'Runner's High' Same As Being 'High'?

If you're a runner, you recognize that feeling of euphoria that comes at the end of a marathon. Yet did you know this powerful release of endorphins associated with intense exercise may also feel the same as a high from smoking marijuana? 

New findings published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) reveal that a runners high is actually similar to the high experienced when smoking pot. In other words, the researchers believe that the "high" produced from running could be due to a substance known as endocannabinoids--or what researchers also referred to as the body's self-produced marijuana, according to The Washington Post. They can affect certain psychological processes in the body, including appetite, pain, mood and even memory. 

In this recent study, researchers at the University of Heidelberg in Mannheim, Germany gave mice running wheels and found that after exercise, the animals were less anxious and tolerated pain better. Afterward, researchers then used drugs to block the animals' endocannabinoid system and still had them run on the wheels.

Findings revealed that the mice showed the same signs of anxiety after their run but were more sensitive to pain.

"We thus show for the first time to our knowledge that cannabinoid receptors are crucial for main aspects of a runner's high," the researchers wrote.

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