The Great Cortisol Misconception: Not Everything They Tell You Is True

We live in a society where productivity is so important that sometimes we forget to live. This creates prolonged stresswhich in the long term can lead to excessively high cortisol levels with a wide range of symptoms. A few years ago, all of this would have sounded like Chinese to us, but the reality is that cortisol This is a term we are already very familiar with. Of course, perhaps we have not become familiar with it in the most appropriate way. There has been much talk lately about cortisol poisoningThere are spiritual retreats that promise to detoxify us, and even influential psychiatrists who claim that cortisol poisoning can cause divorce. These are different extremes, but both are wrong. And cortisol does not poison us. In fact, it is a hormone that we really need.

Messages of this type can be very harmful. They can even generate guiltIf I have cortisol poisoning, it’s because I don’t know how to avoid stress. I could have gone on a detox retreat, but I didn’t. Am I poisoning myself?

To answer these questions, it is important to understand, on the one hand, what cortisol is, and on the other, what intoxication is. This is the best way to understand that talking about cortisol poisoning does not make sense for many reasons. No matter what the retreat organizers and some influential psychiatrists say.

You need cortisol

Cortisol is a steroid hormone produced by glands located in the kidneys, known as adrenal glands.

Helps regulate the body’s response to stress. So if we couldn’t produce cortisol, stress would be a serious problem. This regulation is accomplished in several ways. For example, it regulates blood pressure so that it is neither too high nor too low, it stimulates the release glucose from the liver to provide us increase energy it helps us get out of a stressful situation and even controls the body’s use of carbohydrates, fats and proteins to maximize this energy. It also reduces inflammation to compensate for what stress can do to us and interferes with the control of circadian rhythms so that we can sleep well.

All this is happening in acute situations of stress or anxiety. The problem arises when we are constantly stressed. In this case, the body can stop responding normally to cortisol. You get used to it, so you have to generate more, and then an unhealthy imbalance occurs. Blood pressure can rise too high, inflammation not only does not decrease but increases, sugar levels rise too high…

At this point, cortisol ceases to be healthy. But just as it would happen if, for example, we took overdose of vitamin A or D. The vast majority of substances that are useful for our body have a certain dose at which their effect is optimized. Above this, the opposite may happen. Can we then talk about cortisol poisoning? This can be answered with another question. Can we talk about vitamin A poisoning?

Okay, but what is poisoning?

By definition, poisoning occurs when a toxic substance makes us sick. These substances can be synthetic chemical compounds; when they are biological in origin, they are usually called toxins. This is the name of a substance produced by a living organism and capable of causing a reaction in our body. immune system.

Therefore, we cannot poison ourselves. The substance produced by our body can be harmful if synthesized in excess, but It does not poison or intoxicate us.

There is no such thing as cortisol intoxication.

Cortisol is synthesized in our body, above the kidneys. Therefore, it does not generate a response from immune systemIt is true that in high doses it can cause inflammation. But not because the immune system attacks it as a foreign agent, but because it has been overstimulated.

So when we have stress persists over timeelevated levels of this hormone can cause symptoms that we must prevent. But not because cortisol poisoning has occurred. We are not drunk. And most importantly, unlike many poisonings, it will not cloud our judgment. Our decisions, good or bad, are not dependent on cortisol. All our evil It’s not cortisol’s fault. In fact, stress often arises from social and structural problems. These are the real culprits.

Cortisol is released only to try to solve our discomfort, but in the face of so many problems, it goes beyond that. We don’t have to go on a detox retreat. We have to seek reconciliation, ask for a raise, or leave that partner who is causing us so much discomfort. These are just a few examples, but everyone can have their own triggers, none of which have anything to do with toxins.