A Doctor's Guide to Lowering Cortisol: 5 Science-Based Methods
Discover the science-backed, 20-second technique that instantly lowers your stress levels. Dr. Kerry Winge reveals simple, equipment-free methods to regulate cortisol that you can start using today. From game-changing breathing exercises to sleep optimization strategies, learn how to take control of your stress response naturally. This episode covers everything from morning sunlight exposure to proper hydration, helping you create a sustainable approach to stress management.
Featuring practical tips on:
Instant stress relief techniques
Sleep optimization
Hydration strategies
Food choices for cortisol control
Exercise timing for maximum benefit
Protein Bar Recipe:
Ingredients:
• 1 cup almond butter (healthy fats, magnesium)
• 1 scoop collagen or plant-based protein (muscle repair, gut health)
• 2 tbsp raw cacao powder (reduces cortisol, rich in antioxidants)
• 1 tbsp ashwagandha powder (adaptogen to lower stress)
• 2 tbsp chia or flax seeds (fiber & omega-3s for hormone balance)
• ¼ cup unsweetened shredded coconut (healthy fats)
• 2 tbsp honey or monk fruit sweetener
• 1 tsp cinnamon (stabilizes blood sugar)
• Pinch of sea salt
Mix all ingredients, press into a pan, chill for 30 minutes, then slice into bars!
Transcript
Dr. Kerry Winge: [0:00] Welcome to the Bottoms Up Podcast. I'm Dr. Kerry Winge, and today we're diving into something that affects all of us, cortisol. It's our body's stress hormone. So whether you're crushing it at work, living out of a suitcase, or just feeling overwhelmed by life's daily chaos, I'm about to share some game-changing, science-based hacks to keep your cortisol in check. There's no complicated routines, no expensive gadgets, just simple strategies that actually work. And hey, we're even going to do a quick stress reset together. So if you haven't already, check out last week's episode where we go over exactly what cortisol is, what happens if it's too high, what happens if it's too low, and actually how to test those levels. So a quick reminder, this content is for educational purposes only. So always consult your healthcare provider before making health decisions. This information that I'm providing is science-based and it's practical and it's useful. So it doesn't matter where you are. So if you're in the car or at the gym, if you're taking a break, if you are at a birthday party, it doesn't matter. You're going to be walking away with something that you can actually do today.
Dr. Kerry Winge: [1:20] Okay, so why don't we try a 20-second stress reset together, just right now. I'm going to teach you something called boxed breathing, or 4-4-4-4. So I want you to stop what you're doing and just take a deep breath into your lower belly for four seconds. Just try. Put your hand on your lower belly, right below that belly button, above your pubic bone. Take a deep breath in through your nose for four seconds.
Dr. Kerry Winge: [1:54] Now hold your breath for four seconds. One, two, three, four. Go ahead and exhale for four seconds out of your nose as well. One, two, three, four. And hold your breath. One, two, three, four. Boom. You've just lowered your stress response in under 20 seconds. It's pretty simple, right? Now, the box breathing is called a box because it is four. Up one four, hold for four, exhale for four, hold for four. Very simple. Now, to decrease those cortisol levels, it works if you try to increase the amount of time that you're exhaling. That will drop and downtrain your nervous system. Again, there's no equipment needed. So once you feel comfortable with the 4-4-4 box breathing, now try the 4-4-7-4 breathing. So it's breathing in for four. And by the way, when you breathe in, your tummy should get big and come into your hands. And then you hold for four seconds. Pull your tummy tight towards your spine.
Dr. Kerry Winge: [3:13] Exhale slowly for seven seconds. And then hold your breath for four seconds. Again, four, four, seven, four. Breathe in, hold, exhale longer, hold. That's it. That's how you're gonna lower your cortisol.
Now, moving on to hack number two to lower your cortisol is sleep. Sleep has to be prioritized, and it's also non-negotiable. Non-negotiable for dropping your cortisol, and non-negotiable if you want to have any chance at weight loss. So one of the things that we can do is we can work on sticking to that consistent sleep schedule.
Nathaniel DeSantis: [4:02] Let's go ahead and define consistent sleep schedule if we could because to me it can mean one of two things. It can mean either like I get eight hours of sleep every night or I go to bed at 11 p.m. and I wake up at 7 a.m. and then that's my consistency is every day it's 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. or is it just like I get eight hours but it doesn't matter if I go to bed at 11 every night if I go to bed at 1 a.m.
Dr. Kerry Winge: [4:27] Every night you want your sleep wake cycle to be the same every night so if it is 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. Or it doesn't matter if it's even 12 to 7 you want to get a minimum of seven hours of sleep. But you want to do this as well on the weekends. You don't want your sleep schedule to vary more than an hour. The other thing that's important is to avoid blue light an hour before bed, because the blue light will disrupt your cortisol levels, and you find blue light on phones, TVs, and laptops. They all disrupt your melatonin. If you remember from the first episode, your cortisol is supposed to drop, and your melatonin is supposed to elevate to help you get into the sleep.
Nathaniel DeSantis: [5:17] I have a quick question about this.
Dr. Kerry Winge: [5:18] Sure.
Nathaniel DeSantis: [5:19] My phone, I have an iPhone. It has a feature where every night at like 7 p.m. it switches over to like orange light. Is that good? Is that actually like orange light? Is it still blue light that's just being tinted orange and just as bad for me?
Dr. Kerry Winge: [5:36] No, that's amber light. That is a great feature that the iPhone does offer. I'm not sure. I can't speak for the Galaxy and the other phones just because I'm an iPhone user myself. But you do want to change into a night shift mode. And that is also the amber light. The other thing that you can do to help your sleep is to use magnesium or some adaptogens like Ashwagandha. That will help your sleep quality. But using Ashwagandha takes a few weeks for your body to adjust for you to get the benefits. The magnesium is pretty immediate. And magnesium itself is also a smooth muscle relaxer. So not only will it help with sleep, but it will help with your gut and help with your bowel regulation. And in addition, getting morning sunlight will actually help keep your cortisol rhythms balanced. So 10 to 15 minutes of sunlight first thing in the morning is going to be very balancing for your system. It gives it the ability to wake up and wake up naturally.
Nathaniel DeSantis: [6:39] There was a period of time in my life where I lived in Brussels, Belgium for a little bit. And if anybody here has been to Brussels, you know, it's like raining there almost every single day. So what do I do on a cloudy day? Like when the sky is overcast, what am I supposed to do?
Dr. Kerry Winge: [6:54] No change. Get outside. You're still going to be exposed to sunlight. If you're indoors, you can also use a light therapy device to mimic natural sunlight. There's one on Amazon that you can get called the Happy Light. So science actually says that morning light exposure helps regulate your cortisol and it improves your energy and your sleep. So that is by Chronobiology International, and that was a 2022 study.
Nathaniel DeSantis: [7:17] I'm a big fan of getting sunlight first thing in the morning and going on walks first thing in the morning. But I guess my follow-up question to all of this is that there are certainly going to be people listening who maybe have to travel a lot for work, or just travel for fun even. And, you know, they might not be able to do some of these things. So what advice do we have for people who have to travel or who have a busy life, things like that in general?
Dr. Kerry Winge: [7:47] Sure. And that's probably more common than not, right? You're traveling or you're in back-to-back meetings or you're just stretched, I mean, stretched really thin. It is important, just like we talked about sleep, you have to keep that sleep schedule consistent, even if you travel to different time zones. So try to sleep and wake within one hour of your normal schedule, but you want to stay aligned with your home time zone. So if it's Eastern time zone and you're out in Pacific, you have to adjust that back by three hours, which is not that hard to do if you're having a short trip. So you want to stay on your same rhythm. But also, like if you're in a hotel, you want to use your blackout curtains, eye masks, earplugs, white noise machines, anything to improve the hotel sleep. I usually bring my own pillow and that really helps. And you want to skip your caffeine and your alcohol before bed because that as well is going to elevate the cortisol levels and disrupt your sleep.
Nathaniel DeSantis: [8:53] Alcohol is very embedded in a lot of cultures and a lot of what we do. And when I stopped drinking, I realized how embedded it is. But it's not easy sometimes for everyone to just stop, not because alcoholics or anything, but because it is very cultural and importance in a lot of places. So for those people who are like, Kerry, I hear you. I'm still going to have my drinks. Is there a best alcohol and is there a worst alcohol for this?
Dr. Kerry Winge: [9:21] Sure. Yeah. So worst, hands down, beer, sugary cocktails, sweet wines. Because they're all going to spike your blood sugar right away. Also, drink in moderation, because the excessive alcohol consumption does the same thing. So moderation is always key. You want to stick with one to two drinks max, and you want to hydrate well to minimize that cortisol disruption. But red wine itself in moderation, it contains the polyphenols and the resveratrol, which help combat that oxidative stress and it can regulate your inflammation. The other one that is a better choice is tequila with 100% of the agave because there's going to be lower sugar in that tequila. So that's going to have less impact overall on your blood sugar and it's going to lead to a reduced cortisol spike. And then vodka and gin, like if you have it with soda and a lime, those clear spirits that don't have any added sugar are going to also reduce the blood sugar fluctuations and your cortisol impact.
Nathaniel DeSantis: [10:35] I like to have a drink and then have my water and then have a drink and then water. And I really sip that water for as long as I can because I feel like it helps kind of minimize the negative impacts. And I think I might've mentioned this on the last episode, but the thing about alcohol is because our body views it as a poison, everything kind of shuts down to get that poison out of our system. So give your body time to process and get that out of its system really helps, not just with cortisol, but with a lot of other things. So I just want to emphasize the healthy drinking habits here because I remember being in college and I did not take those water laps. So take them, please. Okay. So we're on the topic of water and drinking and something, I don't know if people know this, but alcohol dehydrates you. And so does anything physical. Going to the gym dehydrates you. Living dehydrates you, right? We do a lot of things in our day-to-day that dehydrate us. Fasting dehydrates you. So maybe we can talk about, the relationship and any hacks you have between electrolytes, dehydration, cortisol, and how that kind of ties in with all the things that we've been talking about.
Dr. Kerry Winge: [11:51] Sure. So you want to take in your electrolytes when your body is under stress. So if you are drinking enough water, you do not have to have electrolytes on a daily basis. But just like you said, when you are working out, if you have been drinking, it's good actually to have electrolytes into that Gatorade and drink your electrolytes before you go to bed at night after you've had a night of alcohol. Or if you're stressed or if there's change in time zones when you're traveling, all of those are good times to drink electrolytes. But sometimes people overdo it. You know, they'll have two and three a day and they're not working out. Well, your body is not requiring that at the point in time. So just give your system the electrolytes when it is and when it's needed. So if you're drinking, you know, water, what you really want to do is you want to drink half your body weight in ounces in water. So 140 pound woman would average 70 ounces of water. And in order to stay hydrated, you want to avoid excessive caffeine because that's going to dehydrate you and increase your cortisol. But the easiest thing to do in the morning is why don't you start your day off with water?
Dr. Kerry Winge: [13:07] That way you know, you know, you have 20 to 30 ounces before you even go to work. That's going to be a win-win, but it is better to actually take that water and sip it throughout the day. So if you work out in the morning, get your water in, refill your water, take it to work, and make sure by the time you go to bed at night that you've met your goal.
Nathaniel DeSantis: [13:32] So along those lines of staying hydrated is paying attention to what we're eating.
Dr. Kerry Winge: [13:39] Yeah, we have to see our food as medicine. Science actually says high glycemic meals spike cortisol. Why balanced meals stabilize it? That was found in Nutrients Magazine 2021. And the first meal of the day is your breakfast. So there's the first opportunity that you have to start with proteins and healthy fats. But the problem is, the first thing that people will reach for half the time is a sugary breakfast. And one of the worst products in the market, breakfast cereals, like Cheerios. So it's important to know, like, how do you carry cortisol-friendly snacks when you're on the go? What categories are they? Well, nuts, seeds, protein bars. So when you are choosing a protein bar, there is key nutrients that you can look for. You want to make sure that there is 10 to 20 grams of protein per bar. And you want a bar that is low in sugar. So under five grams, because that's going to avoid your insulin spikes, which obviously can contribute to your stress and inflammation that we've been talking about. Healthy fats is another good ingredient in there.
Dr. Kerry Winge: [14:59] That contain nuts, seeds, you might see some MCT oil in the bar, and that's going to support your brain function and help with your stress levels. The adaptogens that we talked about, like the ashwagandha, the rhodiola, the reishi mushrooms, those will help regulate your cortisol levels. And really look for magnesium and B vitamins, because that's going to support your nervous system function and your ability to adapt to stress. The other ingredients that is often in these bars and is beneficial for you are a prebiotic fiber and probiotics because that's going to improve your gut health. It's going to help your cortisol regulation. So if you want complete control over these ingredients, you can actually try making your own bars.
Nathaniel DeSantis: [15:49] And if you do want to make your own bar, we will put a link in the description and the show notes for you to go see a recipe that we recommend. It's very simple and very easy to do. But that being said, not everyone has the time to make their own bars at home. If you do, obviously do that and tag us on social media. You can find those links down below as well. If you do make our recipe, it's very good, but if you don't have the time to do that, do you have any store-bought brands that are good? Any like, what are good brands you recommend?
Dr. Kerry Winge: [16:19] Yeah, actually I do. These brands are pretty easy to find as well. The Aloha Protein Bar, it's pretty gut-friendly. It's low glycemic. The Bulletproof Collagen Bar has MCT and collagen for stress resilience. Then there's a bar called the Perfect Bar. That one, it's a whole food option. It's one of my favorites. It's pretty nutrient-dense. But my all-time favorite is the Go Macro Balance Bar because it has healthy fats, magnesium, and it's pretty clean. And there's also one called Rise, the Rise Bar. It also has pretty simple digestible ingredients. Most of the flavors there are dairy-free, but you have to read the labels.
Nathaniel DeSantis: [17:06] And while we're on the topic of store-bought bars, if you're paying close attention, you might notice that something to look out for is low sugar. Keep it under five grams. Something that's tricky is that a lot of companies these days have discovered that they can put zero grams of sugar on a label and use artificial sweeteners because those don't count as the sugar and they're not carbs. And technically it is zero grams of sugar and it's zero grams of carbs. What happens though is a lot of those artificial sweeteners spike your insulin even more than sugar does. So you really want to read the labels. We'll do a whole different deep dive into insulin, into reading labels and how to understand the trickery that goes into all of that because it really is designed to trick you. Because it's easy to see zero grams of sugar and be like, "This is healthy." So just a PSA, be aware of that when you're doing it.
Nathaniel DeSantis: [17:59] Something that I like as well, if you want to do an option, if you're super lazy and you don't want to make the homemade protein bar, and if you don't want to buy something from the store, something I do to sustain my energy levels through the day, this is very keto, is I will get some butter, store-bought butter, I'll put it in my coffee and I will drink that. I know it sounds weird. Just trust me. It will hold your energy and it'll get you through to lunch at a minimum. And I suppose I think that's called bulletproof coffee, but my favorite butter that I recommend is actually, could you take a guess?
Nathaniel DeSantis: [18:38] Kerrygold. Kerrygold, the gold pack, the gold Kerrygold, the salted one. It's delicious. It'll hold you through and trust me, it's great. You'll never go back once you start. You really won't. Costco has a great deal on it because it can be pricey at other stores, but at Costco you get a ton. But this actually does remind me, you mentioned this a few times so far in this episode. Coffee, you have said that coffee in excess, I assume even just a cup, raises your cortisol levels. That to me is terrifying because I drink at least like half a pot a day to myself, if not more. So why don't we kind of take a look at coffee and freak me out a little bit, hearing about all the terrible things I'm doing and maybe differences between that and alternatives and any alternatives you might have and just coffee. Let's just talk about coffee.
Dr. Kerry Winge: [19:34] Sure. Everybody loves coffee. I love coffee. So you just have to utilize it as a tool and you can enjoy it in moderation. So people do love the coffee, but the problem is not only the coffee itself, it's all the sugar additions, the syrups that are in the coffee, all the different milks that are in the coffee. And you can make better choices. So instead of having a latte with five pumps of vanilla, then you can try a cortado. And if you're going to drink your coffee, drink it before two o'clock in the afternoon.
Dr. Kerry Winge: [20:10] But if you still want a little bit of a caffeine elevation and some people are iced coffee. I'm actually a hot coffee drinker. So I like actually the feeling of the cup in my hand and the warmth, so there is a little bit of a natural addiction there. But you can get that same feeling with green tea and matcha. But one of our listeners actually asked the question. They said, between green tea and matcha, I understand that it is a good alternative. It can decrease your cortisol. How does it work? Are they the same thing? And they're actually a little bit different. So green tea is the loose leaf or the tea bags that is steeped in water. But matcha is the finely ground green tea leaves that are whisked into water. So you are actually drinking the entire leaf with matcha.
Dr. Kerry Winge: [21:08] And the caffeine and cortisol impact is, there's a difference in there as well. So the green tea has about 30 to 50 milligrams of caffeine per cup. So 30 to 50 milligrams is about like a moderate energy boost. Where the matcha is 60 to 80 milligrams per cup. So that's almost double, but it's smoother and you're going to have a little bit more energy and you don't get the spike because matcha actually is higher in L-theanine. And L-theanine is an amino acid that keeps you calm and focused. So it's going to prevent you from that caffeinated jitters that you can feel from coffee. And in matcha, there's actually more antioxidants, especially EGCG, which supports the stress reduction and your metabolism. So that's why you're feeling that balanced energy. You're not feeling that crash like you can get with the coffee or the crash that you feel with energy drinks.
Nathaniel DeSantis: [22:11] For anyone wondering, your average cup of coffee has around 100 milligrams of caffeine. So if the green tea has 30, that's almost three times. I mean, the matcha is a little bit closer if it's on the high end. So just for context, if you want to compare it to your cup of coffee, it's around three times for just the loose green tea.
Dr. Kerry Winge: [22:32] Exactly. So then in addition to matcha to lower your cortisol, you can actually use adaptogens to stay resilient.
Nathaniel DeSantis: [22:41] Okay, let me hop in here because this is the third time I've heard the word adaptogens in this episode. And I am not going to lie, I do not know what an adaptogen is, which means that I'm sure a lot of other people don't know. So could we quickly just for the audience define an adaptogen?
Dr. Kerry Winge: [22:58] Adaptogens are natural herbs, roots, and plant compounds that help the body to adapt to stress. Very simple. So they're used to balance your cortisol levels and support your overall resilience. The adaptogens work by modulating that hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis, otherwise known as HPA, in the nervous system. So it prevents excessive cortisol spikes while increasing your energy and your focus.
Dr. Kerry Winge: [23:33] And one of the adaptogens that people have heard a lot about is the Ashwagandha. So that lowers stress and it can help you improve sleep. And the other top two are the rhodiola and the holy basil. So rhodiola boosts focus and mental clarity. And holy basil more or less supports your adrenal health and lowers your inflammation. So based on a study in phytotherapy research in 2022, the Ashwagandha can actually reduce your cortisol levels by 30% in stressed individuals. So that's pretty cool. So before people go ahead and take the adaptogens, understand that these are also drugs, even though they're natural. So you really have to make sure that you talk to your physician and clear that with your doctor that you will not have any reactions between your current medication and the adaptogen prior to taking it.
Nathaniel DeSantis: [24:38] Something we haven't talked about that we discussed briefly last week was the role of movement and exercise in cortisol. We touched on it, how like yoga, certain things lower it, how doing too much HIIT, which is high intensive interval training, doing too much of that can raise it, but some of it in moderation can help. So let's kind of go over this role of movement in cortisol.
Dr. Kerry Winge: [25:03] Moving your body is great. We want to do a minimum of 150 minutes of movement per week. And if you want to lose weight, you want to do 300 minutes of movement. So 300 minutes of movement of moderate exercise will help a person drop 5% of their body weight as long as they aren't overly stressed and their cortisol levels are elevated. So when we move, when we exercise, we want to do it correctly because we don't want to work against ourselves. So you want to choose low intensity workouts like yoga, walking, and some mobility work. And a HIIT workout is great, but just a couple of days a week is fine. And you don't want to overtrain if you're sleep deprived or jet lagged. Because remember back to point two that we talked about, sleep has to be non-negotiable. So you don't want to prioritize your workout over your sleep. You want to prioritize your sleep over your workout, get back on that circadian rhythm, and then add your movement in as well.
Dr. Kerry Winge: [26:12] And if you're short on time, you can do 10-minute movement breaks throughout the day. And it will add up to an hour of movement exercise for the day. For example, we talked about getting out of bed in the morning and going outside. So go for a short walk. That's 10 minutes right there.
Dr. Kerry Winge: [26:33] Then when you go to work, if you have a sedentary job, set a timer for two minutes every 28 minutes. So that's two minutes for every half hour or four minutes per hour. So say you're working an eight-hour day and you've got four minutes of movement per hour. That's 32 minutes. So you did 10 minutes in the morning. That's 32. That's already 42 minutes out of 60 that you have moved.
Dr. Kerry Winge: [27:04] The other time that's great for you to move is after a meal. Because if you walk for 10 to 15 minutes after your meal, then you are going to have a less glucose spike, which means that your blood sugar will remain more level after you eat, which is what you want. And then in the evening, do another little walk and you have hit your 60 minutes. So if you hit that 60 minutes, five days a week and keep moving throughout the day, there's your 300 minutes. So it's really not that hard. And it's more important to have your exercise integrated into your day so it doesn't seem like a chore and to really choose things that you enjoy. So if you like walking or yoga versus running and cycling, choose the things you enjoy because when you don't, then you're stressed out about your workout. Like, "Oh, I just feel so bad and I feel guilty because I didn't get my workout in." And then while you're working out, your brain isn't focused on what you're doing because you're not enjoying yourself. So utilize that as a time where you are going to decompress and de-stress and work on your breathing and enjoy your life, be present in the moment. Another little segue is that yoga actually can reduce your cortisol level by 31%.
Dr. Kerry Winge: [28:34] And when you work out too much, HIIT workouts can raise it. And that was actually found in the Journal of Sports and Science and Medicine in 2021, and that research has not changed. So, simple recap, we talked today about ways to lower your cortisol levels daily that you can do right now. We talked about deep breathing for your instant stress relief. We talked about switching, if you want to, from coffee to matcha to calm your energy and to have more benefits within your drink. So it's not only good, we're talking about good options, but then better options. And looking at your food as your medicine. You want to eat your protein and healthy fats, especially in the morning, to prevent your blood sugar both elevation and crashes. We want to have you get that morning sunlight and regulate the cortisol rhythms. If with permission from your doctor, you can use your adaptogens like Ashwagandha to stay balanced. We also talked about rhodiola and holy basil. And your hydration is key. So hydrate with your electrolytes, especially when you're drinking alcohol, traveling, or under stress.
Dr. Kerry Winge: [29:55] Remember, these are things that you can do right now with no equipment and it doesn't cost you anything. Just switch your brain a little bit and you will have a lot of success. Let's see what happens. So if you try these today, just one tip, let me know which one made the biggest difference for you. I'll see you next time.