Abstract
The human gut microbiota is currently the focus of converging interest in many diseases and sports performance. This review presents gut microbiota as a real “orchestra conductor” in the host’s physio(patho)logy due to its implications in many aspects of health and disease. Reciprocally, gut microbiota composition and activity are influenced by many different factors, such as diet and physical activity. Literature data have shown that macro- and micro-nutrients influence gut microbiota composition. Cumulative data indicate that gut bacteria are sensitive to modulation by physical activity, as shown by studies using training and hypoactivity models. Sports performance studies have also presented interesting and promising results. Therefore, gut microbiota could be considered a “pivotal” organ for health and sports performance, leading to a new concept: the nutrition-microbiota-physical activity triad. The next challenge for the scientific and medical communities is to test this concept in clinical studies. The long-term aim is to find the best combination of the three elements of this triad to optimize treatments, delay disease onset, or enhance sports performance. The many possibilities offered by biotic supplementation and training modalities open different avenues for future research.
Highlights
It has been suspected that gut microbiota may have a role in health and sports performance for a very long time
Jollet et al showed in healthy men that a short period of severe hypoactivity increases the operational taxonomic units (OTUs) associated with the Clostridiales order and the Lachnospiraceae family that belong to the Firmicutes phylum, without any effect on α and β diversity indices [138]
Through its bacteria-derived metabolites, the gut plays the role of an orchestra conductor in the host
Summary
It has been suspected that gut microbiota may have a role in health and sports performance for a very long time. The massive sequencing of gut microbiota specimens in the 2010s, thanks to the technological advancements in high-throughput sequencing and bioinformatics analyses, and more recently, the development of methods to quantify different microbial metabolites, allowed population-level studies to be carried out on the human microbiota Their findings help to better understand the microbiota’s role in physiology, its functional imbalance in various chronic pathologies [1], and its implications in athletic performance. Our hypothesis is that the interaction of their underlying mechanisms might potentiate their effects This new knowledge could be used to develop strategies (i.e., diet changes, supplementation, physical activity programs) to modulate the gut microbiota with the ultimate aim of preventing and/or treating various pathologies or improving performance in elite athletes
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