Whenever you feel stressed, your body’s stress response mechanism kicks in. Any perceived threat, whether it’s a hostile barking dog or bills with looming due dates, can trigger a stress response, causing your body to release a wave of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline.

A surge of cortisol is fine when you need to deal with a fight-or-flight situation. But when it’s happening all the time, like when you’re chronically stressed, your cortisol levels tend to remain elevated. Find out how constantly high cortisol levels can negatively impact your sexual performance.

What Does Cortisol Do?

People usually think of cortisol as a stress hormone, primarily because of its major role in your body’s stress response mechanism. However, cortisol actually has many functions, and it plays an important role in several bodily processes.

Some of the important functions of cortisol include metabolism and blood sugar regulation. The hormone is also necessary for memory formulation, as well as inflammation reduction.

Cortisol is a type of steroid hormone produced in your adrenal glands. Cortisol secretion is typically regulated by your HPA or hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis. Because cortisol is involved in numerous biological processes, cortisol receptors are found in most parts of the body.

Cortisol and Stress

Stress and any perceived threat trigger your hypothalamus to set off your body’s alarm system. This alarm system involves your nerves and makes use of various hormonal signals. Once set off, it causes your adrenal glands to react, resulting in a surge of hormones being released.

Adrenaline and cortisol are commonly referred to as stress hormones because your adrenal glands flood your body with these hormones whenever you encounter a stressor. The increased heart rate, increased energy, and elevated blood pressure that you feel when you’re stressed are due to the actions of adrenaline.

Cortisol, on the one hand, causes increased blood glucose levels and improves your brain’s glucose uptake. In addition, cortisol makes your body focus on the stressor and puts all other non-essential bodily functions on the back burner.

This means that any other bodily function that’s not needed for your fight-or-flight response is inhibited. For instance, cortisol suppresses your digestive system, as well as alters your immune system responses. Moreover, cortisol also inhibits your reproductive system, which is why your libido is low when you’re always stressed.

Ideally, your adrenaline and cortisol levels return to normal when the stressor is gone, and your body goes back to its normal state as well. However, when you’re always stressed and the stressors don’t really go away, your body’s stress response mechanism stays turned on.

This means that your adrenaline and cortisol levels are always elevated. Your blood pressure and heart rate are always high, and the same goes for your blood glucose levels. In addition, your immune, digestive, and reproductive systems are always inhibited.

Symptoms of High Cortisol Levels

As you can imagine, long-term exposure to elevated cortisol levels can cause disruptions with many of your bodily processes, including your sexual function. This not only causes problems in your sex life but also increases your risks of various health problems, including digestive problems, anxiety, depression, and heart diseases.

You can also develop sleep problems, headaches, and impaired memory and concentration if you’re always stressed and your cortisol levels remain high. On top of that, you can also gain weight since cortisol affects your metabolism and digestive system, and even keeps your blood sugar levels high.

Because cortisol also affects your immune system, you may experience thinning skin and slowed healing, or you may find that you bruise easily. Acne, flushed face, muscle weakness, and severe fatigue are also common symptoms of chronic high cortisol levels.

You may also experience a reduction in your sex drive, and your erectile function may also become impaired. That’s because elevated cortisol levels inhibit your reproductive system and cause your testosterone production to drop.

Reduce Stress and Lower Cortisol Levels Naturally

There are many ways to naturally lower your stress and cortisol levels. Experts recommend that you exercise to relieve stress, which is a good idea since it can trigger increased testosterone production, as well as help you manage your weight. Aside from working out, you can also try taking herbal supplements.

Maca, Ashwagandha, and Tongkat Ali are some of the most effective herb-based stress-reducers. These three herbs have been subjected to numerous scientific studies, and they have been shown to lower cortisol levels and improve stress hormone profiles, as well as reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Furthermore, maca, Ashwagandha, and Tongkat Ali are also known as effective energy boosters, and that should help you combat the chronic fatigue you feel when you’re exposed to long-term stress and elevated cortisol levels.

In fact, because they are so effective in increasing energy levels, maca, Tongkat Ali, and Ashwagandha are often used for increasing sexual stamina and endurance. When you’re feeling full of energy and no longer fatigued, you can enjoy sex more.

But what’s really good about these three impressive medicinal herbs is that they help boost your sexual function while lowering your stress levels. As mentioned earlier, your reproductive system and sexual function are suppressed when your cortisol levels remain high.

You can combat the effects of that with Tongkat Ali, maca, and Ashwagandha. These herbs are excellent aphrodisiacs, and they’re also known to help men with erectile dysfunction and other sexual health issues.

For one, both Ashwagandha and Tongkat Ali help stimulate testosterone synthesis, which means that they can raise your testosterone levels back to normal again. This can result in improved libido and better erectile function for you. In truth, research shows that these three herbs are consistently effective in treating erectile dysfunction.

Not only that, but Ashwagandha, maca, and Tongkat Ali are also good for your reproductive system. These amazing herbs have been proven to help stimulate sperm production, thereby improving your sperm count and quality. In fact, studies indicate that Tongkat Ali and Ashwagandha are beneficial for men suffering from idiopathic infertility.

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