How to Boost Your Endorphins—The 'Feel-Good' Hormone—Naturally (2024)

Endorphins are hormones that help relieve pain, reduce stress, and boost your well-being. Your brain releases endorphins whenever you feel pain or stress, naturally improving your pain perception. Pleasurable activities can also release endorphins and improve your mood.

People with low endorphins are more likely to deal with mood disorders, chronic pain, and substance use disorders. However, endorphins themselves are not supplemented to treat low endorphins. You can boost your endorphin levels naturally by exercising, having sex, and eating certain foods. In cases of severe pain, a healthcare provider can give you morphine. This opioid pain medication works similarly to endorphins to reduce pain.

Endorphins are a group of neurotransmitters that are considered natural pain relievers or "feel-good" chemicals. There are three types of endorphins: alpha-, beta-, and gamma-endorphins. Beta-endorphins are the most well-known; they help relieve stress and manage pain, acting similarly to the pain medication morphine.

Your pituitary gland and hypothalamus produce endorphins in times of pain or stress. As a neurotransmitter, endorphins act as chemical messengers that tell your nervous system to block pain receptors. When your body experiences pain or stress, endorphins activate the opioid receptors—the reward centers of your brain—to signal your nervous system to block pain.

Endorphins also help increase feelings of pleasure or well-being. This is different than the rewarding or motivational mood boost you get from the hormone dopamine. However, endorphins can help increase dopamine production—contributing to an overall feeling of happiness.

Benefits of Endorphins

Your body releases endorphins as a survival tactic. By blocking pain signals, endorphins help people continue functioning in painful or stressful situations. They are also nature's way of telling our bodies to avoid pain and do things that bring us pleasure.

For example, say you're on a hike, and you fall and injure your leg. A rush of endorphins could help you feel no or significantly reduced pain, allowing you to hike out and seek help.

Endorphins also benefit non-emergency stress responses that help regulate your mood, bodily functions, and immune system. The full extent of the benefits of endorphins are still being studied, but current research shows endorphins may help:

• Reduce depression and anxiety
• Boost self-esteem
• Regulate appetite
• Support your immune system
• Support cognitive functions (brain activities like memory, problem-solving, and attention)

Endorphin levels are not something healthcare providers check like other hormones. Your endorphin levels fluctuate throughout the day depending on what you're doing that brings you pain, stress, or pleasure. There is no set high or low endorphin levels humans should have. However, having very low or high levels of endorphins can increase your risk of certain health issues.

Low Endorphins Levels

Research on endorphin deficiency is very limited, and we need more information to fully understand how people develop low endorphin levels. However, research has found people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have lower levels of endorphins. This suggests traumatic experiences may lower endorphin levels.

Studies have also linked low endorphin levels to:

• Increased aches and pains
• Increased risk of depression
• Increased risk of anxiety
• Mood swings
• Substance use disorders
• Sleep issues
• Migraines

High Endorphins Levels

Your endorphin levels naturally increase as you eat, socialize, exercise, or have sex. Even if you produce higher levels of endorphins daily, you don't need to create more to continue feeling good.

However, people can become obsessed with feeling the endorphin rush that comes with high endorphin levels. This can cause some people to increase their endorphin levels in unhealthy ways, such as engaging in obsessive exercise or inflicting self-harm.

While exercise is a great way to increase endorphins, some people become addicted to the workout endorphin rush. Also called exercise addiction, obsessive exercise can lead to injuries, malnutrition, and emotional distress.

Since injuries can also increase endorphin levels, some people self-harm as a way to relieve anxiety and stress. This is a dangerous way to seek emotional release as it can put you at risk for more severe injury and emotional distress, among other harmful effects.

Endorphins and Opioids

There are no approved endorphin supplements that can help boost your levels to reduce pain and increase your feeling of well-being. The closest synthetic version of endorphins are prescription opioid medications like morphine, codeine, and fentanyl.

These prescription medications are created from the opium poppy plant. They are prescribed for short periods to help relieve severe pain related to surgery, injury, or cancer.

However, endorphins and opioids aren't completely the same. Like endorphins, prescription opioids help tell your brain to block pain receptors by activating your opioid receptors. Opioids also cause your brain to release more dopamine. But unlike endorphins, the high levels of dopamine can create an addictive reinforcement to continue taking the medication. This can cause opioid misuse and drug dependence.

Opioid Risks

If you need help managing pain, talk to your healthcare provider. Opioids are not a long-term solution. When people take opioids for long periods, they can become dependent on the feel-good, rewarding feeling caused by boosted dopamine levels and develop an opioid use disorder. People who misuse opioids may also seek illegal opioid drugs like heroin.

Taking opioids triggers your brain's reward system, making you feel like you need opioids to feel good. As a result, a person with an opioid use disorder may avoid social interaction and other rewarding activities and rely only on opioids for a dopamine boost.

Opioid misuse can also lead to overdose. Nearly 21% of opioid overdose deaths in the United States in 2021 were with prescription opioids.

There's a reason you feel so good after a workout: Exercise is one of the most effective ways to help your body release endorphins. Studies show moderate aerobic exercises—workouts that increase your heart rate and breathing, like running—are the most effective way to increase endorphins. For best results, you want to work out at least 45 minutes three times a week.

Endorphins are released during exercise as a response to the minor stress on your body and create exercise-induced euphoria (runner's high). However, running isn't the only way to increase endorphins. Other forms of aerobic exercise that boost your endorphin levels include:

• Swimming
• Dancing
• Hiking
• Power walking
• High-intensity interval training (HIIT)

Research shows you can also boost your endorphins with pleasurable foods and activities like:

• Eating dark chocolate
• Eating spicy food
• Creating art or viewing art
• Getting a deep tissue massage
• Having sex
• Sitting in a sauna
• Using aromatherapy
• Getting acupuncture
• Meditating
• Laughing and socializing

A Quick Review

Endorphins are hormones your brain releases to act like natural pain relievers and mood boosters. When you feel stress or pain, your body releases endorphins to block pain receptors. Endorphins also help you feel pleasure. Endorphin deficiencies aren't well understood, but low endorphins are linked to mood disorders, chronic pain, and substance use disorders. You can boost your endorphins naturally with exercise, sex, and certain foods.