Phenotyping the Athletic Gut Microbiota: The Basis of Health and Physical Performance?

A special issue of Microorganisms (ISSN 2076-2607). This special issue belongs to the section "Gut Microbiota".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2025 | Viewed by 2723

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Genetics, Physical Anthropology and Animal Physiology, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Bilbao, Spain
Interests: physiology; gut microbiota; exercise; hypoxia; nutrition; hyperthermia

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Athletic performance is based on the premise that better systemic health directly contributes to reduced illness, injury or impaired biological potential. In recent years, several studies have shown how healthy gut health, including a higher diversity, versatile and beneficial microbiota composition, contributes to increased physical performance. However, while the study of gut microbiota has been growing over the last decade, sports nutritional recommendations remain as mechanistic and reductionist theories: ‘so much you spend, so much you have to eat, so much you have to eat and when’. Phenotyping the microbiota in athletes should provide concrete functions that symbiotically alter physiological functions and contribute to a better biological expression. Future studies should propose an optimal relationship between precision nutrition and the expression of functional phenotypes of physical performance.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Jesús Álvarez-Herms
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • physiology
  • gut microbiota
  • exercise
  • hypoxia
  • nutrition
  • hyperthermia

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

25 pages, 1087 KiB  
Review
Summatory Effects of Anaerobic Exercise and a ‘Westernized Athletic Diet’ on Gut Dysbiosis and Chronic Low-Grade Metabolic Acidosis
by Jesús Álvarez-Herms
Microorganisms 2024, 12(6), 1138; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms12061138 - 3 Jun 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2460
Abstract
Anaerobic exercise decreases systemic pH and increases metabolic acidosis in athletes, altering the acid-base homeostasis. In addition, nutritional recommendations advising athletes to intake higher amounts of proteins and simple carbohydrates (including from sport functional supplements) could be detrimental to restoring acid-base balance. Here, [...] Read more.
Anaerobic exercise decreases systemic pH and increases metabolic acidosis in athletes, altering the acid-base homeostasis. In addition, nutritional recommendations advising athletes to intake higher amounts of proteins and simple carbohydrates (including from sport functional supplements) could be detrimental to restoring acid-base balance. Here, this specific nutrition could be classified as an acidic diet and defined as ‘Westernized athletic nutrition’. The maintenance of a chronic physiological state of low-grade metabolic acidosis produces detrimental effects on systemic health, physical performance, and inflammation. Therefore, nutrition must be capable of compensating for systemic acidosis from anaerobic exercise. The healthy gut microbiota can contribute to improving health and physical performance in athletes and, specifically, decrease the systemic acidic load through the conversion of lactate from systemic circulation to short-chain fatty acids in the proximal colon. On the contrary, microbial dysbiosis results in negative consequences for host health and physical performance because it results in a greater accumulation of systemic lactate, hydrogen ions, carbon dioxide, bacterial endotoxins, bioamines, and immunogenic compounds that are transported through the epithelia into the blood circulation. In conclusion, the systemic metabolic acidosis resulting from anaerobic exercise can be aggravated through an acidic diet, promoting chronic, low-grade metabolic acidosis in athletes. The individuality of athletic training and nutrition must take into consideration the acid-base homeostasis to modulate microbiota and adaptive physiological responses. Full article
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