Free Drugs!
Your Body’s Natural Mood Enhancers and Pain Relievers
It happens almost every time. After 5 or 10 or sometimes 20 or 30 minutes of moving at almost any speed I feel pretty great. Much has been said of the chemicals that cause this “glow,” the endorphins that our bodies release to quell discomfort and fatigue. These “free drugs” are among the most powerful mood enhancers and pain relievers nature has to offer. (The word endorphin comes from endo, meaning from inside, and morphine, literally inner morphine.)
Along with a host of other biochemical aspects of movement, endorphins enhance our ability to keep moving, increase the amount and rate of blood flow to all our organs and muscles, and generally contribute to the wonderful feeling of being alive when we move. Movement IS medicine, and these natural substances are the pharmaceutical arsenal you have at your disposal when you move.
Endorphins are a family of hormones created by the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus, both located in the brain, that reduce our ability to feel pain and increase our ability to deal with stress. They increase our sense of well-being. Yet they are far from the only natural drugs we benefit from when we are active. Movement inspires a whole cascade of complicated and wondrous biochemistry within us. Here are just a few of the ones I’ve learned about:
1) The Feel-Good Drugs – In addition to endorphins, any form of increased blood flow, mainly from movement but also from sex, meditation, and being outdoors, promotes increased levels of dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin. These are all-powerful mood regulators, pleasure and enjoyment enhancers, and improved learning and memory stimulators.
2) The Enhanced Performance Drugs – The feel-good drugs contribute to enhanced performance and ability, but another set of drugs, led by norepinephrine, enhances our body and brain’s ability to communicate better with each other, thereby increasing the synergy of all our body parts and organs. Our ability to process information, feelings, and emotions becomes greatly enhanced under the influence of these natural drugs. They also enhance memory and cognitive ability, while at the same time making stress more manageable.
3) The Inflammation/Rebuilding Drugs – When you move hard enough or long enough your body reacts to that stress with inflammation. (Short-term inflammation that leads to rebuilding is healthy and good for you. It’s the chronic, long-term, low-level inflammation that comes from a sedentary lifestyle and poor nutrition that’s unhealthy and bad for you.) Inflammation is nothing more than increased blood flow to any damaged area that gets nutrients and white blood cells to deal with the damage. The white blood cells clean out the damaged tissue. Once their demolition work is done and they have removed the dead or damaged cells, the cytokine family of drugs goes to work rebuilding the damage ever so slightly stronger than before (to reduce the likelihood of it happening again). This is how muscles grow, bones get stronger, and organs like the liver regenerate themselves. What a wonderful gift evolution has given us!
4) Circulation Itself – All this information is just the tip of the iceberg on these free drugs within us; pharmacologists are learning more every day. The wonder of increased circulation is that it enhances the function and nutrition of everything that our blood has to offer to every part of our bodies. How amazing is that? Movement makes us feel good, get stronger, and be healthier all at once!
All of these families of hormones are part of any type of movement at an elevated heart rate, from Zone 2 up through High Intensity (HIIT.) HIIT gives you the added kick of stimulating non-aerobic channels, Human Growth Hormone (HGH), as well as stimulating the release of adrenaline and cortisol (which is why HIIT also requires adequate recovery, to make sure adrenaline and cortisol levels don’t stay high.)
An Evolutionary Perspective
Why would nature and evolution give us a system that promoted all this enhanced biochemical activity when we move? Think about it. For millions of years our ancestors lived as wary survival machines; food, shelter, and reproduction were their primary concerns. Moving was almost always to procure food, either by hunting or foraging. Nature needed them to move to survive, and enhanced their ability to deal with stress, not feel pain, not feel fear, and increase their awareness of themselves and their surroundings. These drugs were essential to their success in procuring food. Evolution, always on the alert for increased survival capabilities, came up with these natural hormones, many of which exist in other mammals, making it easier for them to procure food; build nests, dens, or other shelters; and procreate.
So, the next time you aren’t appreciating your body and the wonders it provides you every second of your life, move a little more or a little faster. Remember, nature wants you to move and makes it easier once you start, by giving you a free prescription, at just the right dose. No medical plan required!
