The Double Whammy of High Cortisol: Tissue Damage & Hidden Inflammation

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Many times when you have too much cortisol, you get a double whammy. You get both the damaging effect of having too much cortisol, which might be high blood sugar, which leads to insulin resistance, which might be damaging your tissues. And you know, one of the side effects of having repeated cortisone injections, you risk causing tendon and connective tissue weakness. So then, when you have too much cortisol in the system, it's kind of degrading your tissue. It thins out your gut lining. It can cause tissue and soft tissue connective tissue weakness and damage.

[00:00:30]So, on one hand, the high cortisol does that, but on the other hand, because of receptor down-regulation, you don't get a benefit of having that cortisol helping you with energy. You also started lose the effect that anti-inflammatory effect of cortisol due to receptor down-regulation. So, even though you have tons of cortisol in your system, it cannot go into the cell, so you lose that inflammation dampening effect of cortisol. So, you actually become more inflamed. Your immune system actually start to shut down. Usually, you have this immune system weakness.

[00:00:55]So, you get sick easily.