Its comforting to know that someone else is equally dumbfounded by the cortisol BS!
Most exasperating:
- Cortisol is bad
- We should lower our cortisol levels
- Cortisol is always anti-inflammatory
- Overlooking the importance of cortisol resistance - a LACK of cortisol activity - in chronic health conditions
- Conflating the role of cortisol with that of the vagus nerve and adrenaline
None of these notions would survive if professionals stopped being lazy and, instead of copying and pasting platitudes they like the sound of for content, actually took a look at the literature. Even a brief look would put paid to these false assumptions. And i know this as a central theme of my Masters dissertation was on the benefits of increased cortisol ACTIVITY in chronic disease...
...to save around 15,000 words, it could be fairly distilled into the conclusion that wed be better off if we considered cortisol not as 'the stress hormone' but 'the hormone our body needs during stress to stay resilient to stress, turn off the stress response once it is no longer needed and regulate the inflammatory costs of stress'.
Could not have said it better! We share the same sentiment. I think people also confuse it as the chemical that makes them feel acutely anxious, when really it's adrenaline and norepinephrine that do that, so it gets a bad rep in that way too!
Its comforting to know that someone else is equally dumbfounded by the cortisol BS!
Most exasperating:
- Cortisol is bad
- We should lower our cortisol levels
- Cortisol is always anti-inflammatory
- Overlooking the importance of cortisol resistance - a LACK of cortisol activity - in chronic health conditions
- Conflating the role of cortisol with that of the vagus nerve and adrenaline
None of these notions would survive if professionals stopped being lazy and, instead of copying and pasting platitudes they like the sound of for content, actually took a look at the literature. Even a brief look would put paid to these false assumptions. And i know this as a central theme of my Masters dissertation was on the benefits of increased cortisol ACTIVITY in chronic disease...
...to save around 15,000 words, it could be fairly distilled into the conclusion that wed be better off if we considered cortisol not as 'the stress hormone' but 'the hormone our body needs during stress to stay resilient to stress, turn off the stress response once it is no longer needed and regulate the inflammatory costs of stress'.
Could not have said it better! We share the same sentiment. I think people also confuse it as the chemical that makes them feel acutely anxious, when really it's adrenaline and norepinephrine that do that, so it gets a bad rep in that way too!