Run Well Juliet McGrattan (microsoft ebook reader TXT) 📖

of endurance running that invokes this state. Perhaps it’s yet another indicator that we were born to run and without our need to chase and hunt our prey we instead chase and reach for the often-elusive runner’s high.

Q Can you get addicted to running?

A Addiction is the inability to stop consuming a substance or taking part in an activity even though it’s causing you psychological or physical harm. It may be a substance addiction such as alcohol or a behavioural addiction such as gambling. What starts as a voluntary activity that you choose to do becomes one that you can’t control and are dependent on to cope with everyday life.

There’s no doubt that running makes you feel good and creates the urge to go out and do it again – it’s enjoyable! – but when you think about the runner’s high and explore the possible role of opiate-like endorphins and endocannabinoids, it’s easy to see how running could become an addictive behaviour. You can crave the way that running makes you feel and go out to get your fix. However, what is important here is whether it is causing you any harm and whether you have control over whether or not you run. Consider the following questions:

• Are you running despite having an injury and being advised not to?

• Are you obsessed and running yourself into the ground when you know you should rest?

• Is your running having a negative effect on your family, but, although you know this, you just can’t stop?

• Has running become a compulsive behaviour, one that you can’t control?

• Do you fear that something bad will happen if you don’t run?

• Do you feel guilty or ashamed after you’ve run?

• What happens when you don’t run – do you experience withdrawal symptoms?

• Are you choosing to run?

These are all questions to consider when deciding whether your relationship with running is a healthy one. It’s very easy to say, ‘I’m addicted to running,’ but in reality, an addiction is a serious medical issue that needs expert help to overcome. You should always run because you choose to, not because you have to. Over-training can lead to health issues (see here), both physical and mental and it’s important to find the right balance for you.

Q Will running improve my intelligence?

A There’s no doubt that going for a run clears your head and makes it easier for you to sit down and focus afterwards, but can it actually make you smarter, improve your capacity for learning and increase your memory recall? It’s a myth that we are born with a certain number of brain cells and as we age they gradually die off. Yes, we do lose brain cells (neurons), but new ones are made too, thousands every day, in a process called neurogenesis. It’s important to know that much of the research in this area has been carried out on rats and extrapolated to humans, but numerous studies have shown that exercise stimulates neurogenesis in the hippocampus of laboratory animals, the part of the brain which is used for spatial memory. Spatial memory is our ability to orientate ourselves, find our way around a place and remember where we put things. We can’t directly measure neuron numbers in a living human hippocampus, but studies looking at the blood flow in this part of the brain confirm that it significantly increases with exercise, suggesting new brain cell growth.

A study from Finland found that rats that ran the furthest had the largest number of neurons in the hippocampus. Short, high intensity exercise and resistance training (such as lifting weights) had little or no effect, so endurance running may have a special ability to improve spatial memory. I read an interesting piece highlighting that this might be an evolutionary function, because our descendants often had to run many miles to chase down prey and a superior ability to know where they were and how to get home was a survival essential!

The brain protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) helps promote neurogenesis and it’s now thought that another protein called cathepsin B (CTSB), a myokine secreted by muscles, has a role to play too. Its secretion is activated by exercise and in a study done on humans, people who exercised consistently, performed better in memory tests and had higher CTSB levels in the blood.

Interestingly, it’s thought that while exercise might increase the number of neurons, if they aren’t used those cells can quickly die. Brain training can help retain them, so a combination of exercise and simultaneous brain training produces the biggest and most enduring increase in neurogenesis. Try challenging yourself to learn a tricky running drill or cross-train by mastering a dance routine – it might be the ideal way to hold onto those new brain cells. It seems that running doesn’t necessarily make you smarter, but it can produce the new brain cells that put you in the best state for learning.

Did you know?

A 2014 study by Stanford University found that people are 60 per cent more creative when they’re walking. It was the movement itself rather than the environment which made the difference, so grabbing some exercise in your lunch break, even if it’s through uninspiring city streets, could fill you with ideas for an afternoon meeting.

Q Will running reduce my risk of dementia?

A As we age, our cognitive functions – in other words our ability to learn and understand, including processes such as memory, thinking and problem-solving – generally decline. The good news is that research has shown that exercising regularly will help to maintain our cognitive functions. In 2011, a meta-analysis of studies showed that in people who don’t have dementia, exercise helped to stop cognitive decline. Those who exercised the most had the greatest protection (38 per cent), but those who exercised at low or moderate levels still benefited significantly (35 per cent), so any exercise is good.

Dementia is characterised by progressive memory loss and although it