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

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