What to watch with Cortisol and Langlebigkeit?

Cortisol is the primary stress hormone. Chronically elevated levels are linked to accelerated aging, cognitive decline, and increased mortality – evidence comes mostly from epidemiological and mechanistic studies. However, direct-to-consumer genetic tests claiming to predict longevity or cortisol-related traits have limited validity. Genes like MC4R (energy balance) or CYP1A2 (caffeine metabolism) are sometimes included, but their effect sizes are small and not specific to cortisol or lifespan. Single SNPs cannot reliably predict complex, polygenic traits such as stress response. A more evidence-based approach is to focus on lifestyle: adequate sleep, regular exercise, stress reduction, and an anti-inflammatory diet. If you want to measure cortisol, use validated laboratory methods (saliva or blood) with proper circadian timing. Evidence grade: unclear – the biology is plausible, but consumer genetic tests lack sufficient validation for this purpose.