The Link Between Stress, Excess Cortisol and Pain

As study after study continues to reveal and verify, stress, triggered by fear or a perceived threat, prompts the secretion of sympathetic epinephrine and norepinepherine and cortisol.

This response in the short term plays a positive role. For example, cortisol mobilizes glucose reserves for energy.

Chronic pain, however, can cause prolonged stress that, in turn, creates a cycle of unhealthy, excess cortisol secretion. The result can be widespread inflammation and increased pain. A vicious cycle can ensue where excess stress and unwarranted fear could perpetuate cortisol dysfunction, widespread inflammation, and pain.

Bottom line: it’s important to break the cycle of pain, excess cortisol, fear, and more pain.

Helping to break this cycle is one reason why physicians created Sanyx… to mitigate the effects of excess cortisol on target organs.

Work Less Stressful than Home? Yes, Says Cortisol Testing

It’s funny… but if you ask most Americans which is more stressful work or home, work always gets the nod. But not so, says the British newspaper reporting on a study done by a California researcher, Arlie Hochschild.

She was curious why employees at Fortune 500 companies did not take advantage of flex time, part time, maternity leave and other family-friendly benefits. It seems many of us see work as an escape from family problems. In fact, 20% of those she interviewed said they felt more supported and appreciated at work.

Then, Penn State researchers took up Hochschild’s work and recruited 122 men and women, most with ‘good’ jobs (not minimum wage, with salaries between $35K and 75K) and used saliva testing (a la www.i-calq.com and www.MySanyx.com) to measure cortisol levels.

As reported in www.bizpsycho.com/tag/cortisol/: “Over a 3-day period each participant gave a saliva sample which was tested for the level of cortisol, a stress hormone.  Each participant was also asked 6 times a day how happy they felt and how much stress they were under. The researchers found that cortisol levels, a biological marker of stress, were significantly lower at work than at home, indicating lower levels of stress at work.

“Although this goes against the idea that work is stressful it supports the fact that people who work have better levels of mental and physical health than people who don’t work.”

According to Peak Biometric Research, the manufacturers of Sanyx, the physician-created ‘Stress Mitigating Compound’ designed to limit the effects of excess cortisol, “We’ve gotten a lot of anecdotal evidence from Sanyx users who test their cortisol levels with the i-calQ smartphone app (www.i-calQ.com). They say their cortisol is higher on weekends when we suppose they’re spending more time at home.”

Stress and resulting excess cortisol have been called the new American health epidemic. That may seem like an exaggeration, but when we see research like this, it makes you wonder if calling it an epidemic is pretty accurate.