Brain & Mental Health · Brain
Stress & Cortisol
The two stress systems (adrenaline in seconds, cortisol via the HPA axis in minutes), why short stress helps and chronic stress harms, Sapolsky's zebras, the cortisol rhythm, and tools that work: breathing, exercise, sleep, connection and reappraisal.
Step 1 of 6 · Overview30 min read ·
Key idea
Prereqs: Sleep science. Next: Anxiety & depression basics; CBT. Sources: Robert Sapolsky, *Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers* (1994; 3rd ed. 2004); Balban et al., *Cell Reports Medicine* (2023) on breathing; TED-Ed. Educational only.Next: 1. Two systems