Community Columnist

STUDY: EXERCISING INHIBITS DRUG USE

Recent published research by Davidson College Associate Professor
Mark Smith shows that exercise can help prevent drug addiction.
According to recent statistics from the National Institute on Drug
Abuse, about 20 million Americans age 12 and older (about 8.3 percent
of the population) have used an illicit drug in the past month. The
institute has committed $4 million for studies about the effect of
exercise on drug use. Smith, a neuroscientist, worked for about two
years on the study with three Davidson student research assistants:
Karl Schmidt, Jordan Iordanou and Martina Mustroph.

They compared the tendency to self-administer cocaine between two
groups of rats. One group lived in cages with a running wheel; the
other group had no wheel. During six weeks, the rats in the wheel
cages increased their running to about 10 kilometers per day while
those without wheels got no exercise at all. Then the rats were
connected to an infusion pump that provided cocaine if they pushed a
lever in their cage, with an increasing number of pushes each time.
They found that the fit rats pushed the lever up to 70 times for the
cocaine, and the sedentary rats continued to push the lever for 250
presses. Within the exercising group of rats, the ones that ran the
most abandoned the pushing of the lever sooner than other rats.

"We concluded that aerobic exercise reduces the rewarding effects of
cocaine, and probably also has protective effects against cocaine
abuse," Smith said in a news release. "That shows me that, in the
real world, exercise can be an effective intervention in drug abuse
prevention and treatment programs." Smith said exercise works because
both exercise and illicit drugs prompt the same release in the brain
of the euphoria-inducing protein, dopamine. Long-term exercise alters
the number of dopamine receptors in the brain, meaning that drugs
then have less of a euphoric effect. Facility needs help Lydia's Loft
needs volunteers to work one day a week. This facility provides free
clothing to needy residents of the north Mecklenburg and south
Iredell region. Details: Darlene O'Toole at 704-560-2541.

Nancy Vendley lives in Davidson.