Endocannabinoids may be behind runner’s high feeling

Any long runner could attest to the feeling of calm and utter relaxation after a successful and tiring run. All mice were then watched for signs of anxiety (i.e. preference for darkness, pain intolerance, etc.).

This is what led them to the conclusion that it wasn’t endorphins that caused the high but endocannabinoids.

Endorphins are identified to be pure painkillers and provides us that vitality enhance & happiness in spite of everything this intense bodily exercise.

The only observation that can be brought against the study is that humans are not mice; therefore, scientists should have to re-create the experiment on human participants in order to better understand the process that the body goes through during physical exercises.

But, it’s been suggested that these endorphins are too large molecules to fit in the blood barrier of the brain.

Researchers have spent the last decade looking for other explanations, which led them to cannabinoids.

You might probably have heard endorphins, also called happy chemicals, have a hand in giving a sense of elation and calmness among runners after they do intense workout. This is what led to the simple, logical and natural explanation that they were what was causing the phenomenon known as runner’s high.

Researchers from the Central Institute of Mental Health of the University of Heidelberg took mice and gave them running wheels. Only one is sufficiently small to achieve the brains receptors. Now researchers are reporting in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that endocannabinoids, which are basically the body’s internally produced marijuana, are behind the subtly intoxicating effects of exercise. However it’s a molecule present in marijuana or hashish. Recent studies have found a spike in their numbers after extensive training sessions and intense exercise, so they took the study a step forward.

They suggest that the rodents could feel something akin to runner’s high, which is why they find it fun to run in place. It is unlikely that they cared about their health or were trying to lose weight. In mice, decreased and calm anxiousness is expressed by their habits. After they run, the chances of them spending time in well-lit areas increases whereas the nervous rodents usually stick to the dark.

The researchers noticed the mice to be having higher levels of both endorphins and endocannabinoids. However, when they blocked endocannabinoids, the rodents weren’t relaxed or calm anymore. When they blocked the endorphins instead, nothing happened – the animals remained more relaxed and pain tolerant.