Cortisol is a remarkable #hormone. We generally consider it a #stress hormone, which isn't wrong. But few appreciate its primary purpose: increase blood #glucose. Of course, this puts cortisol at odds with #insulin, promoting #insulinresistance. But how cortisol increases glucose is important to appreciate its systemic effects. Cortisol is so determined to provide the liver with substrate for the synthesis of new glucose that it will strip amino acids from proteins within skin, muscle, and more. This leads to a weakening of the tissues, causing stretch marks, easy bruising, sarcopenia (muscle wasting), and more. Any drug intervention that mimics cortisol (say to reduce inflammation or mitigate and autoimmune disease) will not only promote rapid insulin resistance, but lead to the tissue wasting mentioned above.