07/26/2021
We can feel the effects of stress right away but are you SEEING them in the mirror?
Excess cortisol can actually change the composition of our body, stealing muscle and storing fat...
It will break down muscle tissue to convert it via gluconeogenesis to sugar molecules that can be used immediately after conversion.
When used sparingly, this method works well to maintain blood glucose levels in order to mitigate life threatening glucose drops.
However, when cortisol levels are chronically elevated, there is an increased conversion of muscle tissue into amino acids. That means stress is breaking down muscles.
A reduction of muscle mass means weaker muscles and eventually leads to less muscle tone.
This also increases blood glucose levels over the long term, which is a known cause of insulin resistance and diabetes if sustained long enough due to the eventual resistance of the pancreas’ beta cells, where insulin is created, stored and released from.
Lastly, in a perfect world, the body would use all of this newly created glucose (from broken down muscle) and not store any of it later as body fat. Unfortunately this isn’t the case. The body attempts to manage glucose levels by clearing excess glucose from the blood by converting it to triglycerides (fat molecules) and storing them in fat cells.
So, as the diagram depicts: less muscle tone, more body fat and insulin issues. The hectic lifestyle really isn’t worth it.
