Sign us up for this weekend's 5k, brah.
When you go for your daily 10k, do you start to enjoy a familiar feeling washing over you around kilometer 4? A sense of euphoria mixed with analgesia and just a touch of sedation? Does it feel like you're high … on weed, man?
Us either. But if we could run for more than a half mile without causing a self-induced heart attack, we'd start to feel it. And according to new science, running is kind of like ripping the freshest of bong hits. Hmmm!?
The fabled "runner's high" isn't just something runners brag about to emphasize their superiority to those of us that don't feel like voluntarily working ourselves into agony. It's a real thing, but the source of it in the brain is now under review.
When scientists started researching the runner's high more than thirty years ago, the concept of endorphins was used to legitimize this sensation.
"Endorphins first became a household word in the 1980s," says Gretchen Reynolds of the New York Times. Which is right around the same time cocaine was also a trendy household word, but before prescription opiate abuse was widely regarded as an epidemic.
Endorphins are the body's self-produced opiates — they do the work of and have the same effects as pain killers like morphine, but it takes more than a prescription or a good connection to get them. It takes strenuous exercise (ugh). But now scientists think that, while endorphins kick in when you work yourself into a painful state, it may not be responsible for the euphoria associated with a long run.
Now, there seems to be a new cerebral drug producer in town: brain weed — which scientists are calling endocannabinoids. And just like the cannabinoids in marijuana, the ones that your brain produces give you the same euphoric high that you get from smoking.
The study, published last week by Proceedings of the National Academy of the Science (PNAS), examined the levels of endocannabinoids in mice, which dramatically increased after long periods on a running wheel.
In general, after a long run, researchers found the mice to be less twitchy and anxious, or more chill. They were also more tolerant of mild pain and discomfort. And while they can't really test euphoria levels in mice, the guys over at PNAS were pretty sure that the mice were feeling good.
The connection between the mice's endocannabinoids and their resulting high was tested by blocking the endocannabinoid system in one group, which didn't enjoy the same after effects. But the group that had their endorphin receptors shut off were still noted to seem a little floaty.
So there you have it: working up a good sweat really does have its perks. Which makes us look at those elitist triathloners as a little bit more relatable. As for us, once they liken running to the effects of downing a bottle of Sauv Blanc, you'll see us in cleats. Until then, I'll just get high the old fashioned way.
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