Bacterial flora to help athletes? A researcher at the Harvard Medical School in Boston identified intestinal tract bacteria that could contribute to the success of athletic performance. The research was presented at the congress of the American Chemical Society. We talk about this topic with Dr. Beatrice Salvioli, Humanitas gastroenterologist.

Professional runners and rowers participated in the study: the former were training for the Boston Marathon and the latter for the Olympic Games. The author of the study analyzed the microbioma extracted from fecal samples of twenty runners, collected one week before and one week after the marathon, to see how the microbioma had changed.

Between the marathon and post-race recovery, the researcher noticed an increase in a particular type of bacteria: those that naturally break down lactic acid, a substance that is formed in the body during physical activity. However, when its ability to eliminate lactic acid is insufficient, it accumulates and causes fatigue and muscle pain. Here is the researcher’s hypothesis: exploit these bacteria to develop probiotics, which can help manage these symptoms and recover from a particularly intense training.

The intestinal microbioma of the rower’s bowel was instead exploited for comparison with that of the runners. Only in the runners there has been detected the presence of a bacterium that helps to metabolize sugars and fibers, essential nutrients to sustain a physical effort over long distances.

It is not the first time that the microbioma of athletes ends up under the magnifying glass of research. The findings of the latter study “are very interesting conclusions because these findings open up new scenarios for the use of specific probiotics to improve athletes’ performance and avoid the consequences that can occur as a result of these sports activities”, explains Dr. Salvioli.

Indeed, it has already been demonstrated that high intensity exercise would have a negative impact on gastrointestinal integrity and function, increasing the release of toxins that could cause various disorders.

Different sport, different microbioma?

The suggestion is that in the face of different sports disciplines the composition of the microbioma could vary: “From the study of comparison between ultra-marathon runners and rowers, a difference in the type of bacteria has emerged, which suggests that, in theory, the type of sport selects bacterial strains useful to make the most of the energy needed for that particular activity”.

This mechanism could represent a kind of “species” conservation mechanism, which in this case refers to bacterial selection. Surely the type of diet (that is, balanced and rich in fiber) influences, as we know, our “good” microflora and professional athletes are carefully following those types of diet. For this reason – concludes the specialist – the results of these clinical trials are of great value as they reveal a relationship between specific bacterial strains and the type of sporting activity “.