the body buzz?

[Mr Chemist]

Does anyone have a theory of what causes the difference between a body high vs a head high?

I find with some drugs , especially psychedelics (LSD, MDMA, 2C-B, Mescaline ect) there's a wonderful body high associated with them. Even certain cannabis strains have great body highs. But I find a body high lacking with stimulants (adderall), depressants (alcohol, benzos), and even opiates (hydrocodone, though I don't have much experience with opiates).

This got me thinking of a few questions...

Is it peripheral receptors being stimulated or is it all happening in the brain?

Could one target a receptor outside the blood brain barrier to cause dopamine release inside(I have many ideas regarding this one)?

any idea what transmitters/receptors are involved with the body high (IE is it serotonin, doapmine, GABA, based)?

What drug(s), in your experience, have the best body highs?

 

[The Chemist]

Cool username, bro.

 

[ebola?]

People often feel strong serotonergic activity or norepinephrinergic activity to accord a distinct body high (or negatively, as a 'body load'). This varies tremendously ideosyncratically, so there is not real trend in neurotransmission that explains your personal experiences.

ebola

 

[ColtDan]

DMT has given me the best body high ive ever felt. MXE has been close, also decent meph, nitrous

 

[Smyth]

Stimulants in general (if they are good) just make me buzz. The warm fuzzy feeling that they produce is not just limited to the head though. On second thoughts maybe it is. I dont really understand what you mean by a body high since the drugs work by their action on the brain, that is to say they are CNS active. At least in the case of adrenaline and serotonin, it is well known that these hormones are present outside of the CNS in peripheral organs such as the heart where they modulate metabolic function. Sometimes when you find yourself panicking or anxious/nervous, you get like butterflys in the stomach and find your heart beating faster than usual. Is this what you mean by a body high?

This wouldnt happen when I first started smoking herb or if the herb I smoked was in a cigarette. But sometimes when I used to take bong hits of herb resin I would get panic attacks that would last the best part of half an hour. This would manifest as an intense paranoia and I would feel literally like I was on the verge of having a heart attack or that I would die at any given moment. During this time I would find it difficult to remain seated and would have difficulty staying still. Then when this negativity wore off after half an hour I would start feeling really elated that I had survived this near death experience episode and that I was going to be ok. This I seem to recall was a sort of body high.

The above just reflects my own personal experience with herb. I cannot speak for other people since they react to it differently. For example, my friend used to be completely dependent on herb and would take it before going to sleep at night. I on the other hand found that if I smoked a bong of herb in the evening I would actually get quite stimulated and would stay awake until 4:00AM cleaning my room.

Another example of the link between the CNS and the periphery occurs with psychomotor stimulant agents. People say that it is because of endorphins that people feel good when they exercise. I know that Bilz0r who is very knowledgable about pharmacology rejected this theory and said that the evidence for it is only very weak. Still, the theory that the body secretes endorphins when you exercise is common knowledge and has become widely accepted by the general public as having a factual basis. This is a sort of body high that I get from exercise particularly when it is stimulant induced. Having a spring in my step and taking deeper than usual breaths of air while feeling my heart pumping blood around my body. It is a type of euphoria but I wouldnt go as far as to say that having exercise makes one feel high. The feeling that exercise produces is not strong enough without an accompanying psychotropic agent.

 

[Hammilton]

A "body buzz" is obviously one experienced subjectively in the body.

Opiates definitely produce one. The warm cozy feeling, the rushy feeling you get when you nod. Stimulants can, I guess, but I find them to be mostly in the head. High doses of some types of cannabis and cannabinoids produces a strongly physical experience. One extremely powerful experience caused me to confuse it with a dissociative anaesthetic. Made me freak out a bit.

Anyway, there's no one way a body high is produced.