Stop Blaming Cortisol with Dr. Jordan Robertson
Dr. Anne Hussain is joined by Dr. Jordan Robertson to talk about what wellness culture gets wrong and what it gets right about cortisol, and how you can actually start to improve your resilience and capacity to the stresses of daily life.
"Cortisol Face." "Cortisol Belly." If you spend any time in the wellness corner of the internet, you’d think cortisol was the ultimate villain ruining our health, bodies, and lives. But is this misunderstood stress hormone actually to blame, or is wellness culture just capitalizing on women’s fatigue in a world in which we’re under-resourced and over-extended?
In this episode of Phase to Phase, Dr. Anne Hussain is joined by Dr. Jordan Robertson, ND, founder of The Confident Clinician, to inject some much-needed critical thinking into the cortisol conversation. They break down why cortisol is actually a vital player in keeping you alive, why paying for routine cortisol testing is essentially throwing money into a bonfire, and what you should actually be testing for instead (hint: sleep apnea and iron deficiency).
Dr. Jordan introduces the concept of allostatic load, your body's true capacity to handle stressors. Together, they challenge the current narrative telling women to "do less" and avoid high-intensity workouts to protect their hormones. Instead, they offer a refreshing, empowering reframe: true nervous system regulation isn't about avoiding hard things; it's about adequately fueling and resourcing your body so you can push your boundaries, build resilience, and operate at your best.
Takeaways
Cortisol is not the enemy. It’s a necessary buffering system that helps your body mount a response to physiological and psychological demands. It doesn't cause the distress; it just shows up to help you survive it.
Cortisol testing doesn’t tell you much (unless you are being screened for overt adrenal diseases (like Cushing's or Addison's)). Routine cortisol testing for general fatigue is virtually useless due to massive inter-individual variability. It won't explain your symptoms, and it shouldn't dictate your treatment.
Focus on “allostatic load," not the actual individual hormone. Instead of trying to "fix" your cortisol with trendy supplements, focus on your body's overall capacity to handle stress. True resilience is built through foundational resources: adequate sleep, solid nutrition, and periodized recovery.
Stop fearing high-Intensity exercise. Women are increasingly being told to avoid hard workouts to "protect their cortisol." In reality, you should exercise as hard and as often as you can adequately recover from. Intentional physical stress builds long-term metabolic resilience and better cortisol responses in the long run.
Look for the real culprits first before blaming your adrenal glands for your sluggishness. Iron deficiency, sleep apnea, and chronic under-fueling (like running on nothing but coffee and a banana until noon) perfectly mimic the symptoms of nervous system dysregulation (and will make your PMS worse too!).
Burnout makes your capacity feel small, like living inside a tight electric fence where every minor stressor zaps you. The goal isn't to stay inside that tiny fence forever by doing less; it’s to resource your body so you can push those boundaries outward and confidently take on hard things. This is hard, but not impossible, to do when we already have a high burden of responsibility. Get help!
Chapters
00:00 Cortisol online
01:44 Jordan's intro and mission
06:40 Cortisol's role
11:00 Allostatic load and building resilience
21:19 Intentional stress and coping
23:20 HIIT and recovery
27:37 Cortisol testing
35:45 Habits that help for stress
42:50 Changing your mind
Links:
Dr. Jordan Robertson’s Links:
Learn about The Confident Clinician
https://www.instagram.com/theconfidentclinicianclub/
https://confidentclinicianclub.com/
Dr. Anne’s Links:
More About Jordan Robertson:
Jordan Robertson is on a mission to elevate integrative and naturopathic medicine to the standards of care that conventional medicine practices while simultaneously solving the unpaid research-labour crisis of Naturopathic Doctors.
With a 15-year career in facilitation, research inquiry and critical appraisal at McMaster University, Jordan has taught thousands of students how to be better communicators, work in teams and research nutrition, integrative care, medicine and “space medicine” (that last one while co-facilitating a course with NASA).
Jordan is the founder of The Confident Clinician, a database, clinical decision-making tool and home for over 700 full-time members, 60 fellows in her leadership program and over 5000 clinician subscribers to her free integrative magazine, The Stacks.
She’s known for helping clinicians see their own potential, inspiring curiosity, vulnerability and “mind-changing” and for giving clinicians the push they need to become the best at what they do.
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