Abstract
We determined the release of β-endorphin and prolactin into the blood, before and after 60-minute exercise of acute cycle ergometer in five healthy students and three athletes. This exercise induced an increase in circulating mean β-endorphin level [basal to after exercise level, 14.9±0.7 (mean±SE) pg/ml→57.1±17.0 pg/ml : p<0.05] and mean prolactin level [9.4±0.7 ng/ml→9.1±3.1 ng/ml : p<0.01] . There was a significant correlation between β-endorphin and prolactin values in all samples (r=0.892: p<0.01 : n=32) . Athletes tended to release greater amounts of β-endorphin and prolactin into the blood than students after acute exercise.
We find that acute exercise stimulates release of β-endorphin and prolactin in parallel and athletes have increased plasma β-endorphin and prolactin after acute exercise.
