# Runner's high, endocannabinoids
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/runners-high-endocannabinoids/735337
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 21, 2015, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/runners-high-endocannabinoids/735337 "2015-10-21T10:06:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@MrQwertyasd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrQwertyasd)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2015, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/runners-high-endocannabinoids/735337/1 "2015-10-21T10:06:39Z")
[A runner’s high is caused by endocannabinoids,](http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/10/07/homing-in-on-the-source-of-runners-high/?_r=0) and we’re evolved to run.
But since the invention of agriculture we’ve been ever more sedentary, so is everyone unnaturally low ?
And smoking weed is an attempt to restore what we have lost due to cultural development ?
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### Author:  [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2015, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/runners-high-endocannabinoids/735337/2 "2015-10-21T11:30:35Z")
I don’t see much similarity in the two highs. There are so many different types of endocannabinoids that affect us differently. No doubt a runners high is a pleasure zone but I tend to think it more of a blend of chemicals and hormones at work here and not just one. Anytime I have achieved a runners high I always felt energized. Pot does not affect me the same way.
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### Author:  [@MrQwertyasd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrQwertyasd)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2015, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/runners-high-endocannabinoids/735337/3 "2015-10-21T11:45:43Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#):
>
> I don’t see much similarity in the two highs. There are so many different types of endocannabinoids that affect us differently. No doubt a runners high is a pleasure zone but I tend to think it more of a blend of chemicals and hormones at work here and not just one. Anytime I have achieved a runners high I always felt energized. Pot does not affect me the same way.
Good point, have to look that up.
My impression is that the science strongly indicates cannabinoids. I admit though that it’s a long time since I had any kind of runner’s high so I don’t know what the difference is.
Nevertheless, I think there may be some overlap between the exogenous cannabinoid cocktail and the endogenous. All the articles say that the same receptors are being affected. And even if you couldn’t supply an exact replacement, that doesn’t mean there is no psychlogical urge to try with the most similar thing available.
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### Author:  [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2015, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/runners-high-endocannabinoids/735337/4 "2015-10-21T11:55:01Z")
Nope. Not-gonna-do-it.
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### Author:  [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2015, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/runners-high-endocannabinoids/735337/5 "2015-10-21T12:17:15Z")
The “Runner’s High” is a myth, IMHO. After thousands of miles of running, I have never felt this sensation.
The best part about going on a long run? Stopping at the end.
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### Author:  [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2015, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/runners-high-endocannabinoids/735337/6 "2015-10-21T12:28:35Z")
> [@minor7flat5](#):
>
> The “Runner’s High” is a myth, IMHO. After thousands of miles of running, I have never felt this sensation.
>
> The best part about going on a long run? Stopping at the end.
I was also a runner when I was younger and never experienced a runner high while running. Where I did experience a runners high every single day on a job I had. It took me about 1 1/2 hours to stock up these production lines. It involved pushing a handcart about 50 yards one way, loading it up with heavy rolls of Mylar and then 50 yards back at a very fast walk. After about 30 min I would break into a light sweat and start feeling good, by the end of the 1 1/2 hours I was talking a mile a minute, I would start off to the right and then back to the left and then back to the right. I was totally wired and energized, goofy as hell for about 20 min but energized for several hours afterward.
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### Author:  [@Razncain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Razncain)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2015, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/runners-high-endocannabinoids/735337/7 "2015-10-21T13:18:34Z")
This has been talked about quite a bit on SD. I do think people experience a runner’s high, but it’s generally for those that go much longer distances, perhaps two hours or more; I think quite a few start experiencing it then. Your link, as well as [this one says](http://www.runnersworld.com/running-tips/how-to-achieve-a-runners-high) something about the endocannabinoids being released too.
I personally never have experienced a runners high, but I limit most of my runs to generally 5k and 10k’s, so I’m wrapping up at just under an hour for the longer runs. After I’m done, I do experience something, just wouldn’t call it a high, but something I think others may describe as an afterglow effect. It’s milder, but I do enjoy it, and it lasts for many hours. If I didn’t get that, I’m quite sure I would stop running altogether.
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### Author:  [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2015, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/runners-high-endocannabinoids/735337/8 "2015-10-21T13:31:58Z")
I, too, have never had a runner’s high, but I’m sure that some others do. But clearly getting a runner’s high is a unique set of biological circumstances that is not universally experienced.
So if you want to get stoned, don’t pretend that it is our natural state of being. If anything, the logic of the OP is that if people want to return to a more natural state of being, they need to run (or exercise) more, regardless of whether the euphoria is experienced or not.
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2015, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/runners-high-endocannabinoids/735337/9 "2015-10-21T13:32:09Z")
I seldom did. I tended to run at near maximum aerobic effort and I think the concentrating on pace and effort destroyed the high.
It was only when running at a moderate or easy effort that I would disconnect and “float”. Didn’t happen on short runs, usually an hour or more.
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### Author:  [@MrQwertyasd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrQwertyasd)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2015, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/runners-high-endocannabinoids/735337/10 "2015-10-21T13:57:39Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#):
>
> I was also a runner when I was younger and never experienced a runner high while running. Where I did experience a runners high every single day on a job I had. It took me about 1 1/2 hours to stock up these production lines. It involved pushing a handcart about 50 yards one way, loading it up with heavy rolls of Mylar and then 50 yards back at a very fast walk. After about 30 min I would break into a light sweat and start feeling good, by the end of the 1 1/2 hours I was talking a mile a minute, I would start off to the right and then back to the left and then back to the right. I was totally wired and energized, goofy as hell for about 20 min but energized for several hours afterward.
Wasn’t it Schwarzenegger who said a workout made him feel like he was coming all day ?
It looks like different people get a buzz from different types of exertion.
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### Author:  [@MrQwertyasd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrQwertyasd)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2015, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/runners-high-endocannabinoids/735337/11 "2015-10-21T14:01:35Z")
> [@Ravenman](#):
>
> I, too, have never had a runner’s high, but I’m sure that some others do. But clearly getting a runner’s high is a unique set of biological circumstances that is not universally experienced.
>
> So if you want to get stoned, don’t pretend that it is our natural state of being. If anything, the logic of the OP is that if people want to return to a more natural state of being, they need to run (or exercise) more, regardless of whether the euphoria is experienced or not.
Ooh no no, you can’t get away with that easy dismissal. As several people have pointed out, it’s not just running that does it. I think there is a good case here, rather than viewing it as a weakness or aberration simply because the law took a puritanical view in the last 100 years. The latter day period of moralising (which is coming to an end) is nothing compared to hundreds of thousands of years of evolution.
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### Author:  [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2015, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/runners-high-endocannabinoids/735337/12 "2015-10-21T14:51:48Z")
And clearly exocannabinoids have different effects than simply replicating those of endocannabinoids. Runners don’t get fall-down giggling fits after a half marathon, nor do they get the stoner laugh after years of jogging.
To use an anology, just because our bodies produce some amount of alcohol doesn’t mean that drinking tequila is necessary because evolution.
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### Author:  [@MrQwertyasd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrQwertyasd)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2015, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/runners-high-endocannabinoids/735337/13 "2015-10-21T19:28:58Z")
They’re allowed to have some different effects, what’s the problem with that ?
Also, exercise can induce euphoria and giggling.
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### Author:  [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2015, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/runners-high-endocannabinoids/735337/14 "2015-10-21T19:38:48Z")
Yes, they are allowed to have different effects, because science.
But that doesn’t mean that tequila and the alcohol that your body makes are interchangeable. One is sort of a waste product, and the other is something that naturally occurs in your body.
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### Author:  [@MrQwertyasd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrQwertyasd)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2015, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/runners-high-endocannabinoids/735337/15 "2015-10-21T22:48:21Z")
I don’t get your point.
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### Author:  [@MrQwertyasd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrQwertyasd)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2015, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/runners-high-endocannabinoids/735337/16 "2015-10-22T00:30:30Z")
Now, if we are talking natural effects on endocrine system and neurotransmitters, we must mention this
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRsNh0eB-Io)
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### Author:  [@MrQwertyasd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrQwertyasd)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2015, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/runners-high-endocannabinoids/735337/17 "2015-10-22T00:52:50Z")
> [@](#):
>
> **Persistence hunting** is a [hunting technique](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunting_technique) in which hunters use a combination of [running](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Running), [walking](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walking),[[1]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistence_hunting#cite_note-1) and [tracking](javascript:void(0)) to pursue prey to the point of [exhaustion](javascript:void(0)). While humans can [sweat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perspiration) to reduce body heat, their [quadrupedal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrupedalism) prey would need to slow from a gallop in order to [pant](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoregulation).[[2]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistence_hunting#cite_note-run.26evolve-2)
> Today, persistence hunting is very rare and seen only in a few groups such as [Kalahari](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalahari) [bushmen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushmen) and the [Tarahumara](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarahumara) or [Raramuri](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raramuri) people of Northern [Mexico](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico). The technique requires [endurance running](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-distance_running) – running long distances for extended periods of time - and among [primates](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primate), endurance running is only seen in [humans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human). Persistence hunting is thought to have been one of the earliest forms of human hunting, having evolved 2 million years ago.
Born to Run 🙂