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Are You Feeling Depressed? Take An Exercise Or Go For A Run--Scientifically Proven Truth
Raj Rishi
Most of us associate physical exercises with burning calories, boosting metabolism and building muscles. We feel happy that we are working to realize our goal in achieving weight loss and maintaining good health.
But exercises do much more than that. They can trigger happiness in your brain.
Some of us, especially the lazy bones who keep inventing excuses to postpone exercise to to-morrow, also feel happy after performing a bout of exercise.
We feel as if we have made an achievement because it takes some amount of mental effort to leave the warm and comfortable bed and manipulate the body for a strenuous workout.
Self-congratulations apart, scientific studies have proved that exercise can trigger excitement and pleasure by generating ‘feel good’ chemicals called endorphins in our brain. We hear a lot of people say that sex exercises or even hot peppers produce euphoric highs or endorphin rush.
What are endorphins?
Endorphins are neurotransmitters or chemicals that pass signals from one neuron to the next in our brain. A neuron or nerve cell is an electrically excitable cell that processes and transmits information through electrical and chemical signals.
It should be known that neurotransmitters play a key role in the function of the central nervous system particularly hypothalamus, a region filled with opioid receptors, is associated with a wide variety of functions ranging from breathing to generating pleasure and satisfaction.
How are endorphins produced?
Endorphins are produced as a response to certain stimuli, especially stress, fear or pain. They originate in various parts of your body -- the pituitary gland, spinal cord and throughout other parts of the brain and nervous system.
They bind with the opioid receptors in neurons found in the brain and thus interfere with the transmission of pain impulses to it. They are, thus, responsible for blocking pain and controlling emotions.
Role of exercise in triggering happiness in the brain
If you start performing exercises your brain recognizes this as an act of stress. As your heart pressure increases, the brain thinks you are either fighting the stress or fleeing from it.
Exercise creates new neurons through the process of neurogenesis which leads to the release of certain endorphins in the brain that mimic drugs like morphine and relieve physical and mental pain.
Exercise also releases a protein called BDNF(Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor), which protects the brain from stress caused by it.
BDNF also boosts the production of serotonin, a neurotransmitter whose deficiency causes depression. Since exercise also increases BDNF production directly, there is a reinforcement of the serotonin-BDNF loop, indicating exercise's significant potential as a mood-enhancer.
BDNF, thus, functions like a reparative element to your memory neurons and acts as a reset switch. That’s why we often feel so at ease and things are clear after exercising and eventually happy.
These endorphins tend to minimize the discomfort of exercise, block the feeling of pain and are even associated with a feeling of euphoria.
Reference: MK McGovern: The Effects of Exercise on the Brain
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