It seems like every patient that I speak with about their Gastro-Intestinal (GI) health tells me that they feel like they have some kind of GI dysfunction (bloating, fatigue, weight-gain, brain fog, indigestion, heartburn etc…) Often, they are already taking a probiotic. At this point, I like to investigate what factors could be contributing to this and create a plan with the patient. Usually, this includes exercise. That may seem odd at first but when you dig into the research you will find that exercise can help improve your microbiome. This has been found in both animal and human studies. A review of literature found that, “Exercise independently alters the composition and functional capacity of the gut microbiota, with potential implications for human health and disease.” (1) This is critical for people that are struggling with their GI issues. This means that you likely should be doing more than just taking probiotics to fix your issues. The research shows that both resistance training and aerobic exercise of low to high intensities can create improvements in the microbiome. If you are currently not exercising, you don’t need to go right into signing up for a Crossfit membership. You can start slow. My first recommendation is to track your current amount of daily steps and scale that to 10,000+ a day, then begin working in resistance training. As I have discussed in previous articles, walking 10,000 steps a day or more has been shown to increase both VO2 Max and overall exercise capacity. This is critically important for being able to stick with your plan through the first few months. If you have any questions on how to do this please shoot me a message.
Exercise for a Healthier Gut
Posted by Steven Shaffer on
- Tags: exercise, GI tract, gut bacteria, Gut health, microbiome