Sports may prolong life, since we all know "a healthy mind stays in a healthy body". But sometimes, sports can also affect our mind. An unusual consequence is represented by the incredibly high number of people obsessed by physical exercise.

Specialists believe that men exercise in excess probably to regain the lost vigor of the youth, while the reasons why women do it are connected to a deformed image which they have on the human body look and feeding issues.

Many people start exercising just to feel better and to look better, but, ultimately, they reach the stage when they exaggerate just because they feel the need to go to the gym more often. Exercising is obviously considered excessive when it has at its base an affective implication rather than just a fitness training.

When faced with these effects, doctors attempt to establish exactly the effects of the exercises on the patients' lives. If they juggle between a soliciting carrier and the responsibilities involved by taking care of the household and kids, the exercising in excess will have a negative impact on the wellness of that person. These people may be physically fit, but they could have other social, professional, and family issues.

Some of the warning signals linked to addiction to exercising are: the choice of individual exercises like biking, swimming, running or weight pulling; the lack of flexibility on scheduling the exercises; the believe that exercising is obligatory and couldn't possibly lack in someone's life; and the impairment of some aspects of the personal life.

People practicing jogging can experience a relish for running continuously larger distances, and reach the stage in which they require at least 24 km of running per day to fall asleep: this is the endorphin dependence.

A continuous and prolonged physical effort induces the synthesis inside the muscle nerves of a compound called endorphin, endogenous (formed inside the body) sedatives which induce an euphoria sensation, resulting in frenetically jogging and a state of exaggerated good mood.

You know the story of the Greek messenger which 2500 years ago ran from the Marathon field to Athens to inform the people about the Greek victory over the Persians. It is said that when he reached Athens, he gave the news and dropped dead, a classical example of the endorphin presence in the muscles.

Long periods of exhausting activities can cause even death, the heart stopping suddenly because endorphins decrease the pain perception threshold. In normal conditions, great chest pains will make a runner stop, fact that allows the heart, in most cases, to regain its normal rhythm. At extreme efforts, the low pain feeling threshold makes these signals indistinguishable.

Still, an equilibrated physical exercise is healthy, because endorphins released in this situation have a positive effect, giving the good mood; moderate efforts are even recommended in the treatment of depressions.