Take the HPA Axis Function Assessment to discover your cortisol regulation status
Are Your Cortisol Levels Stuck in Chronic “Emergency Mode” Throughout the Day?
Ask yourself
- Do you find yourself lying awake at 2 AM with your mind racing, even after a "normal" day?
- Does your body feel constantly "keyed up" – like a car engine stuck revving, even when you're relaxing on the couch?
- Do small interruptions send your heart pounding like you just ran a sprint?
- Do you return from vacation still feeling wired because you couldn't stop checking emails or planning tomorrow's tasks?
If you answered yes, your cortisol levels are likely stuck in permanent “emergency mode” – flooding your bloodstream with stress hormones as if you’re being chased by a tiger. Except the “tiger” is your morning commute, your boss’s requests, your packed schedule. This chemical assault is systematically exhausting your adrenal glands and disrupting every major system in your body.
Physiological Mechanisms:
- HPA axis hyperactivation: When cortisol levels stay elevated, your hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis gets stuck with its finger jammed on the panic button. Picture sitting in a quiet coffee shop, but your adrenal glands are pumping stress hormones like you're about to give a presentation to 500 people. Your body continuously produces stress hormones as if you're facing immediate danger, even when you're at your desk or trying to sleep.
- Cortisol resistance development: Chronic elevation leads to cortisol resistance – your tissues become deaf to the hormone's signals. It's like your cells put on noise-canceling headphones, so your body cranks up the volume, producing even MORE cortisol to get the same response. This creates a vicious cycle where your adrenal glands burn themselves out trying to be heard.
- Allostatic load accumulation: Harvard researchers call this "allostatic load" – cumulative damage from your stress systems working overtime. Your blood vessels stiffen like garden hoses cracking in the sun. Your immune system wears down like overused brakes. Your metabolism slows because your body thinks it's in survival mode. This leads to accelerated aging, metabolic dysfunction, and increased disease risk.
Research in humans shows that transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation significantly inhibits cortisol release during mental stress tasks, helping restore normal HPA axis function.
Are Dysregulated Cortisol Levels Causing Your Energy Crashes and Mood Swings?
Ask yourself
- Do you hit a brick wall around 3 PM, suddenly feeling like you could fall asleep at your desk?
- Does your mood swing from optimistic to irritable without warning – like flipping a light switch?
- Do you get a "second wind" at 10 PM when you should be getting sleepy for bed?
- Does your morning coffee barely register, or leave you feeling jittery and anxious instead of alert?
If you’re nodding along, your body’s internal clock has gone haywire. Your cortisol rhythm – which should rise and fall like a perfect wave throughout the day – has become completely scrambled. Instead of giving you energy when you need it and rest when you don’t, it’s doing the exact opposite, leaving you exhausted during work hours and wired when your head hits the pillow.
Physiological Mechanisms:
- Circadian rhythm disruption: Normal cortisol follows a precise daily pattern like a biological alarm clock—highest in the morning to help you wake up, gradually declining throughout the day to lowest levels at night. When this rhythm becomes flattened or inverted, it's like your internal clock is running backwards. You experience energy at the wrong times and crashes when you need alertness most.
- Blood sugar dysregulation: Abnormal cortisol patterns disrupt glucose metabolism like a broken thermostat, causing blood sugar spikes and crashes that directly impact energy and mood stability throughout the day. One minute you're fine, the next you're hangry and exhausted.
- Neurotransmitter imbalance: Dysregulated cortisol interferes with serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine production – your brain's "feel-good" chemicals. This creates the biochemical conditions for mood instability, anxiety, and depression, like trying to drive a car with contaminated fuel.
Studies show that individuals with optimal vagal tone maintain healthier cortisol rhythms and experience more stable energy and mood throughout the day.
Are Your Cortisol Levels Making Weight Loss Nearly Impossible?
Ask yourself
- Have you watched the scale creep up 10, 15, even 20 pounds despite eating the same foods and hitting the gym just as often?
- Do you find yourself reaching for cookies, pizza, or ice cream the moment your boss sends a stressful email?
- Is your belly getting bigger while your arms and legs stay the same – like all the weight is gathering around your middle?
- Do you finish a full meal and still feel like you could eat another plate, even though you know you should be satisfied?
If this sounds familiar, here’s the brutal truth: your body has switched into “survival mode.” Your elevated cortisol levels are commanding your metabolism to hoard every calorie as fat – especially around your organs – like your body is preparing for a famine that will never come. Meanwhile, your hunger signals have gone haywire, leaving you constantly craving food even when you’re technically full.
Physiological Mechanisms:
- Metabolic reprogramming: Elevated cortisol levels flip a switch in your metabolism, signaling your body to store energy as fat, particularly dangerous visceral fat around organs. This caveman response helped our ancestors survive famines, but in our world of chronic stress, it leads to stubborn weight gain that laughs in the face of traditional diets and gym sessions.
- Leptin resistance: High cortisol levels jam the signals from leptin – the hormone that tells your brain "I'm full, stop eating." It's like your brain's hunger switch is broken, so you never receive proper "fullness" signals. This leaves you overeating and feeling constantly hungry, even after adequate meals.
- Insulin sensitivity impairment: Chronic cortisol elevation triggers insulin resistance, making it harder for your cells to use glucose for energy. Instead, your body stores it as fat, particularly in the abdominal region where it's most dangerous to your health.
Research indicates that vagus nerve stimulation helps normalize metabolic function by improving insulin sensitivity and supporting healthy cortisol rhythms essential for weight management.
Are High Cortisol Levels Accelerating Your Aging and Breaking Down Your Body?
Ask yourself
- Do people guess you're 5-10 years older than you actually are?
- Have you watched your muscle tone disappear despite hitting the weights, or noticed your arms getting flabby where they used to be firm?
- Does your skin look tired and gray in photos, with deeper lines around your eyes and cuts that take weeks to heal?
- Do your bones ache when you get out of bed, or have you suffered a fracture from something as simple as a fall?
If you’re recognizing yourself here, your body is literally aging in fast forward. Your elevated cortisol is cannibalizing your own muscle tissue for fuel, breaking down the collagen that keeps your skin smooth and strong, and dissolving your bones from the inside out. You’re not just feeling older – you’re becoming biologically older at an accelerated rate.
Physiological Mechanisms:
- Protein catabolism: Elevated cortisol acts like a demolition crew, breaking down your muscle proteins to create glucose through gluconeogenesis. Your body is literally eating itself for energy. This leads to muscle wasting, weakness, and a sluggish metabolism that makes maintaining healthy body composition nearly impossible.
- Collagen degradation: High cortisol levels speed up the breakdown of collagen – the scaffolding that keeps your skin elastic and strong. It's like your skin's support structure is crumbling from within. This leads to premature wrinkles, slower wound healing, and increased injury risk.
- Bone density reduction: Chronic cortisol elevation sabotages bone formation while accelerating bone breakdown, like termites eating away at your skeleton. This leads to osteoporosis and increased fracture risk, even in people in their 30s and 40s.
Studies suggest that vagus nerve stimulation promotes tissue repair and regeneration by optimizing the hormonal environment necessary for healthy aging
Are Your Cortisol Levels Destroying Your Sleep Architecture?
Ask yourself
- Do you have trouble falling asleep despite feeling exhausted?
- Do you wake up frequently during the night, especially between 2-4 AM, lying there wide awake while your mind races through everything you need to do tomorrow?
- Do you wake up feeling unrefreshed, like you never entered deep sleep?
- Do you experience vivid, stressful dreams or nightmares?
Physiological Mechanisms:
- Sleep stage disruption: Elevated evening cortisol prevents your body from entering the deep, restorative stages of sleep. Instead of cycling through normal sleep phases, you remain in lighter stages that don't provide adequate physical and mental restoration.
- REM sleep interference: High cortisol levels disrupt REM sleep, the stage crucial for emotional processing and memory consolidation. This leads to mood problems, cognitive dysfunction, and difficulty managing stress.
- Melatonin suppression: Cortisol and melatonin have an inverse relationship. When cortisol should be low at night, elevated levels suppress melatonin production, making it nearly impossible to achieve natural, restful sleep.
Research shows that improving vagal tone through stimulation helps normalize cortisol rhythms, leading to deeper, more restorative sleep and better next-day cognitive function.
Are Uncontrolled Cortisol Levels Compromising Your Cardiovascular Health?
Ask yourself
- Has your blood pressure increased, even without other obvious risk factors?
- Do you experience heart palpitations or irregular heartbeat during stress – like when your heart suddenly starts racing during a normal conversation or skips beats when you're just sitting at your desk?
- Have you developed new cardiovascular symptoms like chest tightness?
- Do you feel like your heart is working harder than it should during routine activities?
Physiological Mechanisms:
- Vascular inflammation: Chronic cortisol elevation promotes inflammatory processes in blood vessels, contributing to atherosclerosis and increasing risk of heart attack and stroke.
- Blood pressure dysregulation: Cortisol increases sodium retention and blood volume while making blood vessels more reactive to stress, leading to hypertension that's difficult to control with traditional approaches.
- Cardiac rhythm disturbances: High cortisol levels can trigger arrhythmias and heart palpitations by affecting the electrical conduction system of the heart and increasing sensitivity to stress hormones.
Studies demonstrate that vagus nerve stimulation improves heart rate variability and helps regulate blood pressure by supporting healthy autonomic nervous system balance.
Introducing Nurosym: Advanced Bioelectronic Medicine for Cortisol Regulation
Nurosym represents the cutting edge of bioelectronic medicine—a precisely calibrated medical device that uses transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation to help your body naturally regulate cortisol levels without drugs or side effects.
The Science Behind Nurosym:
Targeted HPA axis modulation
Directly influences the neural pathways that control cortisol production
Evidence-based parameters
Protocols used across 50+ published studies
Immediate physiological response
Measurable improvements in stress markers within minutes of use
Evidence from Leading Medical Institutions
Transformational Results from Our Community
“My anxious thoughts and elevated stress levels are gone. I’m able to control it much better. I saw results even just a couple of weeks in. I use it on daily basis – it makes me sleep better, feel better.”
– Tijana, 6 months of daily use
“I’ve noticed better overall management of my mood, stress, and sleep since starting this device. It’s been probably within the first 30 days where I noticed the benefits. I definitely feel like I will continue to use it as part of my daily routine.”
– Ton, Healthcare Professional (recommends to clients)
“I’m better at facing stress and dealing with stress. I feel calmer… When I’ve got it on, I know I’m going to go into a very contented state. It’s my daily companion in life and keeps me on the straight and narrow.”
– Yvonne, 11 months of consistent use
Meet The Doctors
A practicing doctor of psychiatry, Elisabetta has an MBA from INSEAD Business School, and experience in direct patient care, neuroscience research, communication and management. Dr. Burchi is a physician-scientist, working with Parasym in clinical affairs with a track record of publishing in the most important scientific journals such as The Lancet, writing successful grant proposals for the NIH, and leading the production of editorial, clinical, regulatory and promotional material in collaborative multidisciplinary teams. Dr. Burchi has also coordinated clinical trials and implemented a tele-medicine practice which received a certification of excellence among more than 100,000 professionals.
Dr. Elisabetta Burchi, MD, MBA
Translational research lead at Parasym
Experience Science-Based Cortisol Regulation
EXCLUSIVE RESEARCH PARTICIPATION OFFER
Save €70 when you join our scientific evaluation program
Help advance the science of bioelectronic medicine while experiencing the benefits of optimized cortisol levels.
*Research participation assessment takes less than 3 minutes
50+
Published studies
4M+
30
Day money back guarantee
marked medical device certification
EXCLUSIVE RESEARCH PARTICIPATION OFFER
Save €70 when you join our scientific evaluation program
Help advance the science of bioelectronic medicine while experiencing the benefits of optimized cortisol levels.
*Research participation assessment takes less than 3 minutes
50+
Published studies
4M+
30
Day money back guarantee
Risk-Free 30-Day Home Evaluation
Experience the power of science-based cortisol regulation with complete confidence. Use Nurosym daily for 30 days and monitor your stress levels, sleep quality, energy, and overall well-being.
If you don’t experience meaningful improvements in your cortisol-related symptoms, return your device for a full refund. No questions asked.
We stand behind our science because we’ve seen transformational results in thousands of users and dozens of published studies.
To begin your risk-free trial: Complete the research assessment and claim your €70 discount
This device has not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Individual results may vary.
Got questions? Here is everything you need to know
Symptoms we studied
These symptoms have been linked to autonomic nervous system imbalance and Vagus Nerve Impairment:
- Anxious states and Stress related symptoms
- Chronic Tiredness, Fatigue, Brain Fog, Burnout
- Digestive issues, irritable gut reflux, diarrhoea, constipation, bloating
- Sleep problems
- Negative thought
- Inflammatory symptoms
- Pain, headaches
- Memory & Attention problems
- Postural Heart Rate Abnormalities or fainting
- Post-Viral Symptoms
- Widespread body pain
Our latest research data also suggests Nurosym improves learning and short-term memory and cognition.
Nurosym also has been shown to promote relaxation, mood, sleep, healthy digestion, increased HRV, as well as to alleviate symptoms of stress, burnout, adrenal fatigue.
Parasym research is also investigating the impact of neuromodulation on athletic performance, muscle recovery, weight management problems, substance dependency and more.
If you’re not sure if Nurosym is for you consult with your health professional or contact our support by clicking the Support icon at the bottom right of the page.
When can I start feeling the effects?
The timeframe for experiencing the effects of Nurosym varies. Individuals with severe symptoms may notice improvements within 1 to 3 days, while others may see results within 4 to 6 weeks. Rest assured, the transformative benefits of Nurosym will be within reach.
Is Nurosym safe?
Neuromodulation via Nurosym is considered safe when used as intended.
Nurosym has these certificates.
– It is based on scientific evidence
– It is safe to use
– It has demonstrated scientific efficacy
Be sure to read the important safety information before use. Thousands of users have tested the device and no serious adverse effects have been reported in studies to date.
What does it feel like?
Feels like a pleasant, light vibration or tingling sensation in your ear.
Are there any additional costs or subscription fees?
There are no additional costs or fees, only the one-time purchase of the Nurosym.
Before using Nurosym
Read the instructions for use before using Nurosym. However, it’s possible this may not be enough to fully explain the safe and effective use of Nurosym in your particular situation. Ask your health professional or contact Nurosym care if you have any questions about how to use Nurosym or require any further clarification.
Only use Nurosym as described in the instructions for use or as otherwise directed by your health professional. Remove jewelry that may interfere with the electrode location (earrings etc.) before using Nurosym. Do not use Nurosym if the skin on the tragus is broken, cracked or numb.
What is the difference between Nurosym and other devices claiming to stimulate nervous system?
Important Safety Note: Exposing the nervous system to untested electrical currents or using DIY Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) devices carries risks, including potential nerve damage. Prioritize safety and efficacy in your choice.
Devices claiming to affect vagus nerve differ significantly, impacting their effectiveness and safety. Even small differences in factors like waveform and site placement can yield notable results. Most importantly, level of scientific evidence is crucial.
Nurosym is the leading non-invasive vagal neuromodulation system used in scientific research– with over $10M deployed in scientific studies, 50+ published papers in leading journals covering our exciting and scientifically significant results. Our device is one of a few registered medical devices with safety & efficacy confirmed by regulatory bodies in EU.
How long should I use Nurosym each day for optimal results?
We recommend using Nurosym for 1 hour each day, however, benefits can be seen with as little as 15 minutes of use.
Can I perform other activities while using it?
Yes, you can experience the benefits of Neurostimulation anywhere, anytime while doing any activity.
Do I need a prescription to purchase Nurosym?
No. However, we recommend that you consult with your health professional if you’re unsure whether Nurosym is right for you.
What are the details of your 30-day guarantee?
If you try Nurosym daily for 30 days and aren’t happy with your results, we’ll send you a fund refund. No questions asked.
Given the remarkable results Nurosym has had in scientific studies and with our customers around the world, we’re confident in its health restoring effects. Our goal will always be to restore our collective health – restoring health for as many people as we can and in turn, restoring the health of our planet. If Nurosym doesn’t work for you for any reason, we’re happy to send you a refund. This refund period is available 30 days after the date of purchase and expires the following week (37 days after the date of purchase).
Does Nurosym come with a warranty?
Yes! We offer a one-year warranty with every Nurosym device.
How long do orders take to ship?
Orders are processed and dispatched within 1-3 business days.
When will my order arrive?
Nurosym is shipped via priority tracked and signed couriers, so delivery times will vary based on shipping location. When you checkout, you’ll receive an estimated shipping time for your order.
What is in the Nurosym Package?
- Nurosym device
- Earpiece
- USB charger
- Case
- Quick start guide
How to use Nurosym?
The article does not in any way constitute as medical advice. Please seek consultation with a licensed medical professional before starting any treatment. This website may receive commissions from the links or products mentioned in this article.
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I never realized how much high cortisol was behind my poor sleep until I read this. Explains a lot.