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Maybe you’ve experienced it: You’ve finished exercising and you feel an amazing sense of joy, bliss or euphoria, almost as if you’re truly walking on cloud nine… in your running shoes. For many years, science has been challenged in trying to determine if runner’s high actually existed. But recently, a team of researchers in Germany showed that running does incite a high. In the journal Cerebral Cortex, the study showed that endorphins, the feel good hormones, are released in the runner’s body as they exercise. The more endorphins the runner’s body creates, the greater the effect in emotional state.

I was a runner for many years and admittedly had a modest addiction to the way I would feel following a run. It was a combination of feeling serene and calm yet joyful and well, high. So maybe if you love to run, but have a hard time pinpointing why, science may have answered your question.