The “runner’s high” describes the content and calming sensation that the act of running has on individuals, University of Wisconsin second year PhD student Alexander Boruch. This effect, and others like it, are mediated by complex interactions between the brain and tens of other physiological systems in the human body, Boruch said.

Boruch works with UW Department of Kinesiology professor Dane Cook, who researches the human body’s response to exercise. Specifically, the Cook Lab is interested in the effect short- and long-term exercise have on the psychological and biological process of both healthy individuals and those experiencing different illnesses.

“I’ve always been interested in the brain and behavior,” Cook said. “So, from a neuroscience perspective, I’ve always worked hard and been passionate about being able to understand how exercise and the brain relate to one another.”

In the Cook Lab, researchers use exercise as a stimuli, and take measurements including blood pressure, heart rate, brain imaging and breathing to understand how exercise affects different systems in the body, Cook said.

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Boruch studies these interactions and attempts to determine how system dysfunction in one region may lead to painful symptoms in another.

“If somebody has, for example, lots of difficulty concentrating, poor mood, etcetera and they also happen to have another sort of physiological interaction occurring, like inflammation, metabolic dysfunction, etcetera, are those two things interrelated? And if so … how can exercise either be beneficial or in some cases, actually detrimental?” Boruch said.

Cook also serves as a health science specialist at the Veteran Affairs Hospital in Madison. There, he studies chronic multisymptom illnesses, such as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, Gulf War Illness and recently long COVID, Cook said.

In illnesses like Gulf War Illness, Cook said, exercise actually worsens a patient’s symptoms, which is contradictory to the beneficial response most of the population has to exercise.

Cook said this effect in individuals with chronic multisymptom illnesses is due to dysregulation of their bodies, which refers to the abnormal functioning of body systems such as the nervous system, immune systems or gastrointestinal system.

“What we’re trying to understand is how these different physiological systems … produce those symptoms. So, if you have dysregulation in your immune system or your autonomic nervous system or your gut or your brain, does that predict who’s most symptomatic? … When we treat those systems, do they get better?” Cook said.

For example, researchers can administer a cognitive or physical test to a patient, then use a brain imaging technique to see what parts of the brain are stimulated. Cook said individuals with chronic multisymptom illnesses show an increased sensitivity to pain stimuli, which indicates that their central nervous system may be dysregulated.

Important to these studies are measures of behavior, which in psychobiology can be described as physical characteristics like fatigue and strength, as well as cognitive and behavioral characteristics like concentration and emotions, Boruch said. These behaviors help researchers understand a patient’s related psychological functions.

Exercise also acts as preventative medicine, Cook said. Increased exercise can reduce the risk of illnesses like heart disease and can act as an anti inflammatory agent. It also stimulates dopamine and serotonin neurotransmitter pathways that regulate mood and behavior, Cook said.

“If you have a dysregulated dopaminergic, serotonergic or neurogenic system, exercise could help re-regulate that system. We know that it stimulates those systems and that part of the mental health-enhancing effects of exercise are due to its effects on the brain and its neurotransmitter systems. That is the strongest evidence, at least that we have to date,” Cook said.

Based on Cook’s research and knowledge of the psychobiological field, exercise is just as effective as clinical antidepressants. Often, drug dosages must be increased to maintain their effect and come with varying side effects, but exercise does not, Cook said. It also treats the body systematically, without focusing on one body system like drugs do, he said.

Whether it’s resistance training, weight lifting, running, cycling or aerobics, Boruch said there is robust evidence that exercise can improve mental health.

Despite this knowledge, the field is still figuring out how to engage the country in regular exercise, Cook said.

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“We [humans] are really good at changing behavior for three months, six months, maybe up to a year, but we have big drop offs after that,” Cook said.

To curb this effect, the Exercise as Medicine initiative from the American School of Sports Medicine aims to integrate exercise as regular prescription in primary care. Its goal is to increase the prescription of exercise by doctors to patients living with different conditions and illnesses.

Cook said this movement is the future of exercise psychology in healthcare.

Though the field continues to make important discoveries, researchers in the Cook Lab can agree that there is still much to learn.

“I think we really are just scratching the surface with how a lot of these physiological systems respond when they’re put into a different state,” Boruch said.