Is it convenient to check email anywhere, any time? Yes. Is it helpful to be able to confirm arrangements, check locations, or find someone I am meeting? Of course. But I eschew these kinds of ease for the sake of something that means more to me.

You know the bad boy you dated in high school or college? You knew he was bad news, you even knew it would end badly, but you dated him anyway. That's cortisol.

"Cortisol switch" is when you flip from the cortisol love -- which is where cortisol is helping you be productive, helping you focus, helping you feel on top of the world -- to the cortisol hate. You hit the wall.

I've written before about the "cortisol switch." Now, let's talk about how cortisol, the main stress hormone produced by your adrenal glands in your mid-back, brings you down and ramps up your risk of serious disease -- and more importantly, what you can do about it.

When you're stressed, you initially feel the positive vibe of cortisol -- the rise of energy, the focus, the charge, the ascent. But here's the rub: "the cortisol switch."