Runner’s High Gets New Meaning

wsj.com

17 points·bookofjoe··8 comments

I used to do this when going on long runs. The biggest quality of life improvement I found was that it was a lot less boring to run for 90 minutes. Perhaps because of that, those runs did tend to look better on paper. I always figured it was because I was still “having fun” at the end of the run, even if I was tired as hell.

Why did you stop?

There were impacts to my mental acuity the day after that outweighed any benefit I felt I got. I will take an edible or vape something recreationally with friends occasionally, but it’s been quite rare the last few years.

The mental acuity issue is real. I can usually tell which ones of my friends are big consumers. They're usually a bit bright-eyed with poor memories. They tend to be bad partners at trivia night.

I used to smoke once a day at night after work but ended up stopping for the same reason: weed makes you dumb.

I do smoke for social occasions and enjoy it, but even when just smoking occasionally I can definitely feel the negative mental effects for a day or two after.

You have convinced me. My 90 minute runs, even with music/AirPods, are dreadfully tedious.

It could make sense.

The cannabinoid receptor occurs naturally and for an evolutionary reason.

Another interesting factoid: the cannabinoid signally system is retrograde: its information flow is OPPOSITE of all other neurotransmitters along specific neural paths. This alone makes prior bans on research into MJ tantamount to "Crimes Against Humanity".

What I'd be interested in is how it might tie into testosterone pathways: one reality of T is that it enables you to mentally ignore the pain of exertion in a number of similar ways to cannabinoids.

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