Unbelievable facts
According to statistics, people who play sports are much less likely to become addicted to drugs or alcohol than people who lead a sedentary lifestyle. But can physical activity help you cope with addictions? A recent study shows that it is not. On the contrary, exercise can contribute to an even greater dependence on drugs.
In the course of their study, scientists from the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois divided experimental mice into two groups. Mice from one group were kept in normal cages, while the other mice were given cages with wheels in which the mice could run. All mice were injected with a special substance that helps determine the formation of new cells in the brain. The mice were kept in cages for a month.
Then all mice were given small doses of cocaine. The animals liked the drug and soon became addicted to cocaine.
Some mice that were in cages without wheels were placed in cages with wheels. Those animals that lived in a cage with a wheel continued to live in their cages.
After mice were diagnosed with cocaine addiction, scientists stopped giving cocaine to test animals in order to compare who is easier to quit cocaine: mice that drug addictions ran around in a wheel, or mice that led a sedentary lifestyle.
Scientists have found that mice that started running when they were drug addicts were relatively easy to quit the drug. However, those mice that became addicted to drugs while exercising were very difficult to part with the drug.
“We have two news: good news and bad news,” says one of the study's co-authors, Professor Justin S. Justin S.Rhodes. — On the one hand, we found that drug addiction is much more difficult to get rid of if it was acquired while exercising. On the other hand, we were able to prove that physical activity has a significant impact on the learning process.”
An analysis of the brains of experimental mice showed that runner mice produced twice as many new brain cells as mice that were sedentary. These cells were concentrated in the hypothalamus, a part of the brain that is responsible for associative learning.
Scientists suggest that mice that ran before becoming addicted to cocaine have developed many new brain cells that are set up to gain new knowledge. Instead of new knowledge, these cells received new information related to drug addiction. Therefore, it was much more difficult for runner mice to forget new information and get rid of addiction.
In contrast, mice that started running after becoming addicted to cocaine were helped by the new cells to survive withdrawal more easily.