I want to talk about a hormone that I think is quietly too high in a very large proportion of modern women. Not because we're doing anything dramatically wrong. But because of the world we live in — the pace of it, the relentlessness of it, the particular combination of chronic demands and insufficient genuine rest that characterises so many lives right now.

Cortisol.

It gets talked about mostly in the context of stress, as though it's simply the 'stress hormone' and the solution is to be less stressed — advice that is technically accurate and practically useless. The reality is more nuanced and more interesting, and understanding it changes what you actually do about it.

What Cortisol Is Actually For

Cortisol is a glucocorticoid hormone produced by the adrenal glands — the small glands that sit atop the kidneys. It is an essential hormone with multiple critical functions: it regulates blood sugar levels, modulates immune function, reduces inflammation, supports memory formation, and — most famously — orchestrates the fight-or-flight response in response to perceived threat.

In its acute, appropriate context, the cortisol response is lifesaving and adaptive. Cortisol mobilises glucose for immediate energy, increases heart rate and blood flow to muscles, sharpens focus, and suppresses non-essential functions (like digestion and immune activity) to concentrate the body's resources on the immediate threat. Once the threat passes, cortisol should drop back to baseline.

The problem is that in modern life, the threat never fully passes. The inbox is never empty. The deadline is always approaching. The news cycle provides an endless supply of ambient anxiety. The result is cortisol that stays elevated — not dramatically, but persistently — in a low-grade chronic state that the body was never designed to sustain.

High Cortisol — What It Actually Feels Like

The symptoms of chronically elevated cortisol are often attributed to other causes — stress, getting older, being tired. But recognising the pattern is the first step:

• • Wired but tired — that familiar state of feeling exhausted but unable to switch off, lying in bed with thoughts that won't quiet

• • Waking at 2 or 3am — cortisol has a natural circadian rhythm, rising in the early morning to mobilise energy for the day. When this rhythm is dysregulated, the morning cortisol spike can arrive too early, waking you in the small hours

• • Intense cravings for sugar and salty foods — cortisol directly drives these cravings through its effects on glucose regulation and reward circuitry

• • Belly fat that doesn't respond to diet or exercise — cortisol promotes fat storage specifically in the visceral (abdominal) area, and this fat is metabolically active and inflammatory

• • Anxiety without a clear reason — elevated cortisol directly increases the activity of the amygdala (the brain's threat-detection centre) while reducing activity in the prefrontal cortex (rational regulation)

• • Frequent illness or slow recovery — chronic cortisol suppresses immune function, reducing the body's ability to mount effective responses

• • Low libido — cortisol directly suppresses sex hormone production through the pregnenolone steal mechanism

What Actually Helps — The Evidence

Sleep — The Foundation

During deep sleep — specifically slow-wave sleep — the body produces the cytokines that repair tissue, regulate immune function, and reset the HPA axis for the following day. Cortisol has its lowest levels of the 24-hour cycle during the first half of sleep, and this low-cortisol window is when the most significant repair and restoration occurs. Protecting sleep is, in many ways, the highest-leverage cortisol intervention available.

Daily Movement — Consistent and Moderate

Moderate, consistent movement — particularly walking — is one of the most robustly evidence-backed cortisol-lowering interventions that exists. A meta-analysis in Psychoneuroendocrinology found that regular moderate exercise significantly reduces basal cortisol levels over time. Crucially, the effect is disrupted by high-intensity exercise without adequate recovery — intense daily training can actually elevate cortisol. Consistency and moderation are the key variables.

Time in Nature

A growing body of research — including the Japanese practice of Shinrin-yoku (forest bathing) — demonstrates that time in natural environments produces measurable reductions in cortisol, heart rate, and blood pressure, and increases in natural killer cell activity. Even 20 minutes in a park or garden produces physiologically meaningful changes. This is not metaphor — it's documented, reproducible physiology.

Blood Sugar Stability

Every blood sugar crash triggers a cortisol spike. Cortisol's role in glucose regulation means that hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar) is a direct cortisol stimulus. Eating enough protein at breakfast — anchoring blood sugar from the first meal — is one of the simplest and most reliable ways to reduce the number of cortisol spikes across the day.

The Adaptogenic Plants

Ashwagandha (in Healing Turmeric) — the most extensively researched adaptogen for cortisol reduction. Multiple randomised controlled trials have shown significant reductions in serum cortisol levels (in the range of 14–30%) with daily ashwagandha supplementation over 60 days.

Reishi mushroom (in Happy Cacao) — supports the parasympathetic nervous system ('rest and digest') and helps modulate the HPA axis response to stress.

Vanilla Protein — clean plant protein in the morning anchors blood sugar, reducing the cortisol spikes that accompany hypoglycaemia throughout the day.

→ Related: The Day I Realized My Healthy Habits Had Become a Cage

→ Related: The Thing Nobody Taught Me About My Hormones

Eat Plants. Feel Alive.

Xo Kristel & Michael

*These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.