What Is The Runner’s High?
A runner’s high is a feeling of euphoria, relaxation, reduction in pain, and reduced levels of anxiety during or after intense physical activity, usually followed by a long run. It’s typically thought that the runner’s high results from endorphins, but recent research has shown that the true culprit is The Endocannabinoid System.
Why Do We Think Endorphins Produce The Runner’s High?
Endorphins were discovered in 1973 and believed to have therapeutic effects. Endorphins are neurotransmitters—our brain’s messengers—produced by our brains and the peripheral nervous system—outside the brain and spinal cord. Endorphins attach to opioid receptors, part of our body’s reward center. Endorphins are released in response to pain.
In the 1980s, based on a few studies, the media sensationalized that endorphins were responsible for the runner’s high. The endorphins thought to be responsible for the runner’s high are produced in the peripheral nervous system—outside the brain and spinal cord. These endorphins are produced by the peripheral nervous system and deposited into the blood. However, the endorphins produced by the peripheral nervous system are too large to pass through the blood-brain barrier; hence they can’t be responsible for the runner’s high. So, what is?
What Is The Endocannabinoid System?
The Endocannabinoid System was discovered in the 1990s. The endocannabinoid system consists of naturally occurring neurotransmitters that attach to CB1 and CB2 receptors. The CB1 receptors are the same receptors that THC in marijuana binds to. THC mimics the naturally occurring neurotransmitter called Anandamide. Anandamide endocannabinoids—still the same neurotransmitter—is what scientists now believe is responsible for the True Runner’s High.
What Is The Endocannabinoid System Responsible For?
The Endocannabinoid System is responsible for mood, pain relief, fat production, and hunger control. The stimuli that activate the endocannabinoid system are exercise, stress, the presence of food, sexual behavior, inflammation, and tissue injury.
How To Get A Runners High?
To achieve A True Runner’s High—feelings of euphoria and reduced anxiety—a runner has to push themselves hard during the run. To be clear, a runner’s high occurs after the run, not during. Many runners have never achieved a true runner’s high, but you’re in luck, I have.
A runner’s high is one of the reasons I love to run. I guess it’s an addiction; I’m always “chasing the dragon,” and it gets tougher to get high every time. To achieve a sense of euphoria after a run, a runner must push themselves so that the body releases the cannabinoid Anandamide. Anandamide is released as a response to the stress the body endured during a run by putting it into a relaxed state.
To get the best runner’s high, I found what works for me is to go on long runs. The more suffering I endure, the better and more prolonged the high feels.
How Does a Runner’s High Feel?
When I had just started running, I thought the feeling of light-headedness was the infamous runner’s high, but I was wrong. I think it was and is mistaken for a runner’s high is hypoglycemia, depletion of glucose, or when the runner’s glycogen stores deplete. My light-headedness faded once I started experimenting with fasted runs; my body had an easier time transitioning to burning fat.
The first time I felt a true runner’s high is after a long grueling run, about 13.1 miles (half-marathon) distance. I’m the type of person that always has feelings of anxiety. At one point, I thought these feelings were normal until I felt the runner’s high. When I got home from my long run, I felt utterly elated, I’d never felt such a euphoric feeling being sober; I felt like I could walk on clouds, do anything, and this was the day I fell in love with long-distance running.
However, there’s one problem with achieving a runner’s high. Like with real drugs, we need higher doses of stress on ourselves once we adapt to the existing physical stress, so the high goes away.
Two Ways To Get The Runner’s High Back If Lost
The first way, and my least favorite, is to decondition ourselves to the stress. What do I mean by deconditioning? It means reducing the amount of running that led to the runner’s high, and once deconditioned, we repeat the process of putting that physical stress back on ourselves.
The second way, and my favorite way, is simple. Keep pushing for further and further distances. This way, the runner’s high will return, and a secondary effect is getting stronger; this is how I became an ultramarathoner in a few months.
Summary
The Endocannabinoid System is the actual mechanism behind the runner’s high. Anandamide cannabinoid—the bliss molecule some call it— is released when we put ourselves under physical stress. The easiest way to activate the cannabinoid release is through long-distance running. We must constantly keep pushing ourselves not to let our bodies adapt to the physical stress, or the high will go away.
Conclusion
To be clear, the runner’s high is not hallucinogenic; it does not produce hallucinations. If you start seeing hallucinations, it’s probably something else—dehydration, lack of sleep, malnutrition, etc. A runner’s high is a feeling of deep relaxation that lasts for about 12 hours after the activity. A runner’s high can get disrupted by drinking too much caffeine, so don’t overdo on the coffee if the goal is to feel relaxed.
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