High vs. Low Cortisol & the Power of Adaptogens

Disclaimer: The information provided is for educational purposes and should not be considered medical advice. Always seek the advice of your physician or other health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

Are you stressed?

Let’s be honest, most of us are. We have insane amounts of stress in our lives these days, and the problem isn’t so much the stress - it is how our body HANDLES the stress.

So what can that stress manifest as with symptoms? Well….

😶‍🌫️ Stages of Stress

There is often a few stages of our stress and how it affects the body:

1. Phase 1 (Acute Stress) - In this phase, our body still is able to keep up with management of the stress. It is producing cortisol properly, and de-activating it/detoxing it properly.
2. Phase 2 (Chronic Stress pt. 1) - In this phase, we see cortisol becomes chronically elevated, and the body starts struggling to clear that cortisol as effectively, so we see HIGH cortisol symptoms (see below).
3. Phase 3 (Chronic Stress pt. 2) - In this phase, we see the adrenals start to lower the production of cortisol due to the damaging effects cortisol can have long-term (it is our body’s defense mechanism). Our receptors on our cells also start turning down their sensitivity to cortisol. In this phase we see more of a LOW cortisol pattern.

👆High vs. 👇Low Cortisol

So what can HIGH vs. LOW Cortisol look like: