Chili peppers - Capsaicin, which puts the burn in chilies, also triggers the body to release some fire-quenching endorphins.Drugs that block the attachment of endorphins to receptors have been shown to eliminate cravings in alcoholics. Alcohol - Light to moderate drinking stimulates endorphins, but heavy drinking doesn't.Childbirth - Giving birth to a child is clearly a subcategory of both pain and stress.Meditation or controlled-breathing exercises - Tai chi, Pilates and yoga are believed to trigger endorphins.Heavy weightlifting or intense aerobic activity that includes periods of sprinting or increased exertion will trigger the greatest response. Exercise - The "runner's high" really exists, but you'll need to work for it.Endorphins may be responsible for the "placebo effect," owing to the real response of endorphin-release prompted by a tricked hypothalamus, creating a sense of well-being after consuming a much-hyped sugar pill, or even after simply anticipating something pleasurable. This variation can help explain why one person reacts differently from another to the same stimulus.Įndorphins have a leg up on opiates, however. Making matters worse, some of us have brains that act like ambitious drug dealers, and others of us only dabble now and then. Regular users of opiates generally aren't models of emotional stability, and steady, controlled endorphin release is something of a pipe dream. If your endorphins overdo their job or the hypothalamus misreads the endorphin cue, you could be flooded with "fight-or-flight" hormones at the slightest hint of trouble or worry.Įndorphins affect us like codeine or morphine do, but without the addiction. Some people who engage in self-hurting behaviors may do so in part to feel the feelings of euphoria and emotional isolation that can - for them - be prompted by controlled amounts of self-inflicted pain.Įndorphins may also be responsible for heightened states of rage or anxiety.
It's been theorized that problems with endorphin production or the binding process may be responsible for clinical depression or sudden shifts in emotions. If endorphins are at least partly responsible for saying "when," a person who doesn't have enough may never receive the mental cue to stop washing his or her hands and will continue until that signal is received. When you, the average person, are washing your hands, there's a point when you register that the task has been satisfactorily completed. Intriguingly, endorphins (or a lack thereof) may be responsible for certain forms of mental illness such as obsessive-compulsive disorder. Next, we'll learn how endorphins can make us more emotional than an hour spent standing at the craps table. There are at least 20 different kinds of endorphins, and one kind, beta-endorphins, are stronger than morphine and have been shown to play a part in everything from alcoholism to diabetes to aging of the brain. However, new imaging methods allow researchers to study the ebb and flow of endorphins as they interact with human brain cells, verifying their role in the rush that exercise - and other triggers - sometimes prompts. It wasn't possible to measure endorphin levels in the human brain without harming the subject, so the role of endorphins in the "runner's high" and other periods of euphoria or mood change were still hotly debated. Until recently, much of what we've learned about endorphins has been gained from monitoring endorphins in the human bloodstream and in rats' brains. They originate in various parts of your body - the pituitary gland, your spinal cord and throughout other parts of your brain and nervous system - and interact mainly with receptors in cells found in regions of the brain responsible for blocking pain and controlling emotion. Neurotransmitters play a key role in the function of the central nervous system and can either prompt or suppress the further signaling of nearby neurons.Įndorphins are produced as a response to certain stimuli, especially stress, fear or pain. Endorphins are neurotransmitters, chemicals that pass along signals from one neuron to the next. Enter endorphins: your own private narcotic.