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