Are you concerned about your cortisol levels? Because according to TikTok, you should be.

ICYMI, #CortisolTok is introducing a number of social media users to health concerns they probably didn’t know they should be concerned about. Namely, the impact of increased cortisol on the body, and the endless ways to naturally manage high cortisol levels, including red light therapy, ashwagandha supplements, avoiding certain types of exercise and more. But what does it all mean? And how worried should we be about our cortisol levels? Let’s dive in.

What is cortisol?

Cortisol is a steroid hormone that corresponds to levels of stress. When you’re stressed, your adrenal glands release cortisol, which is needed to stimulate the “flight or fight” response. And according to the social media app, high levels of cortisol aren’t only bad for you, but should be an area of concern for everyone. Creators are advising viewers to make lifestyle changes like limiting caffeine, getting 7 to 8 hours of sleep and switching from high to low intensity workouts (think swapping your bootcamp workout for low-impact pilates).

And people are listening. As Elle UK noted, as of May 2023, hashtags like #cortisollevels and #howtoreducecortisol have a combined 140 million views, with certain tip-sharing videos racking up millions of views, shares and saves. Which raises major flags. Because while getting eight hours of sleep is never a bad idea, the framing of these videos can spread misinformation about cortisol and cause people to panic unnecessarily.

@giuliahalkier_ 7 things I did to balance my cortisol levels! 👇 eating breakfast no caffeine on an empty stomach making sure I had enough fats and proteins in my diet blue light blocking glasses not overexercising and switching to low intensity exercise stopping dieting and restriction regulating my nervous system healing the root cause (ex: stress body image issues, food etc) GETTING THE RIGHT SUPPORT!!!! if you don’t heal the root cause of what’s going on you won’t heal your cortisol imbalance the ANS (autonomic nervous system) plays a crucial role in balancing our cortisol levels. The hypothalamus is the regulatory centre of the brain and has an integral role in all of our hormones. When we have a dysregulated nervous system and or high level of chronic stress we can experience cortisol dysregulation. There are many different types of cortisol dysregulation. you can have elevated levels, low levels and inverse cortisol levels (where your levels are high at night and low in the morning). While supplementation can certainly help, your cortisol is a reflection of a bigger picture of what’s going on in your health and lifestyle. These were the 7 things I changed which made the biggest impact. #greenscreen #womenshormonehealth #cortisol #howtobalancecortisol #lowcortisol #highcortisol #nervoussystemregulation ♬ original sound – BODY CONFIDENCE EXPERT ❤️

Is it bad to have high cortisol?

Toronto-based Naturopathic Doctor Dr. Fiona McCulloch first started noticing videos about cortisol levels popping up on Instagram Reels in early 2023. McCulloch, the founder of White Lotus Integrative Medicine Clinic, noticed a pretty common thread through the videos she was frequently seeing—they were all telling people they shouldn’t be exercising. “There [were] a lot of people saying that you shouldn’t do certain kinds of exercise because it will raise your cortisol and damage your hormones,” McCulloch says. But according to McCulloch, that couldn’t be further from the truth. “It’s actually quite normal for your cortisol to rise when you exercise,” she adds. “[It’s] part of recovery.”

“It started to become almost a fear, where everyone is now afraid of cortisol,” McCulloch says of these videos. “[But] cortisol isn’t bad, we just want it to be released in the right way.”

While cortisol is most often linked to stress in people’s minds—and it is involved in our stress response—it’s not the only contributor. And cortisol has a huge impact on other aspects of our health, like helping our body break down sugar, control our blood pressure and reduce inflammation. “So it has a lot of other functions in the body beyond just stress,” McCulloch says. “It’s really important for our health overall.”

How does cortisol affect the body?

While many videos frame high cortisol as inherently bad, McCulloch says normal cortisol levels fluctuate throughout the day. “When we wake up in the mornings, we have this big spike of cortisol and then it reduces through the rest of the day. Then in the evening, it becomes pretty low and stays low at night for sleeping,” she says. “So it has a circadian rhythm and it regulates our circadian rhythm.”

Cortisol will also increase and become higher when we’re stressed, as a way of handling said stress. This is completely normal. The issue is when cortisol is continuously high for a prolonged period of time or outside where it should be at a certain time of day — like people who have chronic stress or those who do shift work where their schedules may be off the typical rhythm.

@mikaelawillson Guys we WANT our cortisol to SPIKE in the morning it’s not a bad thing don’t be scared of it THATS WHAT GETS U OUT OF BED EVERY DAY!! Also!! YOU DONT NEED TO DO ALL IF THESE EVERY DAY I try to hit like 1-2 from each list. The morning light is the most important. Symptoms of unbalanced cortisol include: – tired upon waking up – wired and unable to sleep at night – unmotivated -puffy face and jaw as well as puffy abdomen area – low libido – brain fog -hormonal acne #cortisollevels #cortisol #hormones #hormonalimbalance #acnehormonal #balancehormonal #balancehormonesnaturally ♬ original sound – smelliot’s priv 😝😝

What can contribute to high cortisol levels?

In addition to stress, shift work and insomnia, other factors that can contribute to high cortisol, according to McCulloch, include PTSD, childhood trauma, and some genetics. These can lead to symptoms like weight gain and puffiness around your midsection and face (commonly referred to as “moon face”), acne, high blood pressure and high blood sugar.

While there are some rare health conditions, like Cushing Syndrome and Addison’s Disease, that are the cause of cortisol problems affecting the adrenal glands, high cortisol is typically a response to something else happening in the body. “I always say to my patients, cortisol is a responder,” says McCulloch. “When we look at cortisol, we always want to ask: Why is that high or low? For example, if someone has insomnia, the reason they might have that problem with cortisol is the insomnia; so they might need to work on sleep, or might have another condition that’s causing that problem like insulin resistance or diabetes.”

So, should I be worried about my cortisol levels?

And while it’s good to be aware of potential health concerns, the issue with social media is that it’s not really making people aware, it’s just making them anxious as hell. “I think it causes a lot of anxiety for people who are reading it, because it’s very confusing,” McCulloch says. Because TikTok is set up around the idea of getting clickable info across in under 60 seconds, it isn’t entirely set up to go in-depth. It may get views, but as McCulloch notes, it also leads to a lot of conflicting info or the simplification of a complex hormone.

Not to mention the fact that a large majority of these videos are working under the assumption that whoever’s watching—in some cases all 1.5 million viewers—need to lower their cortisol levels.

For McCulloch, that meant a number of patients were coming to her afraid to exercise at all for fear of increasing their cortisol level. “I remember this one patient, she was doing Zumba with her friends every week,” McCullloch says, “and then she quit Zumba because she read that cardio would raise her cortisol. So it actually can do harm [at times].”

So, should we be concerned about our cortisol levels? No more than regular concerns about your overall health. “It’s important to look at it within what it actually means,” says McCulloch. “The vast majority of people that have problems with their cortisol, it’s something [about] their health that is actually changing their cortisol.”

What can I do if I’m still concerned about my cortisol levels?

If you’re worried your cortisol levels may be too high, as tempting as it may be to hop onto your FYP for advice or just cut out your daily cup of comfort coffee, McCulloch recommends talking with your healthcare provider about the symptoms that are causing concern. Once you speak with your doctor or health provider, they may choose one of several ways to test for high cortisol, including a urine test that monitors your cortisol over a 24-hour period, a blood test or a saliva test. From there, you can determine what lifestyle changes may be helpful to control cortisol levels.

“Getting that analysis done is really helpful,” McCulloch says. “When you look at that pattern, you [can] see, okay, some people might have anxiety in the evening and that’s keeping their cortisol high. And there’s certain treatments that can be nice and calming. So depending on what the causes and what those tests show, there would be very different treatments for it.”

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