Don’t feel like exercising? It could be your gut – Wel.nl

One of them wears his running shoes with a big smile, and the other can’t move forward. This may have something to do with the intestinal flora. At least this is the case in mice.

Researchers University of Pennsylvania I saw that one group of rats ran 30 kilometers in 48 hours on their wheel, while the other rats were lounging dormant in their cage. There were no genetic differences, but the composition of the intestinal microflora was shown to be different.

“Every time a sports rat turns the wheel, bacteria in their colons produce substances that go to the reward center of their brain and stimulate dopamine production there,” says Professor Danny de Luz of UZ Gent. against HLN. “The more they exercise, the more dopamine is produced in their brains and the more motivated they are to exercise.”

But if the intestinal microbiota is partially destroyed by antibiotics, the animals become much less active. “The opposite was also the case: lazy mice that had been cultured with gut bacteria from active samples automatically started to exercise more,” de Luz explains. From all this, the researchers concluded that the composition of the intestinal flora determines how motivated an animal is to exercise. ”

It is not known if this also applies to humans. However, it has already been shown that there is a relationship between intestinal microbiota and athletic performance. “Several years ago, scientists compared the intestinal flora of top athletes with the flora of ‘ordinary’ people. Then it turned out that the intestinal flora of top athletes has a higher diversity, ”says Professor de Luz. “But whether the latter was a result of the sport or the fact that the muscular rugby players simply had different eating habits — they ate more carbohydrates and pasta — wasn’t clear.”