Endorphins or Endocannabinoids Give That High by Nick Grove

Endorphins or Endocannabinoids Give That High

Endocannabinoids are, essentially, internally produced cannabis. Cannabis contains cannabinoid molecules. So for the new study,researchers with the Central Institute of Mental Health at the University of Heidelberg medical school in Mannheim, Germany, rounded up healthy lab mice, tested their anxiety levels by putting them in cages with pockets of darkness and light (anxious animals stick to the shadows), and then gave them running wheels. Mice generally like running, engaging in the activity even when they are not being pursued. That suggests, researchers believe, that they gain some kind of reward from it, experiencing the mouse version of a runner's high. That possibility was borne out in the new experiment, when the scientists noted elevated levels of endorphins and endocannabinoids in the animals' bloodstreams after running. The scientists also found that the animals were more tranquil after running, spending more time in lighted areas within their cages something that anxious, twitchy animals won't do and that they were more pain tolerant when exposed to slight physical discomfort.In general, these mice were more chill than before. But when the researchers used drugs to block the workings of some of the animals' endocannabinoid system, so that receptors in the animals' brains couldn't take up the molecules, their post-run cool disappeared. The animals proved to be as anxious after running as they had been before, and very sensitive to pain. Without a working endocannabinoid system, they developed no runner's high. However, when the researchers similarly blocked the animals response to endorphins, while leaving their endocannabinoid system unchanged, the mice enjoyed all of the soothing effects of running. They were calmer in their cages afterward and seemed to experience less pain. Even without the ability to respond to endorphins, in other words, they were more relaxed after running, strongly suggesting that endorphins do not contribute to the high, but endocannabinoids do.

What are other activities do you think release endorphins?

Do you think people that don't exercise are more stressed and uptight then people that do?

If endorphins didn't exist what would daily life be like interacting with others?

http://www.nwaonline.com/news/2015/oct/19/study-endorphins-lack-euphoria-bond-201/