Why You Get the Runner’s High—But Your Workout Buddy Doesn’t – runnersworld.com

If you’re cruising along on a runner’s high while your partner has yet to feel that sweet euphoria, is that a nod toward your superior running ability? Sorry, no. The more likely reason could simply be in your genes, according to a recent study published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.

Researchers looked at 25 collegiate runners, both male and female, and tested their saliva before and after a long-distance run. They also asked them about whether or not they experienced a runner’s high, which they gauged based on four criteria: mood, lost sense of time, run quality, and euphoria. Physiologic markers like temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, pupil dilation, and serotonin levels were also taken into account.

They focused most on that spit, because it contained information on RNA, which is what your DNA uses to make feel-good proteins like natural opioids and cannabinoids, according to the study’s lead author, Steven Hicks, Ph.D., of the Penn State College of Medicine.

An avid runner himself, Hicks told Runner’s World that your body creates these proteins in response to environmental experiences, like running, for reasons like muscle repair and pain control.

But here’s the kicker: Not everyone’s processes switch on to the same degree. That’s why you might be rocking the high life, while your running partners are still in slog mode.

“As a runner, I was always told that only endorphins caused a runner’s high,” said Hicks. “Recently, that long-held idea has been challenged in the scientific literature, and there is growing evidence that the endocannabinoid system may be involved.”

The endocannabinoid system regulates the way other systems work in your body, in order to maintain homeostasis—or balance—and optimal functioning. If your body was a car, this system would be the computer that allows other systems to function together efficiently, and tweaks them when necessary. The better that system works, the better you feel. (In this analogy, endorphins would be more like fuel that gets injected into your system when you need to speed up fast.)

The recent study took a broader approach than previous research, Hicks noted, by looking at the pathways that RNA controls. There are six RNA molecules that act like on/off switches for gene expression, and they do have a role in endorphin signaling. But one also turns off a gene involved endocannabinoid signaling.

In those participants who reported the runner’s high, these RNA markers were significantly changed from prerun levels, and were also different from those who didn’t experience it.

“All of this is a nerdy way of saying that a runner’s high appear to be driven by multiple pathways, and we now have a better understanding of exactly what molecules turn those pathways on and off after a long run,” Hicks said.

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Does that mean if your RNA is the less responsive type, you’ll never reach that famed state of running nirvana? Don’t give up hope.

Everyone has the ability to get their RNA to make the necessary proteins for a runner’s high, Hicks said, but for some people, it will require more tinkering around with different conditions—like longer runs or more sprinting, for example—to turn the pathways on.

The next phase of research, said Hicks, will be to determine the specific elements of a running routine that make it more or less likely for those molecular switches to be turned on and off. In the meantime, take note of how you feel during your different kinds of workouts—it might be possible that some types of runs may be more likely to trigger your RNA pathways to light up.