This article starts a series in the Optimal Health Network newsletters on Hormones and Health. Your internal hormonal world is complex. However, a basic understanding of the endocrine system will help you to more intelligently set the stage for enhancing your body's natural ability to regenerate, heal and stay healthy.

We will start this basic discussion with the hormone cortisol. Cortisol is a member of the family of steroid hormones, made by cholesterol, in the adrenal glands. Cortisol is most widely known as the "stress hormone". When your body experiences a stressor, your adrenal glands secrete cortisol into your blood stream. A rise in your cortisol level acts to give you a quick burst of energy, to heighten your memory functions, to increase your immunity, and to lower your sensitivity to pain. This is an excellent system, as long as this rise in cortisol level is "turned off" effectively and quickly and you don't need to use this "flight or fight" response often.

Unfortunately, in today's hectic world, your cortisol levels are often rising with the job of dealing with day-to-day stress. For some of us, our cortisol gets "stuck on high" and for others of us, our adrenal glands are exhausted from over production.

If it isn't tough enough on the body that its stress handling gland is overworked, cortisol happens to play an essential role in many other vital bodily functions. It handles regenerating the body, protein synthesis, inflammatory mediation, energy creation, blood sugar regulation, brain function, mood, cognition, memory, strength and stamina.  Fortunately or unfortunately, the body prioritizes its cortisol use with handling day-to-day challenges, tensions and pressures over many other bodily functions. This means that for many of us, cortisol is shunted away from its rebuilding duties like regenerating the colonic mucosa, rebuilding bones, keeping blood sugar stable and regulating the sleep cycle.  

In other words, if your cortisol levels are too high, or too low due to a history of being too high, you can not heal and if you are not already struggling with your health, you are likely to be soon. For a short time, high cortisol is functional. However, sustained high cortisol tears your body down, destroying muscle and bone, slowing down healing and normal cell regeneration, co-opting biochemicals needed to make other vital hormones, impairing digestion, metabolism and mental function, interfering with healthy endocrine function; and weakening your immune system.

Because of the importance of keeping the hormone cortisol in a persistent optimal range, it is crucial to good health to monitor your cortisol levels seasonally and, if needed, to support the adrenal glands using lifestyle changes, herbs and supplements. The most effective and inexpensive way to monitor your cortisol levels is to use a four sample saliva test during the course of one day. The saliva test that we have chosen to use at the Optimal Health Center with our clients and ourselves is the Adrenal Stress Index offered by the lab Diagnos-Techs.

The Adrenal Stress Index™ (ASI™)
Four saliva samples are used in the ASI™ for the following ten tests:

 
My hope is that you will monitor your cortisol levels seasonally in order to take the necessary action to optimize your health. Please do call the Optimal Health Center at 608-242-0200 or email us at customerservice@optimalhealthnetwork.com to learn more or to set up an Adrenal Stress Index test.