In my last post I explained how the hormone cortisol is released to enable us to escape from predators in the wild which is also known as the flight or flight response.
In this post, I will explain what effects Cortisol has on the body.
Cortisol is essential to get us moving in life. Cortisol helps to release sugars into the blood and directs the blood away from the vital organs to the muscles that are required to allow you to move quickly. It will also help to raise heart rate, blood pressure, increase sweating and will inhibit digestion and immune function.
This makes perfect sense when trying to escape a tiger. But why is this relevant today to weight loss?
Cortisol is tissue destroying which means it breaks down lean tissue to provide readily available sugars to the blood. So when someone is stressed for long periods, e.g. more than 20minutes at a time, lean tissue will be reduced. This in turns reduces basal metabolic rate and makes it more difficult to reduce body fat.
Also, when Cortisol release is high, the Pituitary gland reduces Thyroid Stimulating Hormone being released to the Thyroid gland. This slows down metabolism.
In today’s modern society many people are stressed a lot of the time. Causes today are a combination of work and family stress, long working hours, international travel, lack of quality sleep, artificial lighting, TVs and computer screens.
Therefore, many people have elevated blood sugars that have no where to go, a faster resting heart rate, higher blood pressure, a slower metabolism and a poor digestive and immune system.
So if eating less and exercising more is not always the answer, what is?
Stay tuned for Part 3 when I will reveal all…