Cortisol - solutions

[russkaya]

Even though many of us are not aware of it, cortisol plays a huge role in weight gain and insulin resistance.
Here is a brief description:
http://stress.about.com/od/stresshealth/a/cortisol.htm

Cortisol is dangerous not only for people with high emotional stress levels (pretty much all of us these days), but also for lifters and people who exercise intensively.
In my personal experience, I've had extremely high levels of emotional stress for the last 6-7 years, mostly due to the PCOS symptoms, depression etc.
The result - storage of fat in the abdominal area, anxiety, digestion problems.
I have never paid much mind to this matter, until recently, when I've been exercising at the top of my ability, and not losing any weight whatsoever. That includes lifting, regular interval cardio, HIIT, sports, martial arts, basically most of my day is taken up by exercise, burning well over 1500 calories a day. I figured if I try harder, I'll definitely lose weight. I was very wrong - by overworking myself, I was producing even higher levels of cortisol, which led my body to hold on to the abdominal fat like it was a matter of life and death, and catabolize lean muscle mass that I've been working so hard to gain.
The reason is cortisol. See our brain does not know the difference between a tiger chasing us, a traffic jam, or a very intense work out. To release cortisol is a natural survival mechanism.
I've researched around and found the following:

Recovox - a supplement for athletes to lower cortisol during hard training, also works for high stress levels, or any other situation when cortisol could spike (such as high blood sugar, it also makes the body produce more cortisol).
The main ingrediet of it is Phosphatydil Serine(PS) - a cognitive enhancer which lowers high cortisol levels (Note that if the cortisol levels are normal or low, it will not lower them), therefore speeds up recovery from work outs and injuries.
What I've started doing just a few days ago is taking a regular dose of Recovox (2 caps) + an extra 100mg of PS.
In just 3 days, that has done wonders for me. I feel literally brand new, my focus and concentration levels have gone up, I'm thinking much clearer, I'm much less sore from lifting (and also have more energy to lift more and heavier), stress and depression just don't seem to stick, and finally, I've lost a pound! (I know it's too early to judge wether I've actually lost it, but for weeks the scale would not move from one spot, until recently)

If you think this could be your situation, or if you're stressed out, or just body building on a regular basis - give it a try, you'll love it! There are no side effects whatsoever.

[Eva37]

hi

thanks for sharing this.
eva

[russkaya]

Update to this: A day before yesterday I've received an injury to my back (and my back is a mess of misalignments due to aikido) that left me hardly able to walk, it felt like I had sharp knives for ligaments in my inner thighs. I've had this happen before a few times after bad falls - normally took 2-3 weeks to heal. Well, today, its all gone. How: I took a rest from lifting, only stuck with 60% HR cardio for a day and only for 1 hr, increased my calorie and vitamin consumption, and took a double dose of Recovox (also made sure I don't worry too much, there is always plenty to worry about). Honestly, I'm simply amazed at this, I can return back to training in just 2 days after such a painful injury. This probably sounds like I'm trying to sell something, lol, but it has made such a huge difference for me I can't help but share.