Have you heard of a “cortisol cocktail”? Rather than something you might order at a bar, this drink is one of the latest wellness trends floating around social media.

Proponents claim the drink – which is made with ingredients including orange juice, coconut water and salt – can lower high cortisol levels and help with “adrenal fatigue”. This in turn is supposed to lead to a range of benefits, from reduced stress to improved energy levels.

But can a cortisol cocktail really achieve these things? And do we actually need to lower our cortisol levels in the first place? Let’s see what the evidence says.

Cortisol is often portrayed as being bad for us, but we couldn’t live without it.

Cortisol is a hormone produced by the adrenal glands. The adrenal glands also produce many other hormones including adrenaline, sex hormones and aldosterone (this helps balance salt in the body and affects blood pressure).

Cortisol is regulated by the brain in response to stress. Physical stress (for example, injury or sleep deprivation) and psychological stress (such as work pressures or grief) stimulate the stress response – also known as the fight-or-flight response – and cortisol secretion.

We often hear cortisol described as “the stress hormone”. But cortisol has many other important functions too – it increases glucose (sugar) in the blood to provide energy, regulates metabolism and reduces inflammation.

Our bodies constantly produce cortisol but the level changes with the daily light-dark cycle. It increases just before we wake, is highest during the morning, drops off in the afternoon and is lowest overnight.

We want high cortisol in the morning to wake us up and release energy. We also want higher cortisol........

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