7 Things Your Hair Reveals About Your Health

Posted on January 20, 2022 by MaryO

Your hair can tell you and your doctor if you are stressed, have a nutritional deficiency, thyroid problem, or other health issues. Here are seven key things to look for in your hair.

You probably think about your hair every day: worrying about a bad day, enjoying a good blow-dry, or wondering if you have to try the new style you noticed in your favorite celebrity. But you may be missing the clues your hair reveals about your health. Research shows that changes in the look, texture, or thickness of your hair can be signs of underlying health issues. Here’s how to tell if your hair changes are due to a health condition, genetics, stress, or a nutritional deficiency.

1 Stress (and genes) can cause you to turn gray

Anyone who has observed the hairstyle changes of a President of the Republic from one campaign to another has noticed that stress seems to cause hair to turn white. A mouse study published in the journal Nature suggests that chronic stress may actually contribute to white hair by causing DNA damage and reducing the number of pigment-producing cells in hair follicles. Stress can also lead to hair loss.

Another type of stress, known as oxidative stress, can also play a role in white hair. Oxidative stress can affect pigment-producing cells. Turning gray is actually a completely natural part of aging because hair follicles produce less color as you age. Your genes also play a role in when your hair turns gray. Ask your parents how old they were when they first saw the signs of silvering, and you might do the same. In fact, a study published in March 2016 in the journal Nature Communications was the first to identify the gene responsible for white hair.

2 brittle hair could be a sign of Cushing’s syndrome

Brittle hair is one of the symptoms of Cushing’s syndrome, which is a rare condition caused by excess cortisol, the main hormone body stress. But, there are many other, more obvious symptoms of Cushing’s syndrome, including high blood pressure, fatigue, and back pain. Treatment for Cushing’s syndrome may involve changing the dose of medication that may be causing the condition, such as glucocorticoids, which are steroids used to treat inflammation caused by various diseases.

3 Thinning hair may be a sign of thyroid disease

People with hypothyroidism, a condition that occurs when the thyroid gland does not produce enough thyroid hormones, may notice increased hair loss and change in hair appearance. About 4.6% of the population aged 12 years and older have hypothyroidism, although most cases are mild. Hypothyroidism can lead to thinning hair and other symptoms, such as fatigue, intolerance to cold, joint pain, muscle aches, puffy face and weight gain. A thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) test can diagnose the condition, and treatment involves taking thyroid medication.

In addition to thinning hair, some thyroid disorders put you at risk for risk of autoimmune hair loss called alopecia areata. This type of hair loss causes round patches of sudden hair loss and is caused by the immune system attacking the hair follicles.

4 Hair loss can be a sign of anemia

If you suddenly notice a lot more hair in your hairbrush or on the floor of your shower, it may be a sign that your body has low iron stores, or anemia , and may warrant testing. This is another blood test we do when you complain of hair changes. Vegetarians or women with heavy periods increase their risk that hair changes are due to iron deficiency.

It is unclear why iron deficiency can lead to hair loss. hair, but iron is essential for many biological and chemical reactions, perhaps including hair growth. Hair loss can also occur (temporarily) with sudden changes in estrogen levels and is often noticed after pregnancy or stopping birth control pills.

5 The loss of hair could indicate protein deficiency

Protein is essential for hair health and growth (a lack of protein has been linked to hair thinning and hair loss ). Protein deficiency is not a problem for most people. Most adults need 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. Good sources of protein include low-fat Greek yogurt, chickpeas, and chicken breast. People who have gastrointestinal difficulties or who have just had gastric bypass surgery may have problems digesting protein. These special situations will need to be managed with the help of your doctor. But most cases of thinning hair, even in women, are probably due to genetics.

6 White or yellow flakes can mean you have dandruff

Yellow or white flakes in your hair, on your shoulders and even in your eyebrows are a sign of dandruff, a chronic scalp condition. Dandruff is usually not a sign of a health problem and can be treated with specialized over-the-counter or prescription shampoos.

One of the most common causes of dandruff is a medical condition called seborrheic dermatitis. People with seborrheic dermatitis have red, oily skin covered in white or yellow scales. A yeast-like fungus called malassezia can also irritate the scalp. Insufficient shampoo, sensitivity to hair care products, and dry skin can also cause dandruff. (Dandruff is usually more severe in the winter, when indoor heating can make skin drier).

7 Damaged hair can mask other health issues

Although hair can reveal your condition, women more often complain about the damage caused by hair coloring and heat treatment. Excessive heat, from daily use of a flat iron or blow-drying, can certainly damage your hair, making it dry, brittle and difficult to maintain. Best not to use more than one hot tool per day (occasional double heat treatment is okay, but not daily). When applying heat to your hair, always use products with protective ingredients. Serums and shine drops tend to have hair-preserving qualities when using direct and indirect heat.

From https://www.mvdemocrat.com/appearance-texture-thickness-7-things-your-hair-reveals-about-your-health/

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Adrenal Fatigue: Faux Diagnosis?

Posted on November 30, 2021 by MaryO

This article is based on reporting that features expert sources.

U.S. News & World Report

Adrenal Fatigue: Is It Real?

You may have heard of so-called ‘adrenal fatigue,’ supposedly caused by ongoing emotional stress. Or you might have come across adrenal support supplements sold online to treat it. But if someone suggests you have the controversial, unproven condition, seek a second opinion, experts say. And if someone tries to sell you dietary supplements or other treatments for adrenal fatigue, be safe and save your money.

Tired man sitting at desk in modern office

(GETTY IMAGES)

Physicians tend to talk about ‘reaching’ or ‘making’ a medical diagnosis. However, when it comes to adrenal fatigue, endocrinologists – doctors who specialize in diseases involving hormone-secreting glands like the adrenals – sometimes use language such as ‘perpetrating a diagnosis,’ ‘misdiagnosis,’ ‘made-up diagnosis,’ ‘a fallacy’ and ‘nonsense.’

About 20 years ago, the term “adrenal fatigue” was coined by Dr. James Wilson, a chiropractor. Since then, certain practitioners and marketers have promoted the notion that chronic stress somehow slows or shuts down the adrenal glands, causing excessive fatigue.

“The phenomenon emerged from the world of integrative medicine and naturopathic medicine,” says Dr. James Findling, a professor of medicine and director of the Community Endocrinology Center and Clinics at the Medical College of Wisconsin. “It has no scientific basis, and there’s no merit to it as a clinical diagnosis.”

An online search of medical billing code sets in the latest version of the International Classification of Diseases, or the ICD-10, does not yield a diagnostic code for ‘adrenal fatigue’ among the 331 diagnoses related either to fatigue or adrenal conditions or procedures.

In a March 2020 position statement, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists and American College of Endocrinology addressed the use of adrenal supplements “to treat common nonspecific symptoms due to ‘adrenal fatigue,’ an entity that has not been recognized as a legitimate diagnosis.”

The position statement warned of known and unknown health risks of off-label use and misuse of hormones and supplements in patients without an established endocrine diagnosis, as well as unnecessary costs to patients and the overall health care system.

Study after study has refuted the legitimacy of adrenal fatigue as a medical diagnosis. An August 2016 systematic review combined and analyzed data from 58 studies on adrenal fatigue including more than 10,000 participants. The conclusion in a nutshell: “Adrenal fatigue does not exist,” according to review authors in the journal BMC Endocrine Disorders.

Adrenal Action

You have two adrenal glands in your body. These small triangular glands, one on top of each kidney, produce essential hormones such as aldosterone, cortisol and male sex hormones such as DHEA and testosterone.

Cortisol helps regulate metabolism: How your body uses fat, protein and carbohydrates from food, and cortisol increases blood sugar as needed. It also plays a role in controlling blood pressure, preventing inflammation and regulating your sleep/wake cycle.

As your body responds to stress, cortisol increases. This response starts with signals between two sections in the brain: The hypothalamus and the pituitary gland, which act together to release a hormone that stimulates the adrenal glands to make cortisol. This interactive unit is called the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis.

While some health conditions really do affect the body’s cortisol-making ability, adrenal fatigue isn’t among them.

“There’s no evidence to support that adrenal fatigue is an actual medical condition,” says Dr. Mary Vouyiouklis Kellis, a staff endocrinologist at Cleveland Clinic. “There’s no stress connection in the sense that someone’s adrenal glands will all of a sudden just stop producing cortisol because they’re so inundated with emotional stress.”

If anything, adrenal glands are workhorses that rise to the occasion when chronic stress occurs. “The last thing in the body that’s going to fatigue are your adrenal glands,” says Dr. William F. Young Jr., an endocrinology clinical professor and professor of medicine in the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. “Adrenal glands are built for stress – that’s what they do. Adrenal glands don’t fatigue. This is made up – it’s a fallacy.”

The idea of adrenal glands crumbling under stress is “ridiculous,” Findling agrees. “In reality, if you take a person and subject them to chronic stress, the adrenal glands don’t shut down at all,” Findling says. “They keep making cortisol – it’s a stress hormone. In fact, the adrenal glands are just like the Energizer Bunny – they just keep going. They don’t stop.”

Home cortisol tests that allow consumers to check their own levels can be misleading, Findling says. “Some providers who make this (adrenal fatigue) diagnosis, provide patients with testing equipment for doing saliva cortisol levels throughout the day,” he says. “And then, regardless of what the results are, they perpetrate this diagnosis of adrenal fatigue.”

Saliva cortisol is a legitimate test that’s frequently used in diagnosing Cushing’s syndrome, or overactive adrenal glands, Findling notes. However, he says, a practitioner pursuing an adrenal fatigue diagnosis could game the system. “What they do is: They shape a very narrow normal range, so narrow, in fact, that no normal human subject could have all their saliva cortisol (levels) within that range throughout the course of the day,” he says. “Then they convince the poor patients that they have adrenal fatigue phenomena and put them on some kind of adrenal support.”

Loaded Supplements

How do you know what you’re actually getting if you buy a dietary supplement marketed for adrenal fatigue or ‘adrenal support’ use? To find out, researchers purchased 12 such supplements over the counter in the U.S.

Laboratory tests revealed that all supplements contained a small amount of thyroid hormone and most contained at least one steroid hormone, according to the study published in the March 2018 issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings. “These results may highlight potential risks for hidden ingredients in unregulated supplements,” the authors concluded.

Supplements containing thyroid hormones or steroids can interact with a patient’s prescribed medications or have other side effects.

“Some people just assume they have adrenal fatigue because they looked it up online when they felt tired and they ultimately buy these over-the-counter supplements that can be very dangerous at times,” Vouyiouklis Kellis says. “Some of them contain animal (ingredients), like bovine adrenal extract. That can suppress the pituitary axis. So, as a result, your body stops making its own cortisol or starts making less of it, and as a result, you can actually worsen the condition rather than make it better.”

Any form of steroid from outside the body, whether a prescription drug like prednisone or extract from cows’ adrenal glands, “can shut off the pituitary,” Vouyiouklis Kellis explains. “Because it’s signaling to the pituitary like: Hey, you don’t need to stimulate the adrenals to make cortisol, because this patient is taking it already. So, as a result, the body ultimately doesn’t produce as much. And, so, if you rapidly withdraw that steroid or just all of a sudden decide not to take it anymore, then you can have this acute response of low cortisol.”

Some adrenal support products, such as herbal-only supplements, may be harmless. However, they’re unlikely to relieve chronic fatigue.

Fatigue: No Easy Answers

If you’re suffering from ongoing fatigue, it’s frustrating. And you’re not alone. “I have fatigue,” Young Jr. says. “Go to the lobby any given day and say, ‘Raise your hand if you have fatigue.’ Most of the people are going to raise their hands. It’s a common human symptom and people would like an easy answer for it. Usually there’s not an easy answer. I think ‘adrenal fatigue’ is attractive because it’s like: Aha, here’s the answer.”

There aren’t that many causes of endocrine-related fatigue, Young Jr. notes. “Hypothyroidism – when the thyroid gland is not working – is one.” Addison’s disease, or adrenal insufficiency, can also lead to fatigue among a variety of other symptoms. Established adrenal conditions – like adrenal insufficiency – need to be treated.

“In adrenal insufficiency, there is an intrinsic problem in the adrenal gland’s inability to produce cortisol,” Vouyiouklis Kellis explains. “That can either be a primary problem in the adrenal gland or an issue with the pituitary gland not being able to stimulate the adrenal to make cortisol.”

Issues can arise even with necessary medications. “For example, very commonly, people are put on steroids for various reasons: allergies, ear, nose and throat problems,” Vouyiouklis Kellis says. “And with the withdrawal of the steroids, they can ultimately have adrenal insufficiency, or decrease in cortisol.”

Opioid medications for pain also result in adrenal sufficiency, Vouyiouklis Kellis says, adding that this particular side effect is rarely discussed. People with a history of autoimmune disease can also be at higher risk for adrenal insufficiency.

Common symptoms of adrenal insufficiency include:

  • Fatigue.
  • Weight loss.
  • Decreased appetite.
  • Salt cravings.
  • Low blood pressure.
  • Abdominal pain.
  • Nausea, vomiting or diarrhea.
  • Muscle weakness.
  • Hyperpigmentation (darkening of the skin).
  • Irritability.

Medical tests for adrenal insufficiency start with blood cortisol levels, and tests for the ACTH hormone that stimulates the pituitary gland.

“If the person does not have adrenal insufficiency and they’re still fatigued, it’s important to get to the bottom of it,” Vouyiouklis Kellis says. Untreated sleep apnea often turns out to be the actual cause, she notes.

“It’s very important to tease out what’s going on,” Vouyiouklis Kellis emphasizes. “It can be multifactorial – multiple things contributing to the patient’s feeling of fatigue.” The blood condition anemia – a lack of healthy red blood cells – is another potential cause.

“If you are fatigued, do not treat yourself,” Vouyiouklis Kellis says. “Please seek a physician or a primary care provider for evaluation, because you don’t want to go misdiagnosed or undiagnosed. It’s very important to rule out actual causes that would be contributing to symptoms rather than ordering supplements online or seeking an alternative route like self-treating rather than being evaluated first.”

SOURCES

The U.S. News Health team delivers accurate information about health, nutrition and fitness, as well as in-depth medical condition guides. All of our stories rely on multiple, independent sources and experts in the field, such as medical doctors and licensed nutritionists. To learn more about how we keep our content accurate and trustworthy, read our editorial guidelines.

James Findling, MDFindling is a professor of medicine and director of the Community Endocrinology Center and Clinics at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

Mary Vouyiouklis Kellis, MDVouyiouklis Kellis is a staff endocrinologist at Cleveland Clinic.

William F. Young Jr., MDYoung Jr. is an endocrinology clinical professor and professor of medicine in the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota

From https://health.usnews.com/health-care/patient-advice/articles/adrenal-fatigue-is-it-real?

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Largest-ever analysis of its kind finds Cushing’s syndrome triples risk of death

Posted on March 22, 2021 by MaryO

WASHINGTON–Endogenous Cushing’s syndrome, a rare hormonal disorder, is associated with a threefold increase in death, primarily due to cardiovascular disease and infection, according to a study whose results will be presented at ENDO 2021, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting.

The research, according to the study authors, is the largest systematic review and meta-analysis to date of studies of endogenous (meaning “inside your body”) Cushing’s syndrome. Whereas Cushing’s syndrome most often results from external factors–taking cortisol-like medications such as prednisone–the endogenous type occurs when the body overproduces the hormone cortisol, affecting multiple bodily systems.

Accurate data on the mortality and specific causes of death in people with endogenous Cushing’s syndrome are lacking, said the study’s lead author, Padiporn Limumpornpetch, M.D., an endocrinologist from Prince of Songkla University, Thailand and Ph.D. student at the University of Leeds in Leeds, U.K. The study analyzed death data from more than 19,000 patients in 92 studies published through January 2021.

“Our results found that death rates have fallen since 2000 but are still unacceptably high,” Limumpornpetch said.

Cushing’s syndrome affects many parts of the body because cortisol responds to stress, maintains blood pressure and cardiovascular function, regulates blood sugar and keeps the immune system in check. The most common cause of endogenous Cushing’s syndrome is a tumor of the pituitary gland called Cushing’s disease, but another cause is a usually benign tumor of the adrenal glands called adrenal Cushing’s syndrome. All patients in this study had noncancerous tumors, according to Limumpornpetch.

Overall, the proportion of death from all study cohorts was 5 percent, the researchers reported. The standardized mortality ratio–the ratio of observed deaths in the study group to expected deaths in the general population matched by age and sex–was 3:1, indicating a threefold increase in deaths, she stated.

This mortality ratio was reportedly higher in patients with adrenal Cushing’s syndrome versus Cushing’s disease and in patients who had active disease versus those in remission. The standardized mortality ratio also was worse in patients with Cushing’s disease with larger tumors versus very small tumors (macroadenomas versus microadenomas).

On the positive side, mortality rates were lower after 2000 versus before then, which Limumpornpetch attributed to advances in diagnosis, operative techniques and medico-surgical care.

More than half of observed deaths were due to heart disease (24.7 percent), infections (14.4 percent), cerebrovascular diseases such as stroke or aneurysm (9.4 percent) or blood clots in a vein, known as thromboembolism (4.2 percent).

“The causes of death highlight the need for aggressive management of cardiovascular risk, prevention of thromboembolism and good infection control and emphasize the need to achieve disease remission, normalizing cortisol levels,” she said.

Surgery is the mainstay of initial treatment of Cushing’s syndrome. If an operation to remove the tumor fails to put the disease in remission, other treatments are available, such as medications.

Study co-author Victoria Nyaga, Ph.D., of the Belgian Cancer Centre in Brussels, Belgium, developed the Metapreg statistical analysis program used in this study.

###

Endocrinologists are at the core of solving the most pressing health problems of our time, from diabetes and obesity to infertility, bone health, and hormone-related cancers. The Endocrine Society is the world’s oldest and largest organization of scientists devoted to hormone research and physicians who care for people with hormone-related conditions.

The Society has more than 18,000 members, including scientists, physicians, educators, nurses and students in 122 countries. To learn more about the Society and the field of endocrinology, visit our site at http://www.endocrine.org. Follow us on Twitter at @TheEndoSociety and @EndoMedia.

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

From https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-03/tes-lao031621.php

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Earwax may reveal how stressed you are

Posted on November 7, 2020 by MaryO

How stressed are you? Your earwax could hold the answer.

A new method of collecting and analyzing earwax for levels of the stress hormone cortisol may be a simple and cheap way to track the mental health of people with depression and anxiety.

Cortisol is a crucial hormone that spikes when a person is stressed and declines when they’re relaxed. In the short-term, the hormone is responsible for the “fight or flight” response, so it’s important for survival. But cortisol is often consistently elevated in people with depression and anxiety, and persistent high levels of cortisol can have negative effects on the immune system, blood pressure and other bodily functions.

There are other disorders which involve abnormal cortisol, including Cushing’s disease (caused by the overproduction of cortisol) and Addison’s disease (caused by the underproduction of cortisol). People with Cushing’s disease have abnormal fat deposits, weakened immune systems and brittle bones. People with Addison’s disease have dangerously low blood pressure.

There are a lot of ways to measure cortisol: in saliva, in blood, even in hair. But saliva and blood samples capture only a moment in time, and cortisol fluctuates significantly throughout the day. Even the experience of getting a needle stick to draw blood can increase stress, and thus cortisol levels. Hair samples can provide a snapshot of cortisol over several months instead of several minutes, but hair can be expensive to analyze — and some people don’t have much of it.

Andrés Herane-Vives, a lecturer at University College London’s Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Institute of Psychiatry, and his colleagues instead turned to the ear. Earwax is stable and resistant to bacterial contamination, so it can be shipped to a laboratory easily for analysis. It also can hold a record of cortisol levels stretching over weeks.

But previous methods of harvesting earwax involved sticking a syringe into the ear and flushing it out with water, which can be slightly painful and stressful. So Herane-Vives and his colleagues developed a swab that, when used, would be no more stressful than a Q-tip. The swab has a shield around the handle, so that people can’t stick it too far into their ear and damage their eardrum, and a sponge at the end to collect the wax.

In a small pilot study, researchers collected blood, hair and earwax from 37 participants at two different time points. At each collection point, they sampled earwax using a syringe from one ear, and using the new self-swab method from the other. The researchers then compared the reliability of the cortisol measurements from the self-swab earwax with that of the other methods.

They found that cortisol was more concentrated in earwax than in hair, making for easier analysis. Analyzing the self-swabbed earwax was also faster and more efficient than analyzing the earwax from the syringe, which had to be dried out before using. Finally, the earwax showed more consistency in cortisol levels compared with the other methods, which were more sensitive to fluctuations caused by things like recent alcohol consumption. Participants also said that self-swabbing was more comfortable than the syringe method.

The researchers reported their findings Nov. 2 in the journal Heliyon. Herane-Vives is also starting a company called Trears to market the new method. In the future, he hopes that earwax could also be used to monitor other hormones. The researchers also need to follow up with studies of Asian individuals, who were left out of this pilot study because a significant number only produce dry, flaky earwax as opposed to wet, waxy earwax.

“After this successful pilot study, if our device holds up to further scrutiny in larger trials, we hope to transform diagnostics and care for millions of people with depression or cortisol-related conditions such as Addison’s disease and Cushing syndrome, and potentially numerous other conditions,” he said in a statement.

Originally published in Live Science.

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Stress, cortisol and weight gain

Posted on November 5, 2018 by MaryO

If you’ve got your finger on the pulse of health trends, it’s likely you’ve been hearing the current buzzwords “cortisol creates belly fat” and “cortisol causes muscle wasting and fat storage.” These are the type of catch phrases that gain momentum every few years. And although some of the fads and trends showing up seasonally in fitness are myths, this caution about chronically elevated cortisol is true. Cortisol is also deeply connected with the dangers of chronic inflammation, which I described in another article, “Inflammation Creates Diseases.”

Like many hormones, cortisol has an effect on a wide variety of functions in the body. Although it’s getting particularly demonized lately, cortisol serves some very important and positive functions in the body. It’s an essential component of the flight or flight response, so it gives us energy, focus, strength, motivation and courage. But, like with sugar or caffeine, it comes with a crash that feels like an emotional, psychological and physical drain. Cortisol is important for survival, but we didn’t evolve to have high levels of it all the time.

According to hormone.org, cortisol isn’t only a stress hormone: “Because most bodily cells have cortisol receptors, it affects many different functions in the body. Cortisol can help control blood sugar levels, regulate metabolism, help reduce inflammation and assist with memory formulation. It has a controlling effect on salt and water balance and helps control blood pressure. In women, cortisol also supports the developing fetus during pregnancy. All of these functions make cortisol a crucial hormone to protect overall health and well-being.”

There are many symptoms of chronically elevated cortisol levels. With that said, the way a spike of cortisol gives you a jolt of energy is by raising blood sugar. It does this by way of gluconeogenesis. This literally means “creating new sugar,” and it happens by way of breaking protein down into amino acids that are then turned into sugar by the liver. What is a large source of protein in the body? Yep, muscles. This is what is meant by “cortisol causes muscle loss.” This in turn contributes to muscle weakness. Whereas normal levels of cortisol help to regulate blood sugar levels by breaking down only a little muscle (which can be replaced with exercise), excessive levels cause muscle wasting.

Why does cortisol cause fat gain? Remember those cortisol receptors most cells have? Fat cells have four times as many, so they are particularly responsive to cortisol. Okay, remember all that glucose the cortisol surge dumped into your blood for energy? Well, that also came with an insulin response to get your blood sugar levels back down, and insulin causes energy storage. And where do you store the energy? Yep, in those hypersensitive fat cells that cortisol just turned on. And what happens when you have too much insulin over time? Yep, diabetes. Also, another reason stress can cause emotional and/or binge eating is because cortisol also fires up your sense of purpose, as well as your appetite. So now stress has made you feel motivated…to eat.

Emotionally and psychologically, chronically high cortisol can exacerbate depression, anxiety, irritability and lack of emotional control. Cortisol triggers a release of tryptophan oxygenase. This enzyme breaks down tryptophan. Tryptophan is required for creating serotonin. Serotonin gives us the ability to feel happiness, and it also affects appetite, sleep and sexual desire. Since extended exposure to high levels of cortisol inhibits the production of serotonin, all the symptoms of low serotonin become problematic (decreased appetite, insomnia, impotence, etc.). In short, prolonged stress causes depression.

Cortisol also plays a role in the circulatory system. It manipulates blood pressure by acting as a diuretic. Excess cortisol causes an electrolyte imbalance, whereby sodium is retained, but potassium is excreted. Let me take you back to your high school biology days: Muscles fire because of the sodium potassium pump. The sodium potassium pump also effects the firing of nerves, including those impulses that cause your heart to beat and your kidneys to take in water for filtration. That sodium potassium pump is important throughout the entire body, across many of its biological functions. Because cortisol increases the concentration of sodium in your body, it has a direct impact on your blood pressure. Remember why excess salt can cause high blood pressure? Because it contains sodium. For all these reasons and more, chronically elevated cortisol also causes muscle weakness (ironic, since short bursts of it temporarily increase strength).

Cortisol has other effects on minerals. According to the Hindawi Journal of Sports Medicine, “Cortisol triggers bone mineral resorption (removal) in order to free amino acids for use as an energy source through gluconeogenesis. Cortisol indirectly acts on bone by blocking calcium absorption, which decreases bone cell growth.” As you can see, excess cortisol causes osteoporosis. It also exacerbates other bone mineral density diseases, which means cortisol can leave you literally brittle with stress.

Practically anything can become a stressor in the right conditions, and fight or flight is our only biological response to stress. Some triggers of stress include conflict, worry, alcohol and drug consumption, processed foods, excess exercise (especially prolonged and repeated sessions of low-level steady-state cardio training), sleep deprivation, thirst and hunger. As much as possible, protect yourself from stress with rest, relaxation, meditation, play time and healthy foods full of antioxidants, which reduce inflammation and thus the risks for practically all diseases.

Jack Kirven completed the MFA in Dance at UCLA, and earned certification as a personal trainer through NASM. His wellness philosophy is founded upon integrated lifestyles as opposed to isolated workouts. Visit him at jackkirven.com and INTEGRE8Twellness.com.

Adapted from https://goqnotes.com/61597/stress-cortisol-and-weight-gain/

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