stress and Eating Behaviors.Minerva Endocrinol.2013;38(3):255-267.
11 Sources
Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.National Cancer Institute.Cortisol.Van der Valk ES, Savas M, Van Rossum EFC.Stress and obesity: Are there more susceptible individuals?.Curr Obes Rep. 2018;7(2):193-203. doi:10.1007/s13679-018-0306-yHarvard Health Publishing.Understanding the Stress Response.Wippert PM, Rector M, Kuhn G, Wuertz-Kozak K.Stress and Alterations in Bones: An Interdisciplinary Perspective.Front Endocrinol (Lausanne).2017;8:96. doi:10.3389/fendo.2017.00096Hewagalamulage SD, Lee TK, Clarke IJ, Henry BA.Stress, cortisol, and obesity: A role for cortisol responsiveness in identifying individuals prone to obesity.Domest Anim Endocrinol.2016;56 Suppl:S112-S120. doi:10.1016/j.domaniend.2016.03.004Chaudhry HS, Singh G.Cushing Syndrome. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing. Updated December 14, 2019.Hannibal KE, Bishop MD.Chronic Stress, Cortisol Dysfunction, and Pain: A Psychoneuroendocrine Rationale for Stress Management in Pain Rehabilitation.Phys Ther.2014;94(12):1816-1825. doi:10.2522/ptj.20130597Bhasin MK, Dusek JA, Chang BH, et al.Relaxation response induces temporal transcriptome changes in energy metabolism, insulin secretion and inflammatory pathways.PLoS ONE. 2017;12(2):e0172873. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0062817Ma X, Yue ZQ, Gong ZQ, et al.The effect of diaphragmatic breathing on attention, negative affect and stress in healthy adults.Front Psychol.2017;8:874. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00874Thirthalli J, Naveen GH, Rao MG, Varambally S, Christopher R, Gangadhar BN.Cortisol and antidepressant effects of yoga.Indian J Psychiatry.2013;55(Suppl 3):S405-S408. doi:10.4103/0019-5545.116315Yau YH, Potenza MN.Stress and Eating Behaviors.Minerva Endocrinol.2013;38(3):255-267.
Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
National Cancer Institute.Cortisol.Van der Valk ES, Savas M, Van Rossum EFC.Stress and obesity: Are there more susceptible individuals?.Curr Obes Rep. 2018;7(2):193-203. doi:10.1007/s13679-018-0306-yHarvard Health Publishing.Understanding the Stress Response.Wippert PM, Rector M, Kuhn G, Wuertz-Kozak K.Stress and Alterations in Bones: An Interdisciplinary Perspective.Front Endocrinol (Lausanne).2017;8:96. doi:10.3389/fendo.2017.00096Hewagalamulage SD, Lee TK, Clarke IJ, Henry BA.Stress, cortisol, and obesity: A role for cortisol responsiveness in identifying individuals prone to obesity.Domest Anim Endocrinol.2016;56 Suppl:S112-S120. doi:10.1016/j.domaniend.2016.03.004Chaudhry HS, Singh G.Cushing Syndrome. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing. Updated December 14, 2019.Hannibal KE, Bishop MD.Chronic Stress, Cortisol Dysfunction, and Pain: A Psychoneuroendocrine Rationale for Stress Management in Pain Rehabilitation.Phys Ther.2014;94(12):1816-1825. doi:10.2522/ptj.20130597Bhasin MK, Dusek JA, Chang BH, et al.Relaxation response induces temporal transcriptome changes in energy metabolism, insulin secretion and inflammatory pathways.PLoS ONE. 2017;12(2):e0172873. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0062817Ma X, Yue ZQ, Gong ZQ, et al.The effect of diaphragmatic breathing on attention, negative affect and stress in healthy adults.Front Psychol.2017;8:874. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00874Thirthalli J, Naveen GH, Rao MG, Varambally S, Christopher R, Gangadhar BN.Cortisol and antidepressant effects of yoga.Indian J Psychiatry.2013;55(Suppl 3):S405-S408. doi:10.4103/0019-5545.116315Yau YH, Potenza MN.Stress and Eating Behaviors.Minerva Endocrinol.2013;38(3):255-267.
National Cancer Institute.Cortisol.
Van der Valk ES, Savas M, Van Rossum EFC.Stress and obesity: Are there more susceptible individuals?.Curr Obes Rep. 2018;7(2):193-203. doi:10.1007/s13679-018-0306-y
Harvard Health Publishing.Understanding the Stress Response.
Wippert PM, Rector M, Kuhn G, Wuertz-Kozak K.Stress and Alterations in Bones: An Interdisciplinary Perspective.Front Endocrinol (Lausanne).2017;8:96. doi:10.3389/fendo.2017.00096
Hewagalamulage SD, Lee TK, Clarke IJ, Henry BA.Stress, cortisol, and obesity: A role for cortisol responsiveness in identifying individuals prone to obesity.Domest Anim Endocrinol.2016;56 Suppl:S112-S120. doi:10.1016/j.domaniend.2016.03.004
Chaudhry HS, Singh G.Cushing Syndrome. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing. Updated December 14, 2019.
Hannibal KE, Bishop MD.Chronic Stress, Cortisol Dysfunction, and Pain: A Psychoneuroendocrine Rationale for Stress Management in Pain Rehabilitation.Phys Ther.2014;94(12):1816-1825. doi:10.2522/ptj.20130597
Bhasin MK, Dusek JA, Chang BH, et al.Relaxation response induces temporal transcriptome changes in energy metabolism, insulin secretion and inflammatory pathways.PLoS ONE. 2017;12(2):e0172873. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0062817
Ma X, Yue ZQ, Gong ZQ, et al.The effect of diaphragmatic breathing on attention, negative affect and stress in healthy adults.Front Psychol.2017;8:874. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00874
Thirthalli J, Naveen GH, Rao MG, Varambally S, Christopher R, Gangadhar BN.Cortisol and antidepressant effects of yoga.Indian J Psychiatry.2013;55(Suppl 3):S405-S408. doi:10.4103/0019-5545.116315
Yau YH, Potenza MN.Stress and Eating Behaviors.Minerva Endocrinol.2013;38(3):255-267.
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