A list of my top 10 sources that I found!
All sources listed within this are deemed scholarly, credible, and with many peer edits.
Firdous, H. (2023, January 5). Endorphins (human anatomy): Image, functions, diseases and treatments. Lybrate. https://www.lybrate.com/topic/endorphins-image
Another experiment within Hormones and Behavior gives a different perspective regarding Kumdo competitions and participants. It was found that before competing, participants felt less pain and stress than after competing. These same participants had so much change within their endorphin levels during competition that they completely altered their pain perception. Altering such as this degree could lead to injury without even realizing. Severe psychological stress before competitions was associated with reduced pain ratings, potentially to enhance athletic performance. However, this also implies an increased risk of injury due to altered pain perception, emphasizing the need for caution and injury prevention measures before and during competitions. Though, this experiment was highlighted in a very professional, yet easy to understand fashion, making it prominent for researching and analysis.
Avram Goldstein gives a simple explanation that includes intelligent language displaying the basics of endorphins. Being one of my first articles I reviewed, it was a simple, informative starting point that I would recommend. Endorphins are natural chemicals produced by the body that act as neurotransmitters, primarily known for their ability to relieve pain and induce feelings of pleasure or euphoria. They are often released during activities such as exercise, eating certain foods, laughter, and sexual activity. Endorphins work by binding to opioid receptors in the brain, similar to the effects of opioid drugs, but without the addictive qualities. They play a role in regulating mood, reducing stress, and enhancing overall well-being. This article continues the simple evidence that endorphins are similar to morphine, which is a staple to know within this topic.
Produced by pages 255-260 of Clinical Cardiology, Volume 7 includes a brief review on the connection with the natural opioid of endorphins and morphine. Beginning by explaining the effects the powerful drug of morphine has, this article connects the two in the way that they both are something that assists people cardiovascularly during exercise and performances. They also share similarities by giving a sense of ‘high’, except one is natural and the other is decently dangerous to people. The article continues to explain simple ways to boost these natural endorphin levels, which includes physical activity, working out at a high rate, or doing something that challenges you physically. It concludes by stating that endorphin levels are mainly present within difficult activities, since that's when the brain creates this specific chemical. A beneficial article such as this gives a clear description of the endorphin chemical and what it affects. Its information is precise, yet easy to understand, creating a proficient article to analyze.
Within this article published by Science Direct, a study was conducted to investigate the hypothalamic response within amenorrheic and eumenorrheic athletes, focusing on hormones releasing endorphins within plasma. Involving 21 athletes, plasma levels were analyzed throughout the exercise. Both groups, eumenorrheic and amenorrheic, both had similar endorphin levels as they rose due to physical activity. This simple, detailed, and organized study concludes that in amenorrheic athletes, the capacity of the anterior pituitary to secrete ACTH and endorphins in response to exercise does not significantly differ from that in eumenorrheic athletes. However, there may be an increase in basal endorphin secretion in amenorrheic athletes.
This source gives a clear and extremely detailed description of endorphins and how they assist in the mannerisms of mood, actions, and behaviors by a person. It explains exactly what is occurring during this chemical reaction inside our brains, and how exactly it affects us emotionally as humans. It provides insight on a specific experiment done on 124 participants regarding cooperation and endorphins. As a result, the experiment was found that when endorphin levels are increased, cooperation is easier to find within the participants. This is a factual experiment brought by Science Direct, providing correct, statistical information that assists well in understanding the exact results of high endorphin levels.
This article published by Science Direct gives an extremely professional outlook on the creation of endorphins from a chemical standpoint. It explains in very doctorly language the different chemical sequences of the opioids and endorphins as well as other chemicals that exist during the endorphin-releasing process. Even though it’s a little more difficult to understand, this article provided crucial information explaining the exact ‘what’ of endorphins and the ‘why’ on occurrence. Aside from this, it gives descriptions of endorphin-watching experiments to see different effects endorphin levels had on laboratory animals, mostly mice. A source that provides experimental details is crucial to analyze since it’s a perspective unlike other common articles.
Pages 332-336 of the European Journal of Endocrinology is another supporting factor of how physical activity stimulates the brain in order to produce endorphins. It gives a clear description of what occurs when endorphins are produced, and exactly how they are produced within activity. Specifically highlighting the fact that endurance runners are a common group of athletes to be affected by endorphin ‘highs’, it shows that runners that participate in races longer than a mile have naturally higher endorphin levels since their body is used to the necessary production of endorphins to block pain signals. Plasma levels were measured and further analyzed within 27 male athletes running different distances. It was found that the longer distance athletes had the higher endorphin levels, while the shorter distance runners had less. The article concludes that endorphin levels rose based on duration of activity. This experiment is another crucial thing to research, which gives it another perspective I didn’t have before. Explained in terms that are easily understandable, the information provided was very factual and beneficial to my research.
Focusing specifically on female athletes, this article analyzes the opioid-based issues that can occur within women’s menstrual cycle. Being a completely different perspective than all other articles analyzed, it shows that endorphin levels can commonly affect female periods and the overall cycle women go through of their monthly menstruation. This being not only simple periods, but also pre and post menstrual cycle and ovulation processes. Researchers continued with research based on naloxone, wondering if it would block opioids. The result showed that naloxone did not lead to an increase in gonadotropin release in these athletes, suggesting that opioid mechanisms may not be directly involved in the hormonal disruptions leading to amenorrhea in runners.
MDPI creates an explanation to explain what the neurons are that create the ‘runner’s high’ sensation and how it affects the body physically and cognitively. This extremely organized article has a list on the effects, what’s occurring at the moment, and how the human body reacts to it. This lengthy piece has endless information and scholarly facts on the chemical reaction humans have to endorphins with an explanation to what is occurring. Beta-endorphins, a known string of endorphins are also highlighted because of relevance to the entire topic. The source gives professional-based information with very informative language. It is written very well and extremely easy to understand, which is a massive plus on my end.
Biomedical Central provides a lengthy amount of information with an absurd amount of scholarly facts regarding endorphins, purposes, and the different types of these endorphins. It mainly hovers around beta-endorphins and simple endorphins but goes into details about other aspects as well. It’s clearly stated that beta-endorphins are natural opioids that assist in the creation and maintenance of messages sent by the brain. Beta-endorphins affect not only our mental state, but our emotions, and physical wellbeing as well according to the information Biomedical Central has provided. For the article, as lengthy as it is, it is sectioned off into topics and/or subtopics to keep the information organized and understandable. The language is a lot more on the professional side, but it provides scholarly, well-written information and facts to support informative wri
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