The notorious stress hormone, Part 2: Healthy cortisol levels
To continue our quest for a stress-free life, let’s learn some basics of the hormone that plays such a big role in our stress response.
Now that the ABC’s of the main stress hormone are covered, we can have a sneak peek to the optimal functioning of this useful friend of ours. Interestingly, the level of cortisol varies quite a lot throughout the day.
A wide range of studies has been conducted around the topic. Both relatively low and relatively high cortisol levels have been linked to a number of health issues.
Optimal cortisol production
Ideally, our daily cortisol level forms a nice high heel shaped curve, which is called a diurnal cortisol slope. Cortisol production is optimally highest in the morning, and it gradually decreases throughout the day, being at the lowest when we’re sleeping. The cortisol peak in the morning is known as a cortisol awakening response.
A healthy cortisol curve helps to support our bodies to stay awake and alert during the day, and calm down in the evening.
If we’re suffering from chronic stress or other certain health problems, our cortisol levels can be running either too high or too low and on top of that — with poor timing. That can e.g. keep us alert and anxious when we should be sleeping, and then again, leave us feeling tired during the day, among many other symptoms. Talk about a vicious circle!
The future of health
Scientists have been researching and measuring diurnal cortisol levels and cortisol awakening responses a lot during the last decades, usually from saliva, urine, or blood. Intriguingly, we’ll soon be able to measure it ourselves at home and see the results from our smartphones. That will take our health tracking to a completely new level.
The more we know about our bodies, the better we can take care of them.
That being said, the future of health seems quite exciting.
INME is the next level well-being tracking service that empowers people to track core hormones, like cortisol (stress) and testosterone (vitality) in simpler and cheaper way than ever before. The salivary based INME stress measurement solution and mobile app are designed to provide health information at a molecular level and help people to be the healthiest and most energetic versions of themselves. Our simple in-home hormone monitoring product is currently in testing stage. We’re looking to launch INME during 2018.
INME is a result of over 20 years’ research in the Department of Molecular Biotechnology and Diagnostics at the University of Turku, Finland.
Read more or send us a message to hello@inmehealth.com.
