Cortisol Research Paper

201 Words1 Pages
Blood levels of cortisol differ, but typically are high in the morning when the person wakes up, and then drop throughout the day. This is called a diurnal rhythm. In people who work at night, they have the opposite pattern. The timing of cortisol releasing is related to the daily activity patterns. In response to stress, extra cortisol is released to help the body to respond properly. The secretion of cortisol is controlled by the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, which is a three inter-communicating regions of the body, the hypothalamus in the brain, the pituitary gland and the adrenal gland. When cortisol levels in the blood are reduced, a collection of cells in the hypothalamus release corticotrophin-releasing hormone, which causes the