Cortisol Decoded: The Myths & Truths About A Hormone Crucial To Your Health & Survival.

Let's face it: cortisol gets a bad rap these days.

"I have high cortisol",

"I have low cortisol",

"My cortisol it out-of-whack".

You've no doubt heard this all before or said it yourself. So in an effort to decode cortisol once and for all, I decided to feature a wildly popular previous guest of mine - the guy who personally helps me and my wife manage our own hormones and has helped countless listeners of mine with their own anti-aging and natural hormone management protocols.

His name is Dr. Craig Koniver.

Craig was a guest on the episode "How To Get Your Own Vitamin and NAD IVs, The Truth About Umbilical Stem Cells, Peptide Injections & Much More With Dr. Craig Koniver."

He has been practicing Performance Medicine for over 18 years and is the founder of Koniver Wellness in Charleston, South Carolina.

Not satisfied with the disease-based model of modern medicine, Dr. Koniver seeks to help his clients optimize their health and performance through time-tested, nutrient and science-driven protocols that are the cutting-edge of medicine. He is the founder and creator of the patent-pending FastVitaminIV® as well as re-engineering the NAD+ IV protocols, now called Brain Refuel™.

Dr. Koniver’s client list includes Navy SEALs, NFL players, PGA golfers, Hall of Fame NHL players, world-class professional athletes, Fortune 100 Executives, well-known celebrities and TV personalities.

In addition, Dr. Koniver offers a comprehensive training program of the Koniver Wellness Model to physician practices across the country.

In this episode, you'll discover: -Cortisol 101...5:32

• Hormone secreted by adrenal glands
• Not enough attention is given to cortisol in the medical field
• "Stress hormone" -- fight or flight response
  • It is secreted in response to any real or perceived threat or stressor
• We're hard-wired to have high cortisol in the am, and low in the evening
• Rhythm vs. volume is key
• Acute hormone; ex. being chased by a lion
  • Turns off pain recognition
  • Anti-inflammatory
• Catabolic hormone -- wear and tear
• We've changed cortisol from an acute to a chronic hormone
• Key takeaway: try to find meaningful ways to live w/ the sun's rhythm
• Lowest levels are at around 10 pm; allows anabolic hormones testosterone, growth hormone, and melatonin to elevate
• Most critical hours of sleep are 10 pm - 2 am
  • It takes melatonin 12 hours to reset
  • Later (or no) sun exposure means melatonin levels peak later, leading to loss of sleep quality

-How cortisol is secreted...13:37

• Perceived stressors (most often subtle in modern times)
• Primitive part of the mid-brain, above the spinal cord
• Reticular Activating System (RAS) triggers release of cortisol
• Signal sent to locus ceruleus (one of the most connected parts of the brain)
• Signal sent to hypothalamus...to pituitary, then to adrenal glands
• Norepinephrine and cortisol are "partners in crime"; released along w/ cortisol
• Pituitary responsible for all signaling molecules
• We stop releasing cortisol, and have surplus of norepinephrine
• We release an average of 35 g of cortisol per day
• Irregular sleep patterns (night shift workers) lead to chronic health problems later in life

-How cortisol imbalances affect our lives...20:12

• Our brains cannot differentiate between perceived and real stressors
• Visualizing a success (or a failure) will trigger cortisol secretion
• "I can't wait to wear that out fit" is much more effective than "I'm way too big..."
• RAS helps distinguish background and foreground in our world
• Buy a red truck, all of a sudden you see a bunch of red trucks on the roads
• What you put your attention is what you're going to get in your life

-How cortisol gets disrupted...25:40

• Humans are "super-adaptors"; we can tolerate stressors over a long period of time
• Modern tech can disconnect us from the sun, circadian rhythm and cortisol flow
  • We release cortisol at night when we look at TV, phones, etc. at night
• We tolerate stressors for years and decades, but it eventually catches up with us
  • It will eventually blunt the anabolic hormones (testosterone, growth hormone, melatonin)
• We lose sleep quality, take longer to heal injuries, workouts are more challenging, etc.
• Gold standard to test adrenal function: salivary cortisol test
  • Salivary is far less stressful than a blood draw (hence more accurate results)
• We re