Cortisol: What You Need to Know About Cortisol and Its Testing

Hormones are the body’s messengers, traveling through the bloodstream to “instruct” your organs on what to do and when to do it, and cortisol is just one of the many hormones that play a vital role in regulating your body’s response to external stimuli. One thing about hormones, though, is that it’s important that they be kept at the right levels; if your body produces too much or too little of a specific hormone, issues are bound to follow. In this article, we’ll explore what cortisol is and the functions that it performs as well as how you can go about getting your cortisol levels tested to determine if they are optimum.

What is Cortisol and What Does it Do?

Cortisol is a hormone produced by the body’s adrenaline glands – two glands that sit on top of your kidneys. Cortisol is widely known as the “stress hormone” since it plays an important role in regulating your body’s response to stress. However, the function of cortisol encompasses much more than just regulating stress responses. Other functions that cortisol is responsible for performing include:

• Regulating blood sugar
• Regulating blood pressure
• Preventing inflammation
• Assisting with metabolism
• Controlling your sleep-wake cycle

As for the role that cortisol plays in regulating your body’s stress response, cortisol is typically released after the release of adrenaline – the “fight or flight” hormone that heightens your senses and ramps up the blood flow to your major muscle groups. Cortisol works to prolong the effects of adrenaline by enhancing your brain’s use of glucose, increasing the availability of substances used to repair damaged tissues, and directing resources away from systems that are not necessary in a “fight or flight” scenario such as your immune system, digestive system, and reproductive system.

The Consequences of Excess Cortisol

The reactions that cortisol triggers can be highly beneficial in a true life or death scenario, but they can also be quite harmful if your cortisol levels are too high for prolonged periods of time. For example, directing resources away from systems such as your immune system and digestive system for a short period of time while you are running from a dangerous animal might just save your life. The problem is that many of the sources of stress that we as human beings experience today are not truly life and death scenarios such as being chased by a wild animal, and the adrenal glands that produce cortisol can’t tell the difference. If you are continually stressed due to your job, relationship, or any other factor outside of a true “fight or flight” situation, your body may continually produce and release cortisol even though its effect in these situations is much more harmful than helpful.

Common symptoms of excessively high cortisol levels include:

• Muscle weakness in your arms and upper thighs
• Weight gain
• Fatty deposits between your shoulder blades
• Weak bones and fractures
• High blood sugar
• High blood pressure

Along with prolonged or excess stress, other factors that can lead to higher-than-normal cortisol levels include tumors that produce adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), corticosteroid medications, and adrenal gland tumors.

While excess cortisol levels can lead to a lot of problems, not producing enough cortisol can lead to negative health effects as well – even if you don’t ever find yourself in a “fight or flight” scenario. Symptoms of lower-than-normal cortisol levels include:

• Fatigue
• Weight loss
• Poor appetite
• Low blood pressure

In other words, balance is key. While “normal” cortisol levels will vary from person to person, it is generally recommended that your cortisol levels be 10 to 20 micrograms per deciliter in the morning hours and 3 to 10 micrograms per deciliter in the afternoon hours.

How to Schedule an Appointment for Cortisol Testing With St. Jude Labs

If you are concerned that your cortisol levels are higher or lower than they should be, you may want to schedule an appointment for cortisol testing. At St. Jude Labs, cortisol testing is just one of the many medical testing services that we are proud to offer at our state-of-the-art Maryland facility. If you would like to schedule an appointment for cortisol testing with St. Jude Labs, be sure to contact us today!