🌟 Stress is a normal part of life, but when it becomes chronic, it can lead to elevated cortisol levels, impacting everything from your sleep to your immune system. Managing stress is key to balancing cortisol and supporting overall well-being. Incorporate practices like mindfulness, consistent exercise, and weight training, and a nutrient-rich diet to keep your stress in check. Remember, it's not just about managing stress—it's about thriving! 🌱💪 #StressManagement #CortisolBalance #MindBodyWellness #HealthyLiving #SelfCare #HolisticHealth
Change Agents Community with Dr. James Rouse
Love Life Elevated - Lessons in Cortisol
(upbeat music) - Hi there, it's Dr. Deborah Rouse and I'm joining my beloved Dr. James Rouse today in the Love and Life Elevated Laboratory of life. Today we're talking about stress and ways to manage it. So stay tuned, we hope you enjoy. (upbeat music) - Welcome to Love and Life Elevated. I'm Dr. Deborah Rouse. - And I'm Dr. James Rouse. So good to see you, so good to see you too. - Yeah, love hanging out with you in here. - You know what, this is such a fun place for us to come together. - It's good, it's got good energy. - It does, and I think just because this art that you blessed me with, when I was gone just really brings things to a place that made this space really come to life. - Thank you, sweetheart. - You're welcome. - We got a great topic today. - Yeah, so I was gonna say before we start, I am really excited about the topic because it's, hits so close to home, but also a little disclaimer that, you know, when we talk about kind of more medical-y stuff today or we talk about supplements that you need to check with your primary healthcare provider. - You need to do that. - Before doing anything that we mentioned or if you have questions, please reach out before you just kind of jump in randomly without being truly informed. We can only do so much here. - That's so true, but-- - And we care about you. - Yes, we do. And I know every single one of us today, everyone who's listening is an expert in this subject. Stress. - Stress, we're talking about cortisol specifically today and how stress impacts cortisol levels and how that manifests and shows up in our lives. - Yeah, I think what's really interesting and also sobering is just over these last number of years, there's been a normalizing of high cortisol, chronically high cortisol, just based on so many factors in life, things that are happening in life, things that the speed of life has brought in. So we really wanna give you an opportunity today to help yourself unpack what does cortisol do to us when we leave it unchecked? And what are the powerful things that we can do? The fun, powerful, inspiring things that we can do every single day to help lower and manage cortisol, helpfully. - Yes, and let's back up just a little bit. First, what I wanna say is cortisol is a steroid hormone that is produced mainly in the adrenals and the adrenals are little glands that sit on top of our kidneys. Now it's produced tiny bit in some of our, you know, ovaries and testes and so forth, our brain, but that's mostly where it comes from. And so yes, it's really important and we're mostly gonna talk about high cortisol levels that happen under stress, but I wanna touch a little bit also at the end of this on low cortisol levels because I can just tell you right here right now, I've done the full loop. I've definitely, I think when you're over stress for too long and your cortisol levels are maxed out, they can totally tank and hit the ground. That's when you get adrenal burnout, adrenal fatigue and actually your adrenals are like, what cortisol? Like we can't even mount that stress response and that's equally, if not like harder to figure out and remedy. - So true. So really what we wanna kinda lay the foundation with today and honey, that's so important is really encouraging every one of us today to think about our self-care as the best response to managing cortisol, managing our stress. And I think this is a time in everyone's life where many of us know that we are too tired to keep running, but we're too scared to stop but stopping everything is not feasible. But how do you live a full, rich, vital life and really manage stress, helpfully? And it begins with taking responsibility, really managing how it is that you look at yourself, self-awareness, self-acceptance, where is your state of your union right now between mind, body and emotions and what you can do starting today. And hopefully these are things you're gonna go, oh my gosh, really? That'll help. Some of these things are things that we probably wouldn't manage without knowing how powerful they are. - True. And why should you care? You may know your stress, but it's like, yeah, everybody's stressed. Well, here's what stress does in your body. It decreases your immune system. It increases aging, inflammation, decreases metabolism, set you up for an increased risk of chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes. Did I already say age issue? (both laughing) It can really interrupt or sleep. So all these things that really have to do with longevity, high levels of cortisol over the long term can really interfere with health optimization. - Yeah, how do you wanna start? - Baby, I've got a great list of things that we can do. - Go for it. I'll add, I'll not, I'll agree. - And I wanna start with probably, we'll do a whole show on this shortly, it's sleep. And prioritizing healthy sleep patterns is number one. And there's been so much research over the last decade, but particularly the last three years, I was looking at some data on how a good night's rest is the full reset for a nervous system and really trains our adrenals and places where cortisol will happen to really know appropriate responses to stress versus an overexaggeration response to stress. - Yeah, and it's a double-edged sword a little bit because poor sleep can increase cortisol, increase cortisol, can interrupt sleep. So really you wanna optimize both like by normalizing cortisol levels and setting yourself up for sleep success during the day, I think it can become a marriage of at least, you know, increase of a better chance of a good night's rest. So let's talk about some of those strategies. I know like saw you out there breathing today and the sunshine and we always-- - Talking the talk. - Yeah, so doing some mindfulness practices and really getting that morning hit of sun in your eyes and being in nature is a great way to start the day and then at the end of the day, a digital detox, a digital sunset so that you don't have your face in the screen anymore, still working on that, but at least we have some really dark glasses that prevent some of that blue light from coming in. - Do you ever see me with you at night walking around with my dark glasses on? - Oh yeah, we can't watch a movie at six p.m. without the dark light glasses on. - It's a beautiful thing. - Yeah, yeah. - And just something to kind of take to heart right now, research shows that a lot of us will do so much better with stress management when we do what we know we should be doing. Literally, I think most people are really understanding the fact that when we have our phones and our faces at bedtime, it is not helping our sleep. We also know that eating late and having alcohol before bed also does not help our sleep. So when you manage two, three, four self-care practices before bedtime, an hour or two before bedtime, that also helps you lower cortisol just going, this is me loving myself, this is me following through. That is such a big part of healthy sleep and the precursor helping to lower cortisol. - Yeah, and I would say along with that, I think we need to look at diet and how diet really can help the body to kind of ward off some of that stress. So a typical anti-inflammatory diet, we always say that the Mediterranean or Okinawan diets are sort of the gold standard for anti-inflammatory. Also like the Dash diet, which is an anti-hypertensive diet includes a lot of healthy fats and nuts and seeds. And then decreasing sugar. Sugar is such a pro-inflammatory food and sadly, when we're stressed, what do we crave? Sugar or salt, but mostly sugar. And it's kind of the worst thing we could do for sleep in metabolism and age and all the things that are linked to stress. Dark green, leafy, veggies, small amounts of fruit, nuts and seeds, healthy fats. Omega threes are super key for both high and low levels of cortisol for normalizing. And then some of our favorite adaptogenic herbs, an adaptogenic herb just means that it adapts to the needs of your body. So when cortisol levels are high, it helps to bring them down when they're low. It helps to bring them up. I can rattle off a list of those, but before I get into that, I wanna say that a lot of the like herb supplements that we'll talk about to help manage stress are the ones that help manage sleep as well. - Ashwagandha being the one that's top of mind for me. Ashwagandha has tremendous research, amazing data and helping to modulate and manage helpful levels of cortisol. A lot of sleep supplements are now bringing Ashwagandha into the protocol because they know it really helps us to kind of level off the stress, help us to really, as you said, sweetheart earlier about healthy levels of cortisol, which also help us to sustain healthy sleep. It's really interesting around this idea of Mediterranean plant-based or a plant-slant diet. Omega threes have been some of the most well-documented parts of Mediterranean diet in relationship to really driving healthy response to stress. Omega threes act almost like a cushion. And then from there, help to manage stress levels along with inflammation. So this is really Omega threes and something I really love before bed. If you need a little bit of snack, maybe two hours before bedtime, small handful of walnuts, glutathione, trace levels of melatonin, great Omega threes. Something like that is a wonderful thing to do. And if you wanna have something along with that as kind of like a transport mechanism, a no-sugar oatmeal cookie and utilizing things like walnuts to give a little bit of flavor, all those things will help a trip to fan and helping to manage support healthy sleep chemistry. - Yeah, I would add to that, like a whole milk organic Greek yogurt plain with the nuts, that little bit of dairy and calcium magnesium really in protein, you know? So that your body isn't like craving sugar, starving before you go off to bed. I like that combination. - Yeah, and what's so great. So we've got three things right now. We've got sleep, we've got managing our healthy diet and then we've talking about what I really think is amazing. - I'll wait, are you moving forward? - Not quite yet, okay. - So because you talked about ashwagandha and I wanted to bring up a few other things that are good for sleep and managing stress, one is kind of not as popular as ashwagandha and that's phosphatidyl serine. Phosserine is a fatty acid that really helps support the brain but it helps relax the brain. So I do love that. It is available in supplement form and it's a little pricey but that's something to consider. L-theanine, which is in green tea. Not that I want you having green tea right before bed but sipping on that throughout the day, actually even though there's caffeine and green tea, it's not the kind that's gonna really wire you. - Such a good call. - It's like a relaxed alertness. And then our other favorite-- - Magnesium. - Magnesium. - You were talking about that was it just last week? - You know, we're gonna talk about magnesium every week. - Basically, it never doesn't make an appearance in our show. So great study and I found this this morning, honey. Talking about relationships that are healthy with one key distinction, kindness being a primary channel between the two people or in your community. They talk about the fact that when you are spending time with people who bring out your kindness or who are kind to you, amazing response to our stress and particularly helping to healthfully manage our cortisol. So being in a kindness experience with someone else, tremendous data on that. - Yeah, I can see that really working both ways. - Sure. - Yeah. - So that's a pretty powerful thing. And along with that, and this is something you and I definitely are feeling right now, bonding with a pet. We just got a brand new, we should probably have a picture of the show. - Yeah, I did. There's a picture in the last episode at the very end. I showed a picture of Bear. - Okay, so Bear is our new pug who is what, eight weeks old now, nine weeks? - You called him eight weeks for like 10 weeks now. I don't know, I can't keep track of it. He's probably almost 10 weeks. - He is the ultimate cortisol manager, cortisol modulator. He's amazing. So they talk a lot about when you come home from work, it's a really cool study about just windows where cortisol levels tend to be really have a greater vulnerability. And it was really interesting when you come home from work and the first thing you do, maybe you know, you go to see your sweetie, your lover, or what are that person, family member. But also just taking a few moments and connecting with your pet, just petting or holding or just loving on. Oh my goodness, tremendous response to our adrenal. How's that? - I mean, looking at Bear, I can see that because it's cuteness level so high. But in terms of, I mean, he's just such a biter. He's just is teething so much. So it's not really relaxing, except for late at night when we've really tired him out. But that is a fun example to know. Certainly our rescue dog is the perfect. - Shanti has, with Sanskrit for peace. Oh my goodness, she is such a little. - Yeah, she's so great, she's so great. - Another one was great, honey, laughter. Very, very interesting how laughter helps to modulate cortisol. And really, really interesting. I did a study on this, gosh, I didn't do the study, but I read the study about when you're little, how often you laugh. Like as a child, like a grammar school kid, maybe in four, five, six years old. And how as we get older, the repetitions or the amount of laughter that we have literally drops to a fraction by the time we hit our mid 20s. And that's interesting. And listen, taking on adult responsibilities is real. The heaviness that we take on as adults. But we should really give ourselves permission to look for people or experiences that bring joy and laughter to the forefront. Because one of the greatest ways that we get fully out of the sympathetic dominance, which is a cortisol driver and move us into parasympathetic, which is more peace and contentment and happiness. And yes, lower stress. - Yeah, for sure. I mean, there's a reason why laughter therapy is a thing. Now, right, enjoy workshops because it's effective. - Yeah, so honey, I think one of the things that we love to talk about, just the two of us together, any time that you and I have spontaneous laughter or there's something that brings us to laughter, gosh, do we love it, right? We hug after that, we go, isn't it the best? - Yeah, absolutely, we've had some really good laughs. - We've had some really good laughs. Another thing I read about mindfulness meditation, just being present is a really, really good way to manage your stress, help with cortisol levels. And I think the Harvard study speaks to the fact that the average person is only present about 49% of their life. Whether in future fear or past regret, it's a big part of why chronic stress has become normalized. - Well, and back to one of the problems with high cortisol long-term, is that it can really lead to a decrease in muscle mass. So exercise, and in particular lifting weights, especially as we get older, is really important for a number of reasons, right? It keeps our bones structures strong, helps prevent osteopenia, osteoporosis, but it also helps to maintain normal cortisol levels, because when they're high, it's eating muscle. We're leading to that thin, loose skin. As I already mentioned, the aging, and it's really hard to keep lean muscle on when cortisol levels are high. - Interesting enough, one of the greatest ways that we actually help to modulate stress with exercise is taking a slow, mindful walk. Tremendous data on this. In fact, they were talking about the fact that when Buddhist walking meditation was done with just regular people, who, after a stressful event, didn't go out there and do a speed walking, they got to do wind sprints, they simply just went outdoors and walked slowly. For as little as 12 minutes, they came back with a complete cortisol reset, and I think a lot of us, maybe after a hard day's work, coming home kind of stress, before you walk into the house, just take a slow walk down the drive or behind your house and just breathe slowly, walk it out, and then come in, you're gonna be a much better person who comes into the house, and you're gonna feel better about yourself, how you present the people that you love on the other side of the door. - Yeah, perfect. So I wanna talk briefly about low cortisol levels, because I think I can be a poster child from that. So I'm someone who hasn't managed stress well for a long time, like way too long. It's something I have embodied probably since I was a kid. So at times cortisol is in my toes, like it's nonexistent. And if you look at the list of how that manifests, it's like, do you have this? - Check, check, check, check. - Okay, so increased fatigue, low blood pressure, mood changes. So you might just be feeling sad, fatigued, hypoglycemia, digestive issues, brain fog, hair loss, decreased immune response, or immune system. So what do you do? When it's low like that, well, it's kind of similar when you look at those adaptogenic herbs. So aside from ashwagandha, we love rhodiola. We like vitamin B5, B6 are really healthy nutrition for the adrenal glands. So those kind of act as adaptogens and good beat complex is a great recommendation. Back to magnesium. What else can you think of? - I think that's really to me, that's my hit list. - Oh, I know, biggie, licorice root. So licorice root is great. However, if you have high blood pressure, that's something that you do want to avoid. - Exactly. I think the whole family adaptogenic herbs. We should do a thing on that sometimes shortly because they are really, to me, the botanicals of the time that we're living in. And interesting enough, there's also a lot of research that speaks to the fact that when you're in a place of growth mindset, like, here we are doing this right now. You're learning, you're evolving, you're hopefully being open to new ideas. There is so much that is happening for us. When we get out of perfectionism or needing to know everything or thinking, we should know everything, and self-compassion, self-acceptance, radical self-acceptance, is tremendously helpful for stress management. And I really love the idea of a student mindset for so many things. I think it gives us permission to be lifelong learners, to celebrate the things that we're learning, but also celebrating the things that we know that we have learned that are no longer serving us and letting go of those things. Giving yourself heroic permission to evolve and change and release. That is also a part of this self-compassion practice. And forgiveness right alongside of self-compassion also helps to lower cortisol. And forgiving someone else, forgiving yourself. This is a time I really feel like as we move into the fall, eventually moving into the fourth quarter, let's take September and really look at the spiritual principles. I was reading about September yesterday. It's a focus on where you know you have great work to still do that you've been delaying long enough. So if this is an area of self-compassion, self-forgiveness, openness, better grade of self-care, this is a perfect month to maybe re-establish, to negotiate with yourself where you know you're gonna have the work to do and make time to do it. And going to the level of student excitement as opposed to, oh God, I should be doing this already. I should have been doing this a long time ago. Doesn't even matter anymore. This is our time to really up level the way that we take good care of ourselves. - Yeah, I love that sort of back to school mindset. - Right, oh my gosh, I should be thinking about this. - Back to life school. And I think of it as a time of harvest and harvesting health, it's a great time to like be journaling and doing gratitude practices and also maybe even releasing because you were talking about releasing and like I'm so into the fire ceremonies and writing down what you wanna let go of, set it on fire in a very protected container and release it, you know, release it to the ethers, so to speak. - Oh my gosh, I mean that would be something where, I guess if you were gonna walk away with anything today, here's three things I would really encourage you to consider. Number one, let's just give ourselves permission to do a heroic self-awareness overview. Where are we with managing our stress? Have we normalized stress? Have we allowed stress to become just so normal? We just accept it as just a part of our life. Do we have opportunities to take things like a Mediterranean diet, a breathing practice, a meditation practice, taking a slow walk? All these simple powerful things that we can do gives us the experience of self-efficacy, which is to me one of the most important things, there is so much information out there, probably a lot of these things that you've heard if not all of them, but the follow through is what's heroic. Just really give yourself permission to take information and then weave it in the fabric of who you are and use it to transform your life. - Yeah, totally. And then I would say maybe before you do anything, if you wanna learn whether or not you have high or low levels of cortisol, I think the best way of doing that is through salivary testing, where you look at your cortisol levels throughout the day, so at least four samples, different times a day, right when you wake up, a couple of times during the day, right before you go to bed, sometimes people will do a middle of the night, like if you're someone who wakes up to go to the bathroom, you can do another sample. And then you'll get a real idea, like, well, do you have high levels? Are they toast? Are they like hardly existent? And then it'll, we'll look at one more thing, I would recommend either salivary or blood tests. Blood tests for cortisol, for me, aren't that great? Because it just shows you where it is in that moment. And cortisol is just one of those hormones that really fluctuates throughout the day, but it's partner, DHEA, cortisol often overrides DHEA. And so you may, as a result, again, poster child here, your DHEA levels may get crushed when cortisol levels kind of just override it for so long. So that's another good one to check. More important as we're getting older, but I have seen lower levels in some of my younger patients as well. So yeah, before you kind of dive into doing anything, aside from the lifestyle and diet, ideas that are good to do anyway, Mediterranean diet, daily exercise, meditation, mindfulness, journaling, those are great, no matter what. Those are important, high, low, all over. That's gonna help. But, you know, I love education. I love learning about what's going on in my body. So I talked to your practitioner about, like, what would it look like for you to have your levels tested? - That is such valuable information. And lastly, the one we're gonna leave you with is what we do here every Wednesday and frankly, we love to do it every single day in the tree house. And that is the data that supports having a spiritual practice. Anything that you ritualize, that you know makes you a better person, helps you to feel more possible, augments your human potential, gives you a greater connection with something bigger than yourself. Research shows that a spiritual community and/or a spiritual practice, or both, is a wonderful way to help us to helpfully manage stress. And in particular, help us to manage and keep cortisol levels at a healthy place. So, just being in a place like this once a week is going to help you, us connecting, us opening, us being vulnerable to the work that we're all doing. Giving ourselves permission to realize that we always heal and evolve better together. So thank you for joining us. - Thank you, thank you. - It was a wonderful show. - Yes, I love you. - I love you. - I love you. - Take care. - Have a beautiful Wednesday and a great week. We'll see you next Wednesday. Bye for now. - Good show, honey. That's a lot of information. (silence) (silence) (silence) (silence) (silence) (silence) (silence) (silence) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music)