Stress Test
At-home collection. Meaningful insights. Personalized plan.
The adrenal glands help us handle stress. This at-home saliva test provides insights about your stress response and adrenal health by measuring hormone fluctuations. Results include a personalized health plan.
Test taker must be 18+ and reside in the U.S.
Collection Method
What we measure
You should take this test if you
- Feel tired but wired
- Can’t wake up without strong coffee
- Crave sugar, especially late in the day
- Get sick when you are under stress
- Feel irritable, anxious, or depressed
- Experience stress often
What you'll discover
Measures
Your personal biomarker values are displayed on an easy-to-read dashboard with descriptions of what each biomarker value means for you.
Analysis
Using your biomarkers, we provide detailed insights to help identify potential health risks or specific areas of improvement. Insights are generated using Thorne's Health Intelligence platform.
Improvement Plan
Based on your unique results, a comprehensive improvement plan with diet, activity, and supplement recommendations is generated.
What we measure
How it works
1 • Order and activate
After your purchase is complete, everything you need for your at-home test is delivered to your door. Use the activation code located on the back of the test kit to activate your test on thorne.com and complete your health profile.
2 • Collect samples and send
Referencing the directions booklet included in your test kit, complete your sample collection from the comfort of your home. Use the prepaid shipper to mail your samples directly to the laboratory.
3 • Receive results and recommendations
Your results will be reviewed by an independent, board-certified physician. Once you’ve sent your samples to the lab, after 8-10 business days you will receive your results with meaningful insights and personalized recommendations to promote your health and wellness.
Potential Indicators
Your 24-hour cortisol pattern and your DHEA level determine whether your stress response is healthy. Depending on your results, you could be experiencing some of these symptoms:
Effects of stress on your body include:
Headache
Muscle tension or pain
Chest pain
Fatigue
Change in sex drive
Upset stomach
Sleep problems
Effects of stress on your mood include:
Anxiety
Restlessness
Lack of motivation or focus
Feeling overwhelmed
Irritability or anger
Sadness or depression
Effects of stress on your behavior include:
Overeating or undereating
Angry outbursts
Drug or alcohol abuse
Tobacco use
Social withdrawal
Exercising less often
Your 24-hour cortisol pattern and your DHEA level determine whether your stress response is healthy. Depending on your results, you could be experiencing some of these symptoms:
Effects of stress on your body include:
Headache
Muscle tension or pain
Chest pain
Fatigue
Change in sex drive
Upset stomach
Sleep problems
Effects of stress on your mood include:
Anxiety
Restlessness
Lack of motivation or focus
Feeling overwhelmed
Irritability or anger
Sadness or depression
Effects of stress on your behavior include:
Overeating or undereating
Angry outbursts
Drug or alcohol abuse
Tobacco use
Social withdrawal
Exercising less often
Stress Test 101
Aspects of Stress
When our adrenal glands function optimally, they produce adequate amounts of cortisol and DHEA to help us cope with stress and power us through the day.
Whether stress comes from our outside environment, like traffic and crowds, or from within, like the anxiety we experience from family or job issues, healthy secretion of cortisol and DHEA from the adrenal glands help us adapt to these situations.
The human stress response is based on two factors ‐ one, the actual stressors (the events and circumstances that impact our life), and two, how we cope with these stressors (how we interpret and respond to them).
Hopefully, we can exert:
Control over the stressors by identifying what circumstances can be changed for the better, although these are often the stressors over which we often have the least control.
Control over the coping response, including behavioral responses and biological responses (interpretation, language, empathy, understanding, medical treatment, diet, nutrition, movement/physical activity, sleep habits). These are the stressors over which we often have the most control.
How the biomarkers we measure impact your health
Testing for the levels of cortisol and DHEA in your body reveals the pattern of these two key measures of our stress response ‐ stressors and coping. The degree to which your cortisol and DHEA levels fall outside the normal range can be used to guide dietary, exercise, lifestyle, and supplement recommendations.
Cortisol and DHEA
Cortisol has wide-ranging effects in the body: it interacts with the reproductive, immune, and endocrine systems. Cortisol, as part of the stress response, prepares the body for a "fight-or-flight" response by suppressing the production and release of other hormones, such as DHEA and thyroid hormones. Normally, cortisol levels have a rhythm of ebbing and flowing during the day, and your cortisol level is highest in the morning and lowest at night. Thorne's Stress Test takes four saliva samples at four time-points during the day to capture your true cortisol rhythm. Stressors, such as those present in your work or home life, often trigger a release of cortisol, either acutely or persistently, and can affect your health in a variety of negative ways.
DHEA, although produced in the adrenal glands, is also produced in smaller amounts in your brain and sex organs. DHEA is a precursor molecule for testosterone and estrogen synthesis, and, thus, it has many other effects in the body. A person's DHEA production generally declines with age.
Metabolically in the body, cortisol and DHEA are antagonistic to each other. The hormones exist in an ever-changing "tug-of-war" with each other, and when one is elevated, the other is usually lower.
The Science
Gavrieli A, Yannakoulia M, Fragopoulou E, et al. Caffeinated coffee does not acutely affect energy intake, appetite, or inflammation but prevents serum cortisol concentrations from falling in healthy men. J Nutr 2011;141(4):703-707.
Ohlsson C, Nethander M, Kindmark A, et al. Low serum DHEAS predicts increased fracture risk in older men: The MrOS Sweden Study. J Bone Miner Res 2017;32(8):1607-1614.
Ghebre M, Hart D, Hakim A, et al. Association between DHEAS and bone loss in postmenopausal women: a 15-year longitudinal population-based study. Calcif Tissue Int 2011;89(4):295-302.
Field A, Colditz G, Willett W, et al. The relation of smoking, age, relative weight, and dietary intake to serum adrenal steroids, sex hormones, and sex hormone-binding globulin in middle-aged men. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 1994;79(5):1310-1316.
Erdemir I, Kizilet A, Bozdogan T. Effects of exercise on circadian rhythms of cortisol. Internat J Sports Sci 2013;3(3):68-73.
Hill E, Zach E, Battaglini C, et al. Exercise and circulating cortisol levels: the intensity threshold effect. J Endocrinol Invest 2008;31(7):587-591.
Floyd K, Mikkelson A, Tafoya M, et al. Human affection exchange: XIII. Affectionate communication accelerates neuroendocrine stress recovery. Health Commun 2007;22(2):123-132.
Sumioka H, Nakae A, Kanai R, Ishiguro H. Huggable communication medium decreases cortisol levels. Sci Rep 2013;3:3034.
Pascoe M, Thompson D, Ski C. Yoga, mindfulness-based stress reduction and stress-related physiological measures: A meta-analysis. Psychoneuroendocrinology 2017;86:152-168.
Pascoe M, Bauer I. A systematic review of randomised control trials on the effects of yoga on stress measures and mood. J Psych Res 2015;68:270-282.
Zschucke E, Renneberg B, Dimeo F, et al. The stress-buffering effect of acute exercise: evidence for HPA axis negative feedback. Psychoneuroendocrinology 2015;51:414-425.
Chatterjee S, Mondal S. Effect of regular yogic training on growth hormone and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate as an endocrine marker. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2014;2014:240581. doi: 10.1155/2014/240581
Lennartsson A, Theorell T, Rockwood A, et al. Perceived stress at work is associated with lower levels of DHEA-S. PLoS One 2013;8(8):e72460. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0072460. eCollection 2013.
Aspects of Stress
When our adrenal glands function optimally, they produce adequate amounts of cortisol and DHEA to help us cope with stress and power us through the day.
Whether stress comes from our outside environment, like traffic and crowds, or from within, like the anxiety we experience from family or job issues, healthy secretion of cortisol and DHEA from the adrenal glands help us adapt to these situations.
The human stress response is based on two factors ‐ one, the actual stressors (the events and circumstances that impact our life), and two, how we cope with these stressors (how we interpret and respond to them).
Hopefully, we can exert:
Control over the stressors by identifying what circumstances can be changed for the better, although these are often the stressors over which we often have the least control.
Control over the coping response, including behavioral responses and biological responses (interpretation, language, empathy, understanding, medical treatment, diet, nutrition, movement/physical activity, sleep habits). These are the stressors over which we often have the most control.
How the biomarkers we measure impact your health
Testing for the levels of cortisol and DHEA in your body reveals the pattern of these two key measures of our stress response ‐ stressors and coping. The degree to which your cortisol and DHEA levels fall outside the normal range can be used to guide dietary, exercise, lifestyle, and supplement recommendations.
Cortisol and DHEA
Cortisol has wide-ranging effects in the body: it interacts with the reproductive, immune, and endocrine systems. Cortisol, as part of the stress response, prepares the body for a "fight-or-flight" response by suppressing the production and release of other hormones, such as DHEA and thyroid hormones. Normally, cortisol levels have a rhythm of ebbing and flowing during the day, and your cortisol level is highest in the morning and lowest at night. Thorne's Stress Test takes four saliva samples at four time-points during the day to capture your true cortisol rhythm. Stressors, such as those present in your work or home life, often trigger a release of cortisol, either acutely or persistently, and can affect your health in a variety of negative ways.
DHEA, although produced in the adrenal glands, is also produced in smaller amounts in your brain and sex organs. DHEA is a precursor molecule for testosterone and estrogen synthesis, and, thus, it has many other effects in the body. A person's DHEA production generally declines with age.
Metabolically in the body, cortisol and DHEA are antagonistic to each other. The hormones exist in an ever-changing "tug-of-war" with each other, and when one is elevated, the other is usually lower.
The Science
Gavrieli A, Yannakoulia M, Fragopoulou E, et al. Caffeinated coffee does not acutely affect energy intake, appetite, or inflammation but prevents serum cortisol concentrations from falling in healthy men. J Nutr 2011;141(4):703-707.
Ohlsson C, Nethander M, Kindmark A, et al. Low serum DHEAS predicts increased fracture risk in older men: The MrOS Sweden Study. J Bone Miner Res 2017;32(8):1607-1614.
Ghebre M, Hart D, Hakim A, et al. Association between DHEAS and bone loss in postmenopausal women: a 15-year longitudinal population-based study. Calcif Tissue Int 2011;89(4):295-302.
Field A, Colditz G, Willett W, et al. The relation of smoking, age, relative weight, and dietary intake to serum adrenal steroids, sex hormones, and sex hormone-binding globulin in middle-aged men. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 1994;79(5):1310-1316.
Erdemir I, Kizilet A, Bozdogan T. Effects of exercise on circadian rhythms of cortisol. Internat J Sports Sci 2013;3(3):68-73.
Hill E, Zach E, Battaglini C, et al. Exercise and circulating cortisol levels: the intensity threshold effect. J Endocrinol Invest 2008;31(7):587-591.
Floyd K, Mikkelson A, Tafoya M, et al. Human affection exchange: XIII. Affectionate communication accelerates neuroendocrine stress recovery. Health Commun 2007;22(2):123-132.
Sumioka H, Nakae A, Kanai R, Ishiguro H. Huggable communication medium decreases cortisol levels. Sci Rep 2013;3:3034.
Pascoe M, Thompson D, Ski C. Yoga, mindfulness-based stress reduction and stress-related physiological measures: A meta-analysis. Psychoneuroendocrinology 2017;86:152-168.
Pascoe M, Bauer I. A systematic review of randomised control trials on the effects of yoga on stress measures and mood. J Psych Res 2015;68:270-282.
Zschucke E, Renneberg B, Dimeo F, et al. The stress-buffering effect of acute exercise: evidence for HPA axis negative feedback. Psychoneuroendocrinology 2015;51:414-425.
Chatterjee S, Mondal S. Effect of regular yogic training on growth hormone and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate as an endocrine marker. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2014;2014:240581. doi: 10.1155/2014/240581
Lennartsson A, Theorell T, Rockwood A, et al. Perceived stress at work is associated with lower levels of DHEA-S. PLoS One 2013;8(8):e72460. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0072460. eCollection 2013.
Reviews
Stress Reduction
My stress test findings have made it easier for me to fully understand what is happening in my body and what I need to do next to feel and perform better. My DHEA level is a touch low, but my cortisol level is normal, which supports the occasional anxiousness I have in general. I will eat well, exercise, and take supplements as advised, and then retest. It was quite simple to complete the test. The handbook gave detailed instructions on the best way to collect saliva and store it after the test. It came with a return shipping label, a plastic box, and an envelope to make returning a breeze. If you've always wondered how your body is coping with either chronic or acute pressures in your life, then I highly recommend taking this test.
Worth it!
This test was so helpful in figuring out a baseline of my stress hormones. The results are thorough and the resources are personalized!
Loved it
Helped me a lot.
Gave me a lot of insight
Finding out I don’t make enough cortisol in the morning has changed my life. It explained why I felt so sick in the mornings but was fine by the afternoon. This test is great.
Easy directions
Directions were specific and easy to follow.
Interesting
I felt like this was a pretty cool and accurate test. It recommended things I am already doing, but I still found it useful.
Worth the money
With Covid and the inability to get to a doctor lately, its nice to have a convenient at-home test that's backed by science. The test was easy to do. Four collections of saliva, in one day, for vital information for hormone health. Normally my cortisol is very high, but this time it was normal and my DHEA was low. Thorne gave me a research-based answer for why my symptoms are being caused, plus a diet plan, exercise plan, lifestyle plan, and Thorne product recommendations.
Wow! So helpful!
Seriously... this is worth your money! Got more information and personalized plan/diet/supplements based off what my results showed. Wow! I am so glad I did this test. So much more information than I would have gotten by getting tested at the doctors. Super simple instructions and fast results. Worth it!
At-home collection. Meaningful insights. Personalized plan.
The adrenal glands help us handle stress. This at-home saliva test provides insights about your stress response and adrenal health by measuring hormone fluctuations. Results include a personalized health plan.
Test taker must be 18+ and reside in the U.S.