The ''Runner's High'' is
real!
ScienceDaily (Mar. 6, 2008) —
Throughout the world, amateurs, experts and the media agree that
prolonged jogging raises people's spirits. And many believe that
the body's own opioids, so called endorphins, are the cause of
this. But in fact this has never been proven until now.
Researchers at the Technische Universität München and the
University of Bonn succeeded in demonstrating the existence of
an 'endorphin driven runner's high'. In an imaging study they
were able to show, for the first time, increased release of
endorphins in certain areas of the athletes' brains during a
two-hour jogging session.
These results are also relevant
for patients suffering from chronic pain, because the body's own
opiates are produced in areas of the brain which are involved in
the suppression of pain.
Runner's high
Endurance sports have long been seen as reducing stress,
relieving anxiety, enhancing mood and decreasing the perception
of pain. The high that accompanies jogging even led to the
creation of its own term, 'runner's high'. Yet the cause of
these positive effects on the senses was not clear until now.
The most popular theory was and still is the 'Endorphin
Hypothesis', which claimed that there was increased production
of the body's own opioids in the brain. However, since until now
direct proof of this theory could not be provided; for technical
reasons, it was a constant source of controversial discussions
in scientific circles. The result was that the myth of 'runner's
high through endorphins' lived on.
Endorphin hypothesis confirmed
Scientists from the fields of Nuclear Medicine, Neurology and
Anaesthesia at the Technische Universität München (TUM) and the
University of Bonn have now subjected the endorphin theory to
closer scrutiny. Ten athletes were scanned before and after a
two-hour long-distance run using an imaging technique called
positron emission tomography (PET). For this they used the
radioactive substance [18F]diprenorphine ([18F]FDPN), which
binds to the opiate receptors in the brain and hence competes
with endorphins.
'The more endorphins are produced in the athlete's brain, the
more opiate receptors are blocked,' says Professor Henning
Boecker, who coordinated the research at TUM and who is now in
charge of the 'Functional Neuroimaging Group' at the Dept. of
Radiology, University Hospital Bonn. And further: 'Respectively
the opioid receptor binding of the [18F]FDPN decreases, since
there is a direct competition between endorphins in the brain
and the injected ligand'.
By comparing the images before and after two hours of long
distance running the study could demonstrate a significantly
decreased binding of the [18F]FDPN-ligand. This is a strong
argument in favour of an increased production of the body's own
opioids while doing long-distance running. 'We could validate
for the first time an endorphin driven runner's high and
identify the affected brain areas', states Boecker. 'It's
interesting to see that the affected brain areas were
preferentially located in prefrontal and limbic brain regions
which are known to play a key role in emotional processing.
Moreover, we observed a significant increase of the euphoria and
happiness ratings compared to the ratings before the running
exercise.'
Professor Thomas Tölle, who for several years has been head of a
research group called 'Functional Imaging of Pain' at TU Munich,
adds: 'Our evaluations show that the more intensively the high
is experienced, the lower the binding of [18F]FDPN was in the
PET scan. And this means that the ratings of euphoria and
happiness correlated directly with the release of the
endorphins.' This has clear implications for those who suffer
from chronic pain. 'The fact that the endorphins are also
released in areas of the brain that are at the centre of the
suppression of pain was not quite unexpected, but even this
proof was missing. Now we hope that these images will also
impress our pain patients and will motivate them to take up
sports training within their available limits,' he concluded.
Running down the pain?
It is well known that endorphins facilitate the body's own pain
suppression by influencing the way the body passes on pain and
processes it in the nervous system and brain. The increased
production of endorphins resulting from long-distance running
could also serve as the body's own pain-killer, a potent
potential therapeutic option. 'Now we are very curious about the
results of an imaging study using Functional Magnetic Resonance
Imaging which we are currently carrying out in Bonn in order to
investigate the influence of long-distance running on the
processing of pain directly,' Professor Boecker says.
Further research is required so as to investigate the exact
effects on depression and states of anxiety but also on possible
aspects which may promote addiction. That is why the relation
between genetic disposition and opiate receptor distribution in
the brain is being currently investigated at TU Munich. 'A scary
thought,' Thomas Tölle comments, 'if we ran because our genes
wanted us to do so.' The first step towards researching these
connections has now been made.
The results of the study " The Runner's High: Opioidergic
Mechanisms in the Human Brain" are published in the journal
'Cerebral Cortex'. This research was supported by the German
Research Association, as well as the Federal Ministry of
Education and Research and the German Association of Neuropathic
Pain.
Adapted from materials provided by
University of Bonn.
Now that you
are saturated with informative information
you may enjoy
this comical insight (no relation at all to above article)
into a runner's brain.
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