Runner's high

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Runner's high , also called runner's high in German , describes a feeling of elation that occurs in long-distance running and in individual cases in cycling and other aerobic activities. The athlete ideally experiences a pain-free and euphoric state of mind, which makes him forget the physical exertion and gives him the feeling of being able to run "forever".

This condition differs from person to person and occurs, if at all, only from an exercise intensity of around 80 percent of the maximum oxygen uptake . If the exercise intensity is then reduced slightly (e.g. by walking downhill slightly), the likelihood of an endorphin release that is greater than the current endorphin requirement and thus triggers a runner's high is greatest. When lifting weights, enkephalins can cause a similar phenomenon.

For a long time, the euphoria was attributed to the release of endorphins in the blood . In 2015, however, a group of German researchers led by Johannes Fuß succeeded in showing that the body's own cannabinoids (so-called endocannabinoids ) are necessary for a runner's high to occur . While drug blocking the cannabinoid receptors made the runner's high go away, blocking the endorphin receptors had no effect on the phenomenon. According to another study on mice published in 2015, the hormone leptin produced by fat cells is also responsible for both the urge to move and the feeling of hunger and thus also influences the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine in reward centers in the brain.

Investigations on rowers ("Rower's High") indicate a social component of the hormone release.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Arnd Krüger , Johannes Wildmann: The importance of the body's own opiates for competitive sport. In: Leistungssport , 15, 1985, 5, pp. 49-54.
  2. ↑ J. Fuss, J. Steinle, L. Bindila, MK Auer, H. Kirchherr, B. Lutz, P. Gass: A Runner's high depends on cannabinoid receptors in mice . In: PNAS . 42, No. 112, 2015, pp. 13105-13108. doi : 10.1073 / pnas.1514996112 .
  3. ↑ Study on mice
  4. ↑ H. Boecker, T. Sprenger, ME Spilker et al .: The runner's high: opioidergic mechanisms in the human brain . In: Cereb. Cortex . 18, No. 11, November 2008, pp. 2523-2531. doi : 10.1093 / cercor / bhn013 . PMID 18296435 .
  5. ^ EE Cohen, R. Ejsmond-Frey, N. Knight, RI Dunbar: Rowers' high: behavioral synchrony is correlated with elevated pain thresholds . In: Biol. Lett. . 6, No. 1, February 2010, pp. 106-108. doi : 10.1098 / rsbl.2009.0670 . PMID 19755532 .
  6. ^ RG Pestell, DM Hurley, R. Vandongen: Biochemical and hormonal changes during a 1000 km ultramarathon . In: Clin. Exp. Pharmacol. Physiol. . 16, No. 5, May 1989, pp. 353-361. PMID 2548778 .