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Cortisol is said to be a death hormone. Indeed, the hormone cortisol is produced under severe stress and can theoretically lead to death of a person. But is this hormone really so dangerous for human health, as people often gossip about it?
Cortisol is not a hormone of death, but of stress
Cortisol, the death hormone, would be more accurately called the stress hormone. This already sounds much more believable and not so scary. Although, in large quantities, the hormone cortisol can indeed significantly harm human health, and theoretically lead to the death of the body. How is the hormone cortisol produced and, most importantly, why?
The release of the hormone cortisol into the blood is one of the most ancient reactions that we inherited from our distant ancestors. In their life, stressful situations were not so much more, but they were qualitatively different – either the enemy (or the beast) attacked, or they had to escape from the natural disaster, or the situation forced them to enter into confrontation with a relative. The brain reacted to stress with a chain of certain chemical reactions, as a result of which large amounts of cortisol, a hormone that was responsible for the flow of blood flow to the muscles (so that a person could fight or run away), and the outflow of blood from all other systems, entered the blood.
Nowadays, we practically do not feel the need for such muscle activation – everyday conflicts in the 21st century are resolved mainly in peaceful ways. However, the reaction remained – every time it receives a signal of stress, the brain instructs the adrenal glands to produce the hormone cortisol, which instantly reduces the activity of the immune system, inhibits cognitive functions, slows down digestion, but promotes faster breakdown of proteins and carbohydrates and activates muscles. That is why, during periods of stress, we easily catch a cold or flu, lose our appetite and sleep, rush from corner to corner and think hard – all this is the result of the action of the hormone cortisol. And only when the brain receives a signal that stress has passed, cortisol begins to be gradually (with the help of special enzymes) removed from the blood.
How can the hormone cortisol provoke death in a person?
Why did the hormone cortisol get the sad nickname “death hormone”? Firstly, this can be explained by the function that cortisol performs in the human body – to maximize the activation of the muscular system. By the way, using this property of cortisol, professional athletes (alas, often resorting to illegal drugs) are trying to increase their resources and achieve better results. However, not only the muscles of the arms, legs, but also the main muscle of our body – the heart, the myocardium, tense and reach the limit of their capabilities.
That is why, by the way, in stressful situations, experiencing excitement or anxiety, we literally hear our heart beating faster. And the cardiovascular system is not always able to withstand prolonged stress.
In other words, an increased level of cortisol in the blood may well lead to a heart attack, and a very fleeting and serious one, which ends in the death of a person.
In addition, an increased level of the hormone cortisol can cause serious damage to the human immune system, up to and including its complete destruction. Accordingly, in this case, a person who has been in a state of severe stress for a long time runs the risk of contracting a serious infection, which can also rapidly bring a person to death. As a rule, it is in these cases that they say “he died of grief” or “he burned out at work”.
In parallel with this, the hormone cortisol, the level of which in the blood “rolls over”, negatively affects the functioning of the brain. First of all, it begins to destroy the neurons in the hippocampus. This instantly leads to a violation of the person’s memory. By the way, this explains the fact that often under the influence of severe stress, people temporarily or permanently lose their memory. And also an increased level of the hormone cortisol suppresses the production of the so-called hormones of joy and pleasure – serotonin and dopamine. Which leads a person into a state of deep depression and emotionally often pushes to suicide. Thus, here, too, the hormone cortisol can be indirectly “led” to the death of a person.