Page 14 - WholeLifeWoman

18 step 3. the sensitizinG supplement.

falling asleep or you wake up too early, it makes sense to take PS late in the day.
Even if you are anxious in the morning, a low dose may help.

To figure out when your cortisol is high, find your daily cortisol pattern. An
endocrinologist can order a morning blood cortisol test. Another method is a
saliva cortisol test from a lab like DiagnosTechs or ZRT. You take your own saliva
samples at home. The advantage is that you get cortisol levels for 4 specific times

of day. That way you know when to help your body lower its cortisol.

For some people, cortisol bounces up in the evening. They may have been

dragging around all day, but when nighttime comes they feel great, hyper-alert.
Everyone else is going to bed, but they’re ready to go. Falling asleep is tough.
Sometimes they go to bed, but their eyes pop open at three or four in the
morning. PS before dinner or the last thing before bed can really help. And don’t
forget the other sleep aids - chamomile, valerian root extract and L-theanine.

Athletes sometimes use PS after intense workouts to keep their cortisol from
shooting up from the physical stress. If I’m swimming laps in the late afternoon

(a habit that comes and goes), I like to take PS afterward. You may be surprised
how different you feel. It really takes that edgy feeling away.

But most of my stress, and probably yours, isn’t physical. It’s emotional.
People do crazy things to you, finances get complicated, friends lose their way

and need help, family members go through their own issues and you worry about
them. Or maybe the stress is 100% inside you. You need or want changes in your
life that don’t come.

All of that can lead to higher stress and more cortisol, but it doesn’t have to.
Changing how you feel about what’s happening can be almost as effective as
changing what’s happening. That’s the beauty of the third step.