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cortisol

Abnormal Cortisol Metabolism, Tissue Sensitivity to Cortisol in Glucose Intolerance – (12-12-02)

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Abnormal Cortisol Metabolism, Tissue Sensitivity to Cortisol in Glucose Intolerance

Cortisol is the body’s stress hormone. It was designed to produce a heightened state of awareness in our bodies when a predator was near. Unfortunately, in today’s high stress society, there are no predators to identify and our bodies can enter into a state of chronic stress with hypercortisolemia. This elevated cortisol, much like insulin, wreaks havoc on many aspects of physiology. Here we see additional confirmation that cortisol produces abnormal glucose metabolism (and hence increased insulin resistance), obesity and hypertension. Yes, stress does kill. Slowly…

JCEM — Abstracts: Andrews et al. 87 (12): 5587

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Adrenocortical Effects of Oral Estrogens and Soy Isoflavones – (06-01-04)

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Adrenocortical Effects of Oral Estrogens and Soy Isoflavones

Just in case this email gets to an ob/gyn and they think I don’t know what I’m talking about… This article (which is a monkey study) finds that both oral contraceptive and conjugated equine estrogens (i.e. Premarin) mess with the adrenal glands in a negative way, producing too much cortisol and not enough DHEA. And, since this imbalance is well known to contribute to insulin resistance, do I need say any more?

JCEM — Abstracts: Wood et al. 89 (5): 2319 –

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GINSENG BENEFITS IN MODULATION OF BODY’S RESPONSE TO STRESS – (11-03-03)

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Panax ginseng

Once again, American Family Physician provides an objective, complete review of a natural product. Ginseng is considered an adaptagen, meaning that is has the potential to brings things back to normal. In this case, “things” refers to the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. Ginseng has shown benefit in modulating our body’s response to stress. Too much stress and ginseng slows the enzymes that are overworking to produce cortisol; not enough adrenal activity and ginseng speeds up the enzymes to support healthy adrenal function.

Panax ginseng – October 15, 2003 – American Family Physician.

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EXERCISES HAD A GREAT EFFECT ON ADERNAL GLANDS – (08-11-04)

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Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis Response and Recovery from High-Intensity Exercise in Women: Effects of Aging and Fitness

If most people were asked to list the benefits of exercise, I doubt many would reply that exercise can make the adrenal glands more responsive to hypothalamic control. This just illustrates that exercise’s beneficial effects cut accros an incredibly wide range of physiological systems.

In English, this study found that elderly women who exercise on a regular basis had adrenal glands that responded better than their sedentary cohorts. So, after exercise, cortisol levels are increased but should fall relatively quickly. But this response is slowed as we age. This can lead to abnormally elevated cortisol levels. However, exercise in the elderly women in this study restored a more normal response.

JCEM — Abstracts: Traustadóttir et al. 89 (7): 3248

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SELECTIVE SEROTONIN AND ADVERSE PREGNANCY OUTCOMES – (05-29-06)

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Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and adverse pregnancy outcomes

Some of the SSRIs have been promoted as safe during pregnancy, and yet I have major concerns with the damage to the developing fetus. Anytime a fetus is exposed to high levels of something (such as cortisol from a PTSD mother, glucose from gestational diabetes or, in this case, much higher levels of serotonin) the chance for a bad outcome after birth, when those high levels are no longer present, is there.

From this study, we see the risk to the fetus is actually quite serious. I would also recommend avoiding this class of drugs during breastfeeding as well for the same reasons.

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CORTISOL PREDICTS RELAPSE OF MAJOR DEPRESSION – (05-29-06)

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Glucocorticoids and Relapse of Major Depression

This topic is always a tough one. Most therapists never view the physiological contribution to psychological disorders, but the evidence is strongly in support of a link.

This article finds that, in those patients with an exaggerated CRH stimulation test producing too much cortisol, the likelihood of a relapse was higher. This wold indicate that the patient who relapsed had adrenal glands that were not working properly, and were improperly producing too much cortisol rather than a balance of DHEA, aldosterone and cortisol.

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PRENATAL ANXIETY CREATES HEALTH DIFFERENCES – (09-06-05)

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Prenatal Anxiety Predicts Differences in Cortisol in Pre-Adolescent Children

The implications for this are staggering.  Consider a few scenarios:  pregnant mother told antidepressants are okay in the 3rd trimester, a pregnant mother under abnormal levels of stress, or an insulin resistant mother with abnormally high levels of cortisol.  All of these scenarios lead to differing levels of neurotransmitters in the bloodstream.  The developing fetus is bathed in these hormones.

So, take the antidepressants–the developing fetus becomes used to abnormally high effectiveness of serotonin.  Baby gets born, no more drugs and their brain now detects a serotonin deficiency, even though their is no true physiological deficit.  Run the same scenario for a stressed out mom with high cortisol levels.  Not a good situation for the child, and this is one of the reasons I am a little pessimistic about our future generations’ risk of chronic diseases.  I think we have yet to have scratched the surface of chronic diseases and shortened lifespans.

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SEROTONIN HELPS INITIATE SLEEP – (06-06-05)

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Evening intake of alpha-lactalbumin increases plasma tryptophan availability and improves morning alertness and brain measures of attention

While the Ambien ads may not give you this impression, there are several well known causes for problems falling asleep.  One can be a stress related increase in evening cortisol leading to increased arousal at night which can make sleep difficult.  Managing stress and nutritional approaches to lowering cortisol can help here.

Another reason is altered serotonin levels.  Serotonin has many functions, one of which is to sedate and help initiate sleep.  Tryptophan is a large neutral amino acid (LNAA) that gets converted to serotonin.  The problem with this is that, if there is a lot of competition from other LNAAs tryptophan loses and doesn’t cross to blood brain barrier to get converted to serotonin where we need it.

This study looks at this pathway by using alpha lactoalbumin to circumvent this competition.  The results are pretty good.

Read entire article here