Alternative Health Blog

Runner’s high? It can last for years, even decades.

The runner’s high has long been a way to describe the good feeling you get during a run. It appears that runner’s high lasts a lot longer than that.

The health benefits of a running habit are hard to dispute. Regular physical activity is a plus for any of us. You might be able to say that some runners exercise too often or run through injuries to a fault. But clearly those runners are enhancing cardiovascular health and, not unimportantly, boosting mental health.

Researchers at Duke University Medical School’s behavioral medicine department were the first to show that running and other forms of exercise can reduce symptoms of depression. George Sheehan, a Boston physician and bestselling author of running books during the jogging boom of the 1970s, was fond of explaining, “the first half-hour of my run is for my body; the second half-hour is for my head.”

Now comes new research from Stanford University showing that a regular running habit can provide a physical upside even as those runners grow older and convert from runners to walkers. In fact, running as a young adult can reduce risk for disabilities in middle age and later in life.

The Stanford researchers tracked two groups. One represented regular runners and the other group consisted of individuals who did not engage in regular exercise. The runners not only enjoyed fewer disabilities but also increased aerobic capacity (or not becoming short of breath), higher bone mass, less inflammation, improved memory and even better responses to flu vaccines. What surprised the Stanford researchers is runners who stopped their jogging in their 60s, 70s and 80s still enjoyed the physical benefits of their previous running workouts during those decades.

If you are wondering, any regular vigorous exercise, such as cycling or simming, can accomplish the same protective effect. In fact, even non-exercisers who took up running in middle age could still extend health benefits—especially protection against potential disabilities—well into their 70s, 80s and even 90s.

That’s the best kind of runner’s high.

Bob Condor blogs every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday for Alternative Health Journal.