The effect of diet components on the level of cortisol

Abstract

The way and the quality of nutrition are important factors that can have influence on behavior of both the health and well-being. Proper diet helps to maintain homeostasis in the body. Changes in lifestyle lead to increase the degree of food processing and hence reduce the nutritional value of available products. This forces the use of technological amendments in nourishment, i.e., fortification and formation of diet supplements. Modified food can complement diet in necessary nutrients. Environmental factors like activity can cause adaptation changes in endocrine system of every human. Cortisol is a corticosteroid, in which influence is varied depending on its concentration. Through its multipronged action, it mobilizes organism to fight stress, by ensuring a stable level of glucose, stimulating tissue’s regeneration and inhibiting inflammation processes. Factors like stressful work, personal problems, intensive trainings can lead to long-term sustained, excessive concentration of this hormone, affecting formation of metabolic disorders such as insulin resistance, increased blood pressure, abnormal bone regeneration and collagen synthesis or calcium deficiency in the organism. Diet supplementation is currently extensively used by both healthy and unwell people, in different age, but most commonly refers to physically active people. Lots of widely available dietary supplements contain nutrients which regulate steroid hormones homeostasis. Elaboration of optimal diet is one of the agents determining well-being, health and success. In this paper, we review the current knowledge on the effect of dietary components on level of cortisol.