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Cortisol is considered the enemy of lean muscle mass. The
popular theory states that the less cortisol your body produces
the better. In fact, chemically assisted bodybuilders lead
the way in the battle against cortisol, and many don’t
hesitate to use dangerous drugs in an attempt to inhibit their
natural secretion of the stress hormone. Drug-free bodybuilders
also seek ways to suppress their cortisol secretion. The trouble
is, the effects of cortisol on the human body aren’t
all bad. Some of its actions are positive and tend to help
build muscle. So instead of looking for ways to block cortisol secretion, you should strive for dynamic cortisol control.
Cortisol and Fat
Fat specialists will tell you that cortisol is a lipolytic
hormone, which means it favors fat loss. That’s true
especially in a test tube—although specialists will
also point out that people who are obliged to use synthetic
cortisol to treat various illness build up fat at a tremendous
rate, even if their diets don’t change. It’s almost
impossible to get rid of the fat gained due to synthetic glucocorticoids,
so, if there’s a rationale for suppressing cortisol,
it’s the hormone’s effect on adiposity.
The amazing thing is that suppressing cortisol production
won’t make you any leaner. That’s the first paradox
of cortisol. An excess of cortisol will make you fat; a lack
of it, if anything, will also make you fat.
Cortisol and Catabolism
Most bodybuilders associate cortisol with catabolism, and
it’s true that studies have shown that animals or sedentary
people given cortisol see their muscle mass shrink. Muscle
cells contain receptors that bind to cortisol. When that happens,
it activates a very strong proteolytic pathway called the
ATP-dependent ubiquitin/proteasome pathway, which causes the
body to literally eat its own muscles.
The good news is that weight training impairs some of the
direct catabolic actions of cortisol. By putting regular tension
on your muscles, you prevent the muscle cortisol receptors
from working properly. It isn’t a complete inhibition,
though, because training tends to stimulate cortisol release.
That’s the second paradox of cortisol: Training both
reduces cortisol’s direct catabolic impact on muscle
and increases the body’s secretion of it. The more you
train, the less cortisol-based muscle loss you’ll experience.
Unfortunately, more training also means more cortisol secretion,
and the extra cortisol overrides the natural defense exerted
by training.
Cortisol and Anabolism
Another nasty effect of cortisol is that it slows the anabolic
drive. Part of that anti-anabolic action is mediated directly
through the muscle cortisol receptors, and training prevents
that. The problem is that another part of cortisol’s
anti-anabolic action is indirect. Cortisol inhibits the release
of numerous anabolic hormones, including growth hormone, insulinlike
growth factor 1 and testosterone. It has also been shown to
fight the androgen-receptor upregulation induced by nontraumatic
workouts.
While training can partially inhibit some of the direct anti-anabolic
effects of cortisol by impairing cortisol receptor responses,
such preventive effects are localized in the trained muscles
only. Training cannot overcome the unwelcome indirect effects
of cortisol on the various anabolic hormones.
What About Suppressing Cortisol?
If cortisol can promote protein degradation and at the same
time impair protein synthesis, you’d be wise to get
rid of it, wouldn’t you? There’s some scientific
basis to that reasoning. Animal-based studies reveal that
suppressing cortisol release or inhibiting its actions by
blocking cortisol receptors leads to increased muscle mass.
For example, there’s an amazing Canadian study involving
four groups of 10 rats. One group was a control, another was
made up of severely burned rats, a third included rats that
were burned but also received RU486 (the abortion pill that
blocks cortisol receptors), and the fourth was rats that were
uninjured and were given the RU486. Which group of rats had
the most muscle at the end of the experiment? The rats that
were severely burned but received RU486. They had even more
muscle than the uninjured RU486 rats. That means RU486 not
only eliminates the muscle loss due to stress (in this case
a severe burn, although it could have been training), but
it also promotes muscle gains. The problem with this study
is that rats don’t respond to cortisol the same way
humans do, so the results won’t necessarily apply to
people.
Bodybuilders have used this synthetic cortisol receptor blocker
without much success, and RU486’s failure was attributed
to its cortisol-release-stimulating properties. When cortisol
receptors are blocked, the body rapidly increases its cortisol
production to where the blocking properties of RU486 are overwhelmed.
Many attribute the potent muscle building effects of anabolic
steroids to their so-called ability to block cortisol. That’s
unlikely to be true, however, as most, studies have failed
to demonstrate a connection between androgens and cortisol
receptors. Some so-called enhanced bodybuilders are to pack
on muscle even though their cortisol secretion is very high.
Furthermore, no studies have noted ultrarapid cortisol elevation
after subjects took anabolic steroids, as could be expected
with any effective cortisol receptor blocker.
Bodybuilders didn’t stop with RU486 in their quest to
surpress cortisol. They moved on to drugs that can stop natural
cortisol production. With a very low cortisol level, they
expected fast muscle growth. What they didn’t expect
were the strange allergies that some of them experienced.
Cortisol and Protein Absorption
Scientists have known for a long time that eating a meal triggers
the release of cortisol. They’ve also discovered that
proteins are the most potent cortisol releasers of the macronutrients.
So the more protein you eat, the more cortisol release you
trigger. Scientists have now uncovered the pathways used by
proteins to induce cortisol secretions, and they’ve
figured out how to block them. It’s easy to do. You
just block your alpha-1 adrenergic receptors. “That’s
great!” I hear you say. But don’t get too excited
yet. Giving alpha-1 blockers to humans before a protein meal
blunts cortisol release, but it also blunts protein absorption.
The sad-but-true fact is you need cortisol in order to assimilate
your dietary proteins properly. It’s also a fact that
the protein-induced cortisol rise is very short, unlike stress-induced
cortisol secretions.
Cortisol as an Anti-Inflammatory Hormone
Not all the effects of cortisol are bad. Some are even helpful
to bodybuilders. Weight training induces various degrees of
trauma to the muscle fibers, damage that triggers some inflammatory
reactions. The more severe the trauma, the more serious the
inflammation, which will cause the body to manufacture more
of such harmful substances as tumor necrosis factor (TNF).
The muscles have TNF receptors, and when a TNF molecule activates
a receptor, it activates the ubiquitin/proteasome catabolic
pathway. In other words, TNF has an almost direct catabolic
effect on muscle cells. Cortisol can inhibit the TNF secretion
due to an inflammation, which means that cortisol possesses
both catabolic and anti-catabolic properties. If you suppress
cortisol release, your body will manufacture more TNF and
the catabolic effect of cortisol will be unopposed.
Controlling Cortisol Secretion
Your goal is not to inhibit normal cortisol secretion but
to control its secretion and effects. Some drug users have
found a radical way of controlling their cortisol secretion:
They take synthetic cortisol, and the exogenous glucocorticoids
strongly inhibit their natural cortisol secretion. Instead
of having fluctuating cortisol levels, they establish an artificial
baseline.
It’s tricky, but some people have made their best gains
while using this method. Of course, if you make a mistake
with your dosages, don’t expect to pack on muscle. What’s
more, the technique won’t work for natural bodybuilders.
Drug users can artificially control their protein turnover
rate, a feat natural bodybuilders can’t accomplish.
We’re limited to methods of cortisol control that are
more natural but not as precise.
Using a preworkout testosterone booster can moderate the cortisol
response to exercise. Testosterone can’t completely
prevent cortisol’s effects, but it can lessen its response
to stress.
Growth hormone boosters have the same property. GH can oppose
an excessive elevation of cortisol. So can phosphatidylserine
(PS). None of the supplements eliminate the stress-induced
cortisol elevation; they just keep it within reasonable limits.
On the other hand, they don’t suppress the basal cortisol
release, so they don’t cause problems.
Besides stress, there are other ways in which workouts elevate
cortisol. If the workout is long, your blood glucose level
is likely to fall, leading to hypoglycemia, which triggers
cortisol secretion. Taking a carb drink absorbed during training
will prevent the fall of blood glucose, countering the hypoglycemia.
It will also maintain insulin at a high level, which, as you’ll
see, is important.
If you choose to fight the exercise-induced cortisol rise,
I strongly suggest you use a natural anti-inflammatory supplement
such as omega 3s, a group of essential fatty acids derived
from fish oil. The omega 3 fatty acids have been shown to
inhibit the elevation of catabolic substances such as inflammation-induced
TNF.
Controlling Cortisol’s Effects
Using both a GH booster and a testosterone booster offers
another advantage. As mentioned above, cortisol tends to depress
CU, IGF-1 and testosterone secretions, but the natural boosters
fight those effects. The carb-drink-induced elevation of insulin
also tempers some of the harmful effects of cortisol. For
example, insulin is one of the few hormones that can combat
the cortisol-induced elevation of the ubiquitin/proteasome
proteolytic pathway.
In addition, cortisol stimulates the manufacture and release
of glutamine, which empties the muscle glutamine reserves.
Glutamine can be formed from other muscle amino acids thanks
to an enzyme called glutamine synthetase. Whenever the enzyme
activity is stimulated, the muscles start to lose their amino
acids. The bottom line is, when muscle glutamine levels are
low, anabolism is reduced. Cortisol increases glutamine synthetase
expression from the muscles. By taking oral glutamine, you
blunt that effect, as glutamine represses the enzyme’s
activity.
I cannot stress enough the importance of glutamine. When muscle
glutamine is low—for example, because cortisol is high—the
activity of the glutamine synthetase goes into action, which
leads to a vicious circle. Cortisol reduces muscle glutamine
a little, but a lower-than-normal muscle glutamine level automatically
triggers even more glutamine synthetase expression, which
in turn further reduces muscle glutamine levels.
Of course, in the very short run glutamine synthetase increases
muscle glutamine levels; however, the newly formed glutamine
is rapidly exported from the muscles. In theory, glutamine
is very effective at putting an end to the vicious circle.
In practice, the entry of the glutamine from the blood into
the muscle is not as important as we might hope. Consequently,
taking oral glutamine only reduces some of the wasting effects
of cortisol although in theory it can potentially blunt them
completely.
Muscle branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) reserves are also
negatively affected by cortisol, which increases the activity
of another muscle enzyme called branched-chain keto dehydrogenase
(BCKAD). The effects of BCKAD are very different from those
of glutamine synthetase. While the latter manufactures glutamine,
BCKAD destroys BCAAs; and while glutamine tames glutamine
synthetase activity, BCAAs activate BCKAD.
The rationale for using oral BCAAs is that cortisol reduces
muscle-BCAA levels. Even if a portion of the oral BCAAs is
wasted because they activate BCKAD, another portion replaces
the cortisol-induced loss of BCAAs. So, unlike what happens
with glutamine, the oral BCAAs don’t directly combat
cortisol’s wasting effects. Rather, they repair some
of the damage it causes.
Using Cortisol’s Effects
Although high cortisol levels tend to waste muscle mass, studies
have demonstrated that the muscles play catchup when cortisol
levels return to normal. A day of rest acts as a brake on
the ramped-up cortisol production, making it a powerful anabolic
inducer. The lack of stress creates an anabolic overshoot.
You need to take regular rest days to ensure muscle growth.
by Michael Gündill
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