Exercise is as addictive as booze and fags

. . . so says the British newspaper UK Guardian:

The proposition that exercise can trigger a “high” based on brain chemistry has been around for decades. But there has been less research into what happens when the trainers are locked away and the tracksuit sent to the cleaners. Now a team from the University of Wisconsin-Madison has confirmed that not pumping iron or pounding the pavement could trigger telltale changes in neuronal activity. They watched mice manically sprinting on exercise wheels and then measured withdrawal symptoms when they are kept off the treadmill.

“In the high running mice, certain brain regions displayed extremely high levels of activity, more than normal,” said one of the researchers, Justin Rhodes. “These were the same brain regions that become activated when you prevent rats getting their daily fix of cocaine, morphine, alcohol or nicotine.”

Surprise surprise, this isn’t anything new. When you exercise, your brain releases dopamine to the receptors in your brain. So after jogging or any type of strenuous exercise, you experience what is more commonly known as “runner’s high,” a high that is actually quite close to the high you get from using cocaine.

The difference is that with cocaine, you are literally burning the dopamine receptors in your brain as well as using the dopamine that usually exists. With jogging, your brain starts producing more dopamine and relaxing the receptors in order to get more dopamine. Hence the fact that joggers do not experience a “crash,” while cocaine abusers do (because the brain is artificially using dopamine in the latter).

Now I don’t know about alcohol and nicotine as they seem to be two very different chemical processes at work, but there is a difference between artificial highs such as cocaine, alcohol, and nicotine and the more natural highs associated with jogging or exercise. In fact, drugs like cocaine can affect working habits and other daily activities in a negative way, unlike exercise. This may lead to workplaces doing drug testing Peoria AZ or using a facility in closer proximity to their office/s to keep an eye on any issues and to keep employees safe. If an employee has tested positive for any type of drug, they may be told to attend rehab programs which can be administered in centers such as https://westcoastrecoverycenters.com/san-diego-drug-rehab/ to get them back on track again.

No big news here, other than a poorly written conclusion to a scientific study that folks will inevitably use to justify drug abuse. I just like the title of the article. . . figure someone would take notice and get offended (or vice versa).