D o you feel overwhelmed by daily tasks? Catch yourself thinking negative or pessimistic thoughts? Blame your high cortisol levels, influencers would have you believe. Online, cortisol—commonly called the “stress hormone”—is a hot topic and frequent scapegoat. Type “cortisol levels” or “howtoreducecortisol” into TikTok, and you’ll be met with hundreds of millions of posts, name-dropping the hormone as responsible for everything from a puffy face (#cortistolface) to a bloated midsection. There