{"id":1109,"date":"2021-05-01T19:39:16","date_gmt":"2021-05-02T00:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/hadron\/?p=1109"},"modified":"2021-05-01T19:39:16","modified_gmt":"2021-05-02T00:39:16","slug":"the-relationship-between-the-gut-microbiome-and-athletic-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/hadron\/2021\/05\/01\/the-relationship-between-the-gut-microbiome-and-athletic-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"The Relationship Between the Gut Microbiome and Athletic Performance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by: Osayenmwen Omozusi<\/span><\/p>\n

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Athletes are constantly trying to improve their performance. There are various ways to do this, either by drinking water, making sure the recovery time is long enough, giving the body the proper foods, or even adding supplements. Additionally, bacteria can improve athletic performance, but not much is known about it. Even though the field is new, researchers see a relationship between athletic performance and the gut microbiome, along with potential mechanisms.<\/span><\/p>\n

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What is the gut microbiome?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

First, the gut is the colloquial term for the gastrointestinal tract. The word microbiome is derived from the words micro and biome: micro meaning small, and biome meaning a community where plants and animals live together, so essentially, the gut microbiome is where microorganisms, bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa live in the gastrointestinal tract (<\/span>The Microbiome<\/span><\/i>). Some microorganisms in the gastrointestinal tract can be harmful, but overall many of them are beneficial. When there is an imbalance in the gut microbiome, conditions such as diabetes, obesity, cancer, and heart disease can occur (Makin). Therefore, keeping the microbiome in top shape is a crucial factor in improving athletic performance.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Findings on Short-Chain Fatty Acids<\/b><\/p>\n

Researchers used shotgun sequencing, which provides insight on microbes by viewing their strains, which researchers used to characterize their potential functions based on known genes (Makin). They found that gut microbes produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) such as butyrate, acetate, and propionate when the gut bacteria break down complex carbohydrates by fermentation. The team discovered that more athletic participants had higher levels of butyrate in their feces and found that \u201cSCFAs are emerging as a potentially important component of the link between the microbiome and fitness\u201d (Makin).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Findings on <\/b>Veillonella<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Another study collected feces samples from runners before and after the Boston marathon. They found that there was an abundance of <\/span>Veillonella<\/span><\/i> immediately after the marathon. Kostic, a microbiologist at Harvard and a senior author on the study, said, \u201cWe also noticed that <\/span>Veillonella<\/span><\/i> was generally higher amongst the runners, relative to sedentary controls\u201d (Makin). However, the sample size was minimal, with just fifteen runners and ten control participants.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Veillonella<\/span><\/i> metabolizes lactate, which causes pain in muscles that occur after an intense exercise. The team found that <\/span>Veillonella<\/span><\/i> turns the metabolized lactate into propionate (Makin). The propionate produced by <\/span>Veillonella<\/span><\/i> promotes muscle function.<\/span><\/p>\n

With this knowledge, the team conducted some experiments to further their understanding. They isolated a <\/span>Veillonella<\/span><\/i> strain from a runner, injected it into mice, and measured how long the rodents could run on a treadmill. They found that the mice with <\/span>Veillonella<\/span><\/i> ran thirteen percent longer than mice who did not have the bacteria (Makin). However, Eisen, director of the Microbiome Special Research Program at the University of California, Davis, stated, \u201cThe human gut and the mouse gut are really different. It\u2019s great they\u2019re doing experiments to test this, but their result isn\u2019t convincing even that this is broadly applicable to mice, let alone translatable to humans\u201d (Makin).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Conclusion<\/b><\/p>\n

The gut microbiome has been shown to have an impact on athletic performance. However, more studies of the role <\/span>Veillonella <\/span><\/i>plays in athletic performance are needed. The results are promising, but much is still necessary to learn how performance is affected by the new findings and the health outcomes in the long term.<\/span><\/p>\n

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References and Sources<\/span><\/p>\n

Makin, S. (2021, March 31). <\/span>Do microbes affect athletic performance?<\/span><\/i> Nature News. https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/d41586-021-00821-6.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Microbiome<\/span><\/i>. The Nutrition Source. (2020, May 1). https:\/\/www.hsph.harvard.edu\/nutritionsource\/microbiome\/.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by: Osayenmwen Omozusi   Athletes are constantly trying to improve their performance. There are various ways to do this, either by drinking water, making sure the recovery time is long enough, giving the body the proper foods, or even adding supplements. Additionally, bacteria can<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":590,"featured_media":1111,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biology"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/hadron\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/hadron\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/hadron\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/hadron\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/590"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/hadron\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1109"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/hadron\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1112,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/hadron\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1109\/revisions\/1112"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/hadron\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/hadron\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/hadron\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/hadron\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}