Disparity of Gut Microbiota Composition Among Elite Athletes and Young Adults With Different Physical Activity Independent of Dietary Status: A Matching Study

Divergent Gut Microbiota: Archaeal and Bacterial Signatures Unveil Unique Patterns in Colombian Cyclists Compared to Weightlifters and Non-Athletes

Engagement in physical activity, across various sports, promotes a diverse microbiota in active individuals. This study examines the gut microbiota of Colombian athletes, specifically weightlifters (n = 16) and road cyclists (n = 13), compared to non-athletes (n = 15). Using Kruskal-Wallis tests, the physical activity level of a group of non-athletic individuals and the sports experience of a group of professional athletes is analyzed. The median age of participants is 24 years, comprising 25 men and 19 women. The microbiota is collected using fecal samples. Participants provided these samples during their pre-competitive stage, specifically during the concentration phase occurring two weeks prior to national competitions. This timing is chosen to capture the microbial composition during a period of heightened physical preparation. Questionnaire responses and microbial composition assessments identify disparities among groups. Microbial composition analysis explores core microbiome, abundance, and taxonomy using Pavian, MicrobiomeAnalyst 2.0, and GraPhlAn. ANCOM-BC2 reveals differentially abundant species. Road cyclists exhibit decreased Bacteria and increased Archaea abundance. Phylum-level variations included Planctomycetes, Acidobacteria, and Proteobacteria, while Bacteroidetes prevailed. Key families influencing gut microbiota are Bacteroidaceae, Muribaculaceae, and Selenomonadaceae. Weightlifters exhibit unique viral and archaeal community connections, while cyclists showed specialized microbial interplay influenced by endurance exercise. Correlation network analysis emphasizes distinctive microbial interactions within athlete groups, shedding light on the impact of physical activities on gut microbiota and athlete health.

The impact of exercise on the gut microbiota in middle-aged amateur serious runners: a comparative study

Introduction

Exercise, health, and the gut microbiota (GM) are strongly correlated. Research indicates that professional athletes, especially ultra-marathon runners, have unique GM characteristics. However, more research has focused on elite athletes, with little attention given to amateur sports enthusiasts, especially those in the middle-aged population. Therefore, this study focuses on the impact of long-term running on the composition and potential functions of the GM in middle-aged individuals.

Methods

We compared the GM of 25 middle-aged serious runnerswith 22 sedentary healthy controls who had minimal exercise habitsusing 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Additionally, we assessed dietary habits using a food frequency questionnaire.

Results and Discussion

Statistical analysis indicates that there is no significant difference in dietary patterns between the control group and serious runners. Diversity analysis results indicate that there is no significant difference in α diversity between the two groups of GM, but there is a significant difference in β diversity. Analysis of the composition of GM reveals that Ruminococcus and Coprococcus are significantly enriched in serious runners, whereas Bacteroides, Lachnoclostridium, and Lachnospira are enriched in the control group. Differential analysis of functional pathway prediction results reveals significant differences in the functional metabolism levels of GM between serious runners and the control group. Further correlation analysis results indicate that this difference may be closely related to variations in GM. In conclusion, our results suggest that long-term exercise can lead to changes in the composition of the GM. These changes have the potential to impact the overall health of the individual by influencing metabolic regulation.

Inflammatory Bowel Sugar Disease: A Pause From New Pharmacological Agents and an Embrace of Natural Therapy

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs), including Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, are immune-mediated chronic inflammatory diseases that target the gastrointestinal tract and other distant organs. The incidence of IBDs has been rising and is more prevailing in Western communities. The etiology has been vague, but different theories include environmental factors that elicit an uncontrolled immune response, which damages internal organs. Treatment of either Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis has witnessed significant advances; however, pharmacological drugs' side effects limit their use. Research about microbiota and its influence on IBDs has gained fame, and multiple studies correlate microbiota diversity positively with IBD treatment. Many factors contribute to the microbiota's health, including different diets, antibiotics, prebiotics, probiotics, synbiotics, and postbiotics. Specific immune responses lie behind the pathogenesis of IBDs and microbiota dysbiosis, and different studies have postulated new ways to control this abnormal response. Physical activity, sun exposure, efficient sleep, intermittent fasting, and supplementation of probiotics and vitamins are natural ways that help modulate this immune response, do not cost money as IBD pharmacological drugs, and do not come with deleterious side effects that are sometimes more harmful than IBDs. Our article proposes a comprehensive natural approach that can benefit IBD patients enormously. This approach does not replace the medications currently used in treating IBDs. The suggested approach can be used in combination with medications and might aid in reducing the doses of those medications.

A Bibliometric Analysis on the Research Trend of Exercise and the Gut Microbiome

This article aims to provide an overview of research hotspots and trends in exercise and the gut microbiome, a field which has recently gained increasing attention. The relevant publications on exercise and the gut microbiome were identified from the Web of Science Core Collection database. The publication types were limited to articles and reviews. VOSviewer 1.6.18 (Centre for Science and Technology Studies, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands) and the R package "bibliometrix" (R Foundation: Vienna, Austria) were used to conduct a bibliometric analysis. A total of 327 eligible publications were eventually identified, including 245 original articles and 82 reviews. A time trend analysis showed that the number of publications rapidly increased after 2014. The leading countries/regions in this field were the USA, China, and Europe. Most of the active institutions were from Europe and the USA. Keyword analysis showed that the relationship between disease, the gut microbiome, and exercise occurs throughout the development of this field of research. The interactions between the gut microbiota, exercise, status of the host's internal environment, and probiotics, are important facets as well. The research topic evolution presents a trend of multidisciplinary and multi-perspective comprehensive analysis. Exercise might become an effective intervention for disease treatment by regulating the gut microbiome. The innovation of exercise-centered lifestyle intervention therapy may become a significant trend in the future.

Is There a Universal Endurance Microbiota?

Billions of microbes sculpt the gut ecosystem, affecting physiology. Since endurance athletes’ performance is often physiology-limited, understanding the composition and interactions within athletes’ gut microbiota could improve performance. Individual studies describe differences in the relative abundance of bacterial taxa in endurance athletes, suggesting the existence of an “endurance microbiota”, yet the taxa identified are mostly non-overlapping. To narrow down the source of this variation, we created a bioinformatics workflow and reanalyzed fecal microbiota from four 16S rRNA gene sequence datasets associated with endurance athletes and controls, examining diversity, relative abundance, correlations, and association networks. There were no significant differences in alpha diversity among all datasets and only one out of four datasets showed a significant overall difference in bacterial community abundance. When bacteria were examined individually, there were no genera with significantly different relative abundance in all four datasets. Two genera were significantly different in two datasets (Veillonella and Romboutsia). No changes in correlated abundances were consistent across datasets. A power analysis using the variance in relative abundance detected in each dataset indicated that much larger sample sizes will be necessary to detect a modest difference in relative abundance especially given the multitude of covariates. Our analysis confirms several challenges when comparing microbiota in general, and indicates that microbes consistently or universally associated with human endurance remain elusive.

Swimming and the human microbiome at the intersection of sports, clinical, and environmental sciences: A scoping review of the literature

The human microbiota is comprised of more than 10–100 trillion microbial taxa and symbiotic cells. Two major human sites that are host to microbial communities are the gut and the skin. Physical exercise has favorable effects on the structure of human microbiota and metabolite production in sedentary subjects. Recently, the concept of “athletic microbiome” has been introduced. To the best of our knowledge, there exists no review specifically addressing the potential role of microbiomics for swimmers, since each sports discipline requires a specific set of techniques, training protocols, and interactions with the athletic infrastructure/facility. Therefore, to fill in this gap, the present scoping review was undertaken. Four studies were included, three focusing on the gut microbiome, and one addressing the skin microbiome. It was found that several exercise-related variables, such as training volume/intensity, impact the athlete’s microbiome, and specifically the non-core/peripheral microbiome, in terms of its architecture/composition, richness, and diversity. Swimming-related power-/sprint- and endurance-oriented activities, acute bouts and chronic exercise, anaerobic/aerobic energy systems have a differential impact on the athlete’s microbiome. Therefore, their microbiome can be utilized for different purposes, including talent identification, monitoring the effects of training methodologies, and devising ad hoc conditioning protocols, including dietary supplementation. Microbiomics can be exploited also for clinical purposes, assessing the effects of exposure to swimming pools and developing potential pharmacological strategies to counteract the insurgence of skin infections/inflammation, including acne. In conclusion, microbiomics appears to be a promising tool, even though current research is still limited, warranting, as such, further studies.