The biggest myth about the trending ‘Cortisol Cocktail'
Lowering your cortisol levels, according to content creators, is the most recent magic bullet for everything from hair loss to back pain, though overwhelmingly it appears to be a Trojan horse for the comeback of noughties bikini body culture. The latest weapon in 'wellness' TikTok 's fight against stubborn belly fat and 'cortisol face'? The 'Cortisol Cocktail'.
What is the 'Cortisol Cocktail' and does it work?
Recipes vary, but content creators purport a mixture of coconut water (for electrolytes), sea salt (for sodium), fruit juice (usually orange juice for vitamin C), and some sort of extra (be it magnesium powder, or sparkling water for potassium), can help regulate your cortisol levels, supposedly by replenishing nutrients lost when stress causes ' adrenal fatigue '.
It sounds sweet from the surface, but the deeper you dig, the more sour it becomes.
Putting aside the fact that there is no scientific evidence to support the existence of adrenal fatigue (the separate rare condition called adrenal insufficiency is typically caused by an autoimmune disorder and needs to be diagnosed by a doctor), solutions claiming to lower cortisol levels, including the 'Cortisol Cocktail', are flawed from the get-go.
The very premise they lie on is a myth: Cortisol isn't the culprit, it's merely the conveyor belt. High cortisol levels at night, for example, can make it harder for you to fall asleep. But the unusual increase would be in response to a stressor, say, dinner an hour or two earlier with your difficult in-laws. Deal with the stressor, not the natural response to the stressor.
'Changing your cortisol [levels] artificially doesn't work, and [it's] not the reason for the weight gain or the cause of the stress,' says University of Melbourne Professor of Endocrinology Ada Cheung, who is also an endocrinologist. 'The external cause of the stress is what we should be targeting, not the cortisol levels.'
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