The human body is armed with something that has a capacity to make people feel happy and get a natural high. This something is known as endorphins. Endorphins are natural chemicals in the body that are produced when a person is exercising or engaging in any strenuous activity, feeling extreme emotions such as excitement and pain, eating spicy food, and experiencing orgasm. They have been called as our body’s ‘natural opiates’ because they trigger the same nerve cells as morphine and other drugs, giving them the ability to produce natural painkillers and induce a feeling of well-being. Endorphins are neurotransmitters that provide a variety of advantages to the body such as emotional elation, decreased perception of pain, strong immune system, and reduction of stress.

Benefits

Having a huge amount of endorphins in the system is very beneficial. Because endorphins help a person’s muscles relax, it can contribute to lowering one’s stress and anxiety level. Moreover, since stress and anxiety can cause a lot of illnesses such as heart disease, depression, and fatigue and make the body more susceptible to viruses like common cold, endorphins can also prevent these disorders and infections.

Aside from preventing viral infections like common cold, endorphins can also protect the body from feeling intense pain. During an accident or injury, endorphins are released to stop nerve cells from producing more pain signals that makes a person feel hurt. This is nature’s way of providing humans with a way to cope with emergency situations. This phenomenon is also often called the adrenaline rush. Endorphins are there to allow people still to have a clear head to control themselves and be able to handle stressful situations.

Triggers

The release of endorphins in the body can be triggered in a lot of ways. One of these is through acupuncture. Inserting the fine needles into certain points in the body can elicit the production of endorphins. This is why aside from using acupuncture to treat a wide selection health problems, this Chinese technique is also applied to relax and cleanse the body.

Another way to induce endorphin production is through sex. Endorphins produced during sex also help the of release immunoglobulin A which enhances the body’s immune system and helps protect the body against infections such as flu, cough, and common cold. Endorphins do not only make a person feel good; they provide a natural armor as well.

Exercising is also an effective way of triggering endorphin production. Endorphins induced during exercise are good for the body because it may essentially develop the body’s insulin process by lessening or weakening its resistance to insulin. For this reason, people with diabetes will greatly benefit from exercise-induced endorphins. This kind of endorphins can also help people with metabolic syndrome that causes hypertension, obesity, and cardiovascular diseases and women with polycystic ovary syndrome.

Other ways of encouraging endorphin release in the body includes laughing, eating chocolate, getting a massage, and meditating. Thus, in order to live a healthy life free of stress, infections, diseases, and even a little thing like common cold, endorphins are the way to go.