– When you look at cortisol disruptions, or long-term elevated cortisol, one of the first things that you can begin to see is blood sugar dysregulation issues where perhaps you start to get insulin resistance.

– Prediabetes.

– Prediabetes. You get the spare tire syndrome, so the weight gain around the midsection.

– Yeah.

– I’ve also seen where what will happen is when there’s long-term elevated cortisol, there’s a reduction in an immunoglobulin called sigA or secretory immunoglobulin A, which the adrenal stress test that we use actually measures sigA levels, and if that’s low, that’s an immunoglobulin in your gut, and if that’s low, what that does is it leaves the gut more open to infection and potential leaky gut. And that also will create a physiological stress response in the body that triggers the release of cortisol. So now you have this vicious cycle that gets started.

– Right.

– Another big one that I see a lot of is leptin resistance, which leptin is a hormone that lets us know, it’s like our satiety hormones. So when we eat, our fat cells release leptin, and it lets us know that we’re full, and we’re not hungry anymore. So if you have leptin resistance, guess what happens? You never feel full and satisfied. So you’re constantly hungry. Even though you’re physically full, you’re constantly hungry. So those are some of the big things.

– Yup.

– But I could keep going.

– I know there’s a lot

– There’s a lot.

– Thyroid hormone under conversion.

– Yeah, right, so you’re not converting T4 to T3, so you become hyperthyroid.

– Yup.

– Brain fog, headaches

– Mm-hmm.

– Insomnia. The list kind of goes on and on.

– Yup. Bone demineralization.

– Right.

– That’s another one.

– Right.

– So really, I mean, taking what I said last night in my class is, you know it’s easy for somebody to say, “Oh everyone’s stressed, just deal with it.” But the reality is that Or just kind of “Suck it up, just go about your business because everyone’s stressed.” But stress is such a major issue. It is the silent killer.

– Mm-hmm.

– So take it seriously, and I highly recommend almost anybody get an adrenal stress test.

– It should be a foundational test, right?

– Absolutely, yes.

– If you’re a part of Siskiyou Vital Medicine, ask for your adrenal stress index test.

– Yes.

– Let’s get a baseline on you guys, and make sure everything is right where it should be.