Cushing's Syndrome

Your body is changing — and you no longer recognise yourself. The face becomes round, the neck swells, the trunk accumulates fat while the arms and legs stay thin. The skin grows fragile, shows stretch marks, heals poorly. The bones become brittle. Blood pressure rises. And over everything lies a fatigue that no amount of sleep can fix.

Medically, this traces back to an excess of cortisol — the stress hormone that the body should normally release in large quantities only in emergencies. With Cushing's syndrome, the body remains trapped in this emergency mode, whether through overproduction by the adrenal glands, a tumour, or long-term cortisone therapy. Your system lives in a permanent state of alarm, as though the threat never stops.