Alimentary Tract
Exercise has the guts: How physical activity may positively modulate gut microbiota in chronic and immune-based diseases

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dld.2017.11.016Get rights and content

Abstract

Limited animal and human research findings suggests that exercise might have a beneficial role for health gut. Cardiorespiratory fitness correlates with health-associated gut parameters such as taxonomic diversity and richness. Physical exercise may augment intestinal microbial diversity through several mechanisms including promotion of an anti-inflammatory state. Disease-associated microbial functions were linked to distinct taxa in previous studies of familial type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D). An integrated multi-approach in the study of T1D, including physical exercise, is advocated. The present review explores how exercise might modulate gut microbiota and microbiome characteristics in chronic and immune-based diseases, given the demonstrated relationship between gut function and human health.

Section snippets

Background | the multiform protection offered by physical exercise to health

Nowadays, the appeal of practicing regular physical activity has become redundant as multiple international agencies advocate for the protective, curative, and revertive effects of exercise in a myriad of metabolic and psychological disturbances [1], [2].

Increasing physical activity emerges as a mandatory forefront to abate the burden associated with longevity and expanded life expectancy of present days. In fact, exercise covers a broad spectrum of health benefits, from boosting mental

Literature search strategy

A systematic literature search was carried out in the Cochrane Library and MEDLINE databases for studies published in English (2000 January to 2017 September) combining the terms “gut microbiota”, “gut microbiome”, “exercise”, “training”, “physical fitness”, “physical activity”, “diabetes”, “type 1 diabetes”. We examined reference lists in original articles, reviews, trials. Study search was performed both electronically and by following up references quoted in relevant paper. Case reports,

Gut microbiota: the overcalled card

The gastrointestinal tract (GIT) is inhabited by trillions of microorganisms – approximately a hundred – composing the human gut microbiota [19], [20]. By including roughly 9 million genes [21], this environment represents the human gut microbiome: a gene set 150 times larger than that of the human genome [22], [23]. Gut bacteria composition may be influenced by both endogenous and exogenous stimuli. The type of birth (Caesarian versus vaginalis) and lactation (formula versus breast feeding)

The impact of exercise on microbiota diversity

There is a conceptual framework in which exercise-microbiota studies are gaining momentum in the science community. Originally, the muscle-microbiota axis was legitimized by the seminal study of Bäckhed et al. [47], in which germ-free (GF) mice, in contrast to mice with a gut microbiota, were protected against diet-induced obesity showing a persistently lean phenotype with increased levels of phosphorylated AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) in muscle and liver. In the same study, GF mice with

A possible role for exercise in the positive modification of the gut microbiome in T1D

Gut bacteria have been undoubtedly implicated in the development of autoimmunity for T1D, even in children [69], [114], [115]. Dysbiosis of the intestinal microbiota is known to affect the gut barrier, potentially playing a pivotal role in the onset of T1D [116]. Indeed, high levels of Bacteroides and a reduced abundance of Prevotella have been observed in children affected by T1D [115]. In one of the first studies comparing gut microbiota of T1D-children with healthy controls, the former

Conclusions

Although a growing body of evidence is pointing at the health-promoting effect of physical exercise in the modulation of gut microbiota, this intriguing pattern is far to be clearly elucidated. Few controlled studies on humans have been conducted in the attempt to confirm the findings of studies on animals, which have been carried out in greater numbers. Modality, intensity and duration of exercise are still fascinatingly unexplored as to providing the most beneficial treatment for several

Conflict of interest

None declared.

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