Most of us have heard of (and the lucky few have even experienced) a “runner’s high”, the state of blissful euphoria that occurs after a period of prolonged running. For the first time, scientists have proven that runner’s high is real, and it’s cause by the increased release of endorphins that accompanies long spurts of exercise.

Researchers at the Technische Universität München and the University of Bonn used brain imaging to study the release of endorphins during running. Says head researcher Professor Henning Boecker:

It’s interesting to see that the affected brain areas were preferentially located in prefrontal and limbic brain regions which are known to play a key role in emotional processing. Moreover, we observed a significant increase of the euphoria and happiness ratings compared to the ratings before the running exercise.

Read on in Runners’ High Demonstrated: Brain Imaging Shows Release Of Endorphins In Brain in Science Daily