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Have you noticed lately that your face looks puffier than it used to when you were younger?
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Have you noticed lately that your face looks puffier than it used to when you were younger?
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Your eyes seem more tired. Your waistline keeps growing. Even though your diet hasn't changed much, and no matter how much you sleep, you're still exhausted. Most people chalk it up to aging.
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But what if these visible changes are happening because your cortisol, the stress hormone, is running higher than it should? Left unchecked, high cortisol doesn't just make you feel worn down. It is really destructive to your health and it leaves clues written all over your body if you know where to look. Hello health champions. Today we're going to talk about 10 signs of high cortisol that you can literally see in the mirror on your face and all over your body.
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And we're going to go through these 10 signs from mild and early to as they progress toward more severe and later signs. And the first one we're going to talk about is if you get dark circles under your eyes or if your eyes look tired. This is very often one of the earliest signs of high cortisol. And the reason for this is that cortisol will disrupt your sleep cycle.
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And if you don't get the proper amount of sleep or the quality of sleep now, you could have your eyes develop dark circles or they might look sunken in appearance. And the reason cortisol does this is that it opposes your sleep hormone melatonin. And the body is really really smart. And whenever we have stress and we release cortisol, the cortisol is there to respond to the stress to generate resources for the body so we can deal with the stress. So we can run, so we can fight, so we can raise blood sugar and get more energy. And during a state of stress, that is the opposite of peace. And in order to go to sleep, we need to be peaceful. We need to relax. We need to wind down. And that's where the melatonin comes in. So stress and peace are really the opposite states. And therefore the body is going to have one, namely the cortisol shut off the melatonin.
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And why does the cortisol take the upper hand? Because if you're in a fightlight situation, if you are in danger, it's not a great time to be sleepy. Sign number two is acne or oily skin.
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And the reason is that cortisol will stimulate and in fact overstimulate the oil glands in your skin.
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And this doesn't just happen to young people when it's because of cortisol. It will happen a lot to older people, middle-aged people, and you could get a flare up or an outbreak. But it's also very important when we watch videos like this where we talk about signs that we have to look at them in context. We have to understand what are they telling us. So just because you have acne as an adult does not mean that you have a high cortisol level because there's many many other things that could cause it and that's why it's so important that we understand these mechanisms so that we can put together the bigger picture. So in this case we want to look at some differential diagnosis meaning other things that could cause it as well. And the number one thing that is extremely common these days is that we have a disrupted gut biome. That we have a poor bacterial culture and because of that we have a certain level of gut inflammation because now we're going to increase the permeability of your intestinal membrane. And a lot of toxins and things are going to get out in the blood that were never supposed to cross that gut membrane. And if these toxins get out in the bloodstream now, they create systemwide inflammation and allergies and sensitivity reactions. And a lot of people will have skin issues. In fact, it's probably the most common reason for skin issues today. Other than the possibility that it also could be the high cortisol level. Sign number three is if you get a puffy and rounded face. And this could happen because there are two adrenal hormones called cortisol and eldoststerone. They're called also known as mineralcorticoids, meaning they affect your levels, your balance and regulation of minerals and electrolytes and therefore also of fluid balance. So if your cortisol levels go up, chances are your eldoststerone levels might also go up and thereby cause a certain amount of fluid retention and that could give your face and neck a fuller appearance. But in addition to that, cortisol also changes where your body is going to store fat. So the fat deposits are going to be very specific when they're due to cortisol. In fact, they're going to be happening on your face. They're going to increase on your face, on your neck, and on your trunk. So face would be a little bit more rounded. On the neck, it's going to deposit mostly on the upper back of the neck.
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And then it's called a buffalo hump. And it's if you push at it, it's like a fat pad up at the top of the thoracic spine. And then of course the hallmark is also on the trunk on the belly. That's what we call the intraabdominal or the visceral fat. So with high cortisol levels the body will have a tendency to specifically put fat in these three places. Another thing that will happen that can contribute to that is that cortisol will also cause a protein breakdown. And we're going to come back to that in more detail. And if you break down the protein, then it's going to take some of that protein out of muscles on your arms and your legs. And if your arms and legs get thinner, that could make everything else appear even bigger. Sign number four is postural changes. And here there are two different mechanisms. So one is immediate. This will happen in a split second. That's your sympathetic response, your immediate neurological stress response. And what happens here is if you have an acute stress response, you're going to try to defend yourself. You're going to go into a defense posture. And now your flexor muscles are going to turn in. Your shoulders are going to roll in and forward. And they're going to pull up. And all of these are defense mechanisms. If you get attacked, so you want to pull your shoulders up to protect your neck. You bite your jaw down to protect your jaw. And there are many many other mechanisms like that. But as a result, the most common thing is when you pull your shoulders up and forward, you're going to have a bit of a hunched uh leaning posture like that. But one more thing that's going on, which is more long-term, is that cortisol on the biochemical level now is going to also weaken some postural muscles.
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And this goes back to the fact that it's going to steal protein from the large muscles and turn it into glucose because the purpose of cortisol is to raise blood glucose. If you have chronically high levels, then we're going to tend to steal protein from the muscles chronically. And then cortisol further contributes to tightening these flexor muscles and to relaxing and to causing a loss of strength in these same muscles. And in doing that, what cortisol does, it makes that response, that sympathetic response that we get immediately, cortisol tends to reinforce that and make it more permanent. So if it's a short-term stress, which we are designed for, which is very healthy, then it's not a problem. But if we get chronic stress resulting in chronically elevated cortisol levels, now we can start seeing these postural changes. Sign number five is abdominal fat. And cortisol, like I mentioned, is going to favor fat storage in three places. The face, the neck, and the abdomen.
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But there's two types of abdominal fat. We're not talking about the love handles, which is subcutaneous fat. That means it sits right under the skin, but outside of your abdominal cavity.
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The fat that we're talking about with cortisol is the intraabdominal or the visceral fat, which is associated with the apple shape of the body. And why is this so often referred to as bad?
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Why is this so much worse to have the visceral fat than to have the subcutaneous fat with the love handles? It's not that the visceral fat is a different type of tissue specifically or that it's evil or is going to do something. The reason it's bad is because of the way it developed. The fact that it's caused by cortisol. And what this indicates is that we had a lot of chronic stress that led up to the development and the deposit of that fat. So if we've had a lot of stress, that means for extended periods of time, we have been in a state of stress where we had an increased urgency. We had an increased defense where the body's resources were allocated to defending ourselves, to dealing with urgent stuff, but it does that at the expense of healing and repair.
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So that is really bad for our health. If we have chronic stress, that means we are chronically not healing, not getting healthy. And that is why this visceral fat is so bad. It's not the fat itself. It's that it's result of cortisol and the state of stress which does not allow us to heal and maintain things properly. And sign number six is if you get thin arms and legs and a flat butt.
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So why does this happen? Because I mentioned cortisol is a stress hormone. The main purpose of cortisol is to increase blood sugar. Because if you're running from a bear, if you're dealing with stress that lasts more than a couple of seconds, now you're going to need more blood sugar to deal with that. And the chemical messenger that tells the body to do that, that makes that possible, that extra blood sugar, is the hormone cortisol. And if you don't have time to stop by the snack bar while the bear is chasing you, now you have to generate it internally. And the process is called gluconneogenesis. And we can do some of this with our stored glycogen in the liver. But at the same time, if we have a lot of stress, the body is not only going to take it from the liver, it is also going to take it from the muscles. So it can use glycogen and turn that into glucose. Or it can use protein from the muscles and turn that into glucose. So, it's going to cause a breakdown of muscles if we have chronically high levels of cortisol. And it only makes sense to try to get the protein where there is the most of it, which will be in the large muscles. And also, if you start with the large muscles, then you can take some and there's still going to be some left.
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So, this tends to affect the big muscles like arms, legs, and the butt, the glutius maximus.
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And this is why you see all these people running around with a big belly and with skinny legs and a flat butt. It is cortisol doing this. Sign number seven is if your hair starts thinning or if you start losing hair. And the reason here is that cortisol will disrupt the growth cycle of the hair follicle which keeps the hair growing and healthy. But what's important to understand is this is very different from male pattern baldness which you can observe on yours truly for example because with male pattern baldness it follows a very typical pattern. It's going to start with the hairline receding at the temples. It's going to thin out over the top and over the crown.
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But this happens in a very predictable pattern that we can observe. it progresses slowly over the years. And another characteristic is that the remaining hair is typically going to be of a very good quality. It's not thin and brittle. If the hair loss or hair thinning is cortisol driven, however, now it's going to be thinning diffusely kind of evenly all across the head and you will probably notice some excessive shedding. It will seem like your hair is falling out. You find it in the sink. You find it in the shower. You can often notice this shedding as you're brushing your hair or taking a shower. And you will also notice if there is one point that's thinning more, it's typically going to be at the crown, not at the temples. And another important difference is that while male pattern baldness is primarily genetically driven, this is physiologically driven and therefore it is often possible to stabilize it and even to reverse it if you fully handle the root cause. If you can handle your stress and all the biochemical reasons that you have it, then the hair can very often come back. Sign number eight is easy bruising. And we've already talked about the mechanism here, but it ties into skin as well. So cortisol tries to raise blood sugar and the body needs to perform gluconneogenesis. It needs to make blood sugar from something and one of the things it's going to use is protein. So we talked about the large muscles being sources of protein, but another source is collagen that we have in bone and in skin. So the bone is going to be less available because it's locked in with minerals. That's a much slower process, but the body will start attacking the skin and the collagen and also the other connective tissue in the body. And like we said, the body breaks down these tissues to increase blood sugar through gluconneogenesis. Cortisol is telling the body, whatever you have to do in this crisis, just make sure you find the protein somewhere. Burn bridges, break down tissue, I don't care.
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we have to have this. And as a result, with excess cortisol, you're going to end up with thinner and less elastic skin. It's going to look kind of like parchment. It is going to look dry and brittle, and it's also going to bruise easier. And we're going to put number nine on the same slide because it's tied in to the same thing. And number nine is red or purple stretch marks.
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And these can show up on your abdomen or on your thighs. So what's happening now is that cortisol will cause a selective fat deposit like we talked about. And if we deposit fat on the abdomen and it grows, we can develop stretch marks. But at the same time, these stretch marks are going to get worse because the body doesn't have the proper protein supply because the protein is going to make glucose instead of tissue. Sign number 10 is slow wound healing. So now we've gone from the less severe signs to the more severe signs. So these are only going to happen when you have a chronically a high level for a long time to really manifest all these changes. And again there's two different things that are happening here. One is a neurological instantaneous sympathetic response. This is your fightlight. Just like you get attacked, your posture is going to change.
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Well the same thing is going to happen with all your body's priorities. So with a stress response, your body is going to repprioritize. It's going to deprioritize healing and repair. So procreation, the ability to heal and repair your immune system, those are all longterm important things, but they're not important in the moment that you have an emergency. So therefore, whenever you have that stress response, all of the important health functions, long-term health functions like healing and repair, they're going to take a backseat. So your neurologic response, your sympathetic response does it mostly with electrical signals. And it happens instantaneously and it's going to try to change these priorities by how it allocates blood, by blood flow. It's going to constrict the blood to certain areas and it's going to increase the blood to other areas and the cortisol will do the same thing but it will do it at the biochemical levels. It will do it through chemistry. So both of these mechanisms will say that healing wounds that's a long-term thing. We don't really care about that now that you have an acute stress response. And then on top of this, we also like we talked about on the other slides, we also have less protein available for that wound healing. But what's important to understand is that the body's hormones are natural. Insulin is a natural hormone. Cortisol is a natural hormone. They help us stay alive when we live a balanced life. But when our sleep, when our diet, when our stress levels are off the chart, when they are out of balance, now these hormones get pushed to a point where they start becoming destructive and they're not helping our health. But it's not the hormones themselves, they're just indicators of what we're doing. If you enjoyed this video, you're going to love that one. And if you truly want to master health by understanding how the body really works, make sure you subscribe, hit that bell, and turn on all the notifications so you never miss a lifesaving video.
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Context & Background
In this enlightening video, the speaker discusses the physiological effects of cortisol, the stress hormone, on the body. He explains how elevated cortisol levels manifest visibly and physically, affecting aspects such as facial appearance, skin conditions, and even fat distribution. This information serves as a valuable resource for those looking to understand the interaction between stress and health, making it a great topic for English learners focusing on health-related vocabulary and concepts.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- “Have you noticed lately…?” - A useful phrase to initiate a conversation about personal observations.
- “One of the earliest signs…” - This phrase can help you articulate observations effectively in discussions about health.
- “It is really destructive to your health…” - A strong way to express urgency about a health issue.
- “If you don’t get the proper amount of sleep…” - This phrase emphasizes the importance of sleep, which can be applied in various conversations about health and well-being.
- “It’s not just about the fat…” - A phrase that suggests discussing deeper implications beyond surface-level observations, particularly useful in academic or healthcare dialogues.
Step-by-step Shadowing Guide
To effectively incorporate the insights from this video into your english speaking practice, follow this structured shadow speech method:
- Listen Actively: Start by listening to the video without distractions. Pay close attention to the speaker’s tone and clarity.
- Pause and Repeat: After a sentence or an important point, pause the video and repeat what the speaker has said. Focus on mimicking the intonation and pace to improve english pronunciation.
- Record Yourself: Record your repetitions to evaluate your pronunciation and fluency. This will help identify areas for improvement.
- Engage with Context: Consider how the phrases and topics discussed relate to your life. Use them in various scenarios, like discussing health with friends, to create conversational fluency.
- Join a Community: Share your recordings with peers or in an online community dedicated to improving English. This will provide feedback and further enhance your learning experience.
Incorporating this shadowspeaks method will not only enhance your speaking skills but also deepen your understanding of health-related terminology, making your English interactions richer and more engaging.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.
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