Davinia Taylor: Cortisol Is Not the Enemy, It Is the Signal

By Maya Boyd

“I need to say this clearly, because cortisol has become the most misunderstood hormone of our time.

Cortisol is not a stress hormone.
It is a survival hormone.

Without cortisol, you do not wake up. You do not stand up. You do not think clearly enough to put the kettle on. You would be paralysed. Cortisol mobilises energy. It lifts blood sugar so it can be converted into fuel. It sharpens focus, motivation and reaction time. It is the hormone that kept us alive when threats came out of nowhere in the middle of the night.

Cortisol is ancient biology. It responds fast. It keeps you alive.

Every single day, your body will make cortisol, no matter what. Over and above oestrogen, testosterone, dopamine and serotonin. This hormone comes first because survival comes first. You get a cortisol pulse every morning, and that is exactly when you are meant to get it. Morning cortisol is healthy. Morning cortisol gets you up, alert and capable.

© Catherine Harbour

The problem is not cortisol.
The problem is that we are signalling our bodies to produce it all the time.

Blue light. Screens. Emails at weekends. Social media. Television late at night. Constant noise. Constant urgency. Women are more sensitive to cortisol than men, and we have no real “off” switch anymore. Cortisol isn’t necessarily spiking all day. It’s just always on, when it should be off.

That constant ‘on’ signal shows up as anxiety, cravings, burnout, poor sleep, snappiness, belly fat, water retention, puffy face. Emerging research suggests that cold exposure can help regulate cortisol rhythms in women by improving nervous system recovery and reducing chronic stress signalling. If you are noticing these symptoms more frequently in your mid-to-late 30s, it may be worth looking at underlying hormone and metabolic markers. Our guide to the best at-home health tests by age explores what to track.

“Women are more sensitive to cortisol than men, and we have no real ‘off’ switch anymore. Cortisol isn’t necessarily spiking all day. It’s just always on, when it should be off.”

When the nervous system stays in a chronic state of alertness, the body struggles to shift into repair — where modalities such as acupuncture may help restore balance. And yes, when you hit perimenopause, you feel it more. Not because cortisol has suddenly increased, but because progesterone is dropping. Progesterone used to soften cortisol. When it declines, cortisol feels harsher. Dopamine often drops alongside it, which hits confidence and motivation.

This is why I get so excited talking about menopause as a transition, not a decline. I recently spoke to Mindy Pelz, author of Age Like a Girl, who talks about what she calls the grandmother theory. The energy your body once used for reproduction doesn’t disappear after menopause. It gets redirected. Historically, post-menopausal women became the knowledge keepers. The storytellers. The ones with stamina, clarity and authority. They walked miles. They stopped people-pleasing. They told the truth.

© Alan Strutt

So, what do we do?

First, we stop demonising cortisol and start working with it. Cortisol is coming every day, whether we like it or not, so let’s try to focus that peak in the morning. Get daylight into your eyes early. Do your hardest work then. Exercise then. Think then. Run then. I run brilliantly in the morning because cortisol is higher. In the afternoon, forget it. There’s no buzz because cortisol has done its job.

Then we lean into restoration later in the day. That’s not always romantic. I have four kids. By five o’clock it’s dark, everyone’s hungry, homework is a war zone and I’m exhausted. Ideally, we’d be sitting around a campfire telling ancestral stories. That’s not happening for humanity anymore, so we need to find tools.

L-theanine is one of them. It’s an amino acid derived from green and black tea that increases GABA, which buffers afternoon cortisol. It doesn’t make you numb or dopey. It works beautifully with caffeine, giving calm focus rather than anxious energy. I recommend Willpowders Calm and also, It’s Magnesium Chill. Both contain L-theanine for anxiety and offer overwhelm relief in about 15-20 min.

Carbohydrates are another misunderstood piece. Carbs calm cortisol. That’s why when you get a stressful email, you reach for bread. It’s biological. So, I like carbohydrates at night. Root vegetables. Stews. Sourdough. A proper dinner between five and seven. Carbs increase serotonin, the safety hormone, which then converts to melatonin, the sleep hormone. This is why porridge for breakfast and sandwiches at lunch make no sense to me. The evening is where carbs belong.

If you wake up already stressed – which is one of the most common complaints of our times – Breath of Fire is faster than any pill. There are so many tutorials on YouTube and it really does work. Another breathwork hack is a sharp double inhale through the nose, like a toddler after crying – it clears adrenaline before cortisol floods in. You have about fifteen minutes after a shock before cortisol arrives and lingers. Get ahead of it.

@WillPowders and @Alan Strutt