02/18/2025
It’s time to HIIT back on cortisol myths and misunderstandings.
“Don’t do HIIT, it increases cortisol!”
“Don’t have too much caffeine, it increases cortisol!”
“If you have a 'stress belly' your cortisol levels are too high!”
I see post after post on the “evils'' of cortisol for midlife and menopausal women. But honestly, when you scratch beneath the surface, most are aimed at scaring women into buying supplements or tests to reduce cortisol and “balance our hormones”.
It’s time to have a serious talk about stress and its related hormone, cortisol, which contrary to this popular (and I’d argue predatory) narrative is absolutely necessary, and is not an evil danger that threatens to impede our health and longevity, or should prevent us from doing anything more strenuous than going for a walk. Ready for Action?
Cortisol is a steroid hormone your body uses to mobilize the resources it needs for action, specifically to respond to stress, which we commonly know as the “fight or flight response.” When you experience stress–be it physiological like illness, injury, and trauma or psychological like work anxiety–the hypothalamus and pituitary glands in your brain send an SOS signal via the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis to your adrenal glands atop your kidneys to secrete cortisol.
Once released into the bloodstream, cortisol helps the body respond to stress by increasing fuel (blood glucose), alertness, cognition, and improves cell responses to inflammation; all in anticipation of the body having to run or fight.
Read more on my blog >>> https://www.drstacysims.com/newsletters/articles/posts/Midlife_Women_Can_and_Should_Do_High_Intensity_Exercise%20
