Microbiota: an invisible coach that helps improve sports performance
A sedentary lifestyle can seriously damage your health, that’s why it’s so important to exercise each week. While taking up or getting back into exercise isn’t always easy, we all have an important ally at hand: our gut microbiota.
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About this article
Why is regular physical activity important for our health? Why is it so hard to get (back) into exercising?
A
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Sedentary lifestyle
“Waking behavior characterized by an energy expenditure close to the resting energy expenditure in a sitting or lying position.” Example: time spent sitting or lying down during the day outside sleep time, whether at work or school, on motorized transport, or during leisure activities, particularly in front of screens.
Source: OMS, Organisation mondiale de la Santé. Lignes directrices de l’OMS sur l’activité physique et la sédentarité: en un coup d’œil. 2020 Nov 25. 17 pages. ISBN: 9789240014862
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seriously damages your health: insufficient physical activity is associated with a 20% to 30% increased risk of death.1 Conversely, regular
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Physical activity
Any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscle contraction resulting in an increase in energy expenditure (EE) relative to resting EE”. Examples of physical activity include walking, cycling, active play, sports, housework, gardening, and DIY.
Source: Caspersen CJ, Powell KE, Christenson GM. Physical activity, exercise, and physical fitness: definitions and distinctions for health-related research. Public Health Rep. 1985 Mar-Apr;100(2):126-31.
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is associated with multiple muscular, cardiorespiratory, cardiovascular, bone, and weight management benefits.1 However, it’s not always easy to get (back) into it.
Weekly exercise is associated with a 20%-40% reduction in all-cause mortality. 8
Practicing an endurance
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Sport
Structured leisure-time physical activity which may include physical exercise where participants adhere to a common set of rules (or expectations) and where a goal is defined.
Source: Khan KM, Thompson AM, Blair SN et al. Sport and exercise as contributors to the health of nations. Lancet. 2012 Jul 7;380(9836):59-64.
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, whether running, cycling, swimming, or aerobics, requires a number of physiological adaptations from the body, and not just in the muscles. Prolonged physical activity:
- induces a loss of water and electrolytes (notably sodium and chlorine) through sweating, which is designed to cool the body;
- depletes reserves of (sidenote: Glycogen A form of carbohydrate (“sugar”) storage in the body, mainly in the liver and muscles. ) , used to feed our moving muscles;
- increases inflammation due to the stress of exertion, etc.
While this is all for a good cause, it can be quite a challenge for the body; but here the gut microbiota may come very much in hand.
Does microbiota help improve our sporting performance?
Incredible as it may seem, recent scientific studies have shown that our gut microbiota helps us overcome the hydration, energy, and inflammatory challenges posed by sporting activity.
As you’re well aware, for sustained physical effort, hydration is key. In fact, certain gut bacteria may help transport fluids and solutes across the gut barrier, thereby maintaining hydration.
Another essential ingredient for sport and performance is energy. Here once again our gut flora gives us a boost, by helping muscles that have run down their glycogen reserves during endurance sports. Bacteria in the gut microbiota ferment fibers that our body is unable to digest, extracting valuable short-chain fatty acids ( (sidenote: Short chain fatty acids (SCFA) Short chain fatty acids (SCFA) are a source of energy (fuel) for an individual’s cells. They interact with the immune system and are involved in communication between the intestine and the brain. Silva YP, Bernardi A, Frozza RL. The Role of Short-Chain Fatty Acids From Gut Microbiota in Gut-Brain Communication. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2020;11:25. ) ) that serve as an emergency fuel for muscles during exercise. 2
Exercise-induced water losses are in the range of 0.6 to 0.8 L/h for low- to moderate-intensity exercise and can reach up to 2 L/h in hot and humid environments.
Mineral losses via sweat are significant: between 20 and 70 mmol/L for sodium and chloride, with wide variations between individuals. 9
The effects of this energy boost are far from negligible: SCFAs provide more than 10% of humans’ daily caloric requirements. 3 The benefits of SCFAs go much further, since they promote the storage of glycogen reserves in muscles prior to exercise, delaying the time when the body requires emergency fuel. 2
Lastly, SCFAs are also thought to reduce inflammation induced by intense physical effort. 2, 4, 5
At times, the mechanism is particularly ingenious, with bacteria transforming a waste product of the
(sidenote:
Athlete
A competitive sportsman or sportswoman who strives for a high level of performance through training.
Source: Rousseau AS. Nutrition, santé et performance du sportif d’endurance / Nutrition, health and performance of endurance athletes. Cahiers de Nutrition et Diététique. 2022 eb ;57(1) : 78-94
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’s metabolism into a useful resource. This seems to be the case with the gut bacterium Veillonella atypica, which is associated with the performance of marathon runners. 6
How is this possible? When runners’ muscles have used up all their glycogen reserves, they start fermenting to produce energy, which produces a waste product called lactate (the cause of cramps). This is when good old Veillonella comes into play, by transforming lactate into propionate, which the muscles use as an energy source. Thus the athlete’s performance is naturally boosted. 7
Blood flow can increase 20-fold between resting and intense dynamic exercise. 9
However, to benefit from these “boost” molecules, you need the right bacteria in your digestive tract, and you must feed them appropriately. Without them, micro-organisms can even generate products that are harmful to our performance. 2,4,7
