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Mint
23-07-2025
- Health
- Mint
Can apps and hacks really prevent jet lag?
The body's internal clock gets out of sync with the local time when we cross time zones, leading to jet lag. This wasn't the birthday greeting I had in mind: a 6 a.m. alarm blaring in my ear. I had taken the day off for a milestone birthday (let's not put a number on it) but here I was, bleary-eyed and grumpy, thanks to a jet-lag app I was testing for a family trip to Greece the following day. Sleeping in is one of my favorite pastimes. But when a friend traveled to India on a business trip with no jet lag after using an app, I figured it was worth a try. Jet lag is temporary but real. When we cross time zones, our circadian rhythm—the body's internal clock, which regulates just about every function in our bodies—gets out of sync with the local time. That can lead to fatigue, insomnia, headaches and brain fog. Though it poses no serious health risks, jet lag can hamper, or ruin, a vacation or business trip. So hacks from glasses to light boxes to supplements abound. Jet lag is worse heading east than west. Our internal clocks adjust about an hour a day, so transitioning to Greek time, a seven-hour difference, can take a week. Not ideal when your trip is only eight days. But I wasn't the only body clock under consideration. I was traveling with a teenager who regularly stays up past 1 a.m. and a tween who can't sleep past 8 a.m. My husband, who wakes up an hour earlier than me, tried the app, too. Age differences and jet lag aren't well studied, but Dr. Jamie Zeitzer, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine, says young kids often adjust faster. Teens may, too, for a different reason. 'They're just so tired they can sleep whenever," he says. There are a number of apps that try to tackle jet lag. For example, StopJetLag gives light, sleep, meal and activity advice starting three days before travel. It costs $78 a trip. Flykitt, which is $99 for the first trip, includes five supplements, blue-light blocking glasses and sleep and eating advice. It revolves around the principle that pressure changes during flights can trigger inflammation for several days. I settled on an app called Timeshifter because the first trip was free and it focused on light exposure, with optional melatonin and caffeine—two tools I already use. Mickey Beyer-Clausen, the CEO of Timeshifter, and chief scientist Steven Lockley say the app shifts your circadian clock three to four hours a day. So on a trip from New York to Athens with a seven-hour difference, I should be able to shift in 1.5 to two days. Preparations for the trip started a few days in advance. I logged my sleep habits (11 p.m. to 7 a.m.) and enthusiastically signed on to using caffeine and melatonin. Day one was easy. It was pretty much my normal schedule but then came an alert: Avoid light from 9 to 10 p.m. And ruminate over midlife in the dark? Instead, I chose to read on my Kindle. Bad call. According to Timeshifter it would have been better to watch TV or read a book in a dimly lighted room wearing sunglasses. The next day, my birthday, started with a 6 a.m. wake-up and an unusually early bed time: 9 p.m. When a friend showed up with a surprise cake just before then we were thrown off. The next day was worse: a 5 a.m. wake-up for me, 4 a.m. for my husband. We persevered. I only had two hours for caffeine and guzzled it. By the time my 17-year-old son woke hours later, I snapped at him to finish packing. He barked back, 'What's the point of this app if you're just jet lagged before the trip? Just be tired and you'll sleep on the plane." Did he have a point? Once on the plane, I was exhausted but the app didn't have me sleeping for another two hours. I dozed for maybe an hour. The rest was restless half-sleep with constant peeks at the flight map and time. That's fine, says Lockley, who formerly worked as a sleep researcher at Harvard Medical School. More important than sleeping, is avoiding light. 'It's not about sleep, it's about the circadian clock," he says. 'It's the dark that matters," he adds. Health columnist Sumathi Reddy with her family on a trip to Greece. We landed in Athens at 6 a.m., caught a connecting flight, and by 2 p.m. were on Milos. The Timeshifter alerts popping up were still on New York Time so we ignored them (a temporary kink Beyer-Clausen says was fixed). As tempted as we were to nap, the Aegean Sea lured us in for a swim. Greeks eat late, so dinner was at 8 p.m. Timeshifter said bedtime was 11 p.m. By the time we got back at 10 p.m. I could barely keep my eyes open. The app called for a 7 a.m. wake-up but I was on vacation! We set the alarm for 9. (TimeShifter says it's adding a feature for a vacation sleeping pattern.) We all slept through the night. From there, the plan was simple: sunshine and caffeine in the morning; limited light before bed; and bed time pushing 11 p.m. When the shift to New York began a few days later, calling for limited light over breakfast, I decided to mostly ignore the recommendations. A four-hour delay on the flight home threw everything off anyway. I paid a price for the neglect: The workweek was a blur of nodding off at my desk, falling asleep by 9 p.m., and waking up before dawn. So was the pre-trip prep—early morning birthday wake-up and all—worth it? I think so. I may have transformed into a grumpy, morning person but the payoff was a postcard-perfect Greek island vacation. I'm ready to do it again in September for a girl's trip to Spain. Write to Sumathi Reddy at
NZ Herald
23-07-2025
- Health
- NZ Herald
Many lung cancers are now in non-smokers. Scientists want to know why
'My family needs me,' she recalled thinking. Chen's case represents a confounding reality for doctors who study and treat lung cancer, the deadliest cancer in the United States. The disease's incidence and death rates have dropped over the last few decades, thanks largely to a decline in cigarette use, but lung cancers unrelated to smoking have persisted. The thinking used to be that smoking was 'almost the only cause of lung cancer', said Dr Maria Teresa Landi, a senior investigator at the National Cancer Institute, which is part of the National Institutes of Health. However, worldwide roughly 10% to 25% of lung cancers now occur in people who have never smoked. Among certain groups of Asian and Asian American women, that share is estimated to be 50% or more. These cancers are increasingly drawing the attention of researchers like Landi, who are studying the role that environmental exposures, genetic mutations, or other risk factors might play. They have already found some early hints, including a clear link to air pollution. Physicians are also testing new approaches to better detect lung cancer in non-smokers. They are trying to understand why it is more prevalent: in people of Asian ancestry; in women; and why it is being seen among younger people. 'We all still think about the Marlboro man as what lung cancer looks like,' said Dr Heather Wakelee, chief of oncology at the Stanford University School of Medicine. In many cases, though, that's no longer true. 'We're just baffled as to why,' she said. Looking for Clues Many lung cancers in non-smokers have no known cause and are discovered only by chance. That was the case for Sandra Liu, 59, who lives in New Jersey. Liu was diagnosed this year with adenocarcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer among non-smokers. Doctors found the mass after she had a full-body check-up during a visit to China — a process popular with some Chinese expatriates visiting the country that includes a chest scan. 'I would have never thought to go for a CT,' she said, noting she had no major symptoms and never smoked. Scientists are starting to see that the biology of cancer in non-smokers like Liu differs from cancers seen in people with a smoking history — and may require different strategies for prevention and detection. One large study, called 'Sherlock Lung' and led by Landi and colleagues at the University of California, San Diego, is looking at the mutational signatures, or patterns of mutations across the cancer genomes, of 871 non-smokers with lung cancer from around the world. Their latest findings, published in Nature this month, showed that certain mutations, or changes to DNA, were much more common in people who lived in areas with high amounts of air pollution — for example, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Uzbekistan. More pollution was linked to more mutations. The study did not include data from India, considered to have the highest levels of outdoor pollution. The researchers didn't just find that pollution may directly damage DNA. They also saw signs that pollution causes cells to divide more rapidly, which further increases the likelihood of cancer. Studies have also shown that people who don't smoke but have a family history of lung cancer, such as Chen and Liu — both of Liu's grandfathers had the disease — are at increased risk. This could be because of shared genetics, a common environment or both, said Dr Jae Kim, chief of thoracic surgery at City of Hope in Duarte, California. And scientists know that non-smokers with lung cancer are more likely than people who smoked to have certain kinds of 'driver' mutations, changes to the genome that can cause cancer and drive its spread, Kim said. In contrast, people who smoke tend to accumulate many mutations over time that can eventually lead to cancer. This difference in the type of mutations may be one reason why lung cancer among people under-50 is more prevalent among nonsmokers than smokers. Leah Phillips at her home in Peewee Valley, Kentucky. Photo / Jon Cherry, the New York Times There are probably other factors, too, including exposure to radon, asbestos and possibly aristolochic acid, a compound once common in traditional Chinese medicine. Landi's research linked the compound to lung cancer mutations among Taiwanese patients. Taiwan banned products containing it in 2003. Studies from Asia have also suggested second-hand smoke, fumes from cooking oils, and a history of tuberculosis or other lung disease as possible culprits. However, these potential contributors are less common in the US, where Asian American women who don't smoke are still nearly twice as likely as other women to be diagnosed with the disease, said Scarlett Gomez, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco. To understand what's driving the disparity in the US, Gomez, Wakelee and colleagues at other Northern California institutions are now studying the relationships among genes, environmental contaminants and lung cancer in Asian American non-smoking women. 'Ultimately, we want to be able to come up with actionable risk factors, just like we do for breast cancer and colorectal cancer,' Gomez said. Revisiting Screening Guidance Studies like Gomez's may help address the question of who should be screened for lung cancer. In the US, routine screening is recommended only for people aged 50 to 80 who smoked at least the equivalent of one pack of cigarettes per day for 20 years. Because of that, lung cancer in non-smokers is often not caught until it's advanced, said Dr Elaine Shum, an oncologist at NYU Langone Health. That can have devastating consequences for patients like Chen, who is still undergoing treatment after a third metastasis of her cancer. Shum and others are now exploring whether screening should be expanded. In Taiwan, a nationwide trial tested the effectiveness of CT scans in people aged 55 to 75 who never smoked but had one other risk factor. Doctors detected cancer in 2.6% of patients — enough that Taiwan now offers routine screening for non-smokers with a family history of lung cancer. Shum and colleagues recently ran a similar pilot study among women of Asian ancestry who were 40 to 74 and had never smoked. In preliminary results from about 200 patients, they found invasive cancer at comparable rates to the Taiwan study. Data from the full set of 1000 patients who were screened is forthcoming. Still, it would take far more research to determine who in the US, if anyone, would benefit from broader screening and whether it could meaningfully reduce lung cancer deaths. Screening more people can lead to more false positives, which may mean patients get biopsies and other interventions they don't need. And some cancers doctors find are so slow growing that they may never cause harm, said Dr Natalie Lui, a thoracic surgeon at the Stanford University School of Medicine. 'What if we're taking out all these tiny lung cancers that would not have been life-threatening?' Lui said. On the flip side, she thinks of the patients she regularly sees who have aggressive or advanced lung cancers but never smoked. 'If there was screening, we could save their life,' Lui said. The good news is that survival with advanced cancers has improved with newer therapies that effectively keep the disease at bay for years in many patients. Such treatments have benefited Leah Phillips, of Pewee Valley, Kentucky. Doctors first mistakenly diagnosed her with asthma and then anxiety. Later, they said she had pneumonia. When an oncologist finally told her in 2019 that she had metastatic lung cancer, he gave her six to 12 months to live. 'Go home and get your affairs in order,' Phillips remembered him saying. She was 43, and her children were 9, 13, and 14. 'I'm not leaving my kids,' Phillips thought. After getting a second opinion, she started taking a drug that targets one of the driver mutations in lung cancer. She prayed to make it to her eldest child's graduation. 'I cried through his entire senior year,' she said. In June, she watched her middle child graduate. 'Now I need to make it to the next one,' she said. Phillips, who co-founded a non-profit called the Young Lung Cancer Initiative to increase awareness of the condition, said people look at her askance when she tells them she has lung cancer but never smoked. They didn't know it was possible. It's not your grandfather's lung cancer anymore, she tells them. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Written by: Nina Agrawal and Allison Jiang Photographs by: Shuran Huang, Jon Cherry ©2025 THE NEW YORK TIMES
Boston Globe
22-07-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
Many lung cancers are now in nonsmokers. Scientists want to know why.
Chen's case represents a confounding reality for doctors who study and treat lung cancer, the deadliest cancer in the United States. The disease's incidence and death rates have dropped over the last few decades, thanks largely to a decline in cigarette use, but lung cancers unrelated to smoking have persisted. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The thinking used to be that smoking was 'almost the only cause of lung cancer,' said Dr. Maria Teresa Landi, a senior investigator at the National Cancer Institute, which is part of the National Institutes of Health. But worldwide, roughly 10% to 25% of lung cancers now occur in people who have never smoked. Among certain groups of Asian and Asian American women, that share is estimated to be 50% or more. Advertisement These cancers are increasingly drawing the attention of researchers like Landi, who are studying the role that environmental exposures, genetic mutations or other risk factors might play. They have already found some early hints, including a clear link to air pollution. Advertisement Physicians are also testing new approaches to better detect lung cancer in nonsmokers, and trying to understand why it is more prevalent in people of Asian ancestry and women and why it is being seen among younger people. 'We all still think about the Marlboro man as what lung cancer looks like,' said Dr. Heather Wakelee, chief of oncology at the Stanford University School of Medicine. In many cases, though, that's no longer true. 'We're just baffled as to why,' she said. Looking for Clues Many lung cancers in nonsmokers have no known cause and are discovered only by chance. That was the case for Sandra Liu, 59, who lives in New Jersey. Liu was diagnosed this year with adenocarcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer among nonsmokers. Doctors found the mass after she had a full-body checkup during a visit to China -- a process popular with some Chinese expatriates visiting the country that includes a chest scan. 'I would have never thought to go for a CT,' she said, noting she had no major symptoms and never smoked. Scientists are starting to see that the biology of cancer in nonsmokers like Liu differs from cancers seen in people with a smoking history -- and may require different strategies for prevention and detection. One large study, called 'Sherlock Lung' and led by Landi and colleagues at the University of California, San Diego, is looking at the mutational signatures, or patterns of mutations across the cancer genomes, of 871 nonsmokers with lung cancer from around the world. Advertisement Their latest findings, published in Nature this month, showed that certain mutations, or changes to DNA, were much more common in people who lived in areas with high amounts of air pollution -- for example, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Uzbekistan. More pollution was linked to more mutations. (The study did not include data from India, considered to have the highest levels of outdoor pollution.) The researchers didn't just find that pollution may directly damage DNA. They also saw signs that pollution causes cells to divide more rapidly, which further increases the likelihood of cancer. Studies have also shown that people who don't smoke but have a family history of lung cancer, such as Chen and Liu -- both of Liu's grandfathers had the disease -- are at increased risk. This could be because of shared genetics, a common environment or both, said Dr. Jae Kim, chief of thoracic surgery at City of Hope in Duarte, California. And scientists know that nonsmokers with lung cancer are more likely than people who smoked to have certain kinds of 'driver' mutations, changes to the genome that can cause cancer and drive its spread, Kim said. In contrast, people who smoke tend to accumulate many mutations over time that can eventually lead to cancer. This difference in the type of mutations may be one reason lung cancer among people under 50 is more prevalent among nonsmokers than smokers. There are probably other factors, too, including exposure to radon, asbestos and possibly aristolochic acid, a compound once common in traditional Chinese medicine. Landi's research linked the compound to lung cancer mutations among Taiwanese patients. (Taiwan banned products containing it in 2003.) Advertisement Studies from Asia have also suggested secondhand smoke, fumes from cooking oils and a history of tuberculosis or other lung disease as possible culprits. However, these potential contributors are less common in the United States, where Asian American women who don't smoke are still nearly twice as likely as other women to be diagnosed with the disease, said Scarlett Gomez, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco. To understand what's driving the disparity in the United States, Gomez, Wakelee and colleagues at other Northern California institutions are now studying the relationships among genes, environmental contaminants and lung cancer in Asian American nonsmoking women. 'Ultimately, we want to be able to come up with actionable risk factors, just like we do for breast cancer and colorectal cancer,' Gomez said. Revisiting Screening Guidance Studies like Gomez's may help address the question of who should be screened for lung cancer. In the United States, routine screening is recommended only for people ages 50 to 80 who smoked at least the equivalent of one pack of cigarettes per day for 20 years. Because of that, lung cancer in nonsmokers is often not caught until it's advanced, said Dr. Elaine Shum, an oncologist at NYU Langone Health. That can have devastating consequences for patients like Chen, who is still undergoing treatment after a third metastasis of her cancer. Shum and others are now exploring whether screening should be expanded. In Taiwan, a nationwide trial tested the effectiveness of CT scans in people ages 55 to 75 who never smoked but had one other risk factor. Doctors detected cancer in 2.6% of patients -- enough that Taiwan now offers routine screening for nonsmokers with a family history of lung cancer. Advertisement Shum and colleagues recently ran a similar pilot study among women of Asian ancestry who were 40 to 74 years old and had never smoked. They found invasive cancer at comparable rates to the Taiwan study. That study included only about 200 women, though. It would take far more research to determine who in the United States, if anyone, would benefit from broader screening and whether it could meaningfully reduce lung cancer deaths. Screening more people can lead to more false positives, which may mean patients get biopsies and other interventions they don't need. And some cancers doctors find are so slow-growing that they may never cause harm, said Dr. Natalie Lui, a thoracic surgeon at the Stanford University School of Medicine. 'What if we're taking out all these tiny lung cancers that would not have been life-threatening?' Lui said. On the flip side, she thinks of the patients she regularly sees who have aggressive or advanced lung cancers but never smoked. 'If there was screening, we could save their life,' Lui said. The good news is that survival with advanced cancers has improved with newer therapies that effectively keep the disease at bay for years in many patients. Such treatments have benefited Leah Phillips, of Pewee Valley, Kentucky. Doctors first mistakenly diagnosed her with asthma and then anxiety. Later, they said she had pneumonia. When an oncologist finally told her in 2019 that she had metastatic lung cancer, he gave her six to 12 months to live. 'Go home and get your affairs in order,' Phillips remembered him saying. She was 43, and her children were 9, 13 and 14. Advertisement 'I'm not leaving my kids,' Phillips thought. After getting a second opinion, she started taking a drug that targets one of the driver mutations in lung cancer. She prayed to make it to her eldest child's graduation. 'I cried through his entire senior year,' she said. In June, she watched her middle child graduate. 'Now I need to make it to the next one,' she said. Phillips, who cofounded a nonprofit called the Young Lung Cancer Initiative to increase awareness of the condition, said people look at her askance when she tells them she has lung cancer but never smoked. They didn't know it was possible. It's not your grandfather's lung cancer anymore, she tells them. This article originally appeared in
New York Post
10-07-2025
- Health
- New York Post
Should you try hypnosis to stop drinking? Experts weigh in
Clinical hypnosis has shown to be effective in the treatment of pain, anxiety, stress, cancer treatment side effects, phobias and habit control problems, such as smoking and weight control, according to past randomized controlled trials. 'Hypnosis is the oldest Western form of psychotherapy, but it is underutilized,' Dr. David Spiegel, associate chair of psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine in California and a leading authority in the field of hypnosis, told Fox News Digital. What is hypnosis? Advertisement Hypnosis is not itself considered a therapy. Rather, it enhances other treatments by inducing a state of increased concentration while reducing peripheral awareness, experts say. 4 Clinical hypnosis has shown to be effective in the treatment of pain, anxiety, stress, cancer treatment side effects, phobias, smoking and weight control. Monika Wisniewska – The practice aims to put people in a deep state of relaxation so they can learn more easily. Shawn Criswell, Ph.D., a mental counselor practicing in Oregon, defines it as 'a gentle way of shifting people's focus to new ideas and perspectives that can help improve their lives.' Advertisement Added Criswell, 'It does this in part by connecting them with their strengths and resources, empowering them in the process, and directly contradicting the old, tired myth that in hypnosis, you'll give up control of yourself.' He co-authored, together with Michael Yapko, Ph.D, the latest edition of 'Trancework: An Introduction to the Practice of Clinical Hypnosis.' Past research suggests that hypnosis may alter brain activity related to attention and consciousness. 'The brain activation patterns during hypnosis — such as for color, pain and sound — are similar to those observed during actual experiences,' Dr. Ryan Sultan, attending physician at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and director of the Mental Health Informatics Lab at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, told Fox News Digital. 4 According to doctors, clinical hypnosis therapy can reduce cravings for those struggling with alcohol use disorder. Pixel-Shot – Advertisement Some people may choose to practice self-hypnosis, which he described as the process of entering a trance-like state without the guidance of a hypnotist. Sultan compared it to entering a 'controlled, simplified state' in which people may be more open to certain ideas and therapeutic suggestions. But the effects can be short-lived, he noted, and some individuals may find it difficult to maintain the hypnotic state without external cues. The treatment technique has been approved by the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association. To maximize its safety and effectiveness, Sultan recommended hypnosis by a qualified professional. Can hypnosis cure alcohol dependence? Advertisement Hypnosis may help support people with drinking problems by encouraging motivation, reducing cravings and helping to manage stress, according to Dr. Lama Bazzi, a psychiatrist in private practice in New York City. The expert emphasized, however, that hypnosis is not a standalone cure for problem drinking. Instead, it's part of a comprehensive treatment plan that includes focused cognitive-behavioral therapy, psychiatric support and targeted medications when necessary. 4 Hypnosis may help support people with drinking problems by encouraging motivation, reducing cravings and helping to manage stress. Africa Studio – 'There is less evidence about alcohol problems, but I have had patients stop drinking by focusing on respecting and protecting their bodies,' Spiegel noted. 'One of my patients thought about that concept in hypnosis, and said, 'You mean, the body is the temple of the soul?'' he added. Risks and regulations Hypnotherapy presents little risk, according to Spiegel. 'The worst thing that can happen is that it may not always work,' he told Fox News Digital. Possible mild side effects include dizziness and emotional release. There is also a risk of false memories if used for memory recall, Sultan cautioned. Advertisement The therapy is also not recommended for people with severe mental illness, such as psychosis, experts say. 4 Experts said that hypnotherapy presents little risk to one's mental health. RFBSIP – Mayo Clinic also notes that side effects are uncommon, but that some people may experience anxiety, sleepiness, headache and nausea. 'It is best to seek care from a psychiatrist or psychologist with specialized training in clinical hypnosis,' Bazzi told Fox News Digital. Advertisement 'These professionals can objectively assess your susceptibility to hypnosis, determine whether it is an appropriate and potentially effective intervention for your specific concerns, and develop a comprehensive, multimodal treatment plan tailored to your needs,' she added. For those seeking a hypnotist, experts recommend visiting the websites of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis or The International Society of Hypnosis, both of which offer directories of professionals who have expertise and often certification in the practice. Warning signs of alcohol use disorder Some 28 million Americans aged 18 and older are living with alcohol-use disorder, according to 2023 estimates from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. People may be drinking excessively if they consume enough alcohol in one sitting to raise their blood alcohol level to greater than 0.08, or if they drink more than a certain number of drinks in one week, experts say. Advertisement This generally equates to women having four or more drinks or men consuming five or more drinks at once — or a weekly amount of eight or more drinks for women or 15 or more drinks for men, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Signs of an alcohol problem include experiencing a loss of control when drinking, continuing to drink despite adverse consequences, and experiencing compulsive cravings when not drinking – often referred to as the 'three Cs.' Those who think they may have an alcohol-dependence problem and are interested in seeking alternative therapies should contact their doctor for recommendations.
Time of India
05-07-2025
- Health
- Time of India
Is the viral 'Cortisol Cocktail' just another wellness trend gone wild?
What Cortisol Actually Does Is the Cortisol Cocktail Backed by Science? Not for Everyone In the age of wellness trends and social media quick fixes, one particular stress-reduction hack has taken social media by storm: the so-called 'cortisol cocktail.' Promoted as a morning mocktail that helps lower stress levels, the drink typically mixes coconut water, orange juice, fresh lemon juice, magnesium powder, sea salt, and sparkling water—often served in a wine glass for added flair. Countless Instagram and TikTok creators have shared videos of themselves preparing and sipping the beverage, claiming it helps them feel more relaxed, sleep better, and balance their amid the buzz, one important question remains: can this fizzy concoction really lower cortisol, the hormone widely associated with stress?Cortisol isn't the enemy it's often made out to be. As explained by Dr. Marilyn Tan, an endocrinologist and clinical associate professor at Stanford University School of Medicine , cortisol plays a vital role in regulating blood pressure, blood sugar, and electrolyte balance. 'It's necessary for function,' she told CNBC Make It, adding that an absence of cortisol can lead to dangerously low blood sugar, blood pressure, and abnormal sodium and potassium hormone naturally spikes in the early morning to help people wake up and gradually declines throughout the day. Because of its fluctuating nature and essential role in survival, doctors rarely recommend efforts to actively reduce cortisol unless there's a serious medical condition like Cushing's syndrome, which involves chronically high cortisol levels.'Doctors asking patients to lower their cortisol? We almost actually never do that,' said Dr. Jessica R. Lee, assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. 'It's more about managing stress and other things that we think can contribute to the cortisol changes.'Despite its popularity, there's little scientific evidence to support the idea that this particular drink reduces cortisol levels. 'There's not great studies out about any of this,' Lee noted. Dr. Tan echoed the sentiment, saying she isn't aware of any research directly linking the cocktail's ingredients with cortisol more likely explanation for the feel-good response to the drink? Hydration. With ingredients like coconut water, orange juice, and sea salt, the mocktail is essentially a homemade electrolyte drink—comparable to a natural Gatorade. 'People often think that it may help with sleep or help with relaxation,' Tan said, and the magnesium might play a minor role in reducing stress for some individuals. However, she cautioned that 'there aren't any large randomized, controlled trials on the effects of magnesium and sleep quality or stress levels.'Even Lee acknowledged, 'I think a lot of people do notice feeling better,' though she attributes it more to taste and placebo than a proven biochemical generally safe for most, the cortisol cocktail isn't for everyone. Individuals with diabetes should be wary of the sugar content, and those with chronic kidney disease should avoid excess magnesium and potassium. Both Lee and Tan urge anyone with health concerns to consult a medical professional before hopping on the viral while sipping a cortisol cocktail might offer a refreshing break in your day, the road to true stress relief still runs through consistent self-care—and not just whatever's trending on your For You Page.
