There are a myriad of known issues which can cause elevated Cortisol levels, and the symptoms listed in the article are the real signs of elevated cortisol. These things could also be called chronic inflammation, or adrenal issues. But they can just as easily be called Cushings disease or Cushings disorder, both of which have many different potential causes, ranging from stress and PTSD to brain tumors, or cancers which produces ACTH. There’s also cyclical Cushings and pseudo Cushings which we don’t know the exact causes of.
But what really pisses me off is your willingness to dismiss the suffering of others because it is not revolutionary or because it could all just be in their head, but that doesn’t piss me off nearly as much as when I heard it from every doctor and specialist I saw for years until finally one of them found a tumor pressing on my adrenal gland, and if it weren’t for articles such as this one I may have just listened to those doctors. So unless you have some breakthrough in chronic illness to announce, please keep your mouth shut until you have something useful to contribute.
Cushings is exactly what I had in mind as a counterpoint. And adrenocarcinomas as well. I’m glad this article may have been helpful for you to keep looking for help instead of letting doctors roll over you.
I don’t have any “breakthroughs in chronic illness” to report. I’m not claiming anything is “all in one’s head” - read what I wrote again, please. My point is that pointing to “excessive cortisol levels” is, have been, a catch-all for all kinds of human suffering that is not reducible to a tidy biological cause. It was the explanation for all depression and anxiety for a while. I have seen it cause real harm in foster children who are being mistreated and cortisol levels (which no one is bothering to measure, people just jump right to "cortisol high so we can ignore everything else that’s going on in their lives), for example.
Suffering is real, full stop. Adjusting your diet to cure a tumor is RFK, Jr.-tier advice. That is not what I am offering. I hear you. Misdiagnosis is not at all uncommon, non-specific symptoms can mean something serious, and it’s an abdication by the medical profession to write it off as something else.
I’m not a doctor. I have a relevant background and I’ve seen real harm happen to real people because of the exact opposite problem that you had. What both share is a medical system that’s happy to disbelieve patients. Some of the people who love to talk about cortisol as the root cause of their kids’ issues while refusing them medical care are RFK, Jr. fans themselves.
I’m not interested in continuing this further, if you have any response to make, by all means respond but I’m leaving this here and disengaging.
My point is that pointing to “excessive cortisol levels” is, have been, a catch-all for all kinds of human suffering that is not reducible to a tidy biological cause. It was the explanation for all depression and anxiety for a while.
Isn’t that more of an issue of getting cause and effect backwards? i.e. high cortisol levels are not the cause of depression/anxiety, etc etc but that high cortisol levels they are caused by high levels of stress, and the stress is what’s causing the depression/anxiety. Measuring cortisol only tells us that someone is stressed, not why or how, so reducing cortisol is basically meaningless. What they actually need is a reduction in stress in order to treat the resulting depression and anxiety.
Like, I have disturbed sleep during the work week, and I sleep fine on the weekend. That’s obviously stress. If my cortisol levels were measured they might be elevated, but all that tells me is what I already know - I’m stressed.
Are you RFK Jr.?
Reread what I wrote, please, and tell me exactly what’s giving you RFK, Jr. vibes. Something is getting lost in communication here.
There are a myriad of known issues which can cause elevated Cortisol levels, and the symptoms listed in the article are the real signs of elevated cortisol. These things could also be called chronic inflammation, or adrenal issues. But they can just as easily be called Cushings disease or Cushings disorder, both of which have many different potential causes, ranging from stress and PTSD to brain tumors, or cancers which produces ACTH. There’s also cyclical Cushings and pseudo Cushings which we don’t know the exact causes of.
But what really pisses me off is your willingness to dismiss the suffering of others because it is not revolutionary or because it could all just be in their head, but that doesn’t piss me off nearly as much as when I heard it from every doctor and specialist I saw for years until finally one of them found a tumor pressing on my adrenal gland, and if it weren’t for articles such as this one I may have just listened to those doctors. So unless you have some breakthrough in chronic illness to announce, please keep your mouth shut until you have something useful to contribute.
Cushings is exactly what I had in mind as a counterpoint. And adrenocarcinomas as well. I’m glad this article may have been helpful for you to keep looking for help instead of letting doctors roll over you.
I don’t have any “breakthroughs in chronic illness” to report. I’m not claiming anything is “all in one’s head” - read what I wrote again, please. My point is that pointing to “excessive cortisol levels” is, have been, a catch-all for all kinds of human suffering that is not reducible to a tidy biological cause. It was the explanation for all depression and anxiety for a while. I have seen it cause real harm in foster children who are being mistreated and cortisol levels (which no one is bothering to measure, people just jump right to "cortisol high so we can ignore everything else that’s going on in their lives), for example.
Suffering is real, full stop. Adjusting your diet to cure a tumor is RFK, Jr.-tier advice. That is not what I am offering. I hear you. Misdiagnosis is not at all uncommon, non-specific symptoms can mean something serious, and it’s an abdication by the medical profession to write it off as something else.
I’m not a doctor. I have a relevant background and I’ve seen real harm happen to real people because of the exact opposite problem that you had. What both share is a medical system that’s happy to disbelieve patients. Some of the people who love to talk about cortisol as the root cause of their kids’ issues while refusing them medical care are RFK, Jr. fans themselves.
I’m not interested in continuing this further, if you have any response to make, by all means respond but I’m leaving this here and disengaging.
Isn’t that more of an issue of getting cause and effect backwards? i.e. high cortisol levels are not the cause of depression/anxiety, etc etc but that high cortisol levels they are caused by high levels of stress, and the stress is what’s causing the depression/anxiety. Measuring cortisol only tells us that someone is stressed, not why or how, so reducing cortisol is basically meaningless. What they actually need is a reduction in stress in order to treat the resulting depression and anxiety.
Like, I have disturbed sleep during the work week, and I sleep fine on the weekend. That’s obviously stress. If my cortisol levels were measured they might be elevated, but all that tells me is what I already know - I’m stressed.