BCIA Continuing Education Posts

The heart, brain, and gut form one network coordinated by the central autonomic network, so depression, heart disease, and gut disorders often rise and fall together as allostatic load.

Cortisol is rhythmic, context-dependent, and clinically meaningful only when interpreted in light of timing, symptoms, medications, comorbidities, and validated testing. Cortisol supports arousal, blood pressure regulation, glucose availability, immune balance, and survival itself. The risk emerges when secretion is excessive, deficient, poorly timed, pharmacologically altered, or uncoupled from normal feedback.