Ron Kness

The Stress Hormone Cortisol Ron Kness

A person who is under excessive stress is often described as someone who is always working "under the gun". This expression should be a fair indicator that too much exposure to stress is a big threat to a person's health and well-being. Repeated studies expose the correlation between stress and ill-health, and why chronic stress is such an important health problem. Cortisol is a type of glucocorticoid hormone. Along with adrenaline, it is one of the main hormones responsible for stress responses. The actions of cortisol in the human body are quite complex. As a primary stress hormone it not only acts directly on the body, but also acts indirectly by activating other hormones, each with a critical role to perform. In a healthy person with a healthy cycle consisting of a stress incident followed by an adequate rest and recovery phase, cortisol has a major function of instigating homeostasis, or returning the body to normal after being exposed to stress. This is enacted largely through the triggering of secondary hormones. The recovery phase following an acute stress incident is critical for the prevention of developing chronic stress. Chronic stress develops when persistent stress causes stress hormones, including cortisol, to remain constantly elevated in the body. In this all too common situation, cortisol remains awash in the body at high levels for long periods of time. Unfortunately in today's world, this is happening a lot. In my book, I look not only look at ways to reduce stress, but also some things you can do to better cope with stress.