The benefit running has on your heart and overall fitness levels are widely acknowledged. Yet ardent runners will tell you of the existence of less palpable effects they also encounter. Runners frequently declare how running makes them feel great, it lifts their spirits, relieves tension, enhances focus and has a positive impact on their daily life in general. Nonetheless when a keen runner can’t get out they may experience feelings of guilt, annoyance, frustration and anxiety. Why are we so in the hands of this sport? We can turn to science for some answers…

The Runner’s High; the role of endorphins

The term ‘runners high’ was coined by Psychologists to encapsulate the state of euphoria that is a result of biological and psychological aspects of running. The ‘high’ is customarily attributed to endorphins. The word "endorphin" derives from endogenous, meaning "made from within the body" and morphine, a widely used chemical derived from opium that elevates mood and alleviates severe pain. They are conjointly the body’s powerful feel good chemicals and natural painkillers.

It is this relationship between running and the release of endorphins that is responsible for the so-called ‘high’ that many enthusiasts experience, but until relatively recently this assumption remained open to debate as had been unqualified by research. Dr. Henning Boecker in 2008 was the first to confirm this ‘endorphin hypothesis’ and supplied vindication to anecdotal reports. With his colleagues he recruited ten distance runners and performed scans of their brain before and after a two hour run. His data showed that, indeed, endorphins were produced during running and were attaching themselves to sections of the brain associated with emotions, namely the limbic and prefrontal areas.

The limbic and prefrontal areas are activated when people are falling in love or listening to highly emotive music for example. As predicted Dr Boecker found the more endorphins in their brain, the greater the euphoria the runners reported. He concluded that running stimulates the release of endorphins; the more you run the more endorphins your body makes.

The Social Factor

Chartered Sports Psychologist Paul Russell suggests there is more at work than simple chemical enhancement concerning psychological well-being in runners. He sites research with elderly people where low-impact gentle exercise routines have been initiated and the participants still report feeling happier despite the exercise itself being very light, too light perhaps for endorphins to kick in. Russell proposes a social component can hold equal significance and that exercise offers a sense of empowerment. Just getting out, taking part and having new goals can all impact on psychological health.

The Runners Low

With all the euphoric highs, brain-pumping chemicals, pain alleviation and social buzz on offer, can runners be susceptible to addiction to their sport? It would seem so as Mental Performance Consultant Andy Barton remarks; “Endorphins are a kind of opiate which act as a strong pain relief mechanism and can, in extreme cases, become addictive. Those athletes who are used to regular intense exercise can suffer a cold turkey style withdrawal when going extended periods without running as they are essentially being deprived of their drug.”Although a ‘positive addiction’ can ensure commitment sometimes the line between commitment and compulsion is crossed. An addiction to running can be characterised by a loss of perspective on the role it should take in life. Regardless of how often and far a runner trains; the clue is in the attitude. True addiction is rare but when dependency creeps up on you it’s crucial to accomplish balance and gain objectivity.

Even moderate enthusiasts will tell you (as will anyone who has the encumbrance of living with a runner!) that when it comes to the ‘runner’s high’ what goes up certainly comes down. For the positive disposition running can activate is at times disappointingly exchanged for a notably less appealing mood consisting of agitation, anxiety and downright grumpiness when the runner cannot run. A runner’s enemy is injury and at times it seems like the whole world is against you when following accomplishment of your PB or during a critical week before an important, much anticipated and trained for race, injury strikes just where it hurts; the achilles for example. Cultivated runners know the regime, that dreaded acronym RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation), and so rest you must. Having even a week or two off can render even the usually amiable feeling twitchy, defeated and disheartened.

Run Away From Depression

Chemically and socially it’s undisputed that running can provide a short-term mood boost. Yet there is an increasing body of research that proposes more long-term, powerful, perhaps even life-changing consequences. Some health professionals believe exercising could help to combat moderate bouts of depression. The Mental Health Foundation acknowledges exercise as key to mental wellbeing. Researchers at the University of Illinois studied 401 adults and found that more exercise correlated with less depression, anxiety, and insomnia. So endorphins account for the euphoric ‘high’ but what’s causing this incredible effect on depression?
One of the answers lies in serotonin, a hormone found naturally in the brain that elevates mood and increases feelings of satiety. Serotonin levels are depleted in depressed patients, and exercise can boost these levels. Commonly prescribed SSRI anti-depressants work by amplifying signals for serotonin release in the brain. Research into the relation between exercise and mood demonstrates the existence of antidepressant results.

Sleeping disorders such as insomnia are often a debilitating consequence of depressive episodes and can be a result of reduced dopamine stores. Dopamine, the neurochemical responsible for sleeping and waking cycles can be lower when stressed, depressed or anxious. Performing moderate intensity exercise can elevate dopamine levels and sleeping cycles should benefit.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, which makes recommendations on treatments according to available evidence, has published a guide on the treatment of depression.  This guide recommends treating mild clinical depression with various strategies, which include exercise rather than antidepressants, due to the risks involved with taking anti-depressive drugs. Kenneth Fox from the university of Bristol’s Department of Exercise and Health Sciences reviewed over 30 studies in this area and concluded that exercise holds potential to act as a therapy for depression or anxiety, and the use of physical activity has the power to upgrade life quality through enhanced mood states and reduced anxiety and stress.

Happy hormones aside, beginning a running programme can help give people a new focus and specific goals to work toward. It can offer escapism, distraction from concerns, un-interrupted time for reflection and contemplation. Running appears to increase energy levels and fight the feeling of fatigue and lethargy often associated with depressive mood. Furthermore, through getting in shape and feeling fitter running can raise self-esteem. Isolation is a fuel for depression and running entices people to get out, breathe fresh air, even join a club. Feeling more relaxed, alert and in control makes you more adept to face the world and confront problems.

In an article in the Washington Post last year former depressive Danielle Seiss articulated beautifully this entangled consequence running can have, she wrote:

Now, if I am feeling down, I go for a run. I usually start feeling better almost as I head out the door -- in part, I believe, because I am taking charge and doing something. On longer runs, by about mile 13 or 14, I start to feel a mild euphoria. If I run faster, I'll notice it earlier.

 In conclusion…

The jury might still be out on precisely how intense we need to be exercising in order to elevate our mood in the long term but there is no doubt that the physiological and psychological are intrinsically linked. And although there are complex mechanisms at work the effects are quite simple. Running is good for the body, and what’s good for the body is good for the mind. The evidence is certainly strong enough to encourage the sleep-deprived and depressed to get their running shoes on. And for the rest of us? Well, it looks like our favourite legal high is working on our brains and minds as much as our heart, lungs and legs.

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