The Cortisol Coup:
How Stress Takes Over Your Body!
(And How to Take Back Control)
Part One of Two
I’ve learned over the years that stress is one of the hardest things for people to truly see in themselves.
It’s invisible, subjective, and deeply personal. What overwhelms one person barely registers for someone else.
And yet, the sentence I hear more than almost any other is:
“I don’t think I’m that stressed.”
I hear this from someone running a business, juggling deadlines, managing people, making decisions all day… and somehow assuming their body is gliding through it untouched.
Then I take a look at their blood work...
and it tells a very different story.
Because while your mind might downplay the stress you're under, your physiology NEVER LIES!
The Body’s Stress Hierarchy (AKA The Corporate Takeover)
Many of my clients work in businesses... which actually works as a great way of explaining the body’s stress response.
Inside your body, you have a three-layered organisational structure that keeps you alive:
The Hypothalamus = The CEO
Location: Brain
Constantly scanning for threats, opportunities and market fluctuations (aka: life).
If the world looks chaotic, the CEO hits the emergency button fast.
The Pituitary = The Operations Manager
Location: Brain
It receives the CEO’s memos and sends instructions to the workforce.
If the CEO is panicking, the manager starts firing off all-caps emails.
The Adrenals = The Employees
Location: Above your kidneys
Hardworking. Loyal. Efficient.
Their job is to produce cortisol and adrenaline on demand.
How the System SHOULD Work!
This system works beautifully in short bursts.
You perceive a threat → the CEO (Hypothalamus) sends an alert via the Operations Manager (Pituitary gland) → the workers (Adrenals) respond → cortisol rises → the body handles it → everything settles.
That’s how it should work.
Where It Starts to Go Wrong
The HPA axis relies on a negative feedback loop:
When cortisol rises, it signals the CEO and Manager to calm down.
The system switches off.
You return to baseline.
But with chronic stress…
Emotional, physical, psychological, financial, digestive, inflammatory...
they all have the same impact.
The alerts NEVER stop.
➡️ Cortisol stays high
➡️ Signals become distorted
➡️ The CEO becomes desensitised
➡️ The Manager becomes frantic
And the workers keep producing stress hormones because they think there's a crisis playing out!
This is when everything flips...
From you controlling your stress response →
to your stress response controlling YOU.
The CEO (your hypothalamus) stops responding as it should.
The manager (your pituitary) sends mixed or exaggerated signals.
The workers (your adrenals) take over.
Cortisol starts controlling your sleep, digestion, cravings, mood, energy and inflammation.
The Real Symptoms of Chronic Stress
This is why chronic stress causes...
Waking at 3am
Afternoon crashes
Anxiety for no obvious reason
Irritability
Sugar cravings
Bloating and digestive issues
Feeling wired and tired simultaneously
Fatigue
Low resilience
Hormonal imbalance
This isn’t a mindset problem — it’s a physiology problem.
Your stress chemistry has staged a coup…
And now cortisol is calling the shots!
How to calm your stress system and take back control
In Part Two I’ll walk you through the key strategies I use in clinic to restore balance to the HPA axis, calm cortisol, and get your energy, sleep, mood, and digestion working properly again.
From targeted supplements to nervous-system techniques, sleep upgrades and daily habits, you’ll learn exactly how to take back control.
Stay tuned.
And if you’d like to start addressing this now, you can Book a Free Discovery Call to begin your personalised stress strategy.