How Gut Bacteria Could Become Your Next Sports Drink

Do microbes inside our body have their own circadian rhythms? Learn more about the gut microbiome and circadian rhythms in this episode.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff,
It's Christian saga. Are you feeling sluggish during your runs?
In the near future, Rather than reaching for an energy drink,
you may opt to chuck a concoction of your favorite athletes.
Gut Bugs, a team of microbiotic researchers affiliated with Harvard

(00:23):
University Medical School plan to launch a company this fall.
The aims to find and purify the best bugs from
the feces of elite athletes and then market them as
probiotics supplements in pill liquid or powder form. The company
in the works, fit Biomics, taps a swiftly expanding field

(00:46):
of science analyzing the human microbiome. Now that news may
be repellent to some, but the massive micro organism swarming
inside our bodies also smacks of a great business opportunity.
According to a t the sixteen assessment published in the
journal Cell, every person hosts at least tens of trillions

(01:07):
of micro organisms, and that amounts to about five pounds
or two point three kils of bacteria and other micro organisms.
The trillions of microbes in each person's microbiome work in
concert with the human body to fend off disease, promote digestion,
facilitate fuel burning, aid in recovery, and even sharpen mental

(01:31):
health and acuity. Now some believe that feeding the right
mix of microbes to our guts could offer a new
approach to enhancing athletic performance. Rather than using sophisticated genetic
sequencing technology to zero in on disease causing microbes, why
not hunt for microbes that help support elite athletes instead. Now,

(01:55):
fit biomics aren't the only scientists interested in athletes poop.
Lauren Peterson, a professional mountain bike racer and a postdoctoral
associate at the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine in Farmington, Connecticut,
has sampled cyclists FECs to determine what makes the top
athletes microbiomes unique. In a paper recently published in the

(02:18):
journal Microbiome, Peterson and Jack's professor George Weinstock noted an
abundance of two microbes in the top cyclists micro bioms.
One is thought to play a role in breaking down
carbohydrates for fuel, and the other could play a role
in recovery. Researchers at University College Cork in Ireland, meanwhile

(02:40):
isolated what they believe is a critical microbe from fecal
samples of Irish rugby players. The bacterium has been linked
with a lowered risk for obesity and systemic inflammation. Another group,
associated with the University of California at San Diego is
looking at how the microbio elms of surfers may be

(03:01):
unique and perhaps encompass microbiomes associated with their local ocean environments.
Other groups are casting their microbiome nets even wider. The
American Gut Project is a crowdsourced venture housed in the
lab of renowned UCSD biologist Robert Knight. The group solicits

(03:24):
fecal samples from people all around the world in an
effort to build a comprehensive library of microbiome communities. The
project includes samples from UCSD athletes, but is far more
focused on improving overall science in the microbiome field than
on enhancing athletic performance. Today's episode was written by Amanda Onion,

(03:52):
produced by Dylan Fagan and from More on this and
other topics, please visit us at how stuff works dot com.