Probiotics for the Aerobic Athlete

Probiotics are live microorganisms that may confer a plethora of health enhancing benefits to the host such as boosting immune function, improving digestion and reducing inflammation. A growing body of research has investigated how probiotic supplementation may affect sports performance, specifically when aerobic metabolism predominates. A systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression recently published in Nutrients highlighted ways in which probiotics may help the athlete in particular (Santibanez-Gutierrez, Fernandez-Landa, Calleja-Gonzalez, Delextrat & Mielgo-Ayuso, 2022).

 Intense training may lead to immunity depression, inflammatory dysregulation, increased upper respiratory tract infections, increased oxidative and mental stress, gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, and endotoxemia (Sivamaruthi et al., 2019), all of which are detrimental to performance. Especially in prolonged exercise, hypoperfusion of the GI tract may lead to increased permeability. In fact, GI disorders are common among endurance athletes, 30–50% of which may from suffer GI complaints (De Oliveira et al., 2014). Among the many other likely mechanisms which probiotic supplementation may help the aerobic athlete, at the very least by improving the intestinal barrier, avoiding endotoxemia and inflammation (Lamprecht et al., 2012), the endurance athlete may stand a better chance of avoiding gut-wrenching slowdowns.