How to Raise Cortisol Levels Naturally

Cortisol is a hot topic in health right now, and for good reason.

This under-appreciated survival hormone plays an outsized role in the way you handle your everyday life, and when the system in charge of cortisol is overactive, underactive, or just plain dysfunctional, it can lead to all kinds of symptoms, including:

unexplained weight gain
chronic fatigue
brain fog
messed up sleep
mood disorders like anxiety and depression
blood pressure problems

...and that's just to name a few!

The problem I’ve noticed is that much of the conversation is hyper-fixated on elevated cortisol, blaming high levels for everything from face puffiness to joint pain to hair loss.

But LOW cortisol levels can result in these same symptoms - the Venn diagram of high cortisol symptoms vs low cortisol symptoms has a remarkably large area of overlap.

And this matters a LOT! Because if you’re basing your treatment strategy on symptoms alone, you could wind up accidentally driving down cortisol levels that are already low - and that will just make things worse.

I see this happen a lot, so in this article we’ll be talking through how to accurately assess your cortisol levels and, if you find they’re too low, how to raise them using healthy, functional medicine strategies.

But first - what is cortisol? And what does it do in the body?

Cortisol is a hormone that is produced by the adrenal gland in response to stress. That stress could be mental or emotional in nature - for example, childhood abuse, traumatic experiences, a demanding workload, relationship difficulties, or even just the everyday circumstances of life in a society dominated by invasive technology, a 24-hour news cycle, and not enough time spent outdoors and in community.

But stressors can also be physical - for example, not getting enough sleep, eating junk food and lots of sweets, catching a nasty virus, or having a chronic condition like IBS, hypothyroid, arthritis, and many others.

Stress isn’t just in your head, it’s a very real, very biochemical process that involves a super complex cascade of neurologic signals and chemical messengers, including cortisol.

Three of the biggest reasons for cortisol imbalances are physical - inflammation, immune dysfunction, and insulin dysregulation - more on these later.

Our primitive ancestors had different stressors than we do - like being chased by a saber-toothed tiger or running out of food in the winter - but their stress-response systems served the same function as ours do today: to help us survive.

When we face a stressor, the brain signals to the adrenal glands to release cortisol via the HPA-Axis. And cortisol interacts with the cells of different body systems to prepare us to fight or flee from danger.

Your HPA-Axis is trying to keep you safe - and so is cortisol.

It gives you quick energy to burn, improves your focus, and even sharpens your eyesight - so your ancestors could run from that saber-toothed tiger and you can ace that exam, catch your toddler before they fall on their head, or slam on the brakes when another car swerves in front of you.

The HPA-Axis really shines in situations of short-term or acute stress. But too much of a good thing can become a problem. If stress becomes chronic, or we’re faced with stressor after stressor on a daily basis, cortisol can stay high for too long.

This turns the helpful survival function of cortisol against us, resulting in weight gain, type 2 diabetes, chronic fatigue, gastrointestinal issues, elevated blood pressure, and problems with the immune system. It also lowers your threshold for stress - meaning that it takes less stress to trigger your fight or flight response.

It can feel like every little thing overwhelms you, or things that never used to bother you throw you for a loop, irritate you, or make you anxious.

Yes, high cortisol is a problem, but we can’t stop the conversation there - because eventually, too high cortisol turns into too low cortisol. When your HPA-Axis is cranking out lots and lots of cortisol for a long time, your cells adapt to those high levels by decreasing their sensitivity to cortisol.

Here’s an analogy I find helpful: my sister has 4 delightful, energetic children, and those children make a lot of noise. Someone is always shouting or crying or laughing or singing at the top of her lungs.

And when I visit my sister’s house, I am very sensitive and responsive to all of those sounds - I’m easily distracted by a yell or I might startle at a crash from the next room.

My sister, on the other hand, has adapted to all of this noise, and has much less reactivity to it - it’s not that she doesn’t hear her children, and she’s not ignoring them - she’s just responding more appropriately to the constant noise because it’s her typical environment.

It wouldn’t be helpful for her to react with alarm or loss of focus every time someone in her house bursts into song - she’d never get anything done.

Same goes for your cells when they’re over-exposed to cortisol.

They turn down their responsivity, little by little over time, until the brain turns down it’s signal to release more cortisol and levels drop off and flatten out.

In more practical terms, we refer to this as burnout, and it can result in symptoms like chronic fatigue, weight gain, gastrointestinal issues like constipation and bloating, hormone imbalances, hair loss and thinning, brain fog, depression and even orthostatic hypotension which can make you lightheaded or feel dizzy. You probably recognize these symptoms - because they can also be signs of high cortisol.

That’s why I highly recommend getting accurate, complete lab testing of your cortisol levels before diving into a treatment strategy - because otherwise it can be difficult to tell the difference between high and low.

The best assessment utilizes urine measures of cortisol, cortisone, and it’s metabolites to tell how much cortisol your body is producing overall AND how much of it is remaining active in circulation. It also tells you if your cortisol levels are rising and falling the way they should throughout the day and night - this is a big deal especially if you have sleep problems, as it can help sort out your circadian rhythm.

A blood test alone is not adequate to assess your cortisol and HPA axis function - yes, it will identify adrenal diseases like Addison’s and Cushing's, but the vast majority of cortisol issues are going to fall within the normal range on a blood test.

If you’re in the United States, you can order my favorite own at-home test kit for assessing cortisol through my website - and I’ll even help you interpret the results! Check it out HERE.

So, once you’ve confirmed that your cortisol levels are lower than optimal, here are a few strategies you can use to support your HPA-Axis, improve cortisol sensitivity, and boost your cortisol to relieve those burnout symptoms.

First, it’s important to remember that cortisol is made from cholesterol. So, if you’re taking a medication that drives your cholesterol way down, or you eat a very low-fat diet, you could interfere with your body’s ability to make cortisol - and other crucial hormones, for that matter.

Contrary to the popular opinions of the 80’s and 90’s, eating fat doesn’t make you fat - as long as the fats you’re consuming are anti-inflammatory! Some good sources of healthy fats are avocados, salmon, olive oil, eggs, and nuts.

Seeking out and addressing sources of unresolved stress in the body and the mind is also a critical component of reviving a burned-out HPA-axis.

This could mean improving your insulin sensitivity by cutting out sweeteners and low-quality carbohydrates from your diet and supplementing with Berberine. It could mean calming a dysfunctional immune system by shoring up your gut permeability and restoring the balance of your microbiome.

It could mean getting to the root of chronic inflammation caused by overwhelmed detoxification pathways, micronutrient insufficiencies, genetic inefficiencies, or a host of other underlying causes.

It could also mean stepping back from a toxic relationship, committing to therapy, enforcing healthier boundaries at work, and taking up a mindfulness practice.

Meaningful, results-oriented stress management isn’t as easy as drawing yourself a bubble bath and pouring a big glass of wine - it’s usually hard work, and requires both intentionality and consistency.

Stress is an unavoidable part of life, which is why cultivating a balanced, resilience stress-response system is literally the best thing you can do for your health and longevity.

But working on the root cause of your stress takes energy - and it’s tough to do when you’re already feeling so tired and foggy. That’s why I often suggest utilizing some pro-cortisol nutraceuticals to help boost energy while you’re getting to the underlying issues.

And just to make it easier for you, I’ve typed up some additional tips and tricks about my 3 favorite cortisol-supportive nutraceuticals into a handy pdf for you - you’re welcome to download it for free by clicking the image below.

First on the list are adrenal glandular extracts, which help rebuild and refuel the adrenal cells that are needed to product cortisol.

These extracts contain the micronutrients needed for cortisol production in the exact form and proportion that the adrenals use - because they come directly from adrenal tissue.

And even though the signal to make cortisol comes from the brain, if your adrenal glands don’t have what they need to produce cortisol, you can still end up low.

Because these glandular extracts come from the tissues of animals, clean, non-toxic sourcing is really, really important, as is the way these extracts are processed, because high temperatures can denature the critical components of the extract.

If you need help choosing wisely, you’ll find my quality-vetted product suggestions for glandulars and the other cortisol-boosters in the handout. And as a bonus, you’ll also find a link to purchase them at a nice discount!

Second is licorice root extract, specifically glycyrrhizic acid, which acts by helping your body re-activate inactive cortisone into free cortisol, supporting higher circulating, activated cortisol levels and boosting energy.

Be careful not to get this confused with deglycyrrhizinated licorice, or DGL, which is used to support and soothe the lining of the stomach and gi tract.

Also, because licorice extract stimulates cortisol, it can raise your blood pressure - my clients with POTS actually find it really helpful for this reason - so it’s important to monitor blood pressure while taking licorice root extract.

And if you already have high blood pressure, or are taking medication to treat high blood pressure, licorice root is not for you.

Third on the list is Di-indolyl-methane, or DIM.

You may recognize DIM as a helpful compound when it comes to detoxifying estrogen, but it also helps preserve and promote cortisol. In a pilot study, just 108mg of DIM taken once a day for 30 days significantly increased urinary free cortisol in postmenopausal women.

Interestingly, the women in this study had experienced early-stage breast cancer and researchers found that DIM also increased 2-OH-E1, the most protective and least risky estrogen metabolite, so it was a win-win!

There are many, many other Functional Medicine strategies you can use to recover from burnout and help your body make appropriate levels of cortisol whether your levels are too high or too low, so if you’d like a more in-depth resource I’d encourage you to check out my Stress Smarter Mini-Workshop.

And if you need more clarity and data around your symptoms, I’d encourage you to consider comprehensive adrenal testing - you’ll find more info about both of these resources in below.