The Low Cortisol Lifestyle written by Ali Kuoppala ( AnabolicMen.com ) & Christopher Walker ( TestShock.com TestShock.com )
Table of Contents Section 1: Introduction from Ali and Chris Section 2: The Basics ● What is Cortisol and Why Lower it? ● How Stress Chokeholds The Endocrine System Section 3: The Low Cortisol Lifestyle, aka. Lifestyle Optimization for Stress-Free Living ● 40% Higher Testosterone and -24% Lower Cortisol After 4 Weeks of Resistance Training ● How Listening to Music Can Alter your Hormones and Productivity ●
How to Optimize your Sleep for Balanced Cortisol Levels
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The Surprising Hormonal Effects of Fixing your Posture
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Relaxation Exercises and Walking
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Alcohol and Marijuana: Two “Relaxing” Substances that Actually Increase Cortisol
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Are you Drinking Enough Water?
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The Quick Action Guide to Low Cortisol Nutrition
Section 4: Supplementation ●
Why Multivitamin is The Most Important Supplement for Balancing High Cortisol
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Phosphatidylserine
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Adaptogenic Herbs
Section 5: The Cortisol Solution ●
The Endogenous Limitation Paradox
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The Power Of Cortisol Regulation
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The Dire Reality
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The Cortisol Solution
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The Power Of Nootropics For Physical and Cognitive Enhancement
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The Ultimate Formula
Table of Contents Section 1: Introduction from Ali and Chris Section 2: The Basics ● What is Cortisol and Why Lower it? ● How Stress Chokeholds The Endocrine System Section 3: The Low Cortisol Lifestyle, aka. Lifestyle Optimization for Stress-Free Living ● 40% Higher Testosterone and -24% Lower Cortisol After 4 Weeks of Resistance Training ● How Listening to Music Can Alter your Hormones and Productivity ●
How to Optimize your Sleep for Balanced Cortisol Levels
●
The Surprising Hormonal Effects of Fixing your Posture
●
Relaxation Exercises and Walking
●
Alcohol and Marijuana: Two “Relaxing” Substances that Actually Increase Cortisol
●
Are you Drinking Enough Water?
●
The Quick Action Guide to Low Cortisol Nutrition
Section 4: Supplementation ●
Why Multivitamin is The Most Important Supplement for Balancing High Cortisol
●
Phosphatidylserine
●
Adaptogenic Herbs
Section 5: The Cortisol Solution ●
The Endogenous Limitation Paradox
●
The Power Of Cortisol Regulation
●
The Dire Reality
●
The Cortisol Solution
●
The Power Of Nootropics For Physical and Cognitive Enhancement
●
The Ultimate Formula
Section 1: Introduction from Ali and Chris Hello everyone, Ali and Chris here. Before we dive into this book, we just want to take a minute and say hello. Over our adult lives, we’ve both developed a passion not just for self-experimentation sel f-experimentation and research around testosterone optimization in our own personal lives, but also for teaching other people - like yourself - how to do the same. In a world full of nonsense and crappy, misleading information, information, we strive to provide the most top-notch quality information to our readers. This book is a compilation of information available on our websites. It is packaged here for your convenience. You can go to http://anabolicmen.com and http://testshock.com to read more from both of us.
The book you’re about to read may just change the way you think about the way you react to the world around you. By the time you’re finished consuming, and processing, this information, you will have armed yourself with a vast amount of knowledge about an incredibly important topic. It is imperative that you use this knowledge to avoid developing chronically elevated cortisol levels over your lifetime. Stress is the silent killer.
While cortisol is not an inherently bad hormone (it is necessary for many important processes in your body) chronically high cortisol levels will wreak havoc on your body, your brain, and your testosterone levels. From this point on, when faced with certain decisions and behavioral choices in your daily life, remember... “Low Cortisol Lifestyle” Make choices that help keep your body in a state of balance and you’ll be rewarded with lifelong health and mental clarity.
Section 2: The Basics
What is Cortisol and Why Lower it? Cortisol is the principal stress hormone of the human body, released from the adrenal cortex under times of short or long-term stress. It also gets A LOT of attention in the fitness world. That’s because it’s a catabolic (breaking) hormone, one that induces muscle breakdown and visceral fat gain, gain, slows down the immune system, system, and lowers testosterone levels in the process. process.
It’s basically the opposite of testosterone, the other side of the coin, and somewhat of an “enemy” when you’re interested in keeping your testosterone levels high. Hence, why everyone’s telling you to keep your cortisol levels as low as possible. A statement which is somewhat true, but we also have to remember that cortisol is not completely useless…
…It’s also the hormone that wakes you up in the morning, it’s deeply involved in
the muscle glycogen storage/release process, and without cortisol, we would still be crawling instead of walking. So a certain baseline is needed for some of the most basic functions of the human body, and in that manner, cortisol is not that bad, and your body is pretty good at protecting itself from the negative effects when the levels stay within a reasonable range.
In other words, I believe that most of the men on this very planet have got too much cortisol circulating in their bloodstreams…
And those are not good news for your testosterone molecules: According to a few studies conducted by an endocrinologist Matthew Hardy, our testicles produce this enzyme called 11ßHSD-1, which protects testosterone from the destructive effects of cortisol… …However, when cortisol is too high, there simply isn’t enough of the enzyme
11ßHSD-1 to counteract the stress hormone, and as a result a lion’s share of your freshly produced testosterone molecules will be destroyed before they even leave the sack. Not only that, but cortisol and testosterone are both made from pregnenolone (which the body synthesizes from cholesterol), when cortisol is elevated, it
basically “robs” the raw building material of T into making a stress hormone, rather than male sex hormone.
How Stress Chokeholds The Endocrine System It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what the term stress means, but an explanation that comes rather close, goes something like this: . To open up the term a bit more, this can be divided into two categories.
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Short-term stress, where a quick challenge (a fight for example) arises and the body reacts to that with a burst of stress hormones (glucocorticoids), which makes you more alert and focused to tackle the stressor. This kind of stress is often not detrimental to health and has no long-term effects in the body. Many experts believe that short bouts of manageable stress (ie: small daily challenges) can in fact be a healthy thing to have.
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Long-term stress, where the challenge is something that goes on for a long period of time (for example: a demanding boss that gives you work related tasks that feel unbearable, or a debt that you simply can’t pay, etc). It’s this kind of chronic stress that keeps stress hormone levels high for extended periods of time, often leading to detrimental effects on health of
the body and mind. It’s also this kind of stress that wreaks havoc in the endocrine system, and the kind we will be covering in this article.
So, short-term stress can be a good thing to have…
Long-term stress on the other hand, why it’s so unhealthy? And how does it affect your hormonal health?
-- Long-Term Stress and Testosterone There are two major reasons as to why chronic long-term stress hammers testosterone production. Firstly, the principal stress steroid hormone; cortisol, which is released from the adrenal cortex during times of prolonged stress, has a direct testosterone suppressing effect inside the hypothalamus and testicular leydig cells. Secondly, the synthesis of cortisol requires cholesterol, a molecule that is also needed in the biosynthesis of testosterone. When cortisol levels skyrocket during stress, more of this essential building block goes towards creating cortisol.
Obviously those are not the only reasons that can cause fucked-up T levels during prolonged stress. As a guy who battled with some serious work-related stress few years ago, I can guarantee you that increased alcohol consumption, messed up sleep quality, poor diet, lack of exercise, and depression can (and more than likely will) contribute to the stress induced reduction in testosterone.
The research on how long-term stress (both physical and mental) alters testosterone levels is rather cruel:
Science Behind Stress and Testosterone: a) In multiple animal studies, it has been noted that nearly all kinds of long-term stressors (surgical stress, noise stress, immobilization stress, oxidative stress, chronic stress, etc) can significantly lower testosterone levels in various species (study, study, study, study, study, study, study, study, study, study, study, study ). In pretty much all of these studies, the suppression of testosterone goes hand-in-hand with the increase in cortisol, and the reduction in testosterone is not caused by increased excertion, but through decreased production.
b) In military studies, psychological stressors (such as the fear of combat or death) have been linked to significant reductions in testosterone. Same goes for stressful military training courses, such as: the officer school, ranger school, and survival training (study, study, study, study, study, study, study ). One study also showed that refugees who experience physiological stress, have low testosterone and luteinizing hormone levels, coupled with very high cortisol levels.
c) In non-military men, chronic stress, and stress-related depression has been linked to low testosterone production and elevated cortisol levels (study, study, study, study, study ).
d) Surgical stress is no different (be this physical or psychological), it lowers testosterone levels too, usually the magnitude of the suppression is directly correlated with the severity of the surgery (study, study, study, study ).
Bottom line: Chronic stress (be it physical or psychological) has a tendency to lower testosterone levels, and this suppressive effect is nearly always caused by elevated cortisol production.
Use this daily to balance cortisol production naturally (link) >>
Section 3: The Low Cortisol Lifestyle, aka. Lifestyle Optimization for Stress-Free Living
40% Higher Testosterone and -24% Lower Cortisol After 4 Weeks of Resistance Training If you are a regular reader of TestShock or AnabolicMen.com, you are more than likely already aware that strength training increases testosterone levels. However, there’s always a group of people who claim that the increases in testosterone and/or reductions in the stress hormone cortisol, would be short-lived, and that exercise wouldn’t change your resting levels of the hormones by any significance. It’s normal to assume that, since in many studies, the effects are usually monitored for a day or two, and in these kinds of studies there’s usually an increase or decrease in testosterone (depending bit on the type of exercise and subjects), and then after sometime the levels fall back close to the baseline…
So no matter how much you train, your hormonal baseline stays put, and the exercise induced hormonal changes are just acute, right?
Well, that’s a big no – at least if you ask the Spanish researchers, who found out that in newbie trainees, 4 weeks of strength training results in a significant 40% boost in RESTING testosterone, and -24% drop in RESTING cortisol.
Here are the details: In 2006, Andrada et al. from the University of Extremadura, had 20 male volunteers (average age 22) with no prior experience with strength training. All of the subjects were tested and medically examined, so that there was no possibility of performance enhancing drug use to screw up the results. After the medical examination, each of the volunteers were given a 4-week sub maximal strength training routine, which was to be conducted on three days of the week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday). All the sessions were to be conducted at 12pm, and the use of any nutritional supplement during the 4-week period was forbidden.
The resistance training routine itself consisted of 7 basic exercises in the following order:
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10-15 minute warm-up
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bench press
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seated-pulley
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knee extension
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behind-neck press
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leg press
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bicep curls
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tricep pull-downs
NOTE: All of the exercises were done in 3 sets of 10 reps, with 3 min recovery in-between the sets, and with a weight that was 70-75% of the trainees one-rep max (1-RM).
After a month with the program above, the results speak for themselves: even though right after the exercise there was acute reductions in T (likely because resistance training makes muscle cells absorb more androgens from the blood, and as a result the testosterone level goes down for a while), there was a statistically significant 40% increase in resting testosterone, and a -24% decrease in resting cortisol (the primary stress hormone).
How Listening to Music Can Alter your Cortisol and Productivity We are exposed to music on a daily basis, but did you know that it can have a serious positive and/or negative impact for your hormones and productivity? There are multiple studies which show very clearly, how listening to various kinds of music can significantly alter the levels of anabolic hormones, stress hormones, productivity, mood, and even immune system functions. Allow me to explain…
... Both of us are drummers from childhood, ever since, playing and listening to music has played a huge part in our lives … Needless to say, we was not very positively surprised when we stumbled upon
this study some years ago, where it was concluded that listening to various kinds of music styles, caused an acute drop in the subjects testosterone levels. These effects were noted even when the subjects had the choice to listen to their favorite bands/artists (to be fair, this study was conducted in Japan, so the music might not be that T friendly anyway, haha).
Did those findings have any impact on the amount of music I consume?
Hell no. In fact, I’m writing this chapter with music playing on the background. I do most of my work while listening to music…
And there’s a good reason for that:
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In a study from England , it was found out that listening to background music significantly raised efficiency in a series of experiments involving repetitive-work.
● According
to Dr. Teresa Lesiuk , IT specialists who listen to music complete
their tasks more quickly and come up with better ideas than those who don’t, because the music improves their mood and greatly reduces anxiety. ●
Multiple other studies on the subject have shown that background music can be used to improve cognitive functions and productivity ( study , study , study ).
Aside from being a good tool for increased productivity, listening to music can greatly reduce the stress hormone; cortisol (study, study, study ). A large review study investigating over 400 studies on music, led by Professor Daniel J. Levitin, found out that music can be so strong stress-reliever that it
reduces cortisol levels in subjects undergoing a surgery, more so than any prescription medicine used for such purposes.
What about workout music then? Aside from the fact that lifting weights with huge ear muffs looks tad bit ridiculous, the acute reductions in testosterone noted by Fukui et al. could actually cause a small drop in your workout performance. This however, could be easily negated by the reduced stress and improved mood that comes by when listening to music, so I wouldn’t worry about that. I have personally had a good amount of gains and high T levels for a long time now, and the gym where I workout plays music from the speakers all the time.
Few tips: — If the music is too loud, productivity will suffer, keep it as background noise when working. — During work involving writing or speaking, instrumental music is recommended (lyrics distract the process). — Heavy-metal music and heavy ass weight lifting go hand-in-hand. — The best stress-relieving music is something that includes sounds from nature. — Video game music is awesome for productivity, since it’s designed to enhance the experience without distracting the player (I often write with this as background noise ).
How to Optimize your Sleep for Balanced Cortisol Levels It goes without saying that sleep is a great way to reduce stress …And obviously this means that it’s also a great way to reduce the principal
stress hormone, cortisol (study, study, study ).
Sleeping more is not only good for stress reduction, as it’s also one of the best ways to increase your natural testosterone production…
…You can double your testosterone levels by sleeping more (seriously ).
Well check these tips out: ●
Sleep in complete darkness. By this I mean that there should be not a single led light visible in the room where you’re sleeping in. As even a single dot of light in your night clock or mobile phone is enough to disturb the pineal gland’s ability to secrete the sleep hormone melatonin.
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Close all the mobile-networks and wi-fi hotspots. This Saudi-Arabian study found out that the electromagnetic frequencies decrease sleep quality.
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Exercise during the day, as research has shown that just a simple exercise session incorporated in your daily life, can dramatically improve sleep quality.
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Melatonin. This is the hormone that your pineal gland secretes to make you sleep, thus it’s called the “sleep hormone”. You can supplement with it , and few studies also show that it may boost testosterone levels via inhibiting the aromatase enzyme.
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Sleep in a cold room and be naked if you can. Firstly because cold room will mimic the natural sleeping habitat of the human body (we were meant to sleep outside), and secondly because the testicles need to be a tad bit colder than the basal body temperature is, for optimal functioning (that’s why they hang in a pouch outside the body and that’s also why cold showers and loose boxers increase testosterone).
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Don’t watch bright electronic displays before you hit the sack, as the “blue light” in most electronic screens will impair pineal gland’s ability to produce melatonin (I use a software called f.lux , which automatically dims the screen and reduces “blue light” when its getting close to bedtime).
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Supplement with Ashwagandha , as several studies have found that it positively influences sleep quality, which is likely due to the fact that it lowers the stress hormone cortisol ( it’s also a potent testosterone booster ).
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Consume some simple carbs hour or two before hitting the bed, as this will increase your insulin production, making you energetic for a brief moment, but then your insulin will crash which makes you fall into sleep more easily.
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Consume some high quality protein before hitting the bed, as certain amino acids such as L-tryptophan will increase melatonin production in the brain, thus also improves sleep quality.
The Surprising Hormonal Effect of Fixing your Posture Most of the communication we do is non-verbal, meaning that we speak more with our bodies and expressions than we do with our mouth …It’s also a known fact that confident humans and animals both have a habit of
showing “alpha” body language…
For example a baboon might express his power by holding his breath which causes his chest to expand. Whereas a successful business man or a boss can cross his fingers behind his head and lean back on a chair to open up showing that he isn’t afraid of taking space and is in control. Insecurity and weakness can also be seen through body language. Actions such as restless legs and fingers, closing up to a small space, crossing arms, not making eye contact, and hunched up posture all show that you’re scared, weak, and not in control. It’s all in our evolution, these models are somewhat “hard coded” into our brains, and we often do these things without noticing it ourselves.
But could showing powerful “alpha” body language actually make us more powerful and confident? And could weak body language really make you more weaker and inferior?
That’s what this study from Cuddy et al. examined: They had 24 test subjects who gave their baseline saliva hormones to the researchers and then were randomly assigned to groups where they would do either “power-poses” or “low-power-poses”. (poses used in the study shown below).
Each subject held the pose for 2 minutes and then the researchers again tested their salivary hormones to see if there was anything different going on…
Remarkably the results showed that only a mere 2 minutes of holding a “power-pose” was enough to increase testosterone levels by 20%, whereas the stress hormone cortisol also decreased by -25%! However the “low-power” group saw a -10% reduction in salivary testosterone levels and a 15% increase in the stress hormone cortisol.
These results show that when you express power and leadership through your body language, your brain and hormones will pick up and follow, actually making you more powerful, confident, and relaxed. Whereas when you’re expressing weakness and insecurity through closed up and hunched postures, then your brain and hormones will again pick up, but this time they make you weaker and more stressed up.
Relaxation Exercises and Walking Meditation and relaxation exercises should by all means of common sense be super-great at lowering cortisol levels. Walking in nature on the other hand has been known for decades as a potent stress-reliever. How do these play out in studies? a) This study found out that both, mediation and relaxation exercises, improve the cortisol to testosterone ratio (more testosterone, less cortisol), and that’s not all, growth hormone levels increased quite significantly too, most likely this was due to the decline in cortisol. b) In 1995, a researcher by the name of Frank Perna, concluded a study on Olympic cyclists and rowers, just to see that the athletes produced more cortisol when they were under stress. He continued the research in 1998 with this study, where he found out that when the athletes are assigned to a course which consists of 45-minute sessions of various relaxation techniques, their cortisol levels plummet. In fact the control group (which didn’t go to the sessions) had 2x more cortisol in their morning sample when compared to the test group! c) In this study, the researchers put their 40 test subjects to do some Abbreviated Progressive Relaxation Training(APRT), to see if it would impact their cortisol secretion. It did, just 15 minutes of ARPT nearly halved salivary cortisol levels.
d) In this Japanese study, 280 subjects were assigned to walk in either a city, or a forest. Surprisingly, the participants who walked in the forest & nature, had significantly lower salivary cortisol levels than their peers who did the same amount of walking in a city.
Alcohol and Marijuana: Two “Relaxing” Substances that May Actually Increase Cortisol Alcohol and marijuana are both naturally occurring depressants that have a tendency of causing lack of inhibitions and inducing a great sense of relaxation. Because of that, one might think that they both drive down cortisol levels? Actually quite the opposite is true. Science has shown that marijuana, as well as alcohol, both cause dose-dependent increases in cortisol. So even though you might feel relaxed, your body is actually responding to these substances with a stress-response.
Are you Drinking Enough Water? Would you think that something as simple as drinking enough fluids, can have a MASSIVE effect on your stress hormone levels? a) Even mild (1-2% of body mass) dehydration before and during exercise has been shown to significantly raise the levels of the stress hormone cortisol (study, study ). Since cortisol tends to reduce testosterone levels and is made from the same ‘raw building material’ (pregnenolone ), even mild dehydration at rest and/or during exercise likely has a testosterone suppressing effect.
b) In this 2008 study, the subjects all completed three identical resistance training bouts in different hydration states (hydrated, dehydrated by ~2,5% body mass, and dehydrated by ~5% body mass), while the researchers investigated various endocrine hormones at rest, during training, immediately post-exercise, and 60 minutes after the exercise. The results showed that dehydration increased cortisol levels significantly, while it also attenuated the normal exercise-induced rise in testosterone.
c) There’s also some evidence that growth hormone levels get suppressed in the state of dehydration (study,study ), which is just another reason to drink plenty of water during exercise!
Here’s a simple and cheap long-term solution for you to get the most out of your exercise sessions with nothing less than W-A-T-E-R ●
Get yourself a plastic-free bottle (I use two of these myself). Why not plastic? Because soft plastics leak xenoestrogens to the water.
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Preferably also get some sort of tap-water filtration system to filter out chlorine and fluoride from the godly liquid that is, water.
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Go exercise and remember to drink a lot. When someone asks what’s in your fancy metal bottle, tell them it’s your secret anabolic liquid.
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Enjoy your slightly increased anabolism, and watch with pride as your fellow gym rats try to figure out what kind of anabolic fusion matrix is hidden in your gym bottle.
The Quick Action Guide to Low Cortisol Nutrition In this subheading, you’ll get the incredibly quick, actionable, bullet pointed list of things that HAVE to be in check on your diet if you wish to have balanced cortisol levels. ●
Eat Enough Calories (or if you’re dieting, don’t have a too aggressive deficit): This is simply because when you lower your calories, you make your body deprived of energy, aka. starved. This causes bodily stress in various ways, and results in increased cortisol secretion. Lowering calories is A MUST if your goal is to lose weight, so yes, your cortisol levels will increase when dieting, you can however keep this increase minimal with a deficit that is not more than -10-20%
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Do NOT Follow the Low-Carb Dogma: Getting an adequate intake of fats and protein is necessary for optimal cortisol balance. However, getting plenty of carbohydrates is even more beneficial if one seeks to remain at low-cortisol state. Yes that is correct. Carbohydrates are your friend, and they do suppress cortisol (study, study, study )
That’s about it for low-cortisol nutrition, really, it’s that stupidly simple.
Section 4: Supplementation
Why Multivitamin is The Most Important Supplement for Balancing High Cortisol There isn’t a supplement that can magically fix high cortisol levels, but one that can actually do that (in cases of micronutrient deficiencies), is a multivitamin. Why is that? Well allow me to give you few examples:
1. Magnesium deficiency (which is what roughly 46% of the Americans have ) has been shown to cause significantly elevated cortisol levels. Whereas, supplementation with magnesium has shown to lower cortisol levels in healthy human subjects with no known deficiencies... 2. Vitamin C is well-known for its cortisol lowering effects (study, study, study, study )... 3. Iron deficiency has been shown to cause high cortisol levels... 4. Vitamin E deficiency as well... 5. It’s also worth mentioning that stress and high cortisol deplete the body from multiple micronutrients, which is again, why everyone seeking to lower their cortisol levels should be taking a multivitamin…
So, eat micronutrient dense foods, and supplement with a multi. This is a stupidly simple low-cost trick that helps significantly in most cases.
Phosphatidylserine Phosphatidylserine (PS) is a naturally occurring phospholipid that exists in the cell membranes of all species. In simple words, it’s a type of fat that can be found in every cell membrane of the human body that also contains the mineral phosphorus. Roughly 60 grams of phosphatidylserine can be found in human brain, testes, lungs, muscle tissue, kidneys, liver, and blood plasma. About 50% of the PS in the body exists in neural tissue.
The Functions of PS in the Body Include: a) Transports molecules in and out of the cell b) Delivers signals to the interior of the cell membrane c) Improves signaling between the cells d) Protects cell membranes from oxidative stress
Because nearly 50% of the phosphatidylserine exists in neural tissue, it’s also believed that the phospholipid has a brain function improving effect. In other words, it’s believed to be a nootropic (smart drug) And research supports this belief, as several human studies have found out that phosphatidylserine improves cognitive function, attention, working memory, processing speed, processing accuracy, and general memory (study,study, study, study)
Not to mention that PS is also known for reducing stress, fatigue, ADHD symptoms, and cognitive decline ( study, study,study, study, study, study).
So, phosphatidylserine clearly has some benefits as a brain booster and I guess we can easily call it a well researched nootropic
However cognitive stuff is not all that this lipid has been researched for: There are two very interesting facts about phosphatidylserine that could make it a potential testosterone booster
Firstly, it’s a message sender between the cells, which means that it could also improve the signals that come from hormones.
Secondly, it protects cells (think leydig) from oxidative damage (brains and testicles contain the most of phosphatidylserine in the body).
So in paper, there could be some testosterone boosting effects in phosphatidylserine supplementation due to its ability to act as a secondary message sender and a potential cortisol/oxidative damage blocker.
Fortunately we don’t even have to speculate, as few studies have examined the above already:
Phosphatidylserine and Testosterone Research: a) Few studies have found that phosphatidylserine supplementation lowers cortisol secretion in stressed subjects (study, study), and this study found out that 800 mg’s of daily PS reduced exercise induced rise in cortisol by 30%. b) This peer-reviewed study from Starks et al. found out that 600 mg’s of daily PS in combination with resistance training produced a staggering 180% improvement in testosterone to cortisol ratio of healthy human subjects when compared to placebo.
At this point, phosphatidylserine becomes a very interesting supplement.
Not only is great for the brain, it seems to also be great for guys who exercise – after all – scientist often use the testosterone to cortisol ratio as a measure to see how effectively the body can build lean muscle mass.
Answer: Bovine brain, chicken heart, pig spleen, pig liver, and certain lecithins (sunflower and soy mainly) are all good sources of PS. However to reach the dosages used in the studies above supplementation is easier, but not required (see a chart of foods highest in PS here).
Answer: Originally PS supplements were all derived from bovine brains, but when the mad cows disease panic started in the US, manufacturers pussied out and started deriving their supplements from plants. That’s why most of the phosphatidylserine on the market is now derived from soy lecithin. Make sure you use a supplement with non-GMO lecithin PS (link).
Adaptogenic Herbs There are few herbal compounds that have been shown in studies to be particularly effective against high cortisol levels.
One of these is Ashwagandha: c) This human study from the C.S.M. Medical University in Lucknow, India, had 60 subject males who were given 5 grams of Ashwagandha along with skimmed milk for 90 days, and after those 3 months had passed the researches looked at their hormonal profiles. What they found out was that their subjects had increased testosterone levels by 16% on average and that their stress hormone (cortisol) levels had dropped by 30%.
d) This double-blind, randomized, controlled, placebo study gave both, men and women, a 250-500 mg dose of Ashwagandha for mixed durations (1-6 months) and found out that on average their subjects cortisol levels dropped by 14% and that their HDL cholesterol levels increased by 17,3%.
Another good one is called Rhodiola Rosea: a)Rhodiola Rosea has multiple studies backing up the fact that it significantly reduces the feelings of fatigue in humans. This in theory means that it should also lower the stress hormone cortisol, which is known for suppressing testosterone. And the theory is supported by these studies, which all found out that Rhodiola Rosea supplementation reduced high cortisol levels (study, study, study ). Those two above are not the only adaptogenic, stress-reducing herbs, a simple Googling will give you plenty of more, with a lot of potent supplements backed up by science.
Use this daily to balance cortisol production naturally (link) >>
Section 5: The Cortisol Solution THE ENDOGENOUS LIMITATION PARADOX: I want to take a few minutes to introduce you to a radical truth. By the end of this chapter, you’ll understand why you’ve felt so “limited” for much of your life, and what you can do to eliminate these limitations overnight... Picture this...
Your physical limitations are gone. And your cognitive limitations are gone. That might sound like hyperbole - like it would be too good to be true - so I'll take a second to explain what I mean... Scientists use the term "endogenous" to indicate when something originates "inside" your body. For example, "endogenous testosterone" would be testosterone that your body produces naturally. "Exogenous" (or outside the body) testosterone would indicate a testosterone gel, that you get a prescription for from the doctor and apply to your skin. See the difference? Cool.
Now I'll clarify:
Imagine your endogenous physical and cognitive limitations are gone. Imagine you are no longer limited by the internal shortcomings of your body. You now exist in a state of optimal human performance. The only limitations upon you are external - things outside of your control. You are a superior being to your former self. The self that was limited by endogenous shortcomings. We exist in a limited state. That’s a radical truth. We're limited by our food choices. By our sleeping habits. By our exercise habits. By our hormones, our neurotransmitter levels, vitamin & mineral levels...
All of these things are within our everyday control to manipulate and optimize, however we seldom take the time to learn how, or actually execute on what we learn. So we're limited. Today I'm going to propose a novel way to eliminate certain limitations, to unlock a higher level of performance in your life. I am going to shed some light on an effective way to synthetically and/or naturally (yes, you can do this all with herbs and vitamins/minerals) "upgrade" your cognitive and physical performance - increase memory capacity, focus, energy, muscular strength, endurance, and muscular power.
THE POWER OF CORTISOL REGULATION: Cortisol isn’t good or bad. It is a natural hormonal element of your body’s homeostatic processes.
Cortisol is your main stress hormone. On a good note, it plays a key role in helping you acutely avoid danger by aiding in the activation of other hormones like adrenaline and noradrenaline. For example, it can help you get out of the way of a speeding taxi! However, by it’s nature, cortisol is a catabolic hormone, meaning it aids in the breakdown of available resources in the body. Cortisol helps the body use these existing resources to “supercharge” in acute scenarios (like avoiding that taxi) so you can survive.
So in acutely stressful survival scenarios, cortisol can be a very good thing! But in chronic scenarios, over long periods of time, elevated cortisol levels can KILL you. You ever hear about that 35 year old Wall Street Banker who has a heart attack? Yep, chronically elevated cortisol. How about the seemingly “super healthy” 40 year old marathoner who suddenly goes into cardiac arrest and dies during a race? Again, chronically elevated cortisol levels over years. Cortisol can save you. Or cortisol can kill you. And it’s incredibly important that you understand that simple truth - controlling your cortisol levels is paramount to living a healthy, thriving life!
THE DIRE REALITY: Reality can sometimes hurt...
Most of us - at one point or another in our lives - suffer from chronically elevated cortisol levels. We may be working a stressful job. Family life may cause us to lay awake at night. Financial stress. Relationships. Commuting. Politics. Poor diet. Lack of physical fitness. Or too much of the wrong type of fitness training (over training). All of these things can cause horrible cortisol issues. If you’re wondering what elevated cortisol feels like, some of these symptoms might be familiar: ●
Depression
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Anxiety
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Low Testosterone
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Tingling in the extremities
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Irritability
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Insomnia
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Inability to focus
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Trouble recalling simple information or doing simple arithmetic
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Uncharacteristic anger outbursts
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Low libido
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Low energy
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Low well-being and a negative general outlook on life
Your body manifests these symptoms with elevated cortisol levels for a reason. Cortisol is catabolic. When it is elevated over time, it will consistently allocate bodily resources away from “higher level” processes like cognition, sexual health, and vitality and well-being over to base level processes like storing body fat and breaking down muscle tissue. Remember, your body doesn’t understand that your stress is coming from your commute or your boss. To it, stress is stress . It reacts the same way it did to truly important threats thousands of years ago, only in our modern age, the “threats” that trigger cortisol elevation are different... They are mostly psychological and environmental. You’re not being chased down by a lion, you’re instead having to deal with that horrible 2 hour commute to and from work every day. So over years and years, your cortisol levels stay high, eventually breaking down your ability to function at a “higher” level with cognitive, physical, and psychological processes.
So you experience the symptoms of a poorly functioning endocrine system. Symptoms that keep you from operating at your highest potential - cognitively, physically, and emotionally.
THE CORTISOL SOLUTION: Luckily, you CAN control your cortisol with the right behaviors over time...
Behavioral cortisol control is very effective. It just takes a lot of deliberate hard work and the ability to change environmental stressors. The first step to take is to identify the main cause(s) of your elevated cortisol levels. These could be (but not limited to): ●
Job-related
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Commuting
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Family
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Relationships
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Lack of sleep
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Toxic environment (big city smog for example)
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Financial Issues
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Low testosterone
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Sex life problems
Once you identify the main issue(s), you need to come up with a plan to alleviate the effect that issue is having on your life.
This plan might be a simple fix, and it may be a long process. Either way, you need to do it. But here’s the problem: most of us suffer from nearly ALL of these issues, and many of them can be very difficult to get rid of. For example, we cannot just quit our job. We cannot just leave a troubled marriage. We cannot just “wish” we had higher testosterone levels. We cannot get rid of all the smog in our city, or all the crazy drivers on our commute. So what are we supposed to do in these kinds of scenarios ??
THE POWER OF NOOTROPICS FOR PHYSICAL AND COGNITIVE ENHANCEMENT: Luckily there are all-natural supplements that will help you get rid of your endogenous limitations and quickly mitigate elevated cortisol levels almost overnight...
This Might Come As A Bit Of A Surprise. Your Body And Brain Were NOT Built To Function Under Massive Limitations. In fact, believe it or not, you were designed to function at max capacity in every moment, and without feeling like you’re going to fall apart. But we live in an extreme world. Toxins, strange and unnatural distractions, and low-quality foods are coming at you from all directions, leaving you in a constant “fight or flight” mode with high cortisol and low performance. And dealing with an extreme world sometimes takes extreme solutions. Fortunately, extreme doesn’t have to mean unnatural or harmful. So what’s the answer? All-Natural nootropics. Nootropics are brain-enhancing substances. They can be herbs. They can be amino acids. They can be vitamin blends or synthetic compounds. There are TONS of super effective natural nootropics. So why on God’s green earth would you want to use a natural “brain enhancing” ingredient - or stack of ingredients - to get rid of your major chronic cortisol issue?? You might be thinking...
Because, like everything else, cortisol is directly controlled by your brain.
So instead of fighting the symptoms, you must go to the source! The brain. Make your brain healthy, and your endocrine system will function properly. And all-natural nootropics are the answer. Plus, they work quickly - you can feel their effect within minutes. AND you can take them daily without any side effects (most of them are actually created inside your body or in common safe plants). We’ve developed an incredible stack of all-natural nootropic ingredients designed specifically to keep your cortisol levels superlow called CORTIGON.
We’ll look deeper into the exact ingredients in a minute, but first I want to talk about the specific benefits of supplementing with the right nootropics...
Here Are Just Some Of The Benefits You Can Get By Adding A Powerful Nootropic Supplement Stack To Your Regular Health Regimen: Develop More Lucid Thought Patterns No more fuzzy thinking. Ingredients in CORTIGON have been shown to improve cognitive function while reducing stress and increasing performance in a variety of athletes. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22017963 Increase Your Powers of Focus A sharpened focus is perhaps the main thing that separates winners from losers. You can be the smartest person in the room, but if you don’t have the power to hold your attention on one thing for an extended length of time, you’re never going to get anywhere in life. ●
Phosphatidylserine, one of the main components in CORTIGON, is even shown to lessen symptoms connected to ADHD and has become the safe choice of many parents who don’t want to subject their children to unnatural alternatives . http://nootriment.com/phosphatidylserine-for-adhd/
Improve Your Memory Recall Have you bought into that tired old belief that declining memory is a given with age? Stop making excuses and start choosing solutions. CORTIGON can make your memories clearer and longer-lasting, and the compounds within have even been shown to decrease forgetfulness in elderly people with memory problems. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2966935/ ●
Bring Down Your Stress Levels You have no bigger enemy than stress. Technology was meant to make your life easier and more comfortable; instead, we’ve created a chaotic environment that upsets your hormonal balance and leads to life-threatening illnesses. Phosphatidylserine (a key ingredient in CORTIGON) has been shown to create anti-stress effects in otherwise healthy people with symptoms of high stress – there really is nothing more powerful you can do for your health. http://examine.com/supplements/Phosphatidylserine/#summary2-1 Lower Exercise-Induced Cortisol Levels Cortisol levels can also be raised by exercise. CORTIGON is designed to make you rebound better from your workouts and other taxing activities. Imagine being able to bounce back the way you did when you were younger! http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2170852 ●
Enjoy Better Moods There’s a lot of talk these days about your mood being a choice, and in many cases mindset is the key to your problems. But another big factor is your body’s chemical activity. You can tell yourself you want to feel better all day, but it’s hard to feel good when your physiology is suffering. CORTIGON can help. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11842886 ●
Sleep Better at Night When you don’t get the high-quality sleep you need, you can be sure your waking hours will suffer, along with your health and sanity. Poor sleep is also tied to higher stress, lower testosterone, higher risk of obesity, and increased cortisol. CORTIGON ensures you get the sleep you need so your body can do what it needs to recharge. http://nootriment.com/phosphatidylserine-for-sleep/ Improve Your Insulin Sensitivity Not only does that mean avoiding some of the more common Western diseases, like diabetes, but improving insulin sensitivity will help you lose body fat (and keep it off) more effortlessly. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1148624/ ●
What is it About Cortigon That Can Do So Much to Make You More Prepared for Anything the World Throws At You? CORTIGON is All-natural The way we see it, it makes little sense to enhance your mental and physical functioning and combat modern threats by depending on some harsh, unnatural compound. Too many nootropics leave you worse than they find you. That is not a sustainable long-term solution. The natural ingredients in this supplement work extremely well together and provide a solution that can be taken every single day (unlike most other nootropics) without burning you out.
CORTIGON Helps You Think Better There are many studies showing the nutrients packed into CORTIGON can improve the way you think.
Phosphatidylserine offers benefits for a number of cognitive processes. It is particularly noted for having a positive influence on memory and learning capacity along with speeding up memory recall. Many users report that it provides them with increased vigilance and attention, sometimes even lengthening attention spans. It is also useful for boosting focus, concentration, and mental clarity. Studies have shown that it moderately relieves stress, anxiety, and feelings of depression. Choline is a chemical precursor or "building block" needed to produce acetylcholine (one of the brain’s main neurotransmitters), and research suggests that memory, intelligence, and mood are mediated at least in part by acetylcholine metabolism in the brain. Choline and inositol both help keep your brain’s natural choline levels high. (Choline-depletion can be a common issue with other nootropics.)
CORTIGON is an Appetite Suppressant Let’s face it, most people eat way too much, and ironically, there’s no better way to impede your physiological functioning and destroy your body than to give it too much of a good thing. Your body wasn’t designed to have food all the time. On top of that, most people are addicted to foods like sugar and simple carbohydrates that upset their hormonal balance, drain their energy, and lead to all sorts of Western diseases. CORTIGON helps you curb your appetite naturally so that you only eat when it makes sense, and because you’re not slave to your cravings you’re more likely to make the right food choices. You’ll be more alert, have more energy, and be more likely to maintain the body you want. Just this one change can have radical impacts on your overall health and cortisol levels.
CORTIGON is a Cortisol Moderator
In the stress-filled modern lifestyle, one of the most common causes and indicators of hormonal imbalance is high cortisol. Cortisol and testosterone act antithetically, therefore a lower cortisol level often means a higher testosterone level. As you can see, natural nootropics can be a super-effective, and safe, way to eliminate cortisol stress quickly along with a myriad other potent benefits. All-natural nootropics really are the holy grail of human supplementation for performance enhancement. They help you get rid of those limitations by solving the problem right at the source: your brain. So at this point you’re probably curious about this “stack” of nootropics we’ve developed for CORTIGON. I’d love to show you “under the hood” so to speak... This is one of the most incredible ingredient combinations to hit the market in decades...
THE ULTIMATE FORMULA: We made the ultimate nootropic POWERHOUSE stack...
The Main Thing That Makes Cortigon Stand Out From Other Nootropics On the Market is a Combination of 6 Cognitive-Enhancing Nutrients. A lot of nootropics and superfoods pinpoint one promising nutrient and try to present it as the answer to all your problems. The truth is that no one compound can give your body everything it needs. CORTIGON is a unique blend of six different elements that are shown to give amazing cognitive results, creating a well-rounded brain-boosting supplement that will be more likely to create the effect you need. And the six ingredients are more powerful as complementary supplements than they could ever be on their own. It all starts with phosphatidylserine. We’ve been searching for a healthy and reliable solution for enhancing cognition, focus, memory, and mood for quite a few years, and after experimenting with countless natural and synthetic nootropics, we found that out of everything we put under the microscope, phosphatidylserine had the most noticeable effects on cognitive enhancement. It also has research-backed cortisol-modulating capabilities , helping keep testosterone levels high and stress low.
We’ve included Inositol, an effective anxiolytic (anti-anxiety/stress) substance that’s very effective at improving insulin sensitivity. And using Inositol and Choline together not only ensures that your cell membranes are healthy and prevents premature cell death but also improves the fluidity of these membranes so your cells can better absorb necessary nutrients. This can increase the responsiveness of your cells – especially in the brain – so that your cognitive function operates at the highest levels possible.
Oh, and is very rare among nootropics – or any other supplements you buy online.
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And on top of this extremely potent PS + Choline + Inositol, we added three additional supplemental POWERHOUSE ingredients to amplify the effectiveness of every serving. 1. Ginkgo Biloba Leaf Extract is an all-natural nootropic and adaptogenic herbal compound that has been shown to decrease cortisol levels, decrease prolactin levels (prolactin is a pesky hormone that inhibits testosterone production and lowers libido), and enhance cognitive functioning. 2. DHA is an omega 3 fatty acid that is a primary structural component of the human brain, cerebral cortex, sperm, skin, testicles, and retina. Regular DHA supplementation supports optimized brain development and protects neurological function. Omega 3 supplementation in combination with nootropics like PS and Choline has been shown to reliably amplify the cognitive enhancing effect! 3. L-Carnitine is a natural compound (made in the human body and safe for supplementation) that is able to alleviate the effects of aging and disease on mitochondria, while increasing the mitochondria’s ability to burn fat. Taken together, CORTIGON’s custom blend of incredible ingredients becomes a SUPER SUPPLEMENT. And best of all it’s made up of 100% all-natural ingredients, so there are ZERO negative side effects.
If this sounds like something you’re interested in learning more about, please click here to continue reading about CORTIGON and where you can order a bottle today...
