Thank you for taking this QUESTIONNAIRE!
Based on your answers from the CORTISOL QUESTIONNAIRE your level is: Possible DEFICIENCY
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Brief intro to CORTISOL:
Cortisol is a steroid hormone that regulates a wide range of vital processes throughout the body, including metabolism and the immune response. It also has a very important role in helping the body respond to stress, both physical stress and emotional stress.
Blood levels of cortisol vary throughout the day, but generally are higher in the morning when we wake up, and then fall throughout the day. This is called a diurnal rhythm. In people that work at night, this pattern is reversed, so the timing of cortisol release is clearly linked to daily activity patterns. In addition, in response to stress, extra cortisol is released to help the body to respond appropriately.
What happens if I have too much cortisol?
High cortisol levels over a prolonged time can also cause lack of sex drive and, in women, periods can become irregular, less frequent or stop altogether (amenorrhoea). In addition, there has been a long-standing association between raised or impaired regulation of cortisol levels and a number of psychiatric conditions such as anxiety and depression. However, the significance of this is not yet clearly understood.
What happens if I have too little cortisol?
This situation is the most often encounter in medical practice.
Too little cortisol may be due to a problem in the pituitary gland or the adrenal gland (Addison’s disease). The onset of symptoms is often very gradual. Symptoms may include fatigue, dizziness (especially upon standing), weight loss, muscle weakness, mood changes and the darkening of regions of the skin. Without treatment, this is a potentially life-threatening condition.
More common is what is called Adrenal Fatigue, a sub-normal functioning of the adrenal gland that is not true pathological in nature, but it’s not normal functioning either. Here Naturopaths can offer a good deal of help.
The most common symptom of Adrenal Fatigue is….. fatigue, but this is quite different from the regular fatigue that you might be used to. Adrenal Fatigue sufferers experience difficulty getting out of bed each morning, even after a long sleep.
The patients also report a general lack of enthusiasm, difficulty ‘lifting’ themselves for important occasions, and an inability to cope with stressful situations. When the adrenals become fatigued, they lose their ability to produce stress hormones – the ones that we use for our ‘fight-or-flight’ response. That means that many Adrenal Fatigue sufferers report feeling strangely ‘flat’ when they should be excited. They also struggle to maintain the acute focus and high energy levels that stressful situations often require.