Cortisol is an essential hormone. It performs many functions, including helping regulate the body’s stress response. When we are stressed, the brain sends a signal from the hypothalamus to the pituitary gland, which then signals the adrenal glands to release cortisol. Cortisol helps mobilize energy, raise blood sugar, sharpen focus, and temporarily dial down functions that are not immediately needed, like digestion and reproduction. In a healthy system, once the threat passes, cortisol drops back to baseline. When stress is chronic, from poverty, caregiving, an abusive relationship, or an awful workplace (and often there is more than one), signaling from the brain to the adrenal glands can become dysregulated. Cortisol initially stays elevated, but over time, cortisol rhythms may flatten, cortisol spikes may occur at the wrong times, or stress responses may become blunted. Think of the brain's signaling like a thermostat, and the adrenal glands as the furnace. HPA dysfunction is the equivalent of a thermostat malfunctioning: you get heat when it’s 90 degrees and the AC when it’s cold, or sometimes the furnace doesn’t respond at all. Over the years, this results in cumulative biological wear and tear that affects the cardiovascular, immune, metabolic, and brain systems, a process collectively called allostatic load. This is why chronic stress does not just feel bad; it contributes to disease and may even accelerate biological aging. Women disproportionately carry this kind of stress from caregiving, intimate partner violence, economic stress, and societal and workplace discrimination. Chronic stress, HPA-axis dysregulation, and allostatic load are associated with increased risks of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, dementia, autoimmune disease flares, depression, and all-cause mortality. Essentially, it contributes to accelerated physiologic aging across multiple organ systems. From a nutritional standpoint, magnesium, theanine, ashwagandha, lavender, among others, can be used to help relieve adrenal stress.

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