Medford, MA – Exercise is always being advised for good health but a study in rats found extreme exercise may be physically addicting, U.S. researchers found.
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Lead author Robin Kanarek of Tufts University said excessive running shares similarities with drug-taking behavior.
“As with food intake and other parts of life, moderation seems to be the key,” Kanarek says in a statement. “Exercise, as long as it doesn’t interfere with other aspects of one’s life, is a good thing with respect to both physical and mental health.”
The study involved 44 male and 40 female rats that were allowed either to run in exercise wheels or remain inactive.
To simulate anorexia athletica — exercise addiction — the researchers divided the active and inactive rats into groups whose members were either given food for one hour a day or around the clock. Rats in all four groups were then given naloxone, a medicine for heroin overdose that produces immediate withdrawal symptoms.
The study, published in Behavioral Neuroscience, found active rats showed withdrawal symptoms like those seen in narcotics addicts, while the active rats who had access to food for only one hour a day both ran the most and displayed the most severe withdrawal symptoms.
Exercise is “addicting” because it generates endorphins, the body’s own morphine-like chemical.
Our nation is obligated by our Shulchan Aruch to keep our bodies “healthy and whole.”
Of course we must exercise . . . it’s as much a mitzvah is is learning and davening and giving tzedakah!
endorphin — any of a group of peptides occurring in the brain and other tissues of vertebrates, and resembling opiates, that react with the brain’s opiate receptors to raise the pain threshold.
I agree with this. I exercise several times a week, and if I go a few days without I have withdrawal symptoms. Oh well, at least I’m fit and enjoy exercising. And the weight I keep off is also good…
I don’t think this is a concern for your average frum Joe. The Kosher Gym is empty compared to goiyshe gyms. There is definitely a group of people who live around diets and gyms and that is crazy.
i work out with yoga with my bff mordy and we allways get the endorphin high together after it def is true
Just another example of how sometimes, science can be so correct and right, that it ends up being ridiculously wrong.
For 99.9% of the world, it wouldn’t be such a bad thing to get addicted to exercise.
Does my wife’s chasing me around the house qualify as exercise. If it does I am the most exercised man in BP.
Halevai Alai such an addiction!
I’m an addict. I’m in the gym 15 hours a week. I must tell you I can’t go without it. If I miss a day,I go crazy. The rush I get from working out…nothing like it. Its a real drug. But I feel great
Halevai Alai such an addiction!
Finally some good news.
I wish people would be more educated when it comes to addictions.
Any activity, whether its gambling, overeating, overspending, overexercising or whatever it may be, when people are doing it for reasons other then the simple pleasure the activity offers.
For example, when someone exercises as an escape of troubles and he gets an overwhelming feeling when doing so, he’s an addict! Just like a drug addict! It doesn’t make a diference what the object may be. The kwy wors is if you are doind that specific activity for the fun it brings to more or less most people or you are using it as a “mood changer”..
When you escape real life to an activity and endulge in it, most likely it is an addiction and you should start 2nd guessing your way of life and realizing that it is not just a minor escape it is a dangerous addiction that may end up endangering your life.
There are ways to evaluate studies and determine whether they are applicable to the general population
I wouldn’t worry too much about a study with 88 rats.
Also, we all need to exercise more. Look around. Dont worry about too much exercise. we all need an hour of cardio a day. How many of us do that?
Since when gave the RAMBAM the presc. Of drugs? He said in Hilches Dyos to do exercize before you eat, Oh Ya! He said also, when you do he right ex, you are healthy even you are not eat right!!
I myself picked this rambam, I B”H feel young and healthy, do a lot of free weight 260 lbs biceps curls, its great try it, its free its free of drugs……
Let’s start worrying when people are exercising so much they drop dead. Right now heart disease and high blood pressure from sitting on our fat tochis and gorging ourselves are much greater problems.