What are the effects of cortisol?
cortisol is produced in the body as a natural response to stress. The primary effect of cortisol is the protection of the body in times of crisis. However, if chronic stress is present, it causes excessive cortisol production. There are many negative effects of excessive cortisol production, including memory loss, suppression of the immune system and shortened life. There may also be exhaustion of the gland that produces cortisol. This is called the adrenal fatigue and is the result of a lack of cortisol. High levels of cortisol have been shown to damage the hippocamp of the brain, which is responsible for learning and memory. This can make the brain more difficult to access existing memory and set a new memory. For this reason, people are often difficult to answer questions after the crisis. They do not have access to some memories, while cortisol affects their brain.
Interesting, Cortisol also helps to create memories in times of crisis. With the help of adrenaline, cortisol burn emotionally charged memories into the brain. Serves the purpose of survival to help in the future noTo avoid such stressful situations.
When cortisol levels reach the highest point, some areas of the brain, including hippocamp, send a message to stop cortisol production. Unfortunately, hippocampus is sometimes too damaged by cortisol to function properly, so cortisol flows and continues to destruction. This is one of the most difficult effects of cortisol.
The effects of cortisol also include the suppression of the body's immune system. The purpose of suppressing the immune system is to reduce inflammation in case of injury during the crisis. Reduced blood flow to injury limits pain. This explains why after Victim, Victim usually does not feel the full impact of the injury until the crisis is terminated.
Theganging immune system also leaves the body much less defended against diseases and viruses. Effects of cortisol treatment at lower than normal priority. It turned out that only 20 minutes of stress inhibits the immune system up to three days.
Another example of the negative effects of cortisol is weight gain. If high levels of cortisol often occur in the body, insulin cannot function properly. This leads to an increase in blood sugar, resulting in fat in the abdomen. Excess cortisol also affects the digestive system by causing too much stomach acid in the stomach. This is a very common cause of heartburn.
The most important of all the negative effects of cortisol may be that it literally shortens life. It increases not only blood pressure, but high levels of cortisol weakens the cells of the body. The cells are then more susceptible to damage and age faster.
too much cortisol also slows down collagen production, which is necessary for structural support of the whole body. Studies conducted on rats show that skin tissue suffers from the most loss of collagen when exposed to high levels of cortisol. Wrong and tired skin is included in many cortisol effects.