Can your gut bacteria improve your running? – Runner’s World (UK)

New research has added another element to the never-ending challenge of running better. According to a study published in the journal Nature Medicine, bacteria in the gut can play a key role in exercise performance.

The link between performance and the gut microbiome has been identified by a team of researchers at Harvard University, who recruited a group of 15 runners participating in the 2015 Boston marathon. Daily stool samples were taken from each runner, one week before and one week after the race.

The samples were compared with samples from a control group, with the analysis showing an increase in the genus Veillonella in the group of marathon runners post-marathon. The results were then replicated through a pre and post-exercise analysis of the stool samples of 87 ultra marathoners and Olympic trial rowers.

In addition to this, the researchers were able to isolate a strain of Veillonella atypica from the post-marathon samples of the Boston runners. A group of mice inoculated with this strain were able to run on a treadmill 13 per cent longer than a control group without it.

According to further tests, the bacteria may also help break down lactic acid, since veillonellause lactate as their sole carbon source.

While the study did have limitations – there was no control group for the 87 rowers and ultramarathoners, and 15 Boston runners is considered a small sample – it does have the potential to lead to microbiome-altering probiotic supplements which could, in turn, improve running.