Got Stress? Of course you do! That’s strike one.
How about sleep – do you get at least eight solid hours of restful sleep every night? No? Strike two.
What about your diet – are you among the millions of people who are actively dieting or concerned about what you eat? Yes? Strike three.
With three strikes, you are hereby officially welcomed as a card-carrying member of the Cortisol Club – and it’s killing you.
And this is how the book The Cortisol Connection by Shawn Talbott, Ph.D. starts out.
Yesterday’s article (see http://rosiebrownrn.com/high-morning-cortisol/) addressed the reasons behind high morning cortisol.
The body’s stress response was built in to protect us when we need to flee from the danger. The problem is, many forms of modern stress that we experience on a daily basis, such as jobs, kids, traffic, bills, etc., cause the very same elevation in our cortisol levels.
“As a result, these chronic stressors cause our cortisol levels to stay high and lead us down the road to poor health.”
According to Dr. Talbott, chronically elevated cortisol takes a toll on our body:
- Makes us fat
- Thins our bones
- Shrinks our brains (contributes to Alzheimer’s Disease)
- Suppresses our immune system
- Saps our energy levels
- Kills our sex drive
The good news is that you can do something about it. The Cortisol Connection outlines a program for controlling cortisol levels – called the SENSE program:
Stress Management
Exercise
Nutrition
Supplements
Evaluation
Stay tuned for upcoming information on how you can make the SENSE program work for you.
[...] The Cortisol Connection [...]