Cortisol, Stress, and Midlife: The HPA Axis Explained

00:00 Identify stress sources; triggers fight-or-flight response.

03:28 Hypothalamus controls hormone release via chain.

08:51 Meditation helps reduce brain fog, irritability.

11:54 Use social networks and exercise with friends.

13:27 Self-awareness and addressing fear alleviates anxiety.

17:19 Double-check labels for clean daily use items.

20:08 Cortisol issues from stress, diet, and drugs.

24:16 Surprised by phone use in social situations.

28:18 Struggle managing thoughts, not actions or lifestyle.

30:03 Practices ensuring safety boost adrenal health.


In this episode, you'll hear: 

• Recognize Stress Triggers: From fear, caffeine, and poor nutrition to emotional stress, understanding what spikes cortisol can help you avoid them.
• Mindful Living: Be intentional about the ingredients in your diet and products used at home. Apps like Think Dirty can assist in identifying hidden toxins that may affect your health.
• Balance and Well-being: Implement simple changes like consistent sleep schedules, reduced news exposure, and a shift toward natural foods to support adrenal health and enhance overall wellness.

Stay Connected!
Amelia

• Website: https://www.thehelpfulplate.com/
• IG: https://www.instagram.com/thehelpfulplate/

Cam

• Website: https://www.camoyler.com/
• IG: https://www.instagram.com/heymomma_cam/
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@heymomma_cam

Midlife Mommas IG: https://www.instagram.com/midlife.mommas/

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Transcript

0:00

Well regulated cortisol helps you live a longer, happier life. And what in the heck is HPA? Hi. I'm Cam, Holistic health coach, mom to 2 humans and 4 pets. Hi. I'm AmeliaLaboratory scientist by day and food scientist by night. Welcome to our show. Join us as we share our holistic approach to life after 50. You can expect real life stories with a dash of humor and a ton of truth. If it happens in midlife, we're going to talk about it. So hit that subscribe button and follow along. We're the Midlife Mommas. Yeah, Cam. This is an interesting topic. Cortisol, HPA, stress hormones, sex hormones. We're gonna get in a little into a little bit of all of that today. Yeah. And it's amazing that it sounds crazy and sciency, but there are little things that you can do to improve your longevity and your midlife experience. And that's what we're all about on this podcast. Right. Exactly. So let's just define for a second what the HPA axis is. If you're plugged into the health and wellness space like we are this is kind of a buzzword. So the HPA stands for hypothalamus, pituitary, and adrenal cortex and these are glands in your body and we're gonna talk about how this axis, how one speaks to the other and we produce different hormones and some of this is, actually all of it I guess is related to stress and how we manage it so that we can live longer and happier lives. And then when it comes down to it in midlife, the 2 hormones you can control are cortisol and insulin. So insulin would be like your food. So cortisol is a big dial mover. So today, hopefully, you'll walk away with some actionable steps and maybe, you know, take a double look at your life and say, where is the stress in my life? What am I doing that's causing too much stress on my body? And what can I do to change that? And then you're gonna improve your health. Right? Absolutely. I think we can all agree that we have some amount of stress in our life and it's worth looking at mid in your midlife self to see where it's coming from and why you feel stressed. Stress is involves the sympathetic nervous system. So if we, read an email or get a text that's upsetting, it kind of triggers the sympathetic nervous system, which is our fight or flight response and you may experience an increased heart rate, you may suddenly feel a little sweaty, all of the other thoughts are crowded out as you concentrate on what this perceived threat is. This causes the release of epinephrine and norepinephrine and then these fight or flight chemicals in our body, these hormones trigger this HPA axis or your hypothalamus, your pituitary, and your adrenal cortex. Yeah. So basically, your heart rate and your breathing, tell your brain what the heck's going on in your body, and then your brain talks to your adrenal glands. And then as Amelia said, all these hormones are released from your adrenal glands. And your adrenals have to make a choice. They're either gonna redo release, sex hormones, which, you know, we need in midlife, like our DHEA, which turns into testosterone, or the estrogen. We don't make that as much in our ovaries and menopause, so we need that. And it's choosing to make the stress hormones instead. Right and it's choosing this because the brain tells it so right. So, the H part of the HPA is the hypothalamus. It's the boss, the CEO, it's a small structure just above the brainstem that controls the release of hormones from the pituitary gland. I'm not actually going to go through all of the hormones even though we have that in the note but just suffice it to say this is kind of like a chain reaction, we start with this business in the brain, which then relates to something else which relates to something else. So in the pituitary gland, we call this the executive assistance. This sits just below the hypothalamus and then the hypothal I mean, excuse me, then the pituitary sends chemical message to the adrenals. Yeah. And the adrenals are in charge of regulating cortisol. And your adrenal glands sit right above your kidneys in your lower back. And, sometimes if you're feeling, like, back pain, it actually may be adrenal stuff versus, like, a back injury, by the way. That is so interesting, Cam. And I would suspect that because you're such an intuitive person that I would suspect that would happen to you. I don't know that I've noticed it, but, yeah, you're super in tune with your body. It was a week or 2 ago, and we're still under remodeling the kitchen. And I was like, why is my lower back hurting? It was not it was not, exercise. It was stress. So interesting. That's the I mean, I just think that's great that we can be that in tune with ourselves to know, to know that. Cortisol decides if the hormone will get with if the hormone will get absorbed into the cell and how much cortisol is in the bloodstream at that particular moment. So it has a lot of functions. Yeah. And the thing about cortisol, it gets a bad rap. When we're running on cortisol, it it is destructive to our body on the inside. It wastes away our muscles. It causes inflammation. The right amount of cortisol is actually anti inflammatory and is actually the longevity hormone. So if we think back to our previous cave lady days, when there was a danger, cortisol was released because we had a danger. We went into fight and flight, famine, feast, you know, that mentality, everything else shuts down. Your eyesight, your, pupils dilate, your heart rate accelerates, your breathing accelerates, your digestion shuts off, so you can respond to the danger. Also, our body releases, blood sugar. So we have sugar in our system to react, actually physically run or whatever whatever we need. When we're running on all that all day, you can see that that's not how we were designed. Right. Exactly. It just speaks to the level of what we perceive to be the requirement for high functioning and stress. And a lot of that is self induced, at least it is in my case. So knowing I mean, I'm a sciency person anyway. So kind of understanding how this works and why why things are the way they are helps me down regulate some. Absolutely. Our perception and the meaning we give to stuff in our life, that part we're in control of. So, you know, how you respond to the email or how you respond to the traffic jam or whatever, That that part you can't control, and it's actually a big dial mover. Yeah. It's super important to realize that because for years, I would get the email, the text message, be in the traffic jam. And instead of consciously trying to down regulate, I just allowed that stress to build. And I would become, if not bitter, certainly resentful of the situation or worried or anxious. And I've had to realize, I think I always knew that I was in control of those thoughts, but really understanding how those thoughts can lead to some real physical issues has helped me work much harder at governing my own thoughts. I completely agree. And taking your thoughts to the court is a very powerful tool and it does take practice. But, you know, it goes back to the 4 agreements. Being impeccable with your word, but also, like, is this really true? And don't take things personally, which is my greatest struggle still today. And, you know, like, connecting the dots. Like, if this happens and then a happens and then b happens and then you connect the dots and make up all these stories between a and b, it's just causing undue internal stress on your body. It's just really not necessary. I totally agree, Cam. And, even though I'm 10 months into my job, I'm still struggling. I've shared a little bit of this before we hit record. And I'm working harder and harder to do these things. And I know that I'm doing the best I can with the resources that I have and just trusting that I am impeccable with my word, and I'm doing my best every day. And as we discussed in our Four Agreements episode, that may look different on some days than others, but it's really helping. I think the amount of time I spend in an anxious state is much less, but I still have to make a conscious effort to down regulate. Yeah. It's a it's a daily thing, and I have triggers. Like, I'll get rashes on my face, My brain fog fogging my brain frog my brain fog increases, and I feel irritable. And those are, like, my signs. Those are, like, okay. Chill chill out. You're doing too much, or you have too much on your mind. You know, those are my things. Do you have any physical things like that that show up on your body? I definitely agree with the brain fog and irritability. Those are probably the 2 that are the most prevalent and I have found that meditation really helps that. And I've also found almost, transporting myself back in time a little bit to a happy place. I can instantly when I visualize like a family vacation or trip or just something super positive, I can actually feel my heart rate coming down to a more normal level so I do use that. The other thing is that those are very similar triggers of what I recognize a lack of sleep, so it's kind of a vicious cycle for me is, the increase in cortisol and anxiety or worry or whatever you wanna call it leads to poor sleep and that leads also to some of these yucky symptoms. Yeah. And then and then you're looking for cheap and easy energy, so then you're grabbing the chips or the crackers and then we have an insulin situation. So it's like, yeah, it's like, it what's what's comes first, the chicken or the egg? Right. It is, you know, we say it every single week. It's all intertwined, and it all matters. Mhmm. Yeah. And just to remind everyone that so cortisol triggers, physical changes in your body. It increases your heart rate. It, increases a blood glucose spike, and it increases your blood pressure. So those things are happening, and we just don't wanna be running on cortisol all day. Not at all. Right. Absolutely. It it and I think it's so much accepted now, Cam, that people don't realize how bad their health can take a a turn if we don't make an attempt to regulate. Let's talk a little bit about some things that can happen, or just kind of things to consider that might cause this HPA axis to get out of whack and and the cortisol spikes? Yeah. So our body loves to be consistent. Our adrenals like to go to bed and wake up around the same time, like within an hour, even when you're on vacation. So, you know, that's one thing that causes less stress on your body. Just being consistent with your day when you wake up and when you go to bed. Do you find that Oh, yeah. A 100%. Mhmm. I'm like a 10 to 6 AM. 10 PM, 9 to 10, 6 AM. How about you? About about the same. I go to bed usually around 9 and so and now that the days are getting shorter, that's easy. And some mornings, I wake up at, you know, between

5 and 5: 11:18

30, and some mornings, it's closer to 6. But I'm kinda the same way as far as my my, circadian rhythm. Yeah. And let's talk about social. So, you know, we just went through all these lockdowns in the past few years, social ice isolation, you know, relationship stress. Like, all of the relationship stuff can cause stress in your body. So really dialing in and investing in people that you love to be around, texting them, calling them, making coffee dates or walk dates or whatever it is, but really investing in your friendships during this time can take stress away from your body. Yeah, I love that. That's such a great tactic and I know sometimes we feel busy, but I think it's so important to use your social network to help. And, while we're on the subject, you know, one of the things I like to do is exercise with my husband or walk with a friend. So too much cardio can cause, the cortisol spike and I think, blood sugar spike as well, Cam. And we talked about this so many times, especially in midlife. If you come from an extreme background like we do, it's hard to cut out some of this stuff. I still have friends that, lift weights and and do another activity maybe in a day. I don't typically do that, but also under exercising. So we we need the right amount of physical exertion and activity, but not too much. Exactly. Because that's how we grow muscles is we actually have to stress them. But we have to stress them the right amount because it happens to me still. It happened 2 weeks ago. We my husband and I did a hard workout, and I was off I was out for about 2 days. Like, super sore, and I didn't even really wanna walk around and take the dogs on a walk. So too much or too little, it's like Goldilocks. We need to stress our muscles. We need to stress our heart. That's how we get, better at cardiovascular health. But there's there's this tipping point in midlife and our bandwidth for stress is greatly diminished because of estrogen. And, yeah. So you just have to you just have to be ex an experiment of 1. And sometimes you go too far and you just learn learn, give yourself grace and move on and just say that's not for me anymore. Absolutely. Self self awareness is just invaluable. This next one on the list is one that I kind of relate to, it's fear and, you know, fear can be anxiety, it can be worrying about, like, how your kids are doing, if they've just graduated college or high school or starting a new endeavor, It could be a new job like I've experienced. It could be your aging parents and OPS listeners, we have episodes on all of these subjects. So take a look at those. But, you know, at at midlife, you would think that we're all done with fear, you know, we've lived however many years successfully, but that's not always true. And for me, one of the hallmarks of menopause was an increased anxiety and I have found, you know, I have to make a conscious effort to combat that. So, yeah, I I think that social interactions do help this, but taking your thoughts to court is probably my number one advice here. Yeah. And just say, you know, ask yourself is this true or am I making stuff up? Because chances are you're making stuff up. Yeah. Absolutely. So, well, tell us about some things that we some physical things, Cam, like with with food that might be a cortisol spiker. Yeah. Now this isn't gonna be a surprise. Grains like white flour and sugar, all of those things stress, your body out by spiking your glucose. And then after the spike, you have a crash, and then you're hungry again. And so this repeated cycle of up and down, up and down with our blood glucose causes inflammation on our body. And, honestly, inflammation is the root of it all, and we're causing so much stress in our body. So, you know, whole real foods most of the time, food order matters. We've talked about that. Eating your, your fat proteins and your fiber before you indulge in your sweet potato or more carby carbs matters. It's so simple. So simple. Just change the order and let your digestion work on things that don't have or have less of a glucose response than something that has a higher. Yeah, absolutely. And this is hard for a lot of people because our culture is so centered around these convenience foods. Watching regular television anymore has become a test of endurance for me because so many of these commercials are about it's either a commercial about a drug or it's a commercial about food that I think is not healthy. I mean, it's a treat maybe occasionally, but that's a whole nother episode right there. There's other things that can cause cortisol spikes. I've mentioned with related to the fear aspect, lack of sleep, you may have seasonal allergies, caffeine, toxins and emotional stress and for me a lot of that is intertwined, one kind of leads to the other, lack of sleep leads to more caffeine and then caffeine keeps you awake, blah, blah, blah. So there's a lot of things that that are somewhat intuitive, but you kinda have to really think about how one thing may cascade into another. Yeah. I totally agree. I'm into the toxin thing lately. I've been really trying to clean up. I mentioned on another episode, the oils. If I'm buying anything packaged, I really am reading the ingredients and avoiding canola oil and sunflower oil whenever possible. And just knowing that when you eat out, you're going to be exposed to probably soybean oil and all kinds of stuff. Just know just know that ahead of time. And I found a new app that I really like. I like Think Dirty. Think Dirty is great for, like, your beauty products. But there's another app called yucca, and it's y u k a, and you can scan barcodes. And it kind of just likes, you know, scans the ingredients and lets you know if there's a danger in toxins. If we're using a product every single day, you know, on your skin or on your hair, you're absorbing that and that's messing up your hormones. And that's stress on your body. So it's been my thing lately. I love that and you've taught me that. I'm I'm much better about looking. I actually like grain free crackers and so I actually bought some that looked really interesting and once I got them home, unfortunately, it had one of the bad seed oils in there. I didn't throw the whole box out, but it just kind of reinforced that I need to look at the package obviously before I make the purchase, but I agree with you. I think we can, you know, when we go out, we accept that there's gonna be things that we wouldn't normally consume that might not be the best for us. So for me personally, trying to the things I have in my house, it's that much more important, that those daily use items be pretty clean. Yeah. If it's once in a while, it's once in a while, and you know that's gonna happen. This happened over the weekend. Dan brought home a piece of, like, a nice piece of cheese from, like, the deli section of the Kroger or and I read the label, and I forget what it was. It was something spicy. God, there was canola oil in your cheese. And I was like, what the heck? Oh, it had hatch chilies. So they must have cooked the hatch chilies or whatever they did with canola oil. And I was like, that's ridiculous. You just never know. It's how it's hiding everywhere. It is hiding. I mean, sugar's hiding everywhere too. So it's you have to be diligent. This is not a cake walk. No pun intended there, but it is work. Yeah. And I it's not all or nothing. It's not about perfection. It's just saying what can I control? Is there another product that I could use or eat that doesn't have this stuff in it? And and over time, these little tiny changes make a huge difference. They really do. For sure. So there's a few other things that aren't quite, what we put in our body. Tell us a few other things that we can cover real quick that will give us a cortisol spike. Well, I I noticed this when I was in my forties. Wound healing was really slow. So in my forties, that was when I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. And I would say about halfway through my CrossFit career, weird things started pop popping up. And I was my recovery was slow, And it took me I had weird wounds, like I had tore my bicep tendon, which is not not a good thing. I had a weird, injury on my pinky finger. I had to have surgery in my fingernail removed. Just weird stuff was happening. And this was before I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism and that came right after all these weird injuries. If your body is, like, taking a long time to recover or you are experiencing strange things, that is definitely a sign your body's under stress and it's a chance to look at life and say, are you over exercising? Chances I I definitely was over exercising during this time. So, you know, just just paying attention to what's really going on and and not just having blinders on thinking, oh, I'm exercising. This has to be healthy because that's what I did. It was not the case. That's a really good one, Cam, because I think that might be something people wouldn't recognize as, a cortisol issue. And so they might think it's something else and maybe compound the problem by adding a bunch of stuff that might not be necessary. So I really appreciate you bringing that up. Some other things that are kind of intuitive that might cause cortisol spikes or will, you know anytime any kind of emotional or emotional stress, negative thoughts and attitudes, and even financial pressures. Hopefully we're at a place where we don't we're mid career as it were but you know the economy is in a little bit of a state of flux and at least for me I always worry about my kids so you know financial pressures can be that some of the others are actually pretty intuitive, based on a lot of our other episodes these can be problematic for a lot of reasons which is smoking, consuming nutrient poor food and then some prescription and non prescription drugs can also cause cortisol spikes. Well, sure. And so they they're going to influence probably negatively your gut health, and so when your gut balance gets out of whack then that is definitely a form of stress on your body. Absolutely. Basically, what we're trying to say is there are so many things we think and we do and we eat that causes stress on our body, and we're just trying to mitigate that. We're trying to say, where's the middle ground? You know, as far as exercise, you don't want too much, you don't want too little. And, you know, really take a look at what you're eating and what you're putting on your on your skin and your hair, and just say, where can I what can I change? How can I take stress away from my body? And your body will respond in a positive way? It will. Absolutely. Cortisol, the stress hormone, if you're always on, you'll age faster, you'll burn out quicker. So these are just kind of known things. We've just got to figure out how to turn some of this off. Yeah. And you burn through your muscles, and you burn through your bones, you get sick more often, your immunity goes down. Yeah. You're slow to heal. I already shared my story there. So, you know, all of those are signs that you're running on cortisol and that something needs to change. And the easiest way is to change the lowest hanging fruit. The thing that's most obvious. The little thing that you can change for sure. That that's so true and it makes it a lot more easy to tackle when you think about what is this one tiny thing because repeated activation of this HPA axis I e cortisol spikes or are running on Cortisol frequently. There's lots of pretty pretty serious health, things that could happen. These include type 2 diabetes because remember we talked earlier about the relationship between Cortisol and blood glucose and insulin, obesity, which again is tied into that, cardiovascular disease, and mood disorder. So there's just a lot of things that can cascade and come down pretty hard. We're already at risk just by age for some of these things. So we we feel like that we can do the small things to improve the big things. Yeah. Absolutely. Some of these that you just mentioned are definitely increased as you go through menopause again because you're changing hormones, in particular estrogen and progesterone. Yeah. So you are more at risk. So these little changes do absolutely matter and improve will improve your midlife experience. Mhmm. A 100%. So, Cam, tell us, like, how we can start. Like, we said the small things, but give us a little picture of what that might look like. You know, I would think everyone should make a list of, like, 5 things. Five things that they love that make them feel not stressed. Like, start there. You know, is it go sit on your deck and drink your coffee and watch the sunrise or whatever it is. But, you know, whenever possible, turn off your mind. I remember, I'm not a good meditator. It's on my list. Someday, maybe I'll figure it out. But I think it was Wayne Dyer. He would talk about the space between your thoughts. And I always think if I have room between my thoughts, I'm doing something right and turning off that silly brain of mine. That is really good. I have been in social situations recently with 3 to 8 people at a time, and I was really surprised at how quickly once the conversation became, was lagging a little bit like there wasn't constant conversation, people would pick up their phones and I was really surprised because all of these groups are, midlife people, both men and women, and it just surprised me. One of these gatherings, I didn't even have my phone, and I thought, I'm just gonna sit. We were outside. I'm just gonna sit and listen to the birds, and I don't if people aren't talking, I'm fine with that. So I am working hard at that, because I don't know what they were doing on their phones. But why would you wanna check your social media when you're in a social situation? That kinda baffles me. Yeah. It's very, addictive, and I go I know I go through spells. I'm in a spell right now where I'm on my phone too much and I know that. It makes me feel uneasy basically. It's one of those signs, you know, you gotta put down your phone. So this afternoon we are going out to lunch with some friends and we're gonna walk over to Cincinnati and I will not use my phone. I promise you. Good for you. Yeah, good for you. So you know, sometimes it's nice to have anything like, on the weekends, if you're scheduled to the hilt, that's anxiety producing for many people. So not having an agenda, even if it's for a short period of time, is a really good option. Yeah. And I love the time cushioning. I'm I think, you know, I'm not a fan of multitasking, and I think it all comes from this because I think I did it for all through my thirties and forties. I was trying to juggle all the things. And it's okay to have space, and it's okay to have silence like you just mentioned. It's okay to listen to the birds when you're in a social situation. You don't have to fill the air with noise. Right. Right. And I've had to learn that because for a long time, I was uncomfortable if there was a lag in conversation, but I've learned to just enjoy it. And by my shutting my mouth, maybe someone else has got something to say that's important that they need to share. So, you know, definitely letting go of tension or anxiety around anything, whether it's the lack of conversation or just, you know, you feel we always feel like we should be doing and that's just such a falsehood. I mean, we don't have, I mean, we've talked about it before, if you wanna make a change, action is important, not just doing, but it's not the only thing. So, giving yourself that space, I love the way you time cushion, that's great. And for me, prioritizing sleep is such a cushion. That's great. And for me prioritizing sleep is such a huge thing. I have had to learn how to sleep. I know you learned that in 2020 Cam, but I'm kind of there this year. That's awesome. Isn't it amazing? Life goes better after you sleep. Yes. A 100%. 100%. About the social media, I wanna go back. As turning off the news is another thing. I I really have not watched the news since 2020, and it's just a game changer. Sometimes I'll get a message from my father-in-law say, did you see x y z? I'm like, nope. You know, if the sky is falling, I'll know when the sky is falling. But otherwise, I'm not gonna raise my cortisol by watching the news. So that's just another personal side note. Yeah. I love that too. And my husband will turn on the news and most of the time I'm not really listening to it. But I think that's really important if you're a person that's very triggered back current events, because it's an all bad. It feels like it's all bad. And so I think if you know that's a trigger, that would be really important to distance yourself from that. Even like the tone of the voice, like Oh, yeah. It's alarmist. And I'm like, you know, that's not for me. I'm just gonna goodbye. Yeah. Yeah. We talked about food crowding out, you know, sugar and white flour, you know, switching that with fruits and vegetables. So just anytime you can eat something from mother nature versus something from a box or a bag, you're gonna be winning. Yeah. I do that all the time. That one's not so hard for me because I've lived that lifestyle for so long. But what is hard is, not believing every thought or allowing the thought to pass without putting any emotion to it. That's where I struggle because I struggle less with what I put into my body and more with what my mind comes up with. So I'm really working all that Cam to, I love the idea of letting the thoughts pass like a cloud, acknowledge it and even honor it to say you you have value, this thought you have, but you're not important. I don't believe this. This is an assumption. So, you know, tying in the four agreements to the HBA axis is pretty easy at this point, but it still work. Yeah. That's for my I worked with a life coach for a few years, Ali, and she would say, you're the thinker, not the thought. You're the human. You're not the thought. And, like, where did that thought even come from? Was it like a universal thing, or is it something your mom passed down to you? Or, you know, it's like you don't have to tie to that. So that I'm pretty good at, but I'm not so good. If I I just want something crunchy out of a bag too many times in my life, and that's the truth. That is really funny. We each have something to bring and, you know, strengths and opportunities for everybody for sure. Mhmm. You know, we talked about, multitasking. I don't do that a whole lot. I probably do it more at work, than in my home life. I'm pretty good about, like, setting some aside time. But there are so many ways that we can help our adrenals, but we do have to be intentional with it. Absolutely. And we've given you a whole list of things and things to think about and just kinda say, okay. Give yourself, analyze your life, and just say, okay. I'm gonna try this for a week and see how I feel. And I think you'll be surprised at how amazing you'll feel. Good job. Yep. Any practice that allows your body to feel safe and sound will benefit your adrenal health. Thanks for listening today. You can find us on Instagram@midlife.mommas For all of our other contact info, check out the show description below, and we will talk to you next week.