The following information was sent to me as email along with promotion for various anti-cortisol pharmaceuticals under development.

Breathing has been demonstrated to be very effective in preventing and reversing stress. This has already been demonstrated.

Are there studies which prove the effectiveness of breathing well in lowering unnaturally high cortisol levels and positively effecting disease conditions which are characterised by high cortisol levels? Does anyone have any experience with this?  Send us your information

Thank you, Holland Franklin

CORTISOL THE DEATH HORMONE-THE ANGEL OF DEATH-GROWING BODY OF RESEARCH INDICATES THE NEED FOR ANTICORTISOL COMPOUNDS

Las Vegas, NV-September 15, 1999-(STGI-OTC-BB)--Steroidogenesis

Inhibitors International, Inc. has accumulated a number of research reports being done by independent sources that support the concepts developed by Dr. Alfred T. Sapse, and STGI which indicate that cortisol is truly the "Death Hormone". Recent published research regarding cortisol is painting a darker shadow on the role this hormone is playing in life and death in animals as well as in humans. These reports will show the need to monitor and treat symptoms of high cortisol which can otherwise lead to the destruction of the immune system and allow the onset of a number of immunologically based diseases such as aids, cancer, depression, and aging. STGI's developmental drug ANTICORT(TM) hopefully will alleviate these conditions with few known side effects.

Dr. W. Mike Howell, professor of zoology/ichthyology at Samford University in Birmingham, AL., recently contacted STGI about fish, high cortisol diseases, aging and death in animals. Dr. Howell's research, published in the scientific press, shows that when caught, some fish are dying instantly in the net due to stress (or terror) of being caught.

Chemical and hormonal studies done on this fish determined the cause of death to be "a dramatic rise in the level of cortisol."

Other studies done in collaboration with Drs. Rob Angus from UAB and Ron Jenkins of Samford, had shown that under stress or cortisol addition to nutrient media, some of the female fish start developing masculine traits.

Another example of high levels of cortisol in animals is Shipping Fever. "Shipping fever is a respiratory disease that is found in ruminants and is recognized by the clinical sign of bronchopneumonia. Shipping fever causes the most economic losses of any other disease in feedlot animals and is common in dairy calf mortality. The infected animal commonly shows signs of depression, anorexia, an increase in body temperature, increased heart rate, and labored breathing. This disease becomes a complex one to understand in that it is one that is selective in its infection, and is prevalent only in animals that have been recently stressed. It is believed that it is the action of cortisol on the immune system that relates this disease to stress."

See http://animsci.agrenv.mcgill.ca Our knowledge of cortisol, aging, and death in animals is rather limited. The story of salmon is well known, however the relationship to cortisol and death is not. This young, female fish, swims upstream in the fast mountain currents, spawns the eggs, and returns back to die. 

An autopsy and hormonal examination of the dead salmon, reveals that it died of old age and the cause of death is highly elevated level of cortisol. All symptoms encountered in the dead fish mimic the symptoms the high cortisol disease in humans, the Cushing's disease. The signature mark of Cushing's is the buffalo hump. The dead salmon has the buffalo hump too. It is of interest to notice that in human patients with chronic diseases that are approaching death, the cortisol level rises suddenly a few days before, and continues climbing 2-4 hours after the death had actually occurred. If the sudden elevation of cortisol had caused the death, as was the case in examples mentioned before, then cortisol is not only the hormone of aging but also the "angel of death".

According to report by Rehan Jalali, B.S., May 17, 1999 titled "Is Cortisol Leading You Down the Catabolic Pathway?" "Cortisol seems to play a role in various disease states. It is found in higher-than-normal levels in diseases ranging from AIDS and Multiple Sclerosis to Alzheimer's. Prolonged high levels of cortisol can throw the immune system into chaos and ravage the human body. A growing number of researchers believe that many of the worst, and least-understood, diseases will soon be identified as caused by high cortisol, and subsequently treated with cortisol-reducing drugs or supplements."

This study indicates that over training by bodybuilders causes stress factors which elevate cortisol levels causing an eventual destruction of the body. For a full text version of this study, see the following web address: http://www.mesomorphosis.com/nonmembers/cortisol.htm

From the web site:

http://www.inspirationcenter.net in a study titled "Effects of Long Term Release of Cortisol" (Hans Selye, 1976-the developer of the stress theory). The effect of cortisol release on the body in the short term, "fight or flight" is essential, but in the long term causes: increased blood pressure which can lead to heart attacks and stroke, inhibition of growth; children constantly exposed to stress can fail to reach maximum growth, inhibition of an inflammatory response which makes it more difficult for body to heal itself, suppression of the immune system which causes greater susceptibility to disease, and there is new evidence that cortisol can cause damage to brain cells, especially in the hippocampus associated with aging, and cortisol appears to hamper cells ability to utilize glucose, which is particularly important with decreased blood flow associated with aging. 

In an article titled "Cortisol" by Jodi Tuck, she states, "Cortisol is a steroid hormone that is released from the zona fasciculata of the adrenal cortex in response to stress. The stressors that stimulate the release of this glucocorticoid hormone may be any number of things such as drastic changes in temperature, heavy exercising or even falling in love. Cortisol is considered to be such a reliable indicator of stress upon a system that many physiologists define stress as an event that elicits increased levels of cortisol."

Quotes from an article titled "Development of the Cerebral Cortex: XIII. Stress and Brain Development: II" by Bruce McEwen, Ph.D.- published in the Journal of American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, 37(12): 1337-1339, 1998-- "In spite of their bad reputation, stress hormones have a protective as well as a damaging effect on the body. Whether the good or bad side of stress hormone action predominates depends on the time course of the hormonal stress response, as well as the body's exposure to stress hormones. People who have had excessive stress in their lives, as measured by multiple periods of poverty-level income, show earlier aging and decline of both physical and mental functioning. There are circumstances in which the number of stressful events may not be excessive but in which the body fails to manage the hormonal stress response. Measurement of cortisol in a repeated public-speaking challenge has revealed individuals who do not habituate, and these individuals, who lack self-confidence and self-esteem, are undoubtedly overexposing their bodies to stress hormones under many circumstances in daily life that do not overtly disturb other individuals. One example is individuals with two parents with hypertension, who show prolonged elevation of blood pressure after a psychological stressor. Another example is the hypersecretion of cortisol in the evening in people who have been sleep-deprived, as well as in depressed individuals. In the latter case, loss of bone mineral density has been reported. Differences in hormonal dynamics and allostatic load may explain gradients of morbidity and mortality that are seen across the range of income and education referred to as "socioeconomic status and that account for striking differences of health between rich and poor." In 1984, Alfred T. Sapse, MD, published an article titled "Stress, Cortisol, Interferon and Stress Diseases I, Cortisol as Cause of Stress Diseases/Medical Hypothesis 13-31:44, Glascow, UK," in which he brought substantial evidence that cortisol, or rather high cortisol is the cause of diseases, or symptoms of diseases. In cancers (all types of cancers), viral infections including AIDS and viral hepatitis, strokes, diabetes, hypertension, aging, and Alzheimer's, high cortisol is present. In this paper, Dr. Sapse had shown that since high cortisol is the cause of diseases, then anticortisol drugs should have a beneficial effect on those diseases, and that is how the cortisol/anticortisol theory was born. Three years later in 1987, after numerous experiments, the first anticortisol drug-ANTICORT(TM), was developed, and after seven years years of clinical research, in 1994 STGI was assigned this drug. STGI is now clinically testing this drug in diseases, starting with AIDS. The cortisol/anticortisol concept is now gaining momentum rapidly in the scientific and research media, as shown by the Cortisol/Anticortisol Conference in Paris, France-1996, and Las Vegas, Nevada-1997.

See also labored breathing