A puffy face after a salty dinner is common. A rounder face caused by a serious hormone disorder is much less common. The problem with the “cortisol face” trend is that it often treats both as the same thing. Across social media, people use “cortisol face” to describe facial puffiness, fullness in the cheeks, under-eye swelling, or a face that looks different from week to week. The implied cause is usually stress. More stress means more cortisol, and more cortisol supposedly means a swollen...

A sore knee after a long walk. Stiff fingers in the morning. A hip that aches after sitting. After 40, joint pain can start to feel like a warning light, and the first fear is often arthritis. Sometimes that fear is right. Osteoarthritis becomes more common with age, and inflammatory arthritis can appear in midlife too. But not every ache, twinge, or stiff joint is arthritis. Tendons, hormones, muscles, nerves, old injuries, medications, sleep, and even stress can all play a role. This guide...

Stress supplements have a credibility problem. One shelf promises calm in a capsule. Another promises “adrenal support,” “cortisol balance,” or “ancient resilience.” Some of those claims are based on real pharmacology and early clinical research. Some are marketing dressed in a lab coat. Adaptogens sit right in the middle of that tension. Herbs such as ashwagandha, rhodiola, ginseng, and holy basil have long histories of traditional use, and a growing number of studies have tested them for...