Aerobic exercise reduces craving for money

Washington - Aerobic exercise can blunt the brain’s money-linked dopamine craving, according to a new study by researchers in Berlin.

The study looked at the effect of aerobic exercise on the brain’s reward center.

Study participants were either made to do 30 minutes of aerobic exercise on a treadmill or 30 minutes of non-aerobic stretching. Afterwards they played a game where they either won or lost a Euro.

Those who had run showed a lower activation in their brains of the hormone dopamine when they won a Euro in the game than those who had not exercised aerobically, Discovery News reported.

But the effect lasted only a couple hours since the person exercised.

This is a good thing since in the long run most of us do need to figure out a way to make a living.

But the bad thing is that the blunting effect does not extend to suppressing food craving.

The scientists explain that there are other, stronger chemical drivers in the body when it comes to appetite and blunting the dopamine reward does not trump those other signals.

The finding was published in Medicine and Science in Sports ‘n’ Exercise.