Nutrition to Support Gut Health and the Microbiome in Athletes

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About this Research Topic

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Background

Interests are developing to utilize the potentials of gut microbiome, mainly gut-dwelling bacteria, for physical fitness and strength of the host – more specifically for the improved performances and health of athletes. These commensals are encoding approximately 1000 times more genes than our own body – which harbors an enormous metabolic capacity – and assisting the host in nutrient uptake, energy harvest, vitamin synthesis, inflammatory modulation, and host immune response. It has already been shown that certain gut bacteria could improve athletic performance by harnessing energy from food (e.g. Prevotella) and eliminating fatigue-causing metabolites (e.g. Veillonella) from the hosts' body. Food and physical activities are two of the factors that can markedly change gut microbiome composition. Higher physical activities induce certain features in the gut microbiome that include higher abundance of health-promoting bacterial species, increased microbial diversity, functional metabolic capacity, and microbial-associated metabolites, stimulation of bacterial abundance that can modulate mucosal immunity, and improved gastrointestinal barrier function.

High-level exercise requires remarkable physiology and metabolism. Balanced microbial composition, right type of bacteria, and well-chosen food could certainly contribute to the physical strength of an athlete. Much work has been carried out on the choice of nutrition for physical well-being, however, there are still questions that need to be addressed. This Research Topic aims to collect literature on how gut bacteria could support athlete health, wellbeing, and sports performance. In addition, this Research Topic is intended to formulate and define the role of targeted nutritional strategies that could positively impact gut microbiome and consequently improve and sustain an athlete’s health and performance. We encourage submissions that examine variations in diet, the environment or other variables that may impact an athletes’ microbiome, and how these alterations impact health and/or performance. We are also looking for new targets that may provide a new window for the personalized nutritional and training interventions to maintain the athlete's health. Nonetheless, this Research Topic is expecting to extend beyond athletics, as understanding optimal fitness has applications for overall health and wellness in larger communities.

This Research Topic is aiming to collect dietary- and gut microbiome-based literature that could be used to develop novel therapeutic and nutritional strategies to improve the gut microbiome and the athlete’s performance. Ultimately this collection of data will help to understand that how metabolic capabilities of gut microbiota are shaped by exercise and vice versa.

We expect to gather scientific knowledge that (a) how gut-dwelling bacteria behave toward the ingested food, (b) how the ingested food affect gut microbiome composition, (c) how to promote and sustain the growth of certain gut bacteria that could increase exercise endurance in the host, and (d) how microbiome could be manipulated for maintaining or promoting gut health and immune function. In brief, the purpose of this narrative review is to summarize current knowledge of the athletic gut microbiota and the nutritional factors that shape it.

Keywords: Nutrition, Gut microbiota, probiotics, prebiotics, Athletes, Physical strength, Sports

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