Our bodies deal with stress by releasing cortisol – a hormone. Think of cortisol as nature’s built-in alarm system. It’s your body’s main stress hormone. It works with certain parts of your brain to control your mood, motivation, and fear.

It has three main functions: helping to control the blood sugar level. helping the body deal with stress. helping to control blood pressure and blood circulation.

Our cortisol levels rise when we are under stress and drop when things are calmer. But what happens if our lives are so busy that our cortisol levels never drop?

This can lead to a number of health problems including heart disease, anxiety, weight gain, difficulty sleeping leading to chronic fatigue.

Fortunately, the “Is my lifestyle stressing me out” test from CheqUp allows you to measure and monitor your level of cortisol. You can do this as a one-off or test every month or so. It will tell you whether your levels of cortisol are too high, too low, or about right. That’s peace of mind that everything's under control or an early-warning system that it’s time to make a change.

Cortisol

Cortisol is a steroid hormone produced by the adrenal glands. It is often referred to as the ‘’stress hormone’’. It controls many important pathways including how we use fat, sugar and protein in our body, the ‘’fight or flight’’ response and our sleep/wake cycle.

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