In this article, we look at what cortisol does, what would happen if you really could "detox" it out of your body, the signs that stress may be taking a toll, and the lifestyle changes that can help restore a healthier stress response to rebalance cortisol. We also examine the evidence-backed supplements that may help support a healthier cortisol regulation.
The "Cortisol Detox" Buzz on Social Media
The cortisol buzz really took off on TikTok and Instagram in 2025, when terms like “cortisol face”, “cortisol belly” and “cortisol detox” began appearing across wellness content. Influencers increasingly link everyday problems, from facial puffiness and stubborn belly fat to fatigue, poor sleep and anxiety, to supposedly “high cortisol”.
Some of the recurring claims about cortisol on social media
Claim |
Scientific reality |
|
A puffy or round face means your cortisol is too high |
Persistently high cortisol can cause characteristic facial changes in Cushing syndrome, but ordinary puffiness is not a reliable sign of high cortisol. Sleep, fluid retention, diet, allergies and plenty of other everyday factors can change how your face looks. |
|
Stubborn belly fat is a sign of “cortisol belly” |
Cortisol does affect metabolism, and true cortisol excess can change where fat is stored. But abdominal fat is influenced by many things, including overall energy balance, genetics, age, activity levels, sleep and other hormones. Belly fat on its own tells you very little about your cortisol levels. |
|
A long list of common symptoms proves you have high cortisol |
These symptoms are common and very nonspecific. They can have dozens of different causes. Doctors do not diagnose cortisol excess from a symptom checklist; they use properly timed blood, urine or saliva tests and, if needed, further endocrine investigations. |
|
Coffee first thing in the morning spikes cortisol and causes weight gain |
Caffeine can temporarily raise cortisol, but a short-term rise is not the same thing as chronically high cortisol. There is no good evidence that a normal morning coffee causes pathological cortisol excess or automatically leads to “cortisol belly”. |
|
HIIT, running or hard exercise keeps women in a chronically high-cortisol state |
Hard exercise can raise cortisol because your body needs extra fuel and cardiovascular support when you are working hard. That is a normal and useful response. Problems are more likely when very heavy training is combined with poor recovery, inadequate food or persistent exhaustion, not because vigorous exercise itself is inherently bad for cortisol. |
All of these are rooted in reality, but exaggerated to present cortisol as the root of the problem, when it’s actually essential.
The real problem is high stress, which we will dig into in a minute. But first...
Signs You Need a “Cortisol Detox” according to Tik Tok
In contrast, Tik Tok influencers tend to pick out a few symptoms which could have any number of causes, and blame them on high cortisol.
Symptoms such as feeling stressed, tired or bloated, having difficulty losing weight, waking during the night, experiencing a puffy face or carrying fat around your middle do not, by themselves, mean that your cortisol is chronically high. These are common, nonspecific problems with many possible causes.
Things that do not prove your cortisol is high
|
Often blamed on High Cortisol on social media |
What else it could be |
|
Belly fat |
Abdominal weight gain has many possible causes |
|
A puffy face |
Fluid retention, sleep, diet, allergies and other factors can all affect facial appearance |
|
Feeling stressed |
Stress can increase cortisol temporarily, but this is not abnormal - it is a sign your body is functioning as it should. The problem is the stress, not the cortisol! |
|
Feeling tired |
Fatigue has a very wide range of possible causes |
|
Waking during the night |
Sleep disruption is common and is not specific to cortisol excess |
|
Difficulty losing weight |
Body weight is influenced by diet, activity, sleep, medications, hormones and genetics |
|
Bloating |
Usually relates to digestion, fluid balance or other gastrointestinal factors |
|
Cravings or feeling “wired” |
These are nonspecific experiences and cannot diagnose high cortisol |
How to Do a "Cortisol Detox" According to Tik Tok
The social-media claims get extreme. The panic is accompanied by cortisol-lowering diets, supplements, morning routines, “cortisol cocktails” and other snake-oil type remedies for sale, promising to bring the hormone back under control.
Here are some of the social media claims you may have come across:
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You need to “reset your nervous system” before your body will release fat. Stress and sleep can influence eating behaviour, metabolism and body weight, but the popular claim that the body literally refuses to lose fat until cortisol is “reset” greatly overstates the evidence.
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Special drinks can flush cortisol out. “Cortisol cocktails”, often combinations of orange or citrus juice, coconut water and salt/electrolytes, are sometimes presented as adrenal-supporting or cortisol-lowering remedies. There is no established medical “cortisol detox” mechanism whereby such a drink clears cortisol from the body.
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Supplements can correct the underlying “cortisol problem.” There is some research on particular supplements and stress outcomes, but that is very different from evidence that magnesium, ashwagandha, reishi or other products detoxify cortisol or treat undiagnosed hypercortisolism.
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You can diagnose high cortisol from your appearance or symptoms and then treat it yourself. This is probably the most important misconception. Even diagnosing genuine Cushing syndrome can be difficult; recommended tests include late-night salivary cortisol, urinary free cortisol and dexamethasone suppression testing in appropriate patients.
Why The Goal is BALANCING Cortisol, Not Detoxing It
Cortisol is a steroid hormone made by your adrenal glands, which sit just above your kidneys. It is often called the “stress hormone”, but that description can be misleading because cortisol is essential for normal health, not something your body needs to eliminate.
What does cortisol do for you?
- Leads your daily sleep-wake cycle: Cortisol levels fluctuate to make you sleepy or wide awake. So it spikes in the morning to wake you up, it drifts down during the day and falls off sharply in the evening to help you fall asleep. It starts rising again around 3am to build up for your morning wake-up, which is why this is a typical time to wake up if you’re sleeping very lightly.
- Gives you access to energy when you need it: When you wake up, exercise, go without food for a while or face a demanding situation, cortisol helps stop your blood glucose falling too far. It tells the liver to make more glucose and helps mobilise stored fat and protein, so your brain and muscles have fuel available even when you have not just eaten.
- Helps you cope with pressure: If something suddenly demands more from you, a hard workout, an argument, an exam, an injury or an infection, cortisol is part of the system that shifts your body into a higher-readiness state. It teams up with adrenaline, also made by the adrenal glands. Through the HPA axis, it helps redirect fuel towards immediate needs and supports the cardiovascular and metabolic changes required to deal with the challenge. This is why a temporary rise in cortisol during stress is useful, not inherently harmful.
- Helps keep your blood pressure up when your body is under strain: Cortisol makes your blood vessels more responsive to adrenaline and noradrenaline. That helps maintain vascular tone and blood pressure, particularly when you are exercising, ill, injured or otherwise under physical stress.
- Stops inflammation from getting out of hand: Inflammation is useful when you are fighting infection or repairing an injury, but it needs to be controlled. Cortisol reduces the production of inflammatory signalling molecules and changes the activity of immune cells, helping prevent the response from continuing at full strength once it is no longer needed.
- Helps your immune system know when to ease off: Cortisol does not simply “suppress immunity”. It helps regulate where immune cells go and how actively they respond. That braking effect is one reason synthetic versions of cortisol, such as corticosteroid medicines, can be so effective at reducing excessive inflammation.
- Helps you function when you are ill or injured: Serious illness, trauma and surgery place much greater demands on the body. Cortisol helps maintain glucose supply, circulation and blood pressure while shifting metabolism towards the resources needed to get through that period of physiological stress.
This list makes it clear as crystal that "detoxing cortisol" makes no sense. You really do need it! The issue is that we can all get too much of a good thing.
So the goal is not "detoxing cortisol" but instead balancing cortisol to the right level.
What Would Happen if Your Cortisol was TOO High
Some people really do have too much cortisol: the condition is called 'Cushing syndrome'. This is usually caused by a tumour which makes their body produce too much, or because they have taken glucocorticoid medicines (to treat a different illness) for a long time.
The effects are severe. They are not a "pick and mix" bunch of symptoms. People with chronically high cortisol will have all of them.
Symptoms of prolonged high cortisol
|
Effect |
What it can look like |
|
Higher blood sugar |
Raised glucose levels or worsening insulin resistance |
|
Higher blood pressure |
Persistently elevated blood pressure |
|
Muscle loss and weakness |
Weakness, particularly in the thighs and upper arms |
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Thinner skin |
Easy bruising, slower healing and sometimes wide purple stretch marks |
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Reduced bone density |
Increased risk of osteoporosis and fractures |
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Altered fat distribution |
More fat around the abdomen, chest, neck and face, often with relatively thinner limbs |
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Reduced immune resilience |
Greater susceptibility to infections |
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Hormonal disruption |
Irregular periods, reduced libido or sexual dysfunction |
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Mood, sleep and cognitive changes |
Anxiety, low mood, irritability, poor sleep or difficulty concentrating |
What Would Happen If You Really Could "Detox" Cortisol Out of Your Body?
OK, so let's imagine you really could "detox" cortisol from your body. What would happen?
We know the answer, because some people really do have low cortisol levels, and this causes a severe illness called Addison’s disease. The late American president Kennedy had this condition. There are a few other diseases that cause low cortisol, too.
Symptoms of Low Cortisol
- First, you would usually develop profound fatigue and muscle weakness. Even just getting dressed would be exhausting.
- You would also be likely to lose your appetite, lose weight without trying, and develop nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea or abdominal pain.
- Then, your blood pressure would fall, so you would feel dizzy or actually faint every time you stood up.
- You would also develop low blood sugar, causing shakiness, weakness, sweating, mental confusion and light-headedness.
- You might also develop salt cravings and low sodium levels.
- Gradually your skin would become noticeably darker, looking like a bad fake suntan with a sickly yellow tint to it, and particularly fark skin over the knuckles, elbows, knees, scars, gums and skin creases.
- If the cortisol deficiency became severe, you could develop an adrenal crisis. The symptoms listed above would peak until you lost consciousness. Without treatment this could result in death.
What About Adrenal Fatigue or Burnout? Does that cause mild cortisol deficiency?
You may also encounter the terms “adrenal fatigue”, “cortisol depletion” or “burned-out adrenals.” The proposed idea is that prolonged stress initially makes you produce too much cortisol, until eventually your adrenal glands become exhausted and cannot make enough.
This theory was mainly presented by Andrew L. Wilson and had been widely taken up across the internet and self-help health forums online.
There isn't good evidence that this happens. The Endocrine Society specifically states that adrenal fatigue is not a scientifically established medical condition. If the adrenal glands genuinely cannot make enough cortisol, that is adrenal insufficiency and it needs medical investigation.
Some of the effects attributed to “adrenal fatigue” used to be called “burnout”, an older buzzword that trended in the 1980s and 1990s. The World Health Organisation recognises burnout as an occupational phenomenon resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed, characterised by exhaustion, increased mental distance or cynicism towards work, and reduced professional efficacy. It is not classified as a medical disease in ICD-11, and it is not defined by low cortisol.
There is a little more nuance, though. Research into chronic stress, PTSD and burnout has found alterations in HPA-axis activity and daily cortisol patterns in some groups, and some studies report lower cortisol measurements. The methodology of this research was very varied, the results were very mixed and a lot of the research was not of a high quality.
Ultimately, the jury is still out in this one and it’s an area that deserves deeper attention and research.
What Really Raises Cortisol?
If you want to understand how to keep cortisol in balance, you need to understand what triggers it to go up or down.
First, let's be clear, cortisol is supposed to go up and down. It rises naturally before and after you wake, increases when you exercise and responds when something is physically or psychologically demanding.
Here are the things that trigger an increase in cortisol. Remember the things that cortisol does around the body? These situations truly need it to be available and doing its job:
- Psychological stress raises cortisol: but not every stressful moment is a problem. A difficult meeting, argument, deadline, exam or frightening experience can activate the HPA axis, prompting the adrenal glands to release cortisol.
- Exercise raises cortisol. Cortisol helps mobilise the glucose and other fuels needed to power your muscles when you exercise. The cortisol increase during a hard workout is an appropriate response to help you exercise better, not evidence that the workout is damaging your hormones. Read the research.
- Catching a cold or other Illness, getting an injury and having surgery can all raise cortisol. Cortisol is our body's own natural anti-inflammatory. An increase in these situations isn't bad. It is part of your immune system. Imagine the pain and tissue damage form runaway inflammation!
Situations that also raise cortisol:
- Caffeine can temporarily increase cortisol. This is one of the ways that caffeine stimulates us and wakes us up. That doesn't mean your morning coffee is giving you chronically high cortisol, causing “cortisol belly” or damaging your adrenal glands. However, if you want slightly lower cortisol, ditch the caffeine.
- Poor sleep can interfere with normal cortisol regulation. Sleep and the HPA axis have a two-way relationship. Cortisol helps regulate your daily rhythm, while inadequate or poor-quality sleep can alter HPA-axis activity and the way you respond to subsequent stress. The research is more complicated than the internet's simple “poor sleep = high cortisol” equation. Studies of acute sleep deprivation have produced mixed results depending on when and how cortisol is measured. Read the research.
How to Balance Cortisol Naturally
If your cortisol production is normal, you don't actually need to lower it. A better goal is to support a healthy stress response: cortisol should rise when you need it, fall when you don't and maintain its normal daily rhythm.
It's important to keep sight of the fact that cortisol is not the problem. Stress is the problem.
- Protect your sleep first. Try to keep consistent sleeping and waking times. A regular light-dark schedule also helps synchronise the circadian system that controls cortisol secretion. Avoid late-night scrolling!
- Exercise regularly. Walking, cycling, swimming, running, resistance training and other forms of regular physical activity can all be part of managing stress. A workout can increase cortisol while you're doing it yet improve stress regulation over the longer term. A systematic review has even found that a bout of exercise can reduce cortisol reactivity to a subsequent stressor. Read the research.
- But give yourself time to recover. Alternate demanding sessions with easier activity and rest.
- Eat regularly and adequately. You don't need a special “cortisol diet”. Cortisol is involved in keeping glucose available when energy is required, including during fasting and exercise. A balanced diet containing sufficient energy, protein, carbohydrates, healthy fats, fruit and vegetables gives your body the raw materials it needs without turning individual foods into supposed cortisol cures.
- Build genuine downtime into your day. Reading, gardening, walking, listening to music, seeing friends, breathing exercises or simply sitting somewhere quiet can all provide a break from constant demands. Psychological stress-management interventions have been shown to produce modest reductions in cortisol, with mindfulness and meditation among the approaches studied. Read the systematic review.
- If meditation works for you, there is evidence behind it. Mindfulness isn't a cortisol “hack”, but the evidence has become increasingly substantial. A 2026 meta-analysis covering 39 mindfulness-based stress reduction studies and 2,059 participants found reductions in cortisol, although effects varied between studies. Read the research.
- Deal with the source of stress where you can. Stress management isn't only about teaching yourself to tolerate more stress; sometimes the most effective intervention is changing what is creating it: an impossible workload, financial worries, caring responsibilities, relationship problems or chronic sleep deprivation.
None of this constitutes a “cortisol detox”. It is mostly familiar advice: sleep sufficiently, move your body, eat properly, recover from strenuous exercise and find workable ways of reducing or managing sustained stress. That's less dramatic than a cortisol cocktail or a seven-day hormone reset, but it is what the evidence actually supports.
Supplements Which Can Help To Balance Cortisol
Ashwagandha has been studied for its ability to balance the cortisol response. Certain nutrients, notably magnesium and the B vitamins, are known to support balanced secretions of cortisol when needed, for a healthy stress response.
These supplements can be helpful, but it's important to keep sight of the fact that stress is the problem, cortisol is the body's protective response. Dealing with the main stressors in your life should be the first step: supplement are the back-up team.
Ashwagandha
Ashwagandha has the most direct evidence for an effect on cortisol. This adaptogenic herb has been studied in people experiencing stress, with clinical trials and meta-analyses suggesting it can reduce perceived stress and may modestly reduce cortisol levels in some people. A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis of nine randomised controlled trials found improvements in perceived stress and anxiety, along with a reduction in serum cortisol compared with placebo. Read the research on PubMed.
What makes ashwagandha interesting isn't simply that it can push a cortisol number down. Studies suggest it may help moderate the response to ongoing stress, which is closer to what you actually want from a healthy stress system. You still need cortisol to get you out of bed, fuel exercise and respond to challenges; the aim isn't to suppress it indiscriminately. Ashwagandha is therefore better thought of as supporting stress adaptation than as a natural cortisol blocker.
Magnesium
Magnesium supports normal nervous-system function and the body's response to stress. It is involved in hundreds of enzyme reactions, including processes involved in nerve signalling, muscle function and neurotransmission. Low magnesium status may make the body more susceptible to stress, while stress itself may increase magnesium loss. A review of the evidence describes this as a potential “vicious circle” between magnesium deficiency and stress. Read the research on PubMed.
This makes magnesium particularly relevant when stress comes with that familiar combination of tension, tiredness and difficulty switching off. But more isn't automatically better: if you're already getting enough magnesium, taking extra doesn't necessarily make you calmer or lower your cortisol. Think of magnesium as supplying machinery your nervous system needs to function normally, rather than applying a brake to your adrenal glands.
B vitamins
B vitamins help the body meet some of the increased metabolic demands associated with stress. Different B vitamins are involved in energy metabolism, nervous-system function and neurotransmitter synthesis. A systematic review and meta-analysis of 16 randomised trials found that B-vitamin supplementation produced a modest improvement in measures of stress, although effects on anxiety and depression were less clear. Read the research on PubMed.
That's particularly relevant because feeling stressed is often accompanied by feeling mentally and physically drained. B vitamins don't give you energy in the way caffeine does; they help your cells release and use energy from food and support normal neurological function. If your diet isn't providing enough, correcting that shortfall matters. What they don't do is somehow mop up excess cortisol or make the biological stress response disappear.
Vitamin C
Vitamin C has a particularly interesting relationship with the adrenal glands. The adrenal glands contain high concentrations of vitamin C, where it is involved in adrenal physiology and antioxidant protection. In a study of women with elevated cortisol associated with chronic stress, 1,000 mg of vitamin C daily for two months was associated with a significant fall in cortisol compared with untreated groups. This is interesting evidence, but it does not mean everyone under stress needs high-dose vitamin C. Read the research on PubMed.
So vitamin C isn't just about immune function. Your adrenal glands are unusually rich in it, and vitamin C participates in biochemical processes involved in producing stress-response hormones. That makes getting enough vitamin C a perfectly sensible part of supporting normal adrenal function. It's also a good example of why “cortisol detox” is the wrong way to think about nutrition: your adrenal glands need nutrients to make and regulate stress hormones properly, not to purge them from your body.
Omega-3 EPA and DHA
Omega-3 fatty acids may influence the way the body responds to stress rather than simply “lowering cortisol”. EPA and DHA affect brain function, cell membranes and inflammatory signalling, and human trials suggest they may also modify aspects of the physiological stress response. In one randomised controlled trial, omega-3 supplementation altered inflammatory and cellular responses to an acute laboratory stressor and reduced some aspects of stress reactivity. Read the research on PubMed.
This broader effect is probably the more useful reason to include omega-3 here. Stress isn't just cortisol. It involves your brain, autonomic nervous system, cardiovascular system, immune signalling and numerous hormones working together. EPA and DHA are structural and signalling fats used throughout several of those systems. So while an omega-3 supplement shouldn't be sold as a cortisol-lowering remedy, getting sufficient EPA and DHA may help provide the nutritional foundations for a healthy, appropriately regulated response to stress.
The Bottom Line on Cortisol Detoxes
Cortisol isn't something you need to detox. It's an essential hormone that helps you wake up, find energy when you need it, maintain blood pressure, regulate inflammation and respond to everything from exercise to illness and psychological stress. A cortisol rise is often evidence that this system is working, not that something has gone wrong.
Persistently excessive or insufficient cortisol does exist, but these are medical problems such as Cushing's syndrome and adrenal insufficiency that need proper investigation. Feeling tired, stressed, puffy, bloated or frustrated by belly fat isn't enough to diagnose a cortisol problem, however convincing a social-media symptom checklist might look.
There are, however, plenty of good reasons to look after your stress response. Sleep well, exercise regularly, eat a nutritious diet, allow yourself adequate recovery and tackle persistent sources of stress where you can. Nutrients and supplements such as magnesium, B vitamins, vitamin C and omega-3 can help provide nutritional support, while ashwagandha has some more direct evidence for supporting stress and healthy cortisol regulation.
So perhaps the useful idea buried inside the “cortisol detox” trend isn't that we need to get rid of cortisol at all. It's that living in a constant state of stress isn't particularly good for us, and supporting the systems that help us respond, recover and return to normal is a much more sensible goal than trying to detox an essential hormone.
This blog post is intended as generic information, not medical advice. If you have any concerns about your health, please consult your GP for professional evaluation.
Footnote: Can You Have Cortisol Measured? What Does The NHS Say?
Yes. Cortisol can be measured, but a single cortisol reading does not necessarily tell you whether your cortisol is “too high” or “too low”. Cortisol naturally changes substantially over 24 hours and is also affected by stress, illness, sleep and medication, so the timing and type of test matter. NHS guidance says that if Cushing’s syndrome is suspected, a GP can arrange cortisol testing using blood, urine or saliva; abnormal results may then lead to referral to an endocrinologist and further testing.
For suspected low cortisol or adrenal insufficiency, an early-morning blood cortisol can be useful, but diagnosis may require a Synacthen stimulation test. This measures cortisol before and after giving synthetic ACTH, the hormone that normally tells your adrenal glands to produce cortisol, to see whether they respond appropriately.
For suspected excess cortisol, doctors may use a 24-hour urinary free cortisol test, late-night salivary cortisol or a dexamethasone suppression test. These are designed to assess cortisol production or its normal regulation rather than simply taking a random snapshot.
This is an important difference from some of the commercial “cortisol tests” promoted online.
The NHS does not recommend diagnosing “stress”, “burnout” or a need for a “cortisol detox” from an isolated cortisol result. NHS laboratories specifically warn that random blood cortisol has limited usefulness because secretion is episodic and follows a strong daily rhythm. Cortisol testing is primarily used when there is a clinical reason to investigate disorders such as Cushing’s syndrome or adrenal insufficiency, with the results interpreted in the context of symptoms and, where necessary, further tests.
NHS: Cushing’s syndrome
A GP can arrange cortisol measurement using blood, urine or saliva, with referral to an endocrinologist if cortisol is high.
NHS: Cushing’s syndrome
NHS: Addison’s disease
Testing for suspected adrenal insufficiency, including checking blood before and after Synacthen to assess adrenal function.
NHS: Addison’s disease
Sources and Further Reading
‘The term “adrenal fatigue” (“AF”) has been used by some doctors, healthcare providers, and the general media to describe an alleged condition caused by chronic exposure to stressful situations. Despite this, “AF” has not been recognized by any Endocrinology society, who claim there is no hard evidence for the existence. …We found an almost systematic finding of conflicting results derived from most of the studies methods utilized, regardless of the validation and the quality of performed tests. …This systematic review proves that there is no substantiation that “adrenal fatigue” is an actual medical condition. Therefore, adrenal fatigue is still a myth.’
Adrenal fatigue does not exist: a systematic review, Flavio A. Cadegiani & Claudio E. Kater
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12902-016-0128-4
‘There are numerous articles in the lay press discussing the existence and under-diagnosis of adrenal fatigue. Proponents of adrenal fatigue state that millions of people have under-active adrenal glands due to repeated stressors, resulting in numerous nonspecific symptoms such as fatigue, insomnia, joint pain and weight gain, among others. In studies to date, proposed methods to assess adrenal fatigue have produced conflicting results and the methodology for assessing the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis has often been inappropriate. Furthermore, only a minority of studies have actually examined the HPA axis. Current evidence does not support the existence of adrenal fatigue or the usefulness of supplements to support adrenal function.’
We are tired of 'adrenal fatigue', L Ross; J Jones; M Blockman
https://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?pid=S0256-95742018001000015&script=sci_arttext
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS – Cortisol: States that random blood cortisol has limited use because cortisol secretion is episodic, varies through the day and is affected by stress. It also describes appropriate testing for Addison’s and Cushing’s.
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS: Cortisol testing
NHS – Cushing’s syndrome: explicitly says a GP can arrange cortisol measurement using blood, urine or saliva, with referral to an endocrinologist if cortisol is high.
NHS: Cushing’s syndrome
NHS – Addison’s disease: explains testing for suspected adrenal insufficiency, including checking blood before and after Synacthen to assess adrenal function.
NHS: Addison’s disease
