Cortisol gets blamed for a lot of health issues but it's rarely the cause

ABC News Australia · Amy Sheehan, Ellen Phiddian · 2026-11-03 23:02 UTC

Experts say there is a "plethora" of social media content about the hormone, which is often unhelpful in explaining why it's essential.

Cortisol is a hormone many of us have probably heard of and there's no denying it gets a bad rap when it comes to our health.

It's become a buzzword on social media, where it's often blamed for high stress, fatigue and weight gain, among other things. But is there any truth to these claims?

We asked experts what cortisol does in our bodies and why they say it's being wrongly targeted as the cause of health issues.

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