RE: Stress and How to Take Control of It
I found this article very interesting. For my thesis for my M.S. in Biology I studied stress in turtles, and while I mostly focused on stress in reptiles I also studied it in humans.
There is a diel cycle of cortisol in diurnal mammals which peaks in the morning, hypothetically to give us energy to kickstart our day.
ACTH is adrenocorticotropic hormone, the precursor hormone to cortisol which stimulates its production. This diel pattern is interesting because you see the opposite pattern in nocturnal animals, such as rodents.
This graph depicts baseline cortisol, of course. You were mostly talking about increased levels of cortisol. Researchers have found all sorts of interesting things about cortisol levels in utero. One of the more interesting things still being studied is decreased brain plasticity of fetuses exposed to stress (with a lot of nuances, of course!) This can lead to depression, etc.
One of the main things to stress when discussing stress (pun intended!) is that it's still not really clear if it's a good or bad thing, or rather how much is good or bad and what a "good" baseline cortisol level is. I've been thinking about writing a post about stress for a while, and may start with that topic!
Thanks for the excellent, rigorous post!
Yes in fact in humans there is a maximal peak on waking followed by a smaller peak around lunch and another large peak towards evening.
Yes and one of the theories is that pathology occurs when the "variability" and fluctuations disappear due to consistently raised levels.
Yes for sure. I would suggest it is one of those things where you need a certain amount of it to function in a normal and healthy manner. It spurs us to action. Cortisol is also not bad (although the press likes to suggest it is) - without it we would die very quickly. Like many things it is a matter of balance.
You should!
Thanks for a fantastic response:)