The Cortisol Connection: Why Stress Makes You Fat and Ruins Your Health And What You Can Do About It

So—how can you really lower your stress levels, lose weight, keep it off and protect your health? 

The first edition of The Cortisol Connection signaled a revolution in our understanding of the effects of stress hormones like cortisol, and explained the relationship between chronic stress, high levels of cortisol and the breakdown of the body’s health reserves. In his carefully designed SENSE Program (Chapter 9), Dr. Shawn Talbott presented simple guidelines for reducing stress, lowering cortisol levels, improving long-term health and reaching and main-taining desired weight.

Research in the last five years has shown that there is more, and this new edition contains 25 percent new material, including

• new biochemistry research, an updated stress self-test and a weight-reduction plan
• two new chapters about the relationships between cortisol and testosterone and cortisol and HSD, the body’s fat-storage enzyme, that show the big part they play in stress response and weight gain
  
• refinements of the SENSE program based on controlled studies with patients who have used it for over 5 years
  

Dr. Talbott has long maintained that lowering cortisol is as impor-tant to health and longevity as lowering cholesterol. This book explains why. With the information in this book, you can start NOW to reduce stress, lower cortisol levels, avoid weight gain and take more control of your health.

Cortisol. Who knew! Too little, or none.. and you have Addison's Disease and cannot handle stress without medication. Too much? Weight gain, IBS, joint pain, hair loss, and more.

This book not only outlines the problems caused by stress, which causes too much cortisol to be created by the body, but how to cope with it. Not only will you be informed about what and how much damage can be done to the body by too much stress/cortisol, but there are recommendations on how to change it. Nutrition, supplements to take or not to take? And of course a healthy diet and exercise are the among the answers.

This is not a gloom and doom book by any means. This is a book that explains a problem, and gives simple and often enjoyable approaches to controlling stress and the overproduction of this hormone. Read a trashy novel, soak in a hot tub, give yourself days off each week..hey, I can do that!

Often books that you think you should read to learn something you feel that you should know about are dry and dull and agonizing to get through. This one has bits of humor ( humans are not zebras!) and it presents information in such a clear and simple way that I was able to zip right through the pages, and make my way through it in 2 sittings.

Even though I have read it cover to cover, you can be sure that this is one that will spend a long time on my nightstand. I want it to be available for quick reference and reminders of what I should be doing and looking for. Not just a good and informative read, but by all means, a keeper! - Kathleen Wagner, LibraryThing Early Reviewer