Some years the winter hibernation is harder to shake off. The slumber sticks around. This is one of those years for me - while I run my dog a few kilometres every morning, mindful of the consequences of not exercising her enough, I am still more sloth than sprinter these days.
A few North Island targets are in my sights - Hardy Hustle first and foremost, running the 21km of a half marathon around Hardy Bay on June 9, and a few weeks later, running Sayward’s Kusam Klimb June 22. I was starting to ramp up my training with 10 km morning runs, including the Fort Rupert trail, my own competitive juices rallied by the prospects of challenging last year’s Hardy Hustle winner, local renaissance man Brian Texmo, but was disappointed to hear that he might not be running this year.
Gazette editor Tyson Whitney is running the Hardy Hustle 10 km and suggested I write on endorphins and exercise. Full marks to Tyson for walking the talk, coaching our high school wrestling team and frequently spotted jogging down Market Street, while writing on activity promotion in these very pages.
Movement is medicine, after all.
Movement too, can be community.
As part of a province-wide campaign in community building and activity promotion, Doctors of BC is hosting their annual ‘Walk With Your Doc’ campaign - here on the North Island we will be having a local event on Tuesday, May 14 at 12:30 p.m. at Port Hardy’s Rotary Park (next to the Visitor Information Centre on Market Street) where we will host a group stretch with our physiotherapist and then a walk along the beautiful oceanfront, accompanied by Dr. Chris Gardner, myself, and, rumour has it, possibly the elusive and beloved Dr. Howie Lee, along with the North Island Community Health Centre staff.
It doesn’t take much - a brisk walk, an activity class at the rec centre, or, when the eternal drum roll ends, aquatic exercise at our renovated pool - whatever gets the blood pumping and muscles contracting generates endorphins.
What is an endorphin you ask? In laypersons terms, it’s a ‘feel-good’ chemical produced in one’s brain in response to a stimulus such as exercise or orgasm, that inhibits pain, decreases muscle cramps, and relieves stress. It hits the same ‘opioid receptors’ as do opioid pain medications. This may help explain how opioid drugs like dilaudid, T3s and fentanyl can feel good and be addictive, and too, why exercise is a much healthier substitution to a potentially lethal drug that comes with all the downsides of drug addiction.
I recently read an article in the journal ‘Brain Plasticity’ titled ‘The Effects of Acute Exercise on Mood, Cognition, Neurophysiology, and Neurochemical Pathways: A Review’.
While the long-term positive effects of regular exercise - for brain and heart health, with robust physical and mental health benefits - are well known, it was interesting to read that even a single episode of aerobic exercise produces meaningful stress reduction, improvement in executive function, and enhanced mood state. This is the effect of endorphins. Intensity helps, but really, the most important action is to get active - aim to do an activity at least to the level where it’s challenging to maintain a discussion without breathlessness.
Like the amazing YouTube video ‘23 and 1/2 hours: What is the single best thing we can do for our health?’ explains, there is no better ‘drug’ than exercise - for just about every medical problem.
So come out to ‘walk with your doc’, come out to the Hardy Hustle - walk, run, or volunteer - you won’t regret it, and both your brain and body will thank you.
Meanwhile, my time here is up - I’ve got a walk-in clinic to run, and, before that, a dog to run!
For ideas/topics you would like explored, please email suggestions to: alexnatarosMD@gmail.com or find me online Facebook/Twitter “Alex Nataros MD” Note this is Not for personal medical questions – for these you should present to clinic/emerg or call 8-11.