Justin: "It's no secret that exercises is good for you but what you probably don't know
is that there's a very strong body of evidence like good scientific research
that says that exercise is one of the best ways to deal with drug cravings so
in this next video you're going to hear from Dr. John Ratey of Harvard
University, the world's foremost authority on exercise in the brain and
all-around thought leader discuss how physical activity and exercise can help
you to overcome addiction and cravings"
Dr. Ratey: "In the morning at Tree House you know get your people moving you're reducing their
cravings you're turning the front part of their brain on because that's what
evolved to help us be the best movers and that puts the brakes on the impulses
that's why you've been so successful." Ryan: "when you're in active addiction your
body gets used to taking drugs and when you first get sober the removal of those
drugs is going to be a shock to your system so you're gonna go through
something called post acute withdrawal syndromes you'll probably experience
symptoms like anxiety depression irritability fatigue social challenges
but one of the biggest things that pulls people back into relapse is cravings so
what exercise does is really creates this cascade effect in our brains that
allows us to successfully combat PAWS it gives people a chance it helps people
mentally emotionally biologically in a natural way."
Dr. Headrick: "and exercise is actually the main way to do that increasing your dopamine and endorphins and things and
it lowers your blood pressure and your cholesterol goes down and your GI tract
is better everything multiple systems getting better"
basically you're changing your brain chemistry when you exercise
to reduce the cravings using exercise
helps calm the reward network down and it helps a satiated that's why you feel
good in part okay the reward network is part of the dopamine system that's a big
system in the brain dopamine is called the reward neurotransmitter it's called
the addiction neurotransmitter it's called the learning neurotransmitter
because it fits all those names and it guides behavior so you're fixing every
cell in your body when you do exercise that's why it works
the reward is you're gonna have a blast in life one of the primary roles of
neurotransmitters like endorphins are to attached to the opioid receptors and
what this does is allows us to have an increased pain tolerance and allows us
to feel good with exercise helping these
save themselves from from the cravings because there's a million other things
that are involved including oxytocin including endorphins including
endocannabinoids including serotonin and all these different chemicals so what
we're really doing with exercise is giving people an ability to create the
necessary chemical changes in their brain to experience a new life so
oxytocin is the bonding and connection neurotransmitter and it promotes things
like relaxation trust and pro-social behaviors oxytocin an active addiction
is really at a deficit it's the bonding and connection neurotransmitter and when
it's at a deficit you're gonna have the tendency to isolate and when you isolate
it's gonna exacerbate the cycle of relapse and so what we're really trying
to do with raising oxytocin is to allow people to feel connected and actually
become connected because feeling connected is a basic fundamental human
need doing something naturally means it's sustainable and we can keep
throughout our lifespan go for a run go for you know lift weights go to yoga oh
that has an effect on the pumping up dopamine if you want to make it simple
and it's probably useful to think it fairly simply because it it it works"