Cortisol is a hormone that helps your body maintain a healthy daily rhythm of energy management. It normally rises in the morning to help us wake up and get going, then gradually falls throughout the day, decreasing to low levels late in the day to allow for a good night’s sleep.
But as we’ve explained in another video, cortisol is also a stress-related hormone that responds to perceived danger by releasing fuel into the bloodstream. When it’s the kind of danger that might require you to fight or escape, that extra fuel can come in handy. But if the danger that is perceived is not something you can respond to physically, such as an unexpected expense that threatens your bank balance, that extra fuel has to be put back into storage in your body, and it tends to be stored as visceral fat in the abdomen, which increases risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
And if perceived danger is present over long periods of time, cortisol may be chronically elevated, which as associated with higher risks for
- High blood pressure
- Insulin resistance
- higher blood sugar
- Abdominal weight gain
- Increased cardiovascular risk
- Poor sleep
In the modern world, it’s nearly impossible to avoid such stresses. But there is something you can do to help your body regulate its cortisol levels and reduce those risks.
Research suggests that regular practice of non-strenuous activities such as tai chi, qigong, and yoga can help the body regulate cortisol more effectively over time. People who practiced these exercises regularly often showed:
- Lower cortisol levels
- Healthier daily cortisol patterns, with higher levels in the morning and lower levels later in the day
- Less exaggerated cortisol response to stress
- Improvements in overall well-being
Most of the studies that produced these results involved doing 30-60 minutes of these exercises three times a week, and both the American Heart Association and the Centers for Disease Control recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise each week. But there is also evidence that just 5-7 minutes of light exercise every morning can reduce risk for heart disease and diabetes.
Putting it all together, there’s good reason to think that starting your day with 5-7 minutes of tai chi, qigong, or yoga will have a positive impact on your health and reduce your risk for two of the most common causes of illness in the industrialized world—cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
But keep in mind that to get those results you’ll need be consistent in your morning routine, and add to it three or more longer sessions of exercise each week.
You can find more information on these topics in the references for this video.
