What came first, cortisol panic or the two-hour morning routine? Cortisol, a newish bogeyman in the health discourse, has for some become the single, chemical explanation for stress. It’s one of those half–Andrew Huberman, half-TikTok trend terms: a once faintly known biomedical phrase that suddenly names what’s behind all our problems—and which is of course immediately self-diagnosable.
Here are the facts. Cortisol is a steroid hormone released by the adrenal glands. Its levels are highest in the body in the morning, before you wake up, and decrease over the day. Cortisol, which helps regulate blood pressure and glucose digestion, among other bodily functions, is also released during stress. It’s these stress “spikes” that concern the wellness commentariat, but the levels themselves are not something we want to erase. Really, you want your cortisol to be in balance. Not enough cortisol and you may lose appetite, or feel constantly tired; too high a level for too long and you may feel constantly stressed, gain weight, or experience other symptoms, such as muscle loss, high blood pressure, and bone weakness.
In the dark nutrition sphere I cover in my newsletter, Super Health, high cortisol is not simply a marker for morning stress, it is an all-encompassing enemy, the new, obscure explanation for high rates of depression, heart disease, and anxiety, and an example of how most of us don’t discuss—or treat—these afflictions the right way. In that world, morning stress can be quickly cut down through some Chad habits—sunlight in your eyes, a short walk, meditation, maybe some fruit. For dark nutrition heads, these analog methods aren’t just seed-oil-type buzzwords, but effective, no-downside tricks that might also be backed up by science. Studies have demonstrated that low-calorie dieting and strenuous exercise—which we tend to expose ourselves to if we are cutting weight or working out at gyms—as well as blue light exposure may lead to high cortisol. The idea is to moderate these high-intensity health activities or complement them with some low-intensity ones and hope that reduces our levels.
“When I first tapped into the cortisol discussion a few years ago, I went overboard on dark nutrition habits to tamp my levels down”: Read the rest of the story.
