Stress belly or sugar belly after 60
Dr. Martin opens the episode with that exact question and answers it usually both. His reason is a chain, not a coincidence. Cortisol goes up, blood sugar goes up with it, and what goes up must come down. When it comes down you are flat, and flat is when the food choice gets made for you.
Dr. Martin on what happens next:
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1319Usually when your cortisol is elevated and you're fatigued, you're drained, you look for crappy food.
His picture for it is a wood stove. Give me paper. At least I will have a fire. It will not last long, but at least there is a fire. Paper and a few twigs is not fuel that keeps you going, and he says that is exactly what the body reaches for when the blood sugar has dropped. You end up with a stress belly and a sugar belly on top of it.
What cortisol is meant to do in a day
He is not against cortisol. He calls it your friend, and he means it. It is a hormone made by the adrenal glands, which sit on top of the kidneys and which he describes as about the size of chestnuts. Not big, very powerful.
Its daily job is to wake you up. To do that it lifts your blood pressure and it lifts your blood sugar. That is simply what it does, and it is part of your circadian rhythm.
It is also protective, and his example is the one everyone recognises. Dark night, walking to your car, footsteps behind you. Those little adrenal glands go to work and your blood sugar comes up so you can run. That is cortisol doing its actual job, and it is meant to be over in minutes.
He adds a frustration about testing. Unless you have Cushing's or Addison's disease, he says cortisol rarely gets measured at all, so most people have never seen their own number.
The curve matters more than one reading
Dr. Martin on what the day is supposed to look like:
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1319Your cortisol going to be higher in the morning and lower in the afternoon and evening.
That is the normal shape. His next words are that it is cyclical, but not anymore, not in the world we live in now. The rhythm is the thing that has gone, not the hormone.
The other end of the curve is the one people have never been told about.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1319And when you're resting and digesting, your cortisol should be almost at zero.
He splits the day into two modes. Rest and digest, or fight or flight. His observation is that most people are in fight or flight far too much of the day, and he lists what keeps them there: family, relationships, finances, and internal stress like a hormone imbalance.
He also says his own practice changed about twenty years ago, because once they started testing cortisol he was seeing it high again and again.
"And when you're resting and digesting, your cortisol should be almost at zero."
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1319The six signs he watched for
He used to run the same questions in the office when the cortisol came back through the roof, and at the end he reads the list back as one line.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1319So, anxiety, depression, insomnia, fatigue, weakened immunity and belly fat.
Two of those are worth pausing on. Insomnia, because he says the cruelty of it is being exhausted and awake at the same time, with the cortisol still revved from a day it never came down from. And fatigue, because he calls cortisol an energy robber that will drain the life out of you.
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Insomnia
- Fatigue
- Weakened immunity
- Belly fat
None of those is a diagnosis on its own. His interest is in how many of them turn up together, because that is the pattern he associates with cortisol rather than with any one symptom.
Why cortisol lands on the midsection
This is the mechanism, and it is short.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1319You see, one of the things that cortisol does other than the fact that it keeps you from sleeping is it elevates your blood sugar.
Then the part he calls a physiological response to high cortisol: it will elevate insulin resistance on its own. Not because of what you ate. Because the cortisol is up.
So the sequence he describes runs cortisol, blood sugar, insulin resistance, and then the crash that sends you looking for the quick fix. Food is in the chain, but it is not the start of it, which is why he spends the episode on the hormone rather than on the calories.
Why this hits women differently
When he gets to belly fat on the sign list he calls for a drum roll, and then says why he flags it for women in particular.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1319And that's really, really important to understand that because ladies, cortisol will affect you differently than a man.
He says elsewhere in the same episode that the other hormones are in the room too. Too much estrogen, not enough progesterone, too much insulin, and then cortisol on top of that. His phrase is a perfect storm, and he has been saying it for thirty years.
That is the practical reason he does not treat belly fat after 60 as an eating problem. Eating is one of five things happening, and it is the one furthest downstream.
If the blood sugar side is the part you recognise, read does eating red meat give you diabetes next.
Common questions
Does cortisol cause belly fat?
He treats it as a driver. High cortisol raises blood sugar and lifts insulin resistance on its own, and when the blood sugar drops you reach for crappy food. Belly fat is the sign he watched for in women.
What are the signs of high cortisol in women?
The six he reads out are anxiety, depression, insomnia, fatigue, weakened immunity and belly fat. He looks for several of them together rather than one on its own.
Should cortisol be high in the morning?
Yes, in his description. He says cortisol should be higher in the morning and lower in the afternoon and evening, and almost at zero when you are resting and digesting.
Is it stress belly or sugar belly?
He says usually both, because the two feed each other. The cortisol raises the blood sugar, the crash sends you to the quick food, and the food finishes the job.
Read next: Chronic Fatigue In Women Over 60: The Adrenals and How To Lower Cortisol After 60, Naturally.
Where Cortisol Control Formula fits
Martin Clinic's Cortisol Control Formula is the one he points at when the aim is the hormone at the start of that chain rather than the food at the end of it.
60-day money-back guarantee. When the blood sugar side is the louder one, he talks about Blood Sugar Support Formula too.These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Always consult your healthcare practitioner before starting a new supplement, especially if you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or have a medical condition.
