When Exercise Hurts: Managing Gut Issues As You Push Your Limits
This article unveils the role of gut microbes in athletic well-being and how to fight gut inflammation.
Takeaways
Athletes exhibit a higher abundance of health-promoting microbes in their guts
Moderate exercise protects the gut from inflammation and permeability
Gut distress during strenuous exercise causes gut permeability and inflammation
Anti-inflammatory foods: tomatoes, fruits, nuts, olive oil, leafy greens
⚛️ Have you ever considered how your gut, also known as your second brain, affects your daily tasks, including athletic performance or, more holistically, overall life well-being?
This number brings us to the fascinating scientific world of the gut microbes.
Gut microorganisms
🔬 You have probably heard of the gut microbiome — a sort of bustling city in your digestive tract, home to around 40 trillion microorganisms.1 These little guys are more than just residents; they are critical players in our health, helping us with vitamin synthesis, uptake of nutrients, energy harvest, mood regulation, and inflammatory and immune response modulation.
🔭 Hold on a second, I hear someone saying: 40 TRILLION microorganisms? Yes, this number refers to the average of microbial cells composing the digestive tract of a 70 kg man. Have you started to get the picture here? Our guts host more microbial cells than stars in the Milky Way! [100 billion stars inhabit our galaxy, according to NASA]. Incredible. Our guts are a top-notch metabolic factory that relentlessly works for us — or against us, if we let this ecosystem run off track.
🫵 Are we all made equal in terms of microbial composition? No. The gut microbiome is a highly individual ecosystem. Think about your gut microbes as your fingerprint. They reveal who you are, and you nourish this biome from birth until your last breath.
🧪 Different factors can pressure the gut's microbiome composition. Let’s consider a few external elements—dictated by your choices—that can significantly influence the resilience of this invisible ecosystem over your lifespan: antibiotic use and diet. Research shows that repeated antibiotic use or an unbalanced diet (rich in refined carbohydrates, saturated fats, insufficient fibers, sugar, and ultra-processed foods) troubles the healthy balance, leaving the door open to disease-prone microbes getting a competitive advantage. Booh.
🚴♀️ What about another external factor, exercise? Is it a good influencer on the stable equilibrium of the digestive tract?
The interplay between the gut microbiome and athleticism
Athletes and sedentary individuals have significant differences in microbiome composition and diversity. Athletes tend to exhibit increased microbial diversity and a higher abundance of health-promoting bacterial species, which suggests that regular physical activity can positively impact the gut microbiome, translating into increased (i) performance and (ii) health.2
It's not such a surprise, right? We often hear that exercising is great for our physical and mental health.
⚠️ However, as with everything in life, extremes can harm the body, and an intense workout can backfire.
🏃♀️🏋️♀️ In fact, a taboo subject —or somewhat troubling well-being factoid —is athletes’ gut distress. You probably grasp it if you train intensely, endure punctual challenging exercises like long-distance runs, or participate in major athletic events.
🫣 You are not alone. In fact, you are part of the majority. A study pointed out that 96% of ultramarathon runners (a 161 km challenge) experienced gastrointestinal disturbances (e.g., flatulence, belching, nausea, vomiting) during the race.3 Some other individuals face symptoms of upper respiratory tract infection. This reality check got me thinking…
😧 I have to confess that I was expecting a higher athletes’ microbial resilience…
😳 Well, here is the real deal. A moderate amount of exercise positively affects gut permeability and inflammation, whereas intense and sustained exercise has the opposite effect. The negative symptoms are believed to occur due to a redistribution of blood in the body, which ultimately results in a lack of blood flow to the gut. Outcome? Increased inflammation and permeability.4 Yikes! I don’t know about you, but I want to escape this disastrous scenario of 💩🤮 [between brackets: this is when two emojis nail the message better than a whole paragraph]! 😅
💊 What are the current options for elite athletes or simply endurance-motivated people? In recent years, encouraging research has been conducted on probiotic and prebiotic supplementation to reduce the incidence and severity of these gastrointestinal and respiratory symptoms.
🍇🍓🥦🥕 Let’s think beyond supplementation, however. Fueling our bodies before and during the race with natural anti-inflammatory foods like fresh veggies and fruits is a very reasonable approach. Another reason to eat beets! [For those who missed last week’s article → Red Beets: Good For You And For Your Exercise Performance].
Below are other anti-inflammatory foods according to Harvard Medical School5:
😻 Remember that eating those regularly will help during intense exercise and inflammation in general. Do you suffer from any inflammatory bowel syndrome (IBS)? Yep, these foods will work for such health conditions, too.
Reflexion corner- just for fun
👻 I wonder if cooked red beets could be “a thing” in race refueling stations. Or would it feel more like a murder race? I’ll leave it as an idea for a Halloween-themed run, perhaps…
🌈 Until next Monday, stay vibrant. And continue to take care of your gut microbes!
PS: Did you like today’s topic? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments.
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O’Brien M. T. et al., The Athlete Gut Microbiome and its Relevance to Health and Performance: A Review, 2022 (link)
Interesting points of discussion - I wonder, what do you think the impact on the microbiome is for aging athletes...say those over 60?
Does it mean I should renonce my high intensity workouts?