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Cortisol And Stress

Cortisol and stress are important because cortisol is the “stress hormone”.

It is a hormone that increases in response to stress and anxiety.

Most hormones tend to ebb and flow throughout the day. The cortisol hormone is no different. Problems arise when it is chronically released and at higher than normal levels.

While the main function of cortisol is to increase blood sugar and the storing of sugar in the liver. It also helps to regulate:

Blood pressure
Cardiovascular function
Immune function
Anti-inflammatory response

Cortisol is an important hormone.

Chronic stress causes elevated cortisol levels, and that is when healthy functioning of the body can become compromised.

When should you be concerned

There are times in all of our lives when we feel as if the usual ways to reduce stress just aren’t working anymore.

As part of the body’s natural physiological stress response, the adrenal glands secrete more of it in response to physical and psychological stress.

If you find yourself in the following list, you may be struggling with chronic stress:
  • Irritability
  • Stress insomnia
  • Eating disorders
  • Sleep deprivation
  • Stress and depression
  • Stress and anxiety
  • Mood swings
  • Burnout
  • Chronic anger
  • Stress headaches and muscle tension
  • More conflicts with others
To learn how stress may be impacting your life, take this free 5 minute stress management survey .

Balance and stress

When the fight or flight response is chronically activated, the body does not have as many opportunities throughout each day to experience the rest and rejuvenation it needs to function optimally.

Physiologically, the body cannot function out of both the stress response and the relaxation response at the same time.

In normal life circumstances, the body naturally goes in and out of balance – in an out of stress and relaxation - throughout the day. That is the body is designed to function.

balance and stress


When too much of each day is spent out of balance…in the stress response…coping with stress and the elevated cortisol and stress levels becomes very important.

Help for reducing stress

The primary way to reduce elevated cortisol levels in the body is to provide more opportunities for the body’s relaxation response to be activated.

Here are some health tips that my clients have shared have helped them create more balance throughout the day:
  • Take B-Complex, Magnesium and anti-oxidant vitamins (A,E,C)
  • Eat a balanced diet
  • Drink 6-8 glasses of water
  • Get 8 hours of sleep each night
  • Stretch your muscles during the day
  • Get 30 minutes of activity 5 x’s per week
  • Talk with supportive friends
  • Notice what you are thinking and feeling
  • Increase the ways you nurture and comfort yourself
  • Laugh more throughout the day
  • Offer gratitude for someone or something
You CAN learn some simple stress relaxation techniques that can also be used while you are in the midst of your busy day.

Cortisol and stress CAN be managed so that your body has more opportunities each day to rest and rejuvenate. Creating more opportunities for the body to be in balance is the key to optimal health and wellness.






Share Your Tips, and Ask Questions Too

In the world that we live in, there are many causes of stress. Actually, many stressors. If you have a question about what causes stress, or have a stress tip, please share it here.

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Stress Tip Of The Day!

Throughout each day, the primary cause of stress is because of threats of uncertainty.

It is thoughts of fear and worry that are triggering the stress response.

Staying focused on maintaining a positive attitude is an important stress technique.



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Testimonials

“Ms. Churchill is the unique health care worker everyone hopes to encounter, but rarely does. She has an extraordinary gift that allows her to do much more than diagnose and treat.”
Abbie K. – Minneapolis




K., age 45, is a long term chronically PTSD disabled patient. She has had daily headaches for 20 years. Two weeks ago she reported that she had had 4 days of pain free time, and was having the exceedingly odd sensation of "smiling all the time". She and Cathi have made extraordinary fast progress together.
Dr. Cole




I referred C.L., age mid-forties, to see Cathi after a life of suffering the post traumatic stress disorder of parental sexual abuse over many years of her childhood, with major dysfunctions of alcohol and drug abuse, and with the disabling symptoms of migraine that have for more than twenty years become chronic.

She has lived with daily headaches that have not responded to any of the several drugs which have benefited many such suffering patients. She has needed chronic opiate treatment of her chronic pain syndrome.

In the few weeks that Cathi has worked with her, C.L. has begun to experience days without pain, periods of happiness, and a reduction in her opiate dosage requirements that represent a breakthrough in her stalled-out life as a single mom raising a teen-age daughter with only social security income resources.
Dr. Racer








“I first met Cathi Churchill eight years ago when she effectively helped my work unit through the stress of a hospital-wide layoff. I was impressed with her clear-minded approach and willingness to listen.”
Andy R.




N., age 60, is a hard driving attorney twenty year patient of mine who hit the wall with chronic fatigue four years ago, and began to realize she had to learn to rest. She recovered enough to return to her workaholic lifestyle when she was stopped by a herniated cervical disc and resumption of her chronic colitis.

Working with Cathi, she is discovering "the way she does life" and learning to make choices about it. She came in last week, having "danced until dawn". She is learning to dialogue with her body in effective ways.
Dr. Cole




“I stumbled upon Cathi after my recent heart attack that was brought on by stress. I was scared of having another one, and didn’t know what to do. I had lost hope. Working with her has changed my life. I’m so grateful."
Debbie – Canada




M.S., a woman in her late forties with progressively more and more disabling rheumatoid arthritis since childhood, whose most recent problems have arisen over the last two to three years as complications of immunosuppressive therapy for her disease. The complications have been associated with the severely disabling chronic pain of recurrent herpes neuralgia for more than three years, and for the past 15 months, recurrent osteomyelitis in her right lower mandible.

The second, more alarming (even life-threatening) problem has caused months of diagnostic and therapy confusion among her many consultants, three successive resections of the bone over the last six to eight months, and the still ongoing threat of more relapses of the smoldering bone infection and chronic pain only made bearable by chronic, massive doses of opiates.

In the few months since M. began to work with Cathi with several modalities: stress management, therapeutic touch, guided imaging, and others, her life has become more livable, as she has become able to bear the pain and the discouragement of unresolved disease.

She has relied on many of the methods for maintaining hope and getting through overwhelming discouragement by using the inner resources she has learned with Cathi.

My hope as her primary physician, is that Cathi and M. will be able to continue to work together to maintain that inner strength and hope as she faces yet more months of pain, and further repeated surgery.

Thank you for the healing guidance you've been able to give her thus far.
Dr. Racer




“I sought out the help of Cathi during my divorce, and found her to be an insightful and compassionate coach. Her ability to see deep into the heart of an emotionally stressful problem is, I believe, unique and I would highly recommend her service to anyone.”
P.R. – Brooklyn Center




S., age 48, is a Laotian patient of mine with 15 years of chronic abdominal pain. She has had an extensive medical worked up, and nothing ever worked. Cathi saw her over several months.

S. has improved! Cathi established a trusting relationship with her, and helped her to effectively break through her wall of silence and grief about her son's mental illness, and taught her how to "change her thinking".

S. now comes in smiling, notes some unusual continued symptoms, but no longer has chronic abdominal disabling pain.
Dr. Cole




“Control My Stress is so amazing. I want to thank you, again, for such a valuable resource.”
Tony.


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