How Does Gut Microbiota Affect The Physical Performance In Athletes ?

                          How Does Gut Microbiota Affect The Physical Performance In Athletes?

      

                                                                         

Introduction:

    Gut microbiota are the microorganisms that make up the environment or microbiome in the gut, that contribute to the overall health of an individual and homeostasis of the body. The gut microbiota plays a very important role in an individuals overall physical and mental health, with new research arising with its benefit in an athletes physical performance. The gut microbiota specially plays a role in harvesting energy, modulates the immune system, influences mucosal and brain health. The gut microbiota have many different functions that benefit many different aspects of the overall health of a human, such as aiding in digestion, communicating with the brain which also contributes to mental health, and also performing functions at the cellular level that initiate more important viable functions for the body to thrive or survive. A healthy gut microbiome is one that is diverse, meaning that the more variety of microorganisms or microbiota in the gut (the more diverse), the healthier the gut is due to all the different types of microbiota that have all different functions to benefit the overall health and essentially performance in athletes as well. Many different environmental factors can impact the gut microbiota, with exercise arising as a new factor. Research has shown that when compared, athletes have a much more diverse or healthier gut microbiome compared to sedentary individuals. However, this is a fairly new research topic that requires a lot more extensive research to definitely say there is a correlation between gut health and physical performance in athletes. 

Main Points of Analysis That Can Essentially Improve Physical Performance In Athletes:

• Athletes had a higher microbial metabolism level, with increased amino acid and carbohydrate pathway activity, indicating they can digest these nutrients easier and quicker, and probably more frequent than the sedentary individual
• Butyrate is a very important marker of gut health, which increases in humans directly after exercise, so the more exercise you perform the higher levels of butyrate you can have which equals a healthier gut.
• The composition of different microbiota in the gut has shown to play a role in improving recovery time, the build up of lactate can cause soreness (DOMS) if your body is not clearing as much lactate as it is producing, compositions of different gut microbiota can help clear lactate which can essentially help recovery in athletes. 

How Does Gut Microbiota in Athletes Compare to Gut Microbiota in Sedentary Individuals?: 

   

     There have been many studies conducted over recent years of comparing the gut microbiota in individuals who are sedentary vs. athletic individuals.  One study was conducted by M. Marttinen et al (2020) where they compared the gut microbiota of male rugby athletes, physically active individuals, and sedentary individuals. They did this by collecting stool samples which gives a direct estimate of the health of the gut and the type of microbes that make up the individuals gut microbiome, which can determine the overall gut health. They found that the rugby athletes had a higher bacterial richness in their fecal sample which indicates a more diverse or healthier gut. The results also showed that the rugby athletes had a higher microbial metabolism level, with increased pathway activity for amino acids and carbohydrates. Another study performed by M. Kulecka et al (2020) where they compared stool samples of marathon runners, cross country skiers and healthy sedentary individuals by using 16s RRNA gene sequencing to extract the DNA. By extracting the DNA from the microbes in the stool samples they will be able to determine what type of microorganisms are apart of the gut microbiome which can determine the gut's overall health. The athletes had a more diverse gut microbiota in comparison to the sedentary individuals. 

Practical Applications:

    The research on gut microbiota and the many different health benefits they have is a very new topic to be studied which is why it is so important to be discussed and educated on. Many of the body's health systems all work together in order to regulate the body and keep it in homeostasis, but people don't realize how much gut microbiota plays a role in every aspect of an individuals health. The gut microbiota also can improve an athletes physical performance but it is important for them to have a healthy gut microbiome in order for that to be able to happen. A healthy gut microbiome can be achieved through nutrition, diet, environmental factors, the use of supplements such as probiotics, and how often the individual uses antibiotics since they can alter the gut microbiome negatively. It is important to educate all individuals from an early age on this topic for them to be able to understand and improve their health, while also being important for athletes to know about, which can be done in the following ways:

        As a Practitioner/ Medical Professional You Can:

• Educate your patient and their family at an early age on how important the health of the gut is and how it benefits so many aspects of an individuals overall physical and mental health while also improving performance in athletes.            
• Encourage and educate your patient on what a healthy and balanced diet and lifestyle is that can contribute to a healthy gut microbiome, such as informing them about the benefits of probiotics and certain foods for the gut.

        As a Coach You Can:

• Educate and stress the importance of nutrition for not only the individuals health benefits but for their athletic benefits and to be able to optimize performance as much as possible.   
• Educate as much as possible to any other staff you are working with
• Educate the parents and include them with everything (if coaching a youth team)
• Avoid excessive fitness as that can negatively impact the individuals gut microbiome due to the energy depletion and exhaustion excessive fitness can cause.   

Useful Resources:

1. https://atlasbiomed.com/blog/expert-tips-on-sports-and-the-gut-microbiome/ 

2. https://www.genengnews.com/news/microbiomes-of-elite-athletes-contain-performance-enhancing-bacteria/ 

3. The Cultured Guru Fermented Foods (Kaitlynn Food Microbiologist) on Instagram

            - @cultured.guru

Conclusion:

    The research on gut microbiota and the physical performance in athletes is still a new topic that needs to be more extensively researched at a deeper level in order to definitively be able to state that gut microbiota can improve physical performance in athletes. There are definitely very many known benefits that gut microbiota has on an individuals overall health, but more needs to be done in order to establish a relationship between gut microbiota and athletic physical performance. 

About The Author

Molly is a senior at Westfield State University majoring in Movement Science with a concentration in Sports Medicine. After graduating her plan is to continue her education either in Biology or Nursing. Molly can be contacted at mollyb1515@gmail.com. 

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