Despite the fact that we have been talking about what is known as “runner’s euphoria” for decades, even today it is still difficult to explain why exactly it occurs. Now, new research developed by the Research Institute on Sex and Forensic Psychiatry in Hamburg (Germany) has delved into this runner’s exhilaration in which it improves self-esteem, mood and decreases anxiety .
“ The euphoria of the runner is a quite ephemeral feeling , nobody knows in advance if it will reach it. There are people who only need two hours walking to achieve it, while there are regular runners who have never felt it ”, explains Johannes Fuss, leader of the study.
For the research, Fuss carried out an experiment with mice in order to study the effects that accompany that feeling of euphoria or energy ecstasy : analgesia (the disappearance of any type of pain) and the reduction of anxiety. He divided the mice into several groups: sedentary mice and active mice, and finally transgenic mice (so that they were immune to the effects of endocannabinoids).
The results revealed that in the mice that had to run for hours on a Ferris wheel, an endocannabinoid compound, anandamide, played a crucial role at both ends of the study: the mice had a reduction in anxiety and a greater tolerance to pain with respect to sedentary mice. As for the transgenic mice, the animals showed the same anxiety and sensitivity to pain as the group of mice that had not exercised.
And it is that endocannabinoid compounds have analgesic and psychoactive effects very similar to those of cannabis , which would then explain the well-known euphoria of athletes.
The study has been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
