Endorphins are brain chemicals that boost your mood, health, and well-being.
Check out this article to learn why they are important, and how they make you feel: How to Stimulate Your Endorphins – The Body’s Natural Opiates
Here are five simple ways to stimulate the release of endorphins.
1. Boost Endorphins with Exercise
A good workout can make you feel euphoric and energized. It can give you a positive outlook on life. This is mostly because of endorphin release.
Regular Exercise is the most well-known way to stimulate the release of endorphins.
The study “Endorphins and exercise” says that:
“Elevated serum beta-endorphin concentrations induced by exercise have been linked to several psychological and physiological changes, including mood state changes and ‘exercise-induced euphoria”. [1]
Endorphins make exercise more doable by relieving pain and rewarding you with a good feeling that makes you want to repeat the behavior.
Exercise keeps your body and mind young and feeling good. We also know that exercise promotes growth of new brain cells, especially in the hippocampus; the area responsible for emotions, memory and the autonomous nervous system.
The study “Exercise-induced promotion of hippocampal cell proliferation requires beta-endorphin” states that endorphins are required for the growth of new brain cells in response to exercise. [2]
It concludes that:
“beta-endorphin released during running is a key factor for exercise-induced cell proliferation…”
2. Boost Endorphins with Laughter
You have probably experienced laughing so hard that you would almost prefer to stop because of the stomach pain. Laughing is, technically, internal convulsions, which would be painful if not for the endorphins.
In fact, the endorphins released when you laugh will increase your pain threshold for a while. [3]
Laughter makes you feel better and happier, which in turn affects your health. The expression “a good laugh prolongs life” even seems to be scientifically valid. A link between laughter and improved cardiovascular health was found in the study “The effect of mirthful laughter on the human cardiovascular system.” [4]
Even expecting to laugh can boost your endorphins. [5]
Find out what makes you laugh, and do more of it.
3. Boost Endorphins with Intermittent Fasting
Going for, say, 18 hours without eating will stimulate release of endorphins. Like exercise, fasting is a metabolically stressful event. Such events trigger endorphin release to help you cope. [6]
There are a lot of other benefits to intermittent fasting like reduced aging, preservation of mental ability, and healthier body composition. Caloric restriction also leads to a longer life. [7]
4. Boost Endorphins with Massages
Massages are used to relieve acute and chronic pain. Endogenous opioids are recognized as a possible reason for this relief. [8]
Get a massage!
5. Boost Endorphins with Food
All good-tasting foods seem to trigger endorphin release. [9] You are rewarded with endorphin-induced good feelings after a good meal.
Chocolate contains phenethylamine, an organic compound that can give you an endorphin boost.
Eating chilies will also trigger endorphin release. They contains the chemical capsaicin that can induce the release of endorphins to create a temporary high. [10]
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These are just some of the ways you can boost your endorphin levels. Endorphins are part of the body’s reward system. But their primary role is pain management.
The next time you do any of these five things, notice the good feeling you get.
Enjoy your endogenous morphine!
About the author:
Vegard Paulsen is one of the two founders of Global Harmony Crew.
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Reference links:
[1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6091217
[2] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18263701
[3] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21920973
[4] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19477604
[5] http://www.fasebj.org/cgi/content/meeting_abstract/20/4/A382-b
[6] http://www.mindthesciencegap.org/2013/04/10/fasting-for-mental-health-does-it-work/
[7] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2851235/
[8] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2954166