Cortisol is stress hormone. In functional medicine there is a concept called the cortisol steal or pregnenolone steal.

This term is describing the body’s preference to protect cortisol production at the expense of other hormones like estrogen, progesterone and testosterone.

That’s because our bodies think we are on the verge of possible death in moments of stress so everything gets pushed aside to make room for cortisol.

Hormones come from the same precursor, cholesterol. The body can take that cholesterol molecule down one pathway and make cortisol or it can go down another pathway and make DHEA and then estrogen and testosterone. If the body is under more stress and is making more cortisol it can diminish its ability to make estrogen progesterone and testosterone.

That’s why women can skip a period during times of stress, or have two periods a month (like I did for about a year)

In my case it was perimenopause and my progesterone was going down, but it can also happen as a result of stress.

The mind body connection is real ‘yes!  You simply cannot separate the two.

So finding your favorite tools for managing stress is key. Walks, yoga, dancing, gardening etc.

Even if you just take a few moments a day to breathe with intention you can start lowering your stress hormones and heal your body.

When I was healing my adrenals, I would lie down flat on the ground for just a minute here and there throughout the day, and I would do some deep breathing work.

If you have a tracking device like and Oura ring, you can see how it only takes a minute or two to get you out of a stressed zone and into fully restored.

You don’t need to wait months to see changes – you can see them in minutes.

I say it almost every day, but you cannot have true health without a regulated nervous system.