Posted on 01/12/2019 11:47:18 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
If you’re cruising along on a runner’s high while your partner has yet to feel that sweet euphoria, is that a nod toward your superior running ability? Sorry, no. The more likely reason could simply be in your genes, according to a recent study published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.
Researchers looked at 25 collegiate runners, both male and female, and tested their saliva before and after a long-distance run. They also asked them about whether or not they experienced a runner’s high, which they gauged based on four criteria: mood, lost sense of time, run quality, and euphoria. Physiologic markers like temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, pupil dilation, and serotonin levels were also taken into account.
They focused most on that spit, because it contained information on RNA, which is what your DNA uses to make feel-good proteins like natural opioids and cannabinoids, according to the study’s lead author, Steven Hicks, Ph.D., of the Penn State College of Medicine.
An avid runner himself, Hicks told Runner’s World that your body creates these proteins in response to environmental experiences, like running, for reasons like muscle repair and pain control.
But here’s the kicker: Not everyone’s processes switch on to the same degree. That’s why you might be rocking the high life, while your running partners are still in slog mode.
“As a runner, I was always told that only endorphins caused a runner’s high,” said Hicks. “Recently, that long-held idea has been challenged in the scientific literature, and there is growing evidence that the endocannabinoid system may be involved.”
(Excerpt) Read more at runnersworld.com ...
Ran cross country in junior high and high school. Never got runner’s high even once. Ran a few times in college. All I got was worn out and sore.
Maybe. 25 people is not a large sample.
In other words, you can run to get high, or you can get high directly, cutting out the middle man of exercise.
Sometimes I get a bit of that high while running, but most often I get a surge of it for most of the rest of the day after running. It’s awesome.
I get it on a bicycle.
Sometimes.
You lose all sense of effort, time, distance and location.
I remember saying:
“Self, this is just like flying”
The only time I truly got a rush from running was when I won. I viewed every practice as a competition (obviously, I didn’t share that mentality with my teammates) and it was the same.
Any distance over 400 meters failed to produce any type of runner’s high because I was so bad at distance running. Cross country was miserable. Lots of miles and no never any feelings other than pain during the race and shame at the finish line.
Yikes, I was waiting for your next line to describe how things are infinitely better for you now that you're living in a van down by the river!
“while your partner has yet to feel that sweet euphoria”
Chris Cornell - Sweet Euphoria https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDjCcpiP0sg
(I don’t exactly find the song euphoric, but anyway, RIP Chris).
Running is stupid
Mountain biking is it !
Never ran distance until boot camp, and I suffered. Even after i could do the whole run without too much discomfort, never felt “good” other than it was over.
I’ve always hated running/excersise. I loved playing sports but I hated the fitness piece of it. Runners high? Never.
all I ever got was tired and wheezing!
Yes, THC interferes with the natural functioning of the endocannabinoid receptors, just like opiates interfere with the natural functioning of opiate receptors.
Just because some exogenous (not made by the body) substance activates a receptor does not mean that it is a good idea to ingest that substance or that it is safe. Dioxin—the toxic component of Agent Orange—also activates a receptor.
I’ve never experience runner’s high, and I do not find opiates either relieve pain or cause an altered state of consciousness.
“Mountain biking is it !”
I totally understand the attraction to this, but just want to say be careful. Two people I know relatively well had mountain bike accidents and wound up quadriplegic. It’s very, very sad, as they both were very much ‘love life’ people.
“If you’re cruising along on a runner’s high while your partner has yet to feel that sweet euphoria...”
Your running buddy is thinking “unless you’re the lead sled Ddog the view never changes...” as he/she watches the a-hole out in front...
I never enjoyed running at all. But I was in great shape throughout my time in the military and into my adulthood, now I lift weights and walk. I have always enjoyed walking & hiking immensely but running ain’t my deal.
I’ll get a four-wheeler someday and be one those calm and dull trail cruisers. There are plenty of parks my tax money support that I’ve never been to that allow ATVs.
No Evel Knievel stuff for me.
Back in the 80s, my sister being stupid and reckless nearly decapitated herself going too fast in a turn on the three-wheeler that I loved and took care of. Totaled it.
If she had held on as it went through a barbed wire fence, she would have been a few pounds lighter from the neck up.
My wife is the run nut.
She can keep it.
I have to get involved usually taking her to some crazy way out and oddball location where some feel good race is being held. Almost always on a Saturday, especially a nice one.
I despise it and sports in general.
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