Athlete running on the road in morning sunrise training for marathon and fitness.
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That relaxed & really feel good sensation you get generally known as runner’s excessive is far nearer to how you are feeling after having marijuana than you assume, as recommended by researchers, the endorphins get undeserved credit score for this wave of euphoria.
Any runner knows the feeling of elation and calm they feel after an intense workout. They gain a lot of energy & get that happy feeling. Much to scientists’ surprise, the released endorphins did not trigger special reactions form the lab mice. Researchers in the 80s conducted experiments that observed huge spikes of the compound after exercise in humans. This is what led to the simple, logical and natural explanation that they were what was causing the phenomenon known as runner’s high.
Endorphins are too large to pass through the blood-brain barrier so the study points out that, at the very least, something else must be responsible.
Long-distance runners explain a runner’s high as a sudden pleasant feeling of euphoria, anxiolysis, sedation, and analgesia. So, they spent the last 10 years looking into other potential explanations.
Researchers from the Central Institute of Psychological Well being of the College of Heidelberg discovered different compounds which can result in the runner’s excessive known as endocannabinoids.
Running exercise increases blood levels of both β-endorphin (an opioid) and anandamide (an endocannabinoid). Only one of them is small enough to cling on to the brain’s receptors. And it’s not the endorphins.
In the research scientists found higher levels of endocannabinoids (natural type) in people’s and animals’ blood. This molecule is also found in marijuana or cannabis. Studies have shown its numbers spike after intensive exercise.
The mice were then let to run freely on wheels, which they particularly enjoy to do since the researchers didn’t have to go to any effort to convince the rodents. It’s unlikely that they cared about their well being or had been making an attempt to shed a few pounds.
After running, the mice were calmer and less pain-sensitive. When the researchers blocked the endorphin effect, the behavior of the mice remained unaffected. Once they had blocked the endorphin impact, nothing modified. In order to reach the findings, the experts determined the rodent’s level of anxiety by putting them in cages which had dark and light areas. This has made researchers believe that they can not possibly be the cause of runner’s high, if they can not slip through and attach to the brain’s receptors.
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The mice had been working three miles a day although so this is probably not one thing amateurs can try although.
