Things You Can Do To Lower Cortisol Levels
Medically reviewed by Kashif J. Piracha, MD
Cortisol is a steroid hormone produced and released by your adrenal glands, located on top of your kidneys. Cortisol helps regulate functions like metabolism, inflammation, and immune response.
While cortisol serves an important role in your body, there are times when its levels can get too high. This can lead to a number of health issues, such as high blood pressure, plaque buildup in your arteries (atherosclerosis), and diabetes.
High cortisol levels can be caused by everything from stress to certain medical conditions. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to lower cortisol.
What Causes High Cortisol Levels?
One factor that can cause high cortisol levels is stress. Stress triggers signals within your body, prompting your adrenal glands to release adrenaline and cortisol. This is your body’s way of preparing for something challenging, harmful, or even painful.
Short bursts of stress can increase cortisol levels, though once the threat subsides, so do cortisol levels. But if your stress is ongoing, your body’s response to these stressful stimuli never shuts down, which means your adrenal glands continue to produce cortisol and pump it throughout your body.
Aside from stress, factors like long-term oral corticosteroid use and certain tumors can increase cortisol levels.
Justin Paget / Getty Images
Why Are High Cortisol Levels Bad?
Having high cortisol levels for a prolonged period can lead to various health conditions. For instance, research suggests high cortisol levels play a big role in the development of a number of cardiovascular issues. With high cortisol, you are at increased risk for high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, and insulin resistance.
Because cortisol can have an impact on your central nervous system, there seems to also be a connection between high cortisol levels and certain mental health conditions. For example, high levels of cortisol have been linked to depression and anxiety. Nearly 50% of people who have been newly diagnosed with depression have excessive cortisol levels. Increased cortisol levels also are seen in people with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
While it's unclear whether the high levels are a contributing factor to the mental health condition or happen to be co-occurring, what is known is that a decrease in cortisol levels typically leads to symptom improvement.
Elevated cortisol levels can also disrupt sleep, cause weight gain, and impair your immune system response.
If your cortisol levels are high because of medication or a tumor, you can develop Cushing's syndrome. This is a condition that can lead to serious complications like heart attack and blood clots because your body has been making too much cortisol for too long.
How To Know if Your Cortisol Levels Are High
When cortisol surges in your body, you will feel much the way you would during a fight-or-flight experience. You may notice increased heart rate, muscle tension, and digestive symptoms such as nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting.
Of course, your symptoms can vary depending on what is at the root of your increased cortisol levels. Some potential signs and symptoms of too much cortisol include:
High blood pressure
Memory issues or difficulty concentrating
Extreme fatigue
Irritability
Pain
Muscle weakness or breakdown
Slowed wound healing
Flushed face
Purple streaks on the breasts, hips, or stomach
Weight gain (especially in the face or abdomen)
If you or your healthcare provider suspect you have high cortisol levels, they can perform a cortisol test to check your levels. This test measures the cortisol level in your blood, urine, or saliva.
If the healthcare provider is checking your cortisol levels in your blood, they will order a blood test. Most often, they'll perform an overnight test. Between 11 p.m. and midnight, you'll take 1 mg of dexamethasone, a steroid pill. The following morning, between 8 and 9 a.m., serum cortisol levels are measured with a blood draw.
If you are doing a urine test, the healthcare provider will likely ask you to collect your urine during a 24-hour period. However, occasionally, one urine sample, usually taken in the morning, can be used for a cortisol test.
Meanwhile, with the saliva test, you will be given a kit to collect your saliva. You will most likely be asked to collect your saliva at night when your cortisol levels are lower.
Ways To Lower Cortisol
Living with high cortisol levels can have negative consequences. For this reason, it is important that you learn how to manage your stress and implement other changes that can help reduce your cortisol levels. Here are some things you can do right now to potentially lower your cortisol levels.
Eat a Balanced Diet
Eating a nutritious diet can help you manage stress and, in turn, potentially lower your cortisol levels. To begin, you will want to consider limiting your intake of added sugars to keep your cortisol levels from rising. Research shows that a high intake of added sugars leads to high cortisol.
Likewise, studies have shown that consuming foods high in refined grains and saturated fats can lead to higher cortisol levels when compared with a diet high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and unsaturated fats.
Taking in an adequate amount of fluids can help keep your cortisol levels from rising. Research has shown even mild dehydration can cause your cortisol levels to rise. So, make sure you are drinking enough water or other fluids.
Other food-related tips that can help lower cortisol levels include:
Following a Mediterranean diet: Researchers found that following the Mediterranean diet may lower cortisol levels and reduce the impact of stress on your body.
Consuming adaptogens: Adaptogens, like mushrooms and other herbs and plants, are known to reduce stress and could, therefore, help lower cortisol levels.
Eating dark chocolate: One study found that eating 25 grams (g) of dark chocolate each day for two weeks lowered cortisol levels.
Take Supplements
In partnership with a healthcare provider, you could consider taking supplements to help lower your cortisol levels. For instance, one 2021 study found that after four months of supplementation with omega-3, participants had lower cortisol levels and more resilience to stress. While researchers caution that the results are preliminary, they speculate that consistently taking omega-3 supplements may also limit the impact of repeated stress on cellular aging and depression risk.
And as a bonus, taking omega-3, such as fish oil, can improve your mental performance. Research shows these supplements also improve mood, memory, and mental clarity.
Some evidence suggests the herb ashwagandha can lower cortisol levels. In one small, randomized controlled trial, participants experienced a significant reduction in cortisol levels after taking 240 milligrams (mg) of ashwagandha extract for 60 days. Ashwaganddha also may alleviate anxiety as well as promote sleep.
If you are considering taking supplements, it is important to talk to a healthcare provider first. Some supplements may interfere with medications or cause side effects in people with certain medical conditions. Also, supplements are not regulated like medications. Consider purchasing supplements certified by a third-party entity like NSF International, US Pharmacopeia, Underwriters Laboratory, or Consumer Lab.
Be Physically Active
Being physically active can help you manage stress and potentially lower cortisol levels. Regular exercise helps you manage stress in general, clearing your mind and giving you more clarity. So, while cortisol levels may initially increase to support your body during physical activity, they decrease afterward.
If you are interested in adding physical activity to your everyday life, here are some moderate-intensity activities you can do:
Walk briskly
Take a water aerobics class
Go for a bike ride
Play doubles tennis
Take a ballroom dancing class
Lift weights or use resistance bands
According to the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, adults should engage in 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise. You should also have two days of muscle-strengthening activities like lifting weights or bodyweight exercises.
Try Relaxation Techniques or Activities
Managing and reducing stress levels through relaxation techniques may help keep your cortisol levels in check. Here are some things you can do to try to mitigate your stress response:
Take deep breaths: Research has shown that deep-breathing exercises can help lower cortisol levels. It can also ease anxiety and depression and improve memory.
Practice mindfulness: Research shows that regularly practicing mindfulness, or remaining focused on the present, can reduce your cortisol levels.
Try laughing yoga. This form of yoga promotes deliberate laughing and has been shown to lower cortisol levels, reduce stress, and improve mood.
Start gardening: One small study of 49 middle-aged veterans found that taking up gardening not only reduced cortisol levels but also decreased symptoms of depression.
Listen to music: Researchers have found that listening to music before a stressful event can reduce your stress response, particularly your cortisol levels.
Get Good-Quality Sleep
Learning to prioritize your sleep is an effective way of reducing your cortisol levels. Chronic sleep issues like sleep apnea and insomnia have been linked to elevated cortisol levels. You may be more prone to higher cortisol levels if you are a shift worker.
To optimize your sleep, try having a regular bedtime routine and getting into bed at the same time each night. You should avoid nicotine and alcohol as well as limit your caffeine intake. Even limiting blue light exposure from your screens can help promote a good night's rest.
Editor's Note: If a medication or an underlying condition is causing your high cortisol levels, managing stress can be beneficial, but you'll likely need other methods to lower cortisol. For instance, if a medication is causing your high cortisol levels, a healthcare provider may change your medication or reduce your dosage. If a tumor is causing your high cortisol levels, you may have to have the mass surgically removed. There are even some cortisol-reducing medications that can be prescribed to treat high cortisol levels. A healthcare provider will determine the best ways to reduce your cortisol levels.
A Quick Review
Cortisol is a hormone your body releases, particularly when you are stressed. While cortisol serves as a regulator of important bodily functions, it can have a negative impact on your health if your levels are high for a prolonged period of time. This can lead to a number of health issues, such as high blood pressure, obesity, heart disease, and diabetes.
If you are experiencing chronically high cortisol, you can try to lower your levels by eating a nutritious diet, managing your stress, and being physically active. If you are concerned that your cortisol levels might be abnormally high, it is important to talk to a healthcare provider about your concerns.
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