Could Sports Be the Key to Easing Your Digestive Disorders? Insights from Recent Research

A study highlights the link between sport and intestine

Have you ever wondered why your intestinal disorders fade when you regularly practice sport? If you think this is due to your diet, you have to look for the answer elsewhere.

The number and intensity of the training modifies the digestive tract

In a study published last February in the journal Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, The research team explains that it has followed 23 high -level rowers. Their microbiome was sampled from stool during the intense training periods preceding a national competition, then during a more hollow period with less and less frequent training.

Researchers observed that during the intense period (147 % more intense and 130 % longer than the hollow period), high-level athletes had a higher rate of short-chain fatty acids (AGCC), such as Butyrate and Propionate, which are known to have an anti-inflammatory effect in the intestine and reinforcement of the intestinal wall.

In addition, intense training allowed rowers to have more frequent stools, which shows that physical activity improves digestion. Last important point noted by the research team, the Firmicates/Bacteroidota ratio, which is associated with weight gain and less effective metabolism, decreases in correlation with the intensity of a training.

Intense sport makes our microbes efficient

“According to previous research, it seems that the intestinal microbiota of athletes is different from that of the general population, including higher total concentrations of short -chain fatty acids, alpha diversity, increased abundance of certain bacteria and lower abundance of others”, said Bronwen Charlesson researcher at Edith Cowan University and the main study of the study.

But how to explain these differences in intestinal microbiota? Well all this is linked to the lactate, a molecule produced by the body during the degradation of glucose. To put it simply, during intense training, the muscles of our body will produce an amount of lactate above average.

This lactate is transported to the intestine where some microbes use it to eat, and convert it into short -chain fatty acids. The more these microbes eat lactate, the more they will perform in their role within the intestine, and more generally in the digestive system.

Source: New Atlas