Sports Medicine
Gut Health in Athletes – The Missing Link to Optimizing Performance
Gastrointestinal (GI) complaints in athletes can include vomiting, diarrhea, cramping, bloating, abdominal pain, and everything in between. These are very common during training and competitions – but why? Athletes work hard to fine tune their “machine” of a body, so they should be “stronger” than the average population, right? It is exactly because of the hard work they put into their goals that makes them more susceptible to gut issues. Strenuous exercise and dehydration influence muscle glycogen depletion and puts the athlete at risk for gut ischemia (reduced blood flow to the intestines) [1]. This is because there is a redistribution of blood flow from your viscera to your skeletal muscle, brain, heart and lungs [1].