Talk:Endorphin

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The text below seems to have been written by a person who speaks some other language than English as a first language:

How endorphins/enkephalins work in human body.
Endorphins are a type of inhibitory nerve that reduces the cell voltage of the excitory nerve, causing the signal to weaken. It is a type of presynaptic inhibition. How it works is that it acts as a secondary nerve that changes the calcium influx of another nerve, therefore reducing the signal. Endorphins work to lessen the pain in humans.
Several types of drugs that is related to endorphins that acts as an inhibitory nerve are morphine, heroin, and codeine.

Can anyone fact-check this and convert it into grammatical English?

I don't think the person is foreign, I just think they either can't write well, or don't know the proper term. Maybe they mean "never inhibitor" instead of "inhibitory nerve."?

The discussion above has been pretty much rendered moot by subsequent changes to the page. --Dcfleck 15:17, 2005 May 30 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] So-called "runner's high"

" their research possibly demonstrating the high comes from completing a challenge rather than as a result of exertion"

Is this widely considered to be a possibility, and should it be in the article? I don't know much about this, but I often experience this 'runner's high' after exercise without having any feeling of accomplishment... and when I do feel accomplishment, it isn't nearly enough to explain the feeling for me personally. So from an outsider's view, this comment in the article quickly made me wonder how many scientists "some scientists" was supposed to mean, and how widely agreed apon the various explanations are... as this article might give the impression that the view of "runner's high" = "accomplishment" is a widely agreed scientific fact. Peoplesunionpro 00:37, July 25, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Video games

"Research has also shown that video game playing can release endorphins." This assertion needs a reference to back it up. Karl Stas 22:22, 14 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] COPULATION ELEVATES PLASMA ß-ENDORPHIN IN THE MALE HAMSTER

Are you not interested in making the strong dependency between (hamster) sexual behaviour and hypophyseal ß-endorphin incretions into the brain vessels obvious? vk

I'd like to remind you to sign your posts and please don't write in all-caps.

Thank you for your understanding.

Regards,

DarkestMoonlight (talk) 13:45, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] removing more sex claims

Karl Stas took out a bunch of the unreferenced sex claims over a month ago, and no one has produced a citation, so I'm taking out the one remaining quantitative sentence, and leaving only the general statement that some claim sex involves endorphins. It's equally unreferenced, but it's gotta be true. --Allen 04:56, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

Although a bit funny to read, what is the relevance to Working out gives you endorphines. Endorphines make you happy. Happy people just don't kill their husbands. Fr0 01:30, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Disambiguation needed

A search for "runners high" (without an apostrophe) goes straight to an alt. rock album by the pillows. Searching "runner's high" goes to this page. Can someone make a disambiguation page?

[edit] References still needed?

The [Endorphin#Activity|Activity section] is still listed as needing references, but it certainly seems like there are plenty there (although I'd say the citations need to be cleaned up). Is there any reason this is still there? Can anyone offer any specifics as to why it was first added? Andrewski 17:37, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

What in chocolate causes endorphines to be released?


[edit] Mechanism demystified, Runners High explained

New to this so be merciful. Mechanism: The individual writing that jargon-loaded text is -in fact- quite a little more knowledgable but I think I am smart enough to understand and dumb enough to translate (no offense intended). As for the first paragraph it basically states that the chemical does not eliminate your brain's ability to perceive pain but stops (inhibits) your receptors (nerves) from being able to transmit the pain by blocking the ability of certain nerves to receive voltage input (the calcium is either a voltage transmitter compound or generator in that scenario, I am unsure). Nerves are graduated binary on/off sensors right? So it blocks the pain nerves from being turned on effectively reducing or eliminating the perceived pain based on the number of nerves blocked (amount of chemical in your system-more Vicadin = more blockage) and the amount of stimulus received (just how far in the fire did you stick your hand?). K?

"Runners' high": I've seen this in action and yes, it's physical as much as psychological. You run far enough your body depletes its energy reserves, consumes straight oxygen and assumes you are fighting for your life so it releases a "don't worry, keep going" chemical (endorphin) to keep you moving so the T-rex doesn't eat you. Boxers don't get it. Why? Because they aren't pushed hard enough to consume all reserves..they are holding back and they know they have a definite number of rounds to endure. Video gamer's don't get the absolutely wasted runners' high effect for the same reason. They are experiencing a muted "OK sex, but not great" version stimulated by the mind and not backed up by the body. An accomplishment based stimulus without physical stimulus. Working out in a gym works in reverse. When you go through the motions and follow the same routine you feel good but not GRRREAT! You KNOW there is an end in sight and you see yourself approaching it with each completed exercise. So your body is spent, but your brain is comfy in the knowledge that it will end soon enough. A physical based stimulus without mental stimulus. Intuitively it would seem that there has to be BOTH a "no end in sight" subliminal message reinforced by the body being totally spent but unable to stop for the brain to go all out in its endorphin release. Standard sports and video games and the like just don't push you hard enough in both categories.

The sex references are exlained in some detail at http://www.howstuffworks.com/index.htm. As for the chocolate reference, Usually an alkaloid is credited with the endorphin affect. Nicotine and chocolate must share an alkaloid similarity somewhere in their make-up. (Yes nicotine encourages the release of endorphines in the body. More on that at HowStuffWorks also.)

how about Anandamide? http://runtrails.blogspot.com/2005/01/understanding-runners-high.html —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 213.49.135.68 (talk) 09:05, 14 May 2007 (UTC).
Yeah, I think it's pretty much proven that the runner's high is anandamide, not endorphins. http://www.cmcr.ucsd.edu/geninfo/Exercise_Piomelli.pdf --69.158.153.119 03:46, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] glycogen vs. oxygen

"This also corresponds with the time that muscles use up their stored glycogen and begin functioning with only oxygen."

This sentence is not factually accurate, it confuses the fuel type with aerobic vs. anaerobic consumption. Glycogen is the muscular store of glucose, mobilized when ever the muscle starts to do work. Glucose is run through the glycolysis process to produce ATP. If oxygen is present (aerobic exercise), the products of glycolysis continue into the Krebs cycle to produce more energy. If no oxygen (anaerobic exercise) is present, the products glycolysis are made into lactic acid. Anaerobic processes are much less efficient.

When the glycogen supplies run out, the muscle moves to fat metabolism, which has a much higher oxygen requirement. Oxygen is never a fuel in and of itself as this sentence seems to imply. The sentence should probably read:

"This also corresponds with the time that muscles use up their stored glycogen and begin functioning with only fatty acids."

However, I'm not sure that the statement itself is true. Is there support for the idea that endorphin release corresponds to glycogen exhaustion? I found this article (pdf) from The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism which shows caffeine lowering the threshold of exercise related endorphin release, and shows endorphin release after sprints, which generally are far too short to exhaust glycogen.

[edit] Added citation needed

I added {{Fact}} tags at the bottom, as the reference only named three of the examples mentioned. As far as I know, there are alternative ways of getting "well-being" than just the endorphine-based way (dopamine and adrenaline rushes are two examples), so in my opinion every positive stimuli cannot be listed without citation as now. Narssarssuaq 19:31, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] How Much Capsaicin, Cocoa, and Poppyseeds does it take to trigger endorphin release?

This is an actual question, and it isn't a druggy one, either (judging from "answers" to similar questions on a question asking website, a lot of people will think that upon reading the above question). Chiss Boy 23:31, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

Poppy seeds don't trigger an endorphin release. They contain small amounts of morphine. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 69.113.123.1 (talk) 13:11, 8 March 2007 (UTC).

[edit] can you get addicted to exercise

can you get addicted to exercise?The Right Honourable 06:49, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

Yes, you can because of the endorphins.

DarkestMoonlight (talk) 13:46, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Reverted edit

I'm not entirely sure if the edit I reverted was vandalism or not, but punctuation had been removed, the article's structure had been removed...the article appeared to be reformatted into simplified class notes (in particular, before "runner's high"), for lack of better words. Shatteredshards] 05:16, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] could synthetic endorphins be used as drugs?

could synthetic endorphins be used as drugs?

I am no expert at all but I think that some drugs are analouges of endorphins. Since these work and are easier to manufacture (and in some cases maybe more potent) than actual synthetic endorphins there is probably little point in producing true synthetic endorphins. That's a layman's 2 cents anyway.

I'm an expert. many many endorphin analogues have been synthesized, and a few tested as drugs. firstly, they don't cross the blood-brain barrier, and secondly, they are rapidly broken down by various proteases. they are not, in fact as good as the other opiods like morphine et al. years ago R guillimen tested some during childbirth in Japan: it actually worked, but they had to be injected with the epidural, and were no better than conventional drugs. Nice idear though —Preceding unsigned comment added by Saleemsan (talk • contribs) 22:49, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Very vague phrase

In the introduction it says: "Using drugs may increase the effects of the endorphins". Which drugs? I'm assuming street drugs, but which kind? Opioids? If you have the info, maybe you should get a source to back it up. It's my first attempted edit so, whatever. --Hecajoda (talk) 09:28, 21 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Evidence indicating endocannabinoid causes runners high is weak.

After reading the article referred to in the New York Times article, (Sparling, P.(2003) "Exercise activates the endocannabinoid system".NeuroReport.14:2209-2211.) I decided to make corrections. The New York Times sometimes can stretch facts or in this case fabricate them. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 141.195.242.74 (talk) 17:15, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

The anandamide hypothesis remains plausible but far from proven, in my opinion; nonetheless, the fact that naloxone/naltrexone do not antagonize runner's high is pretty much a nail in the coffin of the endorphin hypothesis. Certainly the Neuroreport article has been overhyped, but I fail to see any overt fabrication, and I have tried to make the article a bit more NPOV, accordingly. St3vo (talk) 04:31, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

For a better overview of the supporting evidence, look at Dietrich A, McDaniel WF. "Endocannabinoids and exercise." Br J Sports Med. 2004 Oct;38(5):536-41. PMID 15388533. I'll try to work it into the article tomorrow. St3vo (talk) 04:53, 29 November 2007 (UTC)