In 2015, a team of German researchers challenged the notion that a runner's high is caused by endorphins and brain chemistry alone. They reasoned that these feel-good hormones don't cross the brain-blood barrier, so another mechanism must be responsible for the full-body bliss that can follow a cardio burst. 

These researchers also studied mice but looked specifically at their endocannabinoid activity after exercise. The endocannabinoid system, ECS for short, is a master regulatory system that extends throughout the entire body and plays a role in mood and relaxation as well as pain management.

Sure enough, after running, the mice had an increase in cannabinoids—naturally occurring compounds that boost activity in the ECS. Our bodies naturally release cannabinoids to keep the ECS running smoothly, and this research suggests that it might produce more of them during exercise.

Certain plants also contain cannabinoids; one of the most ubiquitous being the fittingly named cannabis plant. Marijuana, a strain of cannabis, produces its own kind of high because of the way its THC cannabinoids interact with ECS receptors in the brain.

Another strain of the cannabis plant, the hemp plant, is very, very low in THC but does contain plenty of other cannabinoids, like CBD, CBGA, and CBC. In other words, hemp extracts don't cause the psychoactive high of smoking weed—but they might deliver some of the full-body buzz of a runner's high. 

More research needs to be done on the link between the ECS, cannabinoids, and exercise, but the theory that they're connected tracks with the way we've heard people talk about their experience taking mbg's hemp multi+ supplement.*

Amanda Quadrini, from the brand partnerships team at mbg, for example, would equate the feeling she has after taking it to a runner's high: "It's like I just completed a tough workout—even if I haven't left my apartment yet that day," she wrote in her review of the product. *

Other reviewers say that the supplement—which combines organic hemp extract with other natural relaxants such as hops, black cumin seed, and rosemary*—helps them ease stress, promote a sense of calm, and feel overall more steady in the face of challenges, like a good run might.*

Of course, exercise comes with many physical and mental benefits that can't be translated into a pill. Taking a hemp supplement shouldn't stand in for your existing cardio routine. But on those days when the weather, COVID restrictions, or some combination of the two have you staying relatively stagnant, it's another mood-supporting option to have on hand.*