How to Support High Cortisol Levels & Excessive Stress With Natural Remedies

When we are faced with a stressful event, our God designed body prepares us for the situation by triggering a cascade of stress hormones that impact us physically in the event that we may need to act.

Ideally we want to build the capacity to handle stressors when they occur so our stress hormones calm down and our body regulates.
However, in today's world, many people are not taught how to regulate emotions + deal with constant stressors, so this often isn't the case and it leads to constant progression through the stages of stress because the body perceives that it needs to prepare for battle and ultimately leads to chronic disease.

Are you feeling overly stressed, tired, and noticing weight gain despite not changing your diet or workout frequency? It's possible that your cortisol levels are out of balance. Cortisol, often referred to as the primary "stress hormone," is released when we're under pressure and our "fight or flight response" is activated. While cortisol is necessary for our survival and helps us stay motivated and alert, maintaining abnormally high levels can be dangerous and lead to long-term issues. In this post we will look at the stages of stress and how they influence our hormones.

The Alarm Stage

During this stage, adrenaline is high and your body is prepared to fight + flight. It increases your heart rate + breath rate + slows digestion as your body sends blood flow to your extremities to prepare to flee. This is great if you are in a dangerous situation. However, this is not great when you just living day to day. Left unchecked this can cause symptoms like:

Being easily startled
Irritability
Digestive problems
Heart Palpitations
Ruminating mind
Difficulty concentrating
Changes in blood pressure
Elevated inflammation
May result in weight loss for a period of time

Elevated Cortisol

When your body remains in a continued state of stress, your adrenaline remains increased and a stress hormone called cortisol continues to elevate in an attempt to down regulate inflammation. There can be many causes for this, an example in my case was: unaddressed trauma + stress responses combined with a habit of drinking caffeine on an empty stomach for years in the morning), This causes your body to not only burn through extra minerals but also + leads to symptoms like:

Unexplained weight gain (especially in the abdomen, back, and behind the arms).

Blood sugar issues (cortisol impacts insulin + can lead to insulin resistance)
Irritability
Increased cholesterol and triglyceride levels
Frequent illness due to the impact it has on your immune system
Blood pressure issues
It can ultimately lead to:
Thyroid issues
Estrogen dominance (cortisol steals your progesterone + as a result estrogen is left imbalanced + increases).
Worsening anxiety + depression and so much more

Low/Depleted Cortisol

Eventually, if you live in a chronic state of stress for too long, your God designed body is unable to keep up with the demanding inputs it is receiving from your stressful perception of the world (and in the case of chronic dieting, it cannot keep up with the nutrients it is not receiving or burning through). This results in stressed out adrenal glands, imbalanced hormones, and chronic fatigue (just to name a few). In some, it can result specifically in low morning waking cortisol and, for others, cortisol levels across the whole day might be low resulting in exhaustion. You may be producing cortisol, but it is not enough to put out the inflammatory fires being ignited throughout the body by extra adrenaline, so it doesn't meet the bodies demands and results in symptoms such as:

Heavy fatigue that caffeine can hardly touch

Morning stiffness and whole body pain
Difficulty losing weight
Insulin resistance
Energy perks in the evening (sometimes if you do not go to bed by 10am you get a second wind and struggle with insomnia, we call this, "missing your sleep bus in my house).
It can ultimately result in:
Hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-axis dysfunction (see my post for more info)
Thyroid, ovarian, + adrenal, dysfunction which is often given a diagnosis and multiple medications not attacking the actual problem and leading to more symptoms.

Habits I See Clinically

Some women who come to see me when they reach the point of experiencing chronic fatigue, worsening anxiety + depression, often report similar habits + struggles. These include: years of chronic dieting, low fat diets, lack of nutrient dense food, + unaddressed stress responses. In terms of diet, a common theme has specifically been the keto diet. The keto diet paired with intermittent fasting feels good in the beginning because it results in your body running on stress hormones. But when someone is already dealing with chronic stress due to things like nervous system dysregulation (and unaddressed trauma + triggers) and then they pair this diet with intermittent fasting, after awhile, in many women, their bodies begin screaming with symptoms of thyroid dysfunction + metabolic dis-ease specifically because of the amount of stress this puts on the female body. (keep in mind if you feel great on the keto diet, this isn't directed to you).

Other common contributors:

Skipping meals (which leads to low blood glucose, inadequate carbohydrate consumption)
Habitual ritual of caffeine on an empty stomach especially before breakfast
Unaddressed triggers + nervous system health leading to chronic worrying about people pleasing
Worldview of pressure and urgency
Poor mineral + nutrient intake

So many but here are just a few options to research:

Full spectrum light for 10-30 minutes upon waking
For low adrenal function: adrenal glandulars, minerals, + Adaptogenic herbs (ashwaganda, holy basil, + lemon balm are a few options).
For low thyroid function: thyroid glandulars instead of synthroid, kelp sprinkles, selenium (brazil nuts) + bioavailable copper + zinc rich foods
Synthroid contains T4, your body needs T3 to actually use it at a cellular level.
Magnesium bath soaks
Beef liver
Hydration with minerals (not just plain water)
Magnesium
Addressing gut health
Addressing Breathing habits
Addressing your nervous system, triggers, insecure attachment + perception of the world. If your body is constantly perceiving it is in stressed world, it will produce stress hormones to keep you safe and it will keep you depleted. (I have an entire course on this because it is the foundation of optimal health and often neglected!).