6 Ways To Reduce The Cortisol In Your Body

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Stressed out? You probably need to lower cortisol levels in your body.

Bad news, your higher than normal stress levels are effecting more than your relationships and sleep patterns.

This is due to your principal stress hormone – cortisol.

1. Get Some Sleep

Sleep, sleep, and more sleep.

We talk about sleep a lot here at TestShock for its testosterone-producing effects.

But it should probably go without saying that sleeping also significantly lowers cortisol levels which reduces stress.

The thing to focus on here that may be different from the obvious is that missing sleep can actually raise your cortisol levels according to this study.

When you are getting enough sleep, your cortisol lowers, and when you are not getting enough sleep, your cortisol rises. It doesn’t seem like there is much in between there.

So make sure you are a cortisol-lowering type of sleeper. A good way to tell if you are getting enough sleep is making sure you don’t need an alarm to wake up.

You should be able to wake up naturally every morning.

2. Laugh more.

In his bestselling book, The Anatomy Of An Illness, Norman Cousins tells the story of how he cured himself from the debilitating condition ankylosing spondylitis by laughing along with Marx Brothers movies. He wrote, "I made the joyous discovery that ten minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anesthetic effect and would give me at least two hours of pain-free sleep. When the pain-killing effect of the laughter wore off, we would switch on the motion picture projector again and not infrequently, it would lead to another pain-free interval."

3. Get some exercise

Is there anything that physical activity won’t help? Seriously… there seems to be a new study every other day that links exercise to health benefits. Anyways, getting exercise can help reduce cortisol by “releasing” pent up stress or other counterproductive emotions.

One theory is that fear increases cortisol, and that by exercising we build upon our fortitude, resilience and self-confidence…effectively counteracting potential fear and reducing cortisol levels. Theories aside, exercise in any form is a great way to reduce cortisol levels.

4. Eat Real Foods

You’ve heard this one a lot if you’ve read anything else around here, but it rings true again. Poor diets full of processed foods, grains, sugars and chemicals put a tremendous stress on the body. For many people (some experts estimate close to 85%), grains can put a huge stress on the body as they can cause an immune reaction, damage the intestinal lining and lead to serious disease. Excess carbohydrates can cause this problem too, since if the sugars in carbohydrates cause increased insulin if they aren’t immediately used as fuel.

For a stress-reducing, adrenal nourishing diet, focus on getting your nutrients from fresh, real foods in as close to their natural source as possible. Drink a lot of water and avoid the caffeine.

5. Practice deep breathing

Due to our desk-sitting habits and stress-driven culture, many of us have actually altered the musculature of our natural posture and have become rapid, shallow, chest breathers. This breath habit compromises oxygen flow, weakens the abdominals, causes adrenal strain, compresses organs, creates lower back pain, and stimulates adrenaline-cortisol release. Learning how to breathe properly can neutralize this effect and turn off the HPA alarm.

6. Listen to Relaxing Music

During stressful times, listening to soft and soothing music can play a key role in reducing your stress hormone levels. In fact, music works as a natural stress buster and helps you calm down quickly.

A 2003 study by the New York Academy of Sciences found that cortisol levels decreased more rapidly in the saliva of subjects exposed to music than subjects recovering from stress in silence. The study suggests that relaxing music after a stressor can act by decreasing the post-stress response of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis.

Music is even useful in reducing stress in patients before operations or surgeries. A study published in Frontiers in Psychology in 2011 found that listening to music reduces sedative requirements to reach light sedation under regional anesthesia.

A recent 2016 study published in Public Health found that attending a cultural event can have an impact on endocrine activity and in reducing cortisol levels.

Whenever you are under stress, listen to some music of your choice. If you are skilled at playing a musical instrument, play that instrument to combat stress in your life.

Sources:

https://www.powerofpositivity.com/7-ways-reduce-cortisol-body/?c=PopvirAl

https://www.anabolicmen.com/naturally-lower-cortisol-levels/

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-9642/10-fun-ways-to-reduce-your-cortisol-levels.html

http://wellnessmama.com/1570/reduce-cortisol/

http://blog.radiantlifecatalog.com/bid/65304/Stressed-5-Ways-to-Rebalance-Cortisol-for-Radiant-Living

http://www.top10homeremedies.com/how-to/reduce-your-high-cortisol-stress-hormone-level.html