Stress & Cortisol

Cortisol is the primary stress hormone in your body. It triggers a fight-or-flight response, suppressing the immune and digestive systems and increasing glucose in the bloodstream. This response is very helpful from an evolutionary vantage point. When acute threats arise, it aids survival by increasing alertness and priming the body to react quickly and defensively to the threat at hand, simultaneously diverting energy away from other ‘low-priority’ processes.

However, the same stress response that evolved to keep you alive becomes maladaptive when chronically activated. Overexposure to cortisol and other stress hormones disrupts your body’s natural processes and puts you at increased risk for a slew of health concerns, including obesity, chronic inflammation, disrupted glucose homeostasis, and sleep disorders, to name a few.

Check out the below content to take a deeper dive into stress and its profound impact on our bodies, as well as ways to help manage stress.

Other tactics, tools, & treatments

Guest Episode

Male fertility: optimizing reproductive health, diagnosing and treating infertility, and navigating testosterone replacement therapy

Ep. #351 with Paul Turek, M.D.

Mental & Emotional Health

Guest Episode

Unpacking trauma: How early wounds shape behavior and the path toward healing

Ep. #339 with Jeff English

Mental & Emotional Health

Guest Episode

Autism, ADHD, and Anxiety: Understanding the rise in autism and a multidisciplinary approach to diagnosis and treatment of each condition in children | Trenna Sutcliffe, M.D.

Ep. #330 with Trenna Sutcliffe, M.D.

Mental & Emotional Health

Free Article

When caution becomes concerning: the relationship between health anxiety and mortality

Longevity

Premium Article

Cold therapy: the facts, the myths, and the how-to

Mental & Emotional Health

Free Article

Understanding nature’s effects on stress requires more than intuition

Mindfulness & Meditation

The transformative moment that led Peter to mindfulness meditation

with Sam Harris, Ph.D.

Mental & Emotional Health

Guest Episode

Alcohol, sleep, and stress: A self-fulfilling prophecy

with Matthew Walker, Ph.D.

Sleep

Guest Episode

How alcohol disrupts sleep and contributes to Alzheimer’s disease

with Matthew Walker Ph.D.

Mental & Emotional Health

How stress can show up as physical pain

Mental & Emotional Health

Guest Episode

Stress, Cortisol, and Sleep Deprivation: An Awful Feedback Loop

with Matthew Walker Ph.D.

Risks

The connection between stress and insulin resistance

Mental & Emotional Health

Guest Episode

Freedom, PTSD, war, and life through an evolutionary lens

Ep. #195 with Sebastian Junger

Mental & Emotional Health

Guest Episode

Revolutionizing our understanding of mental illness with optogenetics

Ep. #191 with Karl Deisseroth M.D., Ph.D.

Mental & Emotional Health

Guest Episode

How to heal from trauma and break the cycle of shame

Ep. #190 with Paul Conti, M.D.

Mental & Emotional Health

Free Article

How do you move forward after making a fatal mistake?

Mental & Emotional Health

The 5 habits Tim Ferriss returns to most reliably

with Tim Ferriss

Nutrition

Free Article

A Game Plan for Healthy Enjoyment of the Holidays

Mental & Emotional Health

Guest Episode

Emotional first aid and how to treat psychological injuries

Ep. #146 with Guy Winch, Ph.D.

Mental & Emotional Health

Guest Episode

The Bobby Knight story—a tale of unchecked anger, ego, and winning at all costs

Ep. #142 with Robert Abbott

Mental & Emotional Health

Guest Episode

The Power of Self-Compassion

Ep. #139 with Kristin Neff, Ph.D.

Risks

Free Article

SARS-CoV-2 and the host response: psychological stress

Mental & Emotional Health

Guest Episode

The psychological toll of a pandemic, and the societal problems it has highlighted

Ep. #105 with Paul Conti, M.D.

Longevity

Qualy #89 - Cortisol and healthy aging