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This article is part of SELF’s State of Supplements editorial package, in which we break down the BS claims, lack of science, and very real risks that come with the countless pills, powders, and gummies that promise to improve your health.
Spend enough time on the wellness side of TikTok, and odds are you’re going to hear about cortisol. Specifically, the idea that your body should have a lot less of it.
Cortisol is known as the “stress hormone” because one of its biggest responsibilities is helping your body react to stressful situations. According to plenty of wellness influencers, you can blame “high” cortisol levels for a slew of vague health issues, including trouble sleeping, muscle stiffness, bloating, face puffiness, brain fog, the list goes on.
Enter: “cortisol-lowering” supplements, recent-ish additions to the wellness industrial complex that often claim to “balance” your body’s cortisol levels to reduce the physical and mental effects of persistent stress. They’re typically made of a combination of different herbs, vitamins, and minerals—and you can find them everywhere, from the TikTok Shop to the shelves of your local health food store. The basic idea: You’ll feel calmer, happier, and healthier when you take one of these pills, powders, or tinctures on the regular.
In a time when the world feels especially chaotic, the appeal of a quick fix to combat stress—and the potential issues it might trigger—explains itself. But is it even possible to meaningfully change your cortisol levels with a supplement? We tapped experts and dove into the science to find the truth behind this trend.
How does cortisol affect your body, and should you even worry about having high levels?Cortisol’s rep as the stress hormone makes it seem like the bad guy. In reality, “cortisol is essential for life,” Rekha B. Kumar, MD, an endocrinologist and associate professor of clinical medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medicine, tells SELF. Your adrenal glands (which sit on top of each of your kidneys) produce the multitasking hormone, and its functions include supporting healthy blood sugar levels, metabolism, blood pressure, sleep, and more.
Most famously, cortisol is a key player in your body when things start to go awry emotionally or physically. “Say you had to run from a bear,” Dr. Kumar says. “You see the bear, your cortisol goes up and tells your brain, ‘Hey! Make this person react, move, go!’” In response to this alert, cortisol and other hormones take action by raising your heart rate and increasing your blood sugar (to supply your muscles with oxygen and energy) while temporarily tamping down your body’s “nonessential” functions like digestion—all of which should help you either fight off or escape a threat.
Generally speaking, your cortisol levels are highest first thing in the morning (to help you wake up) and then taper down throughout the day (so you can fall asleep), Dr. Kumar says. Extra cortisol gets released into your system for a few hours when you face a stressor; once whatever your body perceives as a threat is over, your levels go back down to where they should be.
But your body also invokes that same stress response in situations that aren’t life-threatening, like not getting enough sleep, going through a bad breakup, or working late to meet a last-minute deadline. And if you’re constantly inundated by stressors (lookin’ at you, breaking news push alerts), you might start to feel the effects regularly—especially if you don’t have the appropriate support or coping mechanisms to get you back to a baseline of chill.
When most people worry about having high cortisol, Dr. Kumar says they’re likely not referring to something specific and diagnosable like Cushing’s syndrome (a condition in which your body makes too much of the hormone, typically due to a benign tumor or another health issue). In her experience with patients, high cortisol is often thought of as a possible culprit behind chronic inflammation, a well-documented precursor to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and other serious conditions.
There’s some merit to this idea: Prolonged stress can up your risk of negative health effects, Uma Naidoo, MD, a nutritional psychiatrist and the author of Calm Your Mind With Food, tells SELF. In the short term, it can manifest as physical symptoms like hair loss (a specific type called telogen effluvium), trouble sleeping, and digestive upset, among others. Over time, elevated cortisol has been associated with increased inflammation in the body, particularly in folks diagnosed with depression, though more studies are needed to understand the link.
Researchers are still trying to unravel the connection between stress, cortisol, and inflammation, but it’s gained a lot of attention on social media, with influencers painting a bleak picture of the supposed trickle-down health effects of “too much” cortisol. The truth is, targeting cortisol is not the best way to deal with the effects of long-term stress in the first place. According to the experts we spoke with, chronic stress isn’t caused by elevated cortisol; rather, elevated cortisol—which is hard to confirm without an actual blood test—is a symptom of chronic stress.
But when a problem like this one gains a lot of buzz in the wellness world, you can bet someone will try to sell a supplement claiming to fix it.
The problem with supplements that claim to combat cortisolTo better understand this trend, SELF talked to nutrition experts and endocrinologists, in addition to looking at the cost, claims, and active ingredients of nine popular supplement options that generally claim to support stress relief and improve cortisol balance. Unfortunately, most of the experts we spoke with are skeptical of the promises that are plastered on the bottles of common “cortisol-reducing” supplements.
With misinformation permeating social media, “people have started to use supplements more like medications,” Christine Byrne, RD, MPH, an anti-diet dietitian based in Raleigh, North Carolina and owner of Ruby Oak Nutrition, tells SELF. “Supplements are talked about like they’re super well-studied, like they’ll have this very specific result. And that’s just not true.”
Take ashwagandha, an evergreen shrub indigenous to tropical areas in Asia and Africa. The medicinal plant is the star ingredient of every popular cortisol-related supplement that SELF evaluated. “Some research shows that ashwagandha can reduce stress levels and help you sleep, and it might help regulate your cortisol,” Byrne says. However, she adds that a lot of the studies looking at ashwagandha use in humans are short-term and small—meaning researchers only have a sense of how it might impact some people in a brief period of time—and the doses studied are often higher than what’s offered in most supplements that contain it.
It’s a similar story for magnesium: The essential mineral—which your body uses to synthesize proteins and support muscle, nerve, and heart function—also plays a role in regulating cortisol release and other parts of your body’s stress response, Ethan Balk, PhD, RDN, a clinical associate professor of clinical nutrition at NYU Steinhardt, tells SELF. But he says magnesium is “a small cog in the wheel” of your body’s stress response. With so many potential variables at play, he’s skeptical about the mineral’s ability to impact your mood.
Other ingredients touted for their alleged stress-busting benefits, like omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin D, are important for your overall health. But current evidence shows they likely don’t have a direct impact on your body’s cortisol. For example, Dr. Naidoo says omega-3s (known to support eye and brain health) are anti-inflammatory compounds; by helping to fight inflammation, they could theoretically help trigger a dip in cortisol. Similarly, vitamin D has anti-inflammatory effects and has been linked to improved sleep and reduced depression symptoms. But again, that’s not the same thing as directly influencing cortisol production.
What’s more, the potential benefits of other plant ingredients used in these supplements, like lion’s mane mushrooms, are mostly backed by in-vitro studies (a.k.a. experiments done on cells in a test tube) or rodent studies. According to Byrne, it’s a big leap to say the findings of these studies will translate to the human body. (Meaning, more research in actual people—ideally a large, diverse group—is needed to come to the definitive conclusions that are often written on supplements’ packaging.) There are some human trials, albeit small ones, that point to the promise of certain plant compounds: The amino acid L-theanine, another popular ingredient in the supplements SELF reviewed, might help reduce stress-related symptoms like disrupted sleep. But even if its benefits are the real deal, Dr. Balk says you can easily get some L-theanine by drinking a cup of green tea or eating some dark chocolate—which costs much less than a $40 bottle of questionable vitamins.
“None of these supplements [are likely to] directly lower cortisol,” argues Dr. Kumar. While some of the featured ingredients might help a person feel calmer or more relaxed—which may, in turn, help support better cortisol regulation, she says—that’s a far cry from what these brands are touting in their marketing. Byrne adds that unless you’re deficient in some of the key nutrients mentioned, you’re likely not going to feel much of an effect from taking a supplement, period.
Regardless of whether specific ingredients show some stress-reducing promise, supplements aren’t regulated by the FDA like drugs are, says Dr. Balk. Individual brands are responsible for ensuring the safety and accurate labeling of their products, meaning that not only can some claims be straight-up BS, but also that there’s no guarantee you’re getting any one ingredient in the amount listed on the bottle—a well-documented problem in the industry. So if you decide you want to try a supplement, manage your expectations about what it can do (and always check with your doctor if you have an existing health condition or are taking medication before you pop any OTC remedy).
And remember, trying to lower your cortisol levels wouldn’t necessarily fix whatever problem you’re attributing to it. As Byrne puts it: “The root cause of someone’s stress is not a lack of ashwagandha.” Stress is complicated and multifactorial. It’s wishful thinking that a single product could help you sleep through the night and stop clenching your jaw during the day. Even ingredients with centuries of use in traditional medicine are meant to be paired with other lifestyle changes to effectively manage stress, Dr. Balk says. Ashwagandha is a staple of Ayurvedic medicine, for example, but the practice traditionally exists in a larger cultural context that also includes mindfulness, yoga, spirituality, and other things that play a part in addressing stress.
How to deal if you think stress is affecting your healthIf you’re worried about your cortisol levels because your FYP is flooded with videos about it, chances are what you’re really worried about is stress. And if that’s the case, it’s important to reflect on how you’re tending to your body’s basic needs. “Behavioral things go a long way” toward managing stress, Dr. Balk says, like getting enough movement or trying meditation and other mindfulness practices like deep breathing. He also suggests doing your best to eat a nutritious diet (which has been associated with a reduced risk of stress and other mental health issues) and being mindful of your caffeine intake (since caffeine is a stimulant and in high doses can make you feel anxious, restless, and impact your sleep—hardly what you want when you’re already frazzled). Byrne adds that getting enough food is important, too, as eating too few calories can throw your body out of whack.
Dr. Kumar also recommends creating a daily routine that feels good to you—going to bed and waking up around the same time every day, eating and exercising in consistent windows, and sticking with a habit or hobby that helps you relax (like painting or journaling) can go a long way. You don’t have to be exacting with your schedule—life happens!—but crafting general expectations around how your days should ebb and flow can offer some stability, she says.
Stress doesn’t exist in a vacuum, so it’s important to be real with yourself: For example, if you’re tossing and turning at night because you’re underwater at work, it’s time to talk to your boss about what’s on your plate (and what can potentially be removed from it). If your partner tends to dump all the childcare responsibilities on you, have a bigger conversation about the type of support you need from them. Leaning on your loved ones—say, calling your mom for a sympathetic ear after a bad day, or asking a friend to run errands with you for some company—can also help you become more resilient to stress.
If you’ve tried all this with no luck, it’s time to seek professional support, says Dr. Kumar, whether that’s your primary care doctor, a mental health professional, or someone else you trust. They might have suggestions for things you haven’t tried, recommend science-backed treatments like cognitive behavioral therapy, or talk to you about antidepressants or other medications that might help your mood. Same goes if you’re having true symptoms of high cortisol, she says (like purple stretch marks, bruising easily, high blood pressure, and unexpected weight gain in your abdomen). This could signal a health condition like Cushing’s syndrome and require more testing and specific treatment.
There’s no simple solution to stress, particularly if it’s impacting your ability to function and thrive. But shelling out major bucks for supplements won’t be as effective as tried-and-true lifestyle changes. So save your money—and focus on getting back to the basics.
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Source : Self.com