SuppVersity - Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

Don't forget: Cortisol is no stressor, it's released to help us cope w/ stress. While I have repeatedly emphasized that the notion of cortisol as the "muscle-catabolic stress hormone" you have to "keep as low as possible" is fundamentally flawed, there are reasons why you may want to control your cortisol levels within what would be considered the circadian normal zone, i.e. high(er) levels of cortisol that get you going upon waking, lower levels of cortisol in the PM and at night to facilitate optimal glucose control, avoid HPTA suppression (=keep normal thyroid, GH, and testosterone/estrogen levels), allow for healthy and recuperative sleep and so on and so forth. If you are physically healthy and not overweight/obese, you are probably able to achieve this goal if you have the following (health) habits: (1) getting enough sleep (6-8h), (2) adhering to fundamental rules of sleep hygiene (same time, same routine, no blue light exposure before and dur...

Even though their efficacy is still doubted by some doping researchers, the existing evidence leaves little doubt that glucocorticoid doping is as prevalent and efficient as it is risky (Duclos. 2010). If you have read my "all about cortisol"- article from 2013 , you belong to the handpicked elite of fitness enthusiasts, who understand that the glucocorticoid and/or its natural, i.e. cortisone, or artificial, i.e. dexamethasone and prednisone, cousins are not - as many people believe - generally bad for you. Rather than that, the allegedly fat building, muscle burning hormone(s) can, if elevated at the right times and not chronically, help you boost fat loss, strength and overall exercise performance. That's bogus? Well, I know that the vendors of so-called "cortisol-blockers" want to make you believe just that. The effects of the publicly downplayed doping practices in various sports and scientific evidence speak a very different language, though. Chroni...

Always remember: You want to control cortisol, not eradicate it if you want to melt away your belly fat , beat your personal bests and feel just great ! As a SuppVersity  reader, you belong to the chosen few who know that cortisol is not the villain as which it is stigmatized in the fitness industry (obviously to sell supplements | learn more ). Rather than being "bad" or "good", cortisol, a glucocorticoid, i.e. a hormone that keeps your blood glucose stable, and potent anti-inflammatory agent, is more vital than any "vitamin" - in spite of not having the magic "vita" in its name. Whether the effects of this vital adrenal hormone are going to be "bad" or "good" for you, depends mostly on whether it rises and falls according to its natural 24-h rhythm or is chronically low (often labeled adrenal insufficiency) or chronically high. If you want to mess with your cortisol rhythm overtraining is exactly what you "ne...

The way we eat and live is not just obesogenic it is also acidogenic... or is the former just a consequence of the latter?  I've written about the nasty effects of low grade metabolic acidosis which include calcium loss and brittle bones, nitrogen / protein loss and decreased protein synthesis, impaired growth hormone and IGF-1 production and more in a 2013 SuppVersity Science Round-Up  ( read it ). For you, as a SuppVersity veteran who's read this and related articles , it should thus not be surprising that scientists from the  German Aerospace Center in Cologne were now able to establish a new, mechanistic link between the "long-term ingestion of habitually acidifying western diets may constitute an independent risk factor for bone degradation and cardiometabolic diseases" (Buehlmeier. 2015). As Judith Buehlmeier and her colleagues point out, we have long been aware of the ill effects of low-grade metabolic acidosis (LGMA), as induced by high dietary acid lo...