Excessive running can be as addictive as taking drugs...................or at least that's what a headline in today's Sundays Independent suggests. They write that........."Sudden withdrawal of the activity leads to symptoms like those seen in addicts: trembling, writhing, teeth chattering, and drooping eyelids."
Some familiar?.........hmmm......I didn't think so!
Looks like another newspaper story picking up on some piece of research based on a very small percentage and hyping it up to be of interest to the 'armchair experts'.
The full story is HERE.
John,
ReplyDeleteI read that article, I think you may be right in your analysis. However the part that caught my eye was:
“Excessive running shares similarities with drug-taking behaviour.”
It has long been known that exercise produces feel good chemicals known as endorphins and dopamine and these can lead a high after activity.
But Professor Kanarek, a psychologist, has also proved that they are likely to produce similar withdrawal symptoms.
Her team observed a group of runners, some of which exercised excessively and partook in too many races as if they were addicted, and others which did no exercise.
The behaviour of the first group after races would produce similar symptoms to addicts, in particular cravings for food,e.g. sandwiches, biscuits, Custard Slices & Free food. Kanarek recalls the physical & verbal abuse after one race in which she and a team of volunteers had hidden the plates of food from the warm-down runners. "Those guys were really scarey, Jeez I won't be returning to Cork after that". In another bizarre twist, it is believed that Lance Armstrong stopped up early in the Tour of Ireland not because the 7 times Tour de France winner had a fear of patricks hill, but secretly wanted to avoid the biscuit cravers of Eagle a/c who had just finished their weekly long run, and were running amok on Corks northside lead by John "biscuit-boy" Desmond, looking for their post LSD goodies!!
Amazing stuff, if only her findings were releasded last week we wouldn't have avoided BiscuitGate.........
Fergus