Misinformation surrounding cortisol suggests that normal, acute increases from stress or exercise lead to negative outcomes like 'moon face' and midsection fat storage, which are characteristic of Cushing syndrome.

“It's the first time I've ever used that word on this podcast. Misinformation. It's such a loaded word and it's but I think it's appropriate here because I you hear all the time, you know, c if you stress your cortisol goes up. If you uh people will say if you cold plunge, your cortisol goes up. And if your cortisol goes up, you're gonna you're going to get moon face and you're going to store body fat around your midsection, which is true if somebody has Cushing syndrome, which is, you know, pathologically high levels of cortisol.