5 Ways to Reduce Your Cortisol Levels

5 Ways to Reduce Your Cortisol Levels

Cortisol may have been your friend back in the days when the most stressful part of your day involved running from or battling some predator in a jungle somewhere. However, now days the most stressful part of most of our days is whether our boss will notice that we rolled in 15 minutes late or whether or not we should “hit the treadmill tonight.”

Cortisol was originally intended to provide a burst in focus and energy for about half an hour in the event that we actually needed to get out of a dangerous situation, but these days our stressors aren’t only non threatening, but linger throughout our entire day. This buildup of cortisol, which already lingers in your body for hours longer than the other hormones that are secreted in a stress response, creates a tolerance to insulin (leading to elevated blood glucose levels) as well as increased catabolic metabolism (which can lead to muscle, bone and brain cell degeneration). Here are 3 ways to eliminate cortisol secretion and its adverse effects on your body.

1. Stop drinking caffeine
Caffeine is like a double edged sword. It not only increases your body’s secretion of cortisol, but inhibits its secretion of DHEA, an anabolic “youth” hormone responsible for muscle and bone regeneration. One cup of coffee can cause a 24 hour long increase in cortisol levels, so try to find other energy substitutes like guarana or taurine.

2. Try anxiety therapy
Exercises like guided imagery and self hypnosis put you into a trance like state of focused relaxation. From there, you can have a hypnotherapist or recording of yourself reading a script guide you through an exercise that will rewrite the negative associations that your subconscious holds between stressors and feelings of anxiety. Not only will this decrease cortisol levels, but change the way you perceive stressors throughout the day as well.

3. Eat healthier
Try to avoid sugary foods or ones with processed carbs. They not only elevate cortisol levels, but increase insulin production, causing your body to build up a tolerance, making it harder for your body to burn off body fat and sets the stage for diabetes. Also, drinking water doesn’t hurt either, since staying hydrated helps to fight the dehydrating effects of an elevated catabolic metabolism.

4. Meditate
There are many different forms of meditation, but the one that seems to be the most effective in regards to reducing anxiety is mindfulness meditation. All you need to do for mindfulness mediation is to relax and notice (but don’t analyze or engage) any thought that floats by your mind. This not only relieves any present anxiety you may have, but conditions your subconscious (a lot like guided imagery) to better handle stressors in the future.

5. Get more sleep: The amount of stage IV sleep that you get effects how well you handle stress throughout the day, and also regulates your body’s own natural cortisol production. If you get less than 8 hours of sleep a night, you should try taking melatonin or diphenhydramine as a sleep aid.