Customer Reviews

The Cortisol Connection: Why Stress Makes You Fat and Ruins Your Health - And What You Can Do About It

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Overall, the book is fairly well written and easy to follow. The recommendations (dietary and other) would probably be helpful...if indeed your problems are due to elevated cortisol levels. However, on pgs. 78-79, the author makes the serious mistake of discouraging the use of hormone testing to determine actual cortisol levels. Instead, he recommends that you use his questionnaire (pg. xvi) as your sole guideline. Unfortunately, most of those questions deal with general stressors which nearly everyone experiences, along with other general health related questions. The point is, anyone could get a high score on this questionnaire, including those with high cortisol; low cortisol; fibromyalgia; chronic fatigue syndrome, and any number of other ailments. This creates a very serious problem, because if someone with low levels of cortisol (common in CFS, for instance) were to take some of the supplements that the author recommends, that person's already weak adrenal glands would be depleted even further, with potentially catastrophic consequences. So, my recommendation is to read this book with an open mind, but definitely get your cortisol levels tested (contrary to the author's opinion, salivary cortisol testing has proven quite reliable) before using any of the herbs or other supplements suggested.

Stress is bad for you. We all knew that, but Shawn Talbott explains some of the biochemistry of stress in layman's terms. After reading The Cortisol Connection, you will know WHY chronic stress is bad and what it's likely to do to you.

Much of this has been covered better in other books about stress, such as Robert Sapolsky's Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers. What's new about Cortisol Connection is the strong evidence that stress makes you gain weight. It puts on fat and makes your cells resistant to insulin, which puts you at risk for diabetes.

I'm very interested in this, because I'm currently researching a new book called The Politics of Diabetes. (I should also admit that Hunter House, publisher of Cortisol Connection, also published my first book, The Art of Getting Well: Maximizing Health When You Have a Chronic Illness.) I found Talbott's work helpful.

What I did not find, though, was many good ideas for what to DO about stress. He mentions stress reduction and exercise, but he seems to believe these are not realistic goals for most of us in our fast-paced society. Nearly all his recommendations are for food supplements - vitamins, herbs, minerals, amino acids - over 50 in all. And he really doesn't prioritize among them. I still have no idea where to start with these supplements, which ones have strong supporting evidence and which don't.

I also found his reference list really aggravating. I like to check references, both to learn more and to confirm that the author is playing straight with the facts. Talbott combines all the references for the first five chapters (six pages of references) into one long list, without numbers. So there's no way to tell which reference goes with which paragraph or claim in the book. The supplements actually have many more references than the information on stress does.

So if you are inclined to seek health through supplements, this may be the stress book for you. If you don't like investigating supplement claims and prowling around health food stores, you can still get some good information about stress here, but that's about it.

David Spero RN, author of The Art of Getting Well, Maximizing Health When You Have a Chronic Illness. www.davidsperoRN.com

While this book contains some good information about the effects of stress on the body and the body's biochemical response to stress, it mixes this up with a lot of pseudoscience: telling you that you can control your cortisol levels by taking vitamin supplements, which will then solve all your health problems and make you slim! As another reviewer has pointed out, Shawn Talbott sells a slimming aid called Corti-Slim, containing mostly vitamins, which seems to have no science behind it's claims.

If you are looking for a book based on science and fact, I would recommend "The Stress of Life" by Hans Selye, or "Mind-Body Health and Stress Tolerance" by David Jameson instead of this one.

Don't automatically dismiss this book because Shawn Talbott, comaker of the Cortislim brand of supplements, is the author. He does not hawk his wares in this book. Instead, he talks about common-sense issues relating to chronic stress in modern society and the simple steps you can take to reduce that stress.

Most humorously he compares humans to Zebras and discusses that while the Zebra and the human both have the same fight-or-flight mechanism that releases the stress hormone cortisol during times of emergencies, at least the Zebra is responding to events in which he can quickly flee or actually fight. Humans in modern society have the fight-or-flight mechanism in response to situations in which they cannot quickly resolve the problem - credit card bills, layoffs, mortgage payments, even traffic jams. Since fighting or fleeing are not options, the hormone cortisol builds up in our systems on a semi-permanent basis eventually causing such problems as insulin resistence, autoimmune diseases, and even cardiovascular disease.

The author talks about simple steps you can take to reduce the effect of this inevitable stress on your health via the SENSE program which stands for stress management, exercise, nutrition, supplements, and evaluation. Again, most of his advice is good common sense, and he backs up what he says with chemical descriptions, in layman's terms, of what is going on in your body as you apply or fail to apply stress management techniques.

The section on supplements is general and all-in-all pretty good advice. The author suggests vitamins B and C as well as magnesium for targeting stress in general. The author suggests lesser known supplements such as magnolia bark, epimedium, and L-theanine for actual cortisol control. These just happen to be some of the ingredients in the author's Cortislim supplement, as well as other brands of cortisol control supplements, but since the author never mentions the product by name, he really isn't guilty of advertising.

I really have only two negative comments. First, the author is wrong to tell people to not have their cortisol tested scientifically by a lab, since these tests are quite reliable, and it will do you no good to apply the right solution to the wrong problem. The second negative comment is that some of the lesser known supplements can have negative side effects on susceptible individuals. For example, the author promotes the use of ginseng as an "adaptogen", or an agent that helps or adapts the body or protects it from stress. In fact, ginseng can cause dangerous blood pressure rises in susceptible individuals. If we are talking about someone who may already have elevated blood pressure due to stress, the combination could be lethal. Thus you should do some further investigation before ingesting the lesser known supplements suggested in the book.

On the whole, though, this is a helpful manual for dealing with chronic stress and you should see some improvement in your health and state of mind by following the author's advice. Just be careful when dealing with nutritional supplements. Just because something is all natural does not mean it is safe for everybody.

This is one of the most helpful books I have ever read. The author has the ability to explain cortisol and the risks of a chronically elevated cortisol level in layman's terms. Anyone who is struggling with stress, fatigue, or a problematic appetite must read this book. If you follow the book's advice, you will experience an amazing improvement in your quality of life.

The book is an informative resource on dozens of vitamins, minerals, and supplements. I also liked the helpful daily food plans in the appendix. But, I think the most important aspects of the book is the author's overall message: (1) chronically elevated cortisol levels result in numerous health and "enjoyment of life" problems, and could ultimately set the stage for disease; (2) chronically elevated cortisol levels and associated problems are completely avoidable with awareness and behavioral changes.

In response the "review" of my book my myrtlemoon from Tennessee, the writer acknowledges having NOT read the book. There is NO mention in the Cortisol Connection of ANY brand of dietary supplement. The book does not promote any product or any brand and the many cortisol control products on the market came out MANY months after publication of the Cortisol Connection book. The book, in fact, presents a very easy to follow and research-proven approach to controlling cortisol for weight loss and long-term health (diet + exercise + cortisol control).

Just wanted to set the record straight...

My wife and I have two children under the age of three, we both work, eat mostly vegetarian and organic foods, and we exercise regularly, so you'd think we have a healthy lifestyle. Wrong. You know how much energy it takes just to find and pay for healthy foods and quality exercise venues for us and our children? After running across The Cortisol Connection, I discovered why we are so routinely frazzled. Dr. Talbott touches a topic that makes so much sense and was completely unknown to us. He offers detailed and definitive explanations as to why our stress levels are so high and how to combat them. I can definitely say that after utilizing some of his advice and supplement suggestions, we feel far less "stressed out" than we used to be. My wife has broken free of her afternoon sugar craving and has lost the 5-10 lbs of stubborn post-pregnancy chub. I highly recommend this book to anyone who feels stressed out by our "modern" way of life.

As an owner of a metabolism and body composition lab, I have seen some people who just can't seem to get results equal to the efforts put forth. After chalking my own slow metabolism up to genetics, I had a major blood panel and hormone panel done. I found that my Cortisol level was very high and with some research I found this book. Wow! What an eye opener. Dr. Talbot explains exactly why stress will defeat your efforts with fat loss and even why your energy levels are zapped. He also has a sensible plan to manage it and get your body and health back on track.

GREAT BOOK! The Cortisol Connection can do a great deal to help you understand WHY cortisol-control is good for your long-term health, but also HOW to approach cortisol-control using diet and lifestyle. It makes a complicated topic easy to understand. As a nutritionist, I know that people who suffer from chronic stress often are also suffering from lifestyle related diseases (obseity, diabetes, hypertension, depession, and osteoporosis) which now may be linked to the detrimental effects of unhealthy cortisol levels. The Cortisol Connection gives details on diets, exercise and supplements that have been shown to control cortisol levels and promote optimal health (Dr. Talbott's SENSE program). If you have stress, you need this book!

I was suprised to find The Cortisol Connection a very easy to read book given the technical nature of the topic. The author, Dr. Shawn Talbott, writes in an engaging, humorous style and adds several case studies to illustrate the information provided in the book. I found this book to be helpful and I would recommend it to anyone suffering the side effects of stress.